{"question_id": "20220701_0", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:20", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/investing/bed-bath--beyond-sales-decline/index.html", "title": "Analysts accuse Bed Bath & Beyond of scaling back AC in stores to ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) Retailers typically want their sales numbers to be red hot, not their customers. But Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) is reportedly dealing with cooled momentum and heated customers at its stores.\n\nA new report from Bank of America claims that the company has cut air conditioning in an effort to quickly lower expenses to make up for a slump in sales.\n\nBed Bath & Beyond told CNN that any changes in store temperature guidelines did not come from corporate. \"We've been contacted about this report, and to be clear, no Bed Bath & Beyond stores were directed to adjust their air conditioning and there have been no corporate policy changes in regard to utilities usage,\" said a representative.\n\nStill, analysts at Bank of America who have conducted store visits report mounting concerns, including labor hours that have been meaningfully cut, scaled back utilities, reduced store operating hours and canceled remodeling projects. Rewards programs have also been scaled back and replaced. The analysts expect Bed Bath & Beyond's management will soon announce more store closures and halt openings of its Buy Buy Baby stores.\n\nMeanwhile, fire sales and price reductions run rampant. The company continues to offer elevated promotions including up to 50% off bedding and furniture, free same-day shipping, $10 off a $30 purchase and 20% off purchases by college students and their parents.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Nicole Goodkind", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/", "title": "USA TODAY exclusive: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn't pay ...", "text": "Steve Reilly\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nDuring the Atlantic City casino boom in the 1980s, Philadelphia cabinet-builder Edward Friel Jr. landed a $400,000 contract to build the bases for slot machines, registration desks, bars and other cabinets at Harrah's at Trump Plaza.\n\n\n\nThe family cabinetry business, founded in the 1940s by Edward’s father, finished its work in 1984 and submitted its final bill to the general contractor for the Trump Organization, the resort’s builder.\n\n\n\nEdward’s son, Paul, who was the firm’s accountant, still remembers the amount of that bill more than 30 years later: $83,600. The reason: the money never came. “That began the demise of the Edward J. Friel Company… which has been around since my grandfather,” he said.\n\nDonald Trump often portrays himself as a savior of the working class who will \"protect your job.\" But a USA TODAY NETWORK analysis found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades — and a large number of those involve ordinary Americans, like the Friels, who say Trump or his companies have refused to pay them.\n\nAt least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings reviewed by the USA TODAY NETWORK, document people who have accused Trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their work. Among them: a dishwasher in Florida. A glass company in New Jersey. A carpet company. A plumber. Painters. Forty-eight waiters. Dozens of bartenders and other hourly workers at his resorts and clubs, coast to coast. Real estate brokers who sold his properties. And, ironically, several law firms that once represented him in these suits and others.\n\nTrump’s companies have also been cited for 24 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act since 2005 for failing to pay overtime or minimum wage, according to U.S. Department of Labor data. That includes 21 citations against the defunct Trump Plaza in Atlantic City and three against the also out-of-business Trump Mortgage LLC in New York. Both cases were resolved by the companies agreeing to pay back wages.\n\nLitigator in chief\n\nIn addition to the lawsuits, the review found more than 200 mechanic’s liens — filed by contractors and employees against Trump, his companies or his properties claiming they were owed money for their work — since the 1980s. The liens range from a $75,000 claim by a Plainview, N.Y., air conditioning and heating company to a $1 million claim from the president of a New York City real estate banking firm. On just one project, Trump’s Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, records released by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in 1990 show that at least 253 subcontractors weren’t paid in full or on time, including workers who installed walls, chandeliers and plumbing.\n\nThe actions in total paint a portrait of Trump’s sprawling organization frequently failing to pay small businesses and individuals, then sometimes tying them up in court and other negotiations for years. In some cases, the Trump teams financially overpower and outlast much smaller opponents, draining their resources. Some just give up the fight, or settle for less; some have ended up in bankruptcy or out of business altogether.\n\nTrump and his daughter Ivanka, in an interview with USA TODAY, shrugged off the lawsuits and other claims of non-payment. If a company or worker he hires isn’t paid fully, the Trumps said, it’s because The Trump Organization was unhappy with the work.\n\n“Let’s say that they do a job that’s not good, or a job that they didn’t finish, or a job that was way late. I’ll deduct from their contract, absolutely,” Trump said. “That’s what the country should be doing.”\n\nTo be sure, Trump and his companies have prevailed in many legal disputes over missing payments, or reached settlements that cloud the terms reached by the parties.\n\nHowever, the consistent circumstances laid out in those lawsuits and other non-payment claims raise questions about Trump’s judgment as a businessman, and as a potential commander- in- chief. The number of companies and others alleging he hasn’t paid suggests that either his companies have a poor track record hiring workers and assessing contractors, or that Trump businesses renege on contracts, refuse to pay, or consistently attempt to change payment terms after work is complete as is alleged in dozens of court cases.\n\nIn the interview, Trump repeatedly said the cases were “a long time ago.” However, even as he campaigns for the presidency, new cases are continuing. Just last month, Trump Miami Resort Management LLC settled with 48 servers at his Miami golf resort over failing to pay overtime for a special event. The settlements averaged about $800 for each worker and as high as $3,000 for one, according to court records. Some workers put in 20-hour days over the 10-day Passover event at Trump National Doral Miami, the lawsuit contends. Trump’s team initially argued a contractor hired the workers, and he wasn’t responsible, and counter-sued the contractor demanding payment.\n\n“Trump could have settled it right off the bat, but they wanted to fight it out, that’s their M.O.” said Rod Hannah, of Plantation, Fla., the lawyer who represented the workers, who he said are forbidden from talking about the case in public. “They’re known for their aggressiveness, and if you have the money, why not?”\n\nSimilar cases have cropped up with Trump’s facilities in California and New York, where hourly workers, bartenders and wait staff have sued with a range of allegations from not letting workers take breaks to not passing along tips to servers. Trump's company settled the California case, and the New York case is pending.\n\nTrump's Doral golf resort also has been embroiled in recent non-payment claims by two different paint firms, with one case settled and the other pending. Last month, his company’s refusal to pay one Florida painter more than $30,000 for work at Doral led the judge in the case to order foreclosure of the resort if the contractor isn’t paid.\n\nJuan Carlos Enriquez, owner of The Paint Spot, in South Florida, has been waiting more than two years to get paid for his work at the Doral. The Paint Spot first filed a lien against Trump’s course, then filed a lawsuit asking a Florida judge to intervene.\n\nIn courtroom testimony, the manager of the general contractor for the Doral renovation admitted that a decision was made not to pay The Paint Spot because Trump “already paid enough.” As the construction manager spoke, “Trump’s trial attorneys visibly winced, began breathing heavily, and attempted to make eye contact” with the witness, the judge noted in his ruling.\n\nThat, and other evidence, convinced the judge The Paint Spot’s claim was credible. He ordered last month that the Doral resort be foreclosed on, sold, and the proceeds used to pay Enriquez the money he was owed. Trump’s attorneys have since filed a motion to delay the sale, and the contest continues.\n\nEnriquez still hasn’t been paid.\n\nTrump frequently boasts that he will bring jobs back to America, including Tuesday in a primary-election night victory speech at his golf club in suburban New York City. “No matter who you are, we're going to protect your job,” Trump said Tuesday. “Because let me tell you, our jobs are being stripped from our country like we're babies.”\n\nBut the lawsuits show Trump’s organization wages Goliath vs David legal battles over small amounts of money that are negligible to the billionaire and his executives — but devastating to his much-smaller foes.\n\nIn 2007, for instance, dishwasher Guy Dorcinvil filed a federal lawsuit against Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club resort in Palm Beach, Fla., alleging the club failed to pay time-and-a-half for overtime he worked over three years and the company failed to keep proper time records for employees.\n\nMar-a-Lago LLC agreed to pay Dorcinvil $7,500 to settle the case in 2008. The terms of the settlement agreement includes a standard statement that Mar-a-Lago does not admit fault and forbids Dorcinvil or his lawyers from talking about the case, according to court records.\n\nDevelopers with histories of not paying contractors are a very small minority of the industry, said Colette Nelson, chief advocacy officer of the American Subcontractors Association. But late or missing payments can be devastating for small businesses and their employees.\n\n“Real estate is a tough and aggressive business, but most business people don’t set out to make their money by breaking the companies that they do business with,” she said, stressing she couldn’t speak directly to the specifics of cases in Trump’s record. “But there are a few.”\n\nIn the interview, Trump said that complaints represent a tiny fraction of his business empire and dealings with contractors and employees, insisting all are paid fairly. “We pay everybody what they’re supposed to be paid, and we pay everybody on time,” he said. “And we employ thousands and thousands of people. OK?”\n\nDespite the Trumps’ assertion that his their companies only refuse payment to contractors “when somebody does a bad job,” he has sometimes offered to hire those same contractors again. It’s a puzzling turn of events, since most people who have a poor experience with a contractor, and who refuse to pay and even fight the contractor in court, aren’t likely to offer to rehire them.\n\nNevertheless, such was the case for the Friels. After submitting the final bill for the Plaza casino cabinet-building in 1984, Paul Friel said he got a call asking that his father, Edward, come to the Trump family’s offices at the casino for a meeting. There Edward, and some other contractors, were called in one by one to meet with Donald Trump and his brother, Robert Trump.\n\n“He sat in a room with nine guys,” Paul Friel said. “We found out some of them were carpet guys. Some of them were glass guys. Plumbers. You name it.”\n\nIn the meeting, Donald Trump told his father that the company’s work was inferior, Friel said, even though the general contractor on the casino had approved it. The bottom line, Trump told Edward Friel, was the company wouldn't get the final payment. Then, Friel said Trump added something that struck the family as bizarre. Trump told his dad that he could work on other Trump projects in the future.\n\n“Wait a minute,” Paul Friel said, recalling his family's reaction to his dad’s account of the meeting. “Why would the Trump family want a company who they say their work is inferior to work for them in the future?”\n\nAsked about the meeting this week, Trump said, “Was the work bad? Was it bad work?” And, then, after being told that the general contractor had approved it, Trump added, “Well, see here’s the thing. You’re talking about, what, 30 years ago?”\n\nIvanka Trump added that any number of disputes over late or deficient payments that were found over the past few decades pale in comparison to the thousands of checks Trump companies cut each month.\n\n“We have hundreds of millions of dollars of construction projects underway. And we have, for the most part, exceptional contractors on them who get paid, and get paid quickly,” she said, adding that she doubted any contractor complaining in court or in the press would admit they delivered substandard work. “But it would be irresponsible if my father paid contractors who did lousy work. And he doesn’t do that.”\n\nBut, the Friels’ story is similar to experiences of hundreds of other contractors over the casino-boom decade in Atlantic City. Legal records, New Jersey Casino Control Commission records and contemporaneous local newspaper stories recounted time and again tales about the Trumps paying late or renegotiating deals for dimes on the dollar.\n\nA half-decade after the Friels’ encounter, in 1990, as Trump neared the opening of his third Atlantic City casino, he was once again attempting to pay contractors less than he owed. In casino commission records of an audit, it was revealed that Trump’s companies owed a total of $69.5 million to 253 subcontractors on the Taj Mahal project. Some already had sued Trump, the state audit said; others were negotiating with Trump to try to recover what they could. The companies and their hundreds of workers had installed walls, chandeliers, plumbing, lighting and even the casino’s trademark minarets.\n\nOne of the builders was Marty Rosenberg, vice president of Atlantic Plate Glass Co., who said he was owed about $1.5 million for work at the Taj Mahal. When it became clear Trump was not going to pay in full, Rosenberg took on an informal leadership role, representing about 100 to 150 contractors in negotiations with Trump.\n\nRosenberg’s mission: with Trump offering as little as 30 cents on the dollar to some of the contractors, Rosenberg wanted to get as much as he could for the small businesses, most staffed by younger tradesmen with modest incomes and often families to support.\n\n“Yes, there were a lot of other companies,\" he said of those Trump left waiting to get paid. \"Yes, some did not survive.\"\n\nRosenberg said his company was among the lucky ones. He had to delay paying his own suppliers to the project. The negotiations led to him eventually getting about 70 cents on the dollar for his work, and he was able to pay all of his suppliers in full.\n\nThe analysis of Trump lawsuits also found that professionals, such as real estate agents and lawyers, say he's refused to pay them sizable sums of money. Those cases show that even some loyal employees, those selling his properties and fighting for him in court, are only with him until they’re not.\n\nReal estate broker Rana Williams, who said she had sold hundreds of millions of dollars in Manhattan property for Trump International Realty over more than two decades with the company, sued in 2013 alleging Trump shorted her $735,212 in commissions on deals she brokered from 2009 to 2012. Williams, who managed as many as 16 other sales agents for Trump, said the tycoon and his senior deputies decided to pay her less than her contracted commission rate “based on nothing more than whimsy.”\n\nTrump and Williams settled their case in 2015, and the terms of the deal are confidential, as is the case in dozens of other settlements between plaintiffs and Trump companies.\n\nHowever, Williams' 2014 deposition in the case is not sealed. In her sworn testimony, Williams said the 2013 commission shortage wasn't the only one, and neither was she the only person who didn't get fully paid. “There were instances where a sizable commission would come in and we would be waiting for payment and it wouldn’t come,” she testified. “That was both for myself and for some of the agents.”\n\nAnother broker, Jennifer McGovern, filed a similar lawsuit against the now-defunct Trump Mortgage LLC in 2007, citing a six-figure commission on real-estate sales that she said went unpaid. A judge issued a judgment ordering Trump Mortgage to pay McGovern $298,274.\n\nEven Trump’s own attorneys, on several occasions, sued him over claims of unpaid bills.\n\nOne law firm that fought contractors over payments and other issues for Trump — New York City’s Morrison Cohen LLP — ended up on the other side of a similar battle with the mogul in 2008. Trump didn’t like that its lawyers were using his name in press releases touting its representation of Trump in a lawsuit against a construction contractor that Trump claimed overcharged him for work on a luxury golf club.\n\nAs Trump now turned his ire on his former lawyers, however, Morrison Cohen counter-sued. In court records, the law firm alleged Trump didn’t pay nearly a half million dollars in legal fees. Trump and his ex-lawyers settled their disputes out of court, confidentially, in 2009.\n\nIn 2012, Virginia-based law firm Cook, Heyward, Lee, Hopper & Feehan filed a lawsuit against the Trump Organization for $94,511 for legal fees and costs. The case was eventually settled out of court. But as the case unfolded, court records detail how Trump's senior deputies attacked the attorneys' quality of work in the local and trade press, leading the firm to make claims of defamation that a judge ultimately rejected on free speech grounds.\n\nTrump claims in his presidential personal financial disclosure to be worth $10 billion as a result of his business acumen. Many of the small contractors and individuals who weren’t paid by him haven’t been as fortunate.\n\nEdward Friel, of the Philadelphia cabinetry company allegedly shortchanged for the casino work, hired a lawyer to sue for the money, said his son, Paul Friel. But the attorney advised him that the Trumps would drag the case out in court and legal fees would exceed what they’d recover.\n\nThe unpaid bill took a huge chunk out of the bottom line of the company that Edward ran to take care of his wife and five kids. “The worst part wasn’t dealing with the Trumps,” Paul Friel said. After standing up to Trump, Friel said the family struggled to get other casino work in Atlantic City. “There’s tons of these stories out there,” he said.\n\nThe Edward J. Friel Co. filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 5, 1989.\n\nSays the founder's grandson: “Trump hits everybody.”\n\nContributing: John Kelly, Nick Penzenstadler, Karen Yi, David McKay Wilson\n\nExclusive: Trump's 3,500 lawsuits unprecedented for a presidential nominee\n\nUSA TODAY exclusive: Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn't pay his bills\n\nTrump, companies accused of mistreating women in at least 20 lawsuits\n\nExclusive: More than 100 lawsuits, disputes over taxes tied to Trump and his companies\n\nDive into Donald Trump's thousands of lawsuits\n\nTrump casino empire dogged by bad bets in Atlantic City\n\nAs campaign rolls on, so do Trump's lawsuits in Florida\n\nHow USA TODAY NETWORK is tracking Trump court files\n\nTrump and the Law", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/06/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sponsor-story/tmobile2022/2022/02/10/4-tricks-phone-scammers-using-2022-and-how-stop-them/6720737001/", "title": "4 tricks phone scammers are using in 2022 – and how to stop them", "text": "Cemile Kavountzis,\n\nfor T-Mobile\n\nWhether you’re about to sit down to dinner, catching up with an old friend or simply taking a well-deserved nap, an unwanted robocall always seems to disrupt your day at the most inconvenient time.\n\nBut unwanted robocalls and scams are more than just annoying interruptions; they can actually be dangerous. Last year, the volume of scam call attempts exploded to record highs. They were the top complaint reported to the FCC and Americans lost some $30 billion to these ploys.\n\nIf you’re concerned, or even just annoyed, you should be. There was a 116% increase in scam attempts last year alone, according to new network data reported by T-Mobile, and the bombardment of calls is set to soon pass pre-pandemic levels.\n\nDespite efforts across the wireless industry, the tactics used by bad actors around the globe have become more aggressive over time and even more deceptive in their efforts to appear legitimate. Scammers are relentless – and they are not going to stop as long as they keep making money.\n\nAt the end of 2021, T-Mobile released its first-ever Scam and Robocall Report, which identified trends across the country, insights into scammer behavior and ways the company responded. T-Mobile’s Scam Shield technology, for example, identified or blocked more than 21 billion scam calls for their customers in 2021 – more than double the number of calls in 2020. That’s roughly the equivalent of 700 spam calls every second.\n\n“We are protecting every single customer with the free scam-fighting tools in Scam Shield, regardless of their plan or device,” said Jon Freier, president of T-Mobile’s Consumer Group, in a statement on the company’s website. “We know that scammers won’t stop as long as they continue to be successful, so we are doing everything we can to make their job as hard as possible.”\n\nThe T-Mobile report also shared some of the most common phone scams and ways to protect your information.\n\n1. ‘Neighborhood’ calls\n\nOne location-based trick scammers use is called neighbor or neighborhood spoofing, in which they disguise their number to appear as if it is coming from a local number, using a similar area code or prefix to your number.\n\nT-Mobile’s Scam and Robocall Report found certain areas of the country are more heavily targeted by scam calls than other parts. The states with the highest volume of scam call attempts in 2021 were Texas, Florida, Arizona and Georgia. Among those, Dallas/Fort Worth was the top metro area for receiving scam calls.\n\nTo help stop neighborhood spoofing, last year companies across the wireless industry implemented number verification powered by STIR/SHAKEN. T-Mobile was the first to implement number verification for customers and T-Mobile, Sprint and Metro by T-Mobile customers with an eligible device will get a checkmark to confirm the phone number displayed on your phone is the actual number calling and hasn’t been spoofed by a scammer.\n\n2. Legitimate businesses scams: fake auto warranties\n\nOne of the biggest concerns heading in to 2022 is scammers posing as legitimate businesses. If you’ve gotten a call from someone regarding your car’s warranty, you’re already familiar with this one. In 2021, the top scam was fake auto warranties, making up 51% of all scam call attempts.\n\nOther common fraudulent calls were from individuals pretending to represent car insurance companies (6%), social security (10%), wireless providers (9%) and package delivery (4%).\n\nWhat is particularly concerning about scams like the auto warranty scam is the caller may already have some personal details about your car or warranty. These calls often start with a robocall instructing you to press a number and stay on the line.\n\nTo help screen these calls, you can use tools such as Caller ID combined with number verification or use your wireless provider’s scam identification tools. As part of Scam Shield protections, T-Mobile gives free Caller ID to every customer. And when a scam threat is detected, customers automatically receive a “Scam Likely” warning on their Caller ID display. They can then decide if they want to answer the call or not.\n\nEven if you decide to answer a likely scam call, to protect yourself from any suspected fraudulent business calls, your best bet is to hang up and call the company back directly by looking up their customer service contact information on the Internet.\n\n3. Time of year: tax season and health care scams\n\nScammers are savvy and will capitalize on seasonal events to ramp up call attempts. With tax season coming up, phone scammers will often prey on people’s anxiety surrounding their taxes.\n\nTo keep yourself protected, know that generally, the IRS will first mail a bill to any taxpayer who owes taxes. They also won’t call about an unexpected tax refund. If you receive a call requesting immediate payment in the form of gift cards, threatening to bring in law enforcement for unpaid bills, or demanding payment without a bill or opportunity to question the amount, stay alert – it’s likely a scam.\n\nSimilarly, scam calls relating to health care spiked during open enrollment for health insurance and Medicare in late fall and winter. The FCC issued a $225 million fine – the largest in its history – in 2021 to a Texas-based telemarketer for robocalls falsely claiming to represent major health insurance companies.\n\nAlong with a seasonal ramping up, another method scammers use to appear above board is keeping regular business hours Monday to Friday with peak volume on Wednesdays. T-Mobile’s report found spam call volume drops by as much as 85% on weekends.\n\nTo keep yourself protected against the newest seasonal threats, you’ll want software that is updated regularly. T-Mobile claims that its scam protections are updated every 6 minutes, every day, all day. And unlike apps from third-parties, T-Mobile’s Scam Shield sits within the network, so it uses AI, machine learning and patented technology to update against new threats in real time.\n\n4. Technical support calls\n\nAnother avenue scammers use to weasel their way in is fake technical support calls. These calls can result in cyber criminals getting access to your data or planting malicious code on your phone or computer.\n\nFake technical support calls will often begin with the scammer saying they’re with a well-known company and that an issue has been detected with your device. From there, they’ll walk you through various steps to “fix” your phone or computer. Don’t be fooled – scammers who pull this trick will be attempting to download dangerous software used to obtain your data.\n\nT-Mobile warns that every wireless customer should use some form of scam protection to help prevent these calls getting through. Fortunately, in addition to “Scam Likely” warnings, T-Mobile’s Scam Shield also includes Scam Block, which once activated, blocks all “Scam Likely” calls before they ever reach your phone, giving you the peace and quiet you deserve. If you are a T-Mobile customer, you can download the Scam Shield app for free in your device’s app store.\n\nAs long as scammers are still able to make money off unsuspecting victims, their tactics will keep evolving. Thankfully, the technology used to protect people from these cyber criminals will continue to advance, as well – that’s why it’s crucial to utilize scam protection software to protect yourself.\n\nTo learn more about T-Mobile or view the 2021 Scam and Robocall Report, visit https://www.t-mobile.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2021/02/24/genesis-gv-80-tiger-woods-car-accident-suv-safety/4573081001/", "title": "Genesis GV80 in Tiger Woods car accident: Was SUV safe?", "text": "Are Genesis cars and SUVs safe?\n\nAfter Tiger Woods crashed a Genesis GV80 SUV in the Los Angeles area Tuesday, causing devastating leg injuries, the safety of the little-known luxury brand made by Korean automaker Hyundai was thrust into the spotlight.\n\nOn social media, some people speculated that the SUV's safety features may have saved the golf legend's life, given that authorities said he was traveling at a high speed. Others questioned whether the vehicle should have done a better job of protecting Woods.\n\nIndependent assessments of Genesis vehicles have given them high marks for safety.\n\n\"Genesis vehicles, as well as other models from its parent company Hyundai Motor Group, have generally performed quite well in our safety tests, which include crashworthiness, crash avoidance and headlight evaluations,\" Joseph Young, spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said in an email.\n\nMore on the GV80:Golf legend rolls over in Genesis SUV\n\nInsurance Institute for Highway Safety:These are the safest new cars, trucks, SUVs of 2021\n\nWhile new vehicles are substantially safer than vehicles from decades earlier, they are not impervious to deadly accidents. More than 36,000 people were killed in car crashes on American roadways in 2019, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.\n\nWhat's more, small increases in speed can make a collision much deadlier. A crash that is easily survivable at 40 mph can be fatal at 50 mph or more, according to a recent study conducted by IIHS and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.\n\nGenesis GV80 thrust into the spotlight\n\nThat Genesis is in the conversation at all is a surprising turn of events for a brand that has struggled to prove its relevancy since Hyundai spun it off as its own brand several years ago.\n\nTo be sure, Genesis has won accolades from critics for its design and reliability. The GV80 was one of three finalists for the 2020 North American Utility Vehicle of the Year award.\n\nBut only 6% of luxury car shoppers considered buying a Genesis in the fourth quarter of 2020, compared with 22% for the leader, BMW, as well as 19% for Audi, 19% for Lexus and 17% for Mercedes-Benz, according to Cox Automotive, which owns Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader.\n\nGenesis U.S. sales declined by 23% in 2020 to 16,384, making it 30th out of 31 major brands for the year, ahead of only Fiat.\n\n\"Their sales have struggled,\" said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst at Autotrader. The brand \"has a lot of building to do.\"\n\nSales have disappointed from the beginning due to the fact that its lineup consisted exclusively of passenger cars until recently, Krebs said. Passenger cars have fallen out of favor in recent years as Americans embraced SUVs and pickups. The GV80 is supposed to help reverse the tide for the brand.\n\nGenesis was hoping to draw more positive attention with its sponsorship of last weekend's Genesis Invitational, a PGA Tour event hosted by Woods. The brand gave a GV80 to the event winner, Max Homa, and loaned a GV80 to Woods for his personal use. That was the vehicle he crashed.\n\nGenesis safety\n\nDespite its sales struggles, from a safety perspective, Genesis has performed well.\n\nIn its widely followed 2021 safety awards – coincidentally announced Wednesday – IIHS gave its highest honors, Top Safety Pick+, to the Genesis G70 and Genesis G90 luxury cars.\n\nNotably missing were the brand's other two vehicles: the G80 and the GV80.\n\nBut that's because both of those vehicles were too new for IIHS to test in time for its initial 2021 Top Safety Pick announcement. They both went on sale in the fall.\n\n\"We are actually in the process of testing the GV80 right now. In fact, our last crashworthiness test of the GV80 is on the calendar for today,\" IIHS spokesman Young said Tuesday. \"So, we’ll likely have results out sometime next month.\n\nThe Genesis GV80's safety features include:\n\n• 10 standard airbags, \"including a center-side airbag unique to Genesis that deploys between the front seats,\" Genesis spokesman Jarred Pellat said in an email.\n\n• Advanced driver assistance systems, including forward-collision alert avoidance, evasive steering technology and an interior camera that alerts the driver if they're falling asleep.\n\n• New vehicle architecture, known in the industry as a \"platform,\" built with a passenger compartment reinforced with \"high strength steel for rigidity and safety,\" Pellat said.\n\nThe 2021 Genesis GV80, which carries a starting price of nearly $50,000, also has a 14.5-inch horizontal touchscreen on the center console and an 8-inch digital instrument panel.\n\nSome safety critics have accused automakers of distracting drivers by integrating larger and larger screens into their vehicles. There was no immediate evidence that Woods was distracted when he veered off the road on Tuesday.\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/02/24"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/01/us/five-things-july-1-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for July 1: SCOTUS, Abortion, Ukraine, Brittney ...", "text": "If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter.\n\nToday is the traditional getaway day for many people heading into the July 4 holiday weekend , and the 5 Things crew is hitting the road too. We'll see you back here on Tuesday after enjoying some fun in the sun and fireworks shows! If you need a little diversion before your holiday festivities begin, take CNN's Summer Quiz ! Here's what you need to know to\n\n(You can get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Supreme Court\n\nThe Supreme Court ended its blockbuster term on Thursday with two major opinions on climate change and immigration. The court dealt a huge blow to the Biden administration by curbing the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to broadly regulate carbon emissions from existing power plants . But in a win for the White House, the court gave President Joe Biden the green light to end the Trump-era \"Remain in Mexico\" immigration policy , which allows officials to send non-Mexican migrants to Mexico to await their US immigration court hearings. These rulings come as the conservative Supreme Court continues to transform the legal landscape around an assortment of hot-button issues, including abortion, gun rights, and religious liberty.\n\n2. Abortion\n\nPresident Biden on Thursday called for dropping filibuster rules to pass abortion rights into law. Ending the filibuster -- the 60-vote threshold in the Senate needed to pass most legislation -- would mean bills could pass by a simple majority instead of being held up by a minority. However, despite Biden's newly announced support for the filibuster carveout, his best bet in doing so would be next year, and only if Democrats gain at least two Senate seats and hold the House of Representatives, an extremely tall task. Meanwhile, several Democratic-leaning states are implementing regulations that either further protect or expand abortion-related laws and policies. Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee , for example, issued a directive Thursday that bars state police from cooperating with out-of-state agency requests for abortion-related information.\n\nJUST WATCHED Watch Biden call for filibuster rule change to codify abortion rights into law Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Watch Biden call for filibuster rule change to codify abortion rights into law 01:12\n\n3. Ukraine\n\nAfter a highly consequential summit this week, President Biden and NATO leaders pledged to support Ukraine for \" as long as it takes ,\" although few were willing to offer an actual timeframe for an end to the conflict. Ukraine's allies ramped up their response to the war this week with new sanctions and more military aid, but it remains unclear whether these steps can change the battlefield momentum that currently favors Russia . Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged NATO leaders to help him regain the initiative during a virtual address to the summit, pleading for more modern weapons and sustained support to battle the Russians. On the ground, Russian forces left Snake Island in the Black Sea , after Zelensky on Thursday said Ukraine carried out a \"remarkable operation.\" Russia, however, claimed it had withdrawn \"as a gesture of goodwill.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED Symbol of Ukrainian resistance at center of new dispute Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Symbol of Ukrainian resistance at center of new dispute 02:20\n\n4. Brittney Griner\n\nThe trial in Russia of American basketball star Brittney Griner is expected to begin today after officials there claimed she had cannabis oil in her luggage in February, a week before Russia invaded Ukraine. Griner , a Phoenix Mercury player who plays in Russia during the WNBA's offseason, was arrested at a Moscow airport and has been detained for more than four months. Russian authorities accused her of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance, an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Her detention, which has been extended for six months pending the trial's outcome, has sparked a wave of support in the US. Griner's wife, Cherelle , is urging President Biden to strike an exchange deal with Russian authorities to release Griner and bring her home safely as soon as possible.\n\nJUST WATCHED Brittney Griner's wife: Effort to free her doesn't match the rhetoric Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Brittney Griner's wife: Effort to free her doesn't match the rhetoric 01:32\n\n5. Travel chaos\n\nAs the US heads into the busy July 4 holiday weekend, travel experts warn delays and cancellations are likely to impact flights over the next few days. More than 1,500 flights were canceled in the US this past weekend alone, and Delta Air Lines has already trimmed about 100 flights a day from its July schedule to \"minimize disruptions.\" Delta also issued a waiver for July 4 travelers as it braces for passenger volumes \"not seen since before the pandemic.\" And as airports fill up with the most travelers in years, weather will also be a big factor this weekend, impacting both airlines and fireworks displays. Most of the US will see the chance of rain through Monday, with the South and Northeast expecting thunderstorms in several areas.\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nSee what's streaming in July\n\n\"Stranger Things\" Season 4 Volume 2 hit Netflix at midnight! Here's what else you should stream this month\n\nUCLA and USC to join Big Ten conference\n\nThe two Southern California powerhouse universities -- UCLA and USC -- are completely shaking up the college sports landscape . (Fight on!)\n\nEnormous chocolate factory shuts over salmonella outbreak\n\nThe biggest chocolate factory in the world is facing a not-so-sweet situation\n\n'Extraordinarily rare' Princess Diana portrait goes on display in London\n\nInteresting fact: Princess Diana went to an art studio for more than 30 sittings to complete this masterpiece\n\nHow two women with the exact same name became best friends\n\nThese women quickly realized they had more in common than their relatively unusual name\n\nQUIZ TIME\n\nWhich company is being accused of turning off the AC in its stores to save money as its sales plummet?\n\nA. IKEA\n\nB. Bed Bath & Beyond\n\nC. Best Buy\n\nD. Petco\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n141\n\nThat's how many reports of rape Uber recorded on its platform in 2020, the rideshare company disclosed in a safety report released Thursday . About 91% of the victims of rape were riders and about 7% of the victims were drivers. Women made up 81% of the victims while men comprised about 15%, according to the 78-page report.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"The Navy accepts responsibility for what happened.\"\n\n-- Navy Adm. Samuel Paparo, the commander of US Pacific Fleet, acknowledging a series of failures led to a , the commander of US Pacific Fleet, acknowledging a series of failures led to a fuel leak at a Hawaii military facility that sickened nearby families. In March, the Defense Department announced it would permanently close the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility after approximately 20,000 gallons of fuel spilled and hundreds of people complained about illnesses linked to the contaminated water.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Storms could impact holiday travel Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Storms could impact holiday travel 02:53\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nBigfoot and Bamboo: The Unlikely History of Fireworks", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/07/01"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/03/us/alabama-vicky-white-casey-white-search-tuesday/index.html", "title": "Vicky White and Casey White: Missing corrections officer accused of ...", "text": "(CNN) A missing Alabama corrections official accused of helping a murder defendant escape from jail last week had a nonphysical \"special relationship\" with him that included allowing him privileges while incarcerated, a sheriff said Tuesday.\n\nThe relationship between Vicky White, an assistant director of corrections for northwestern Alabama's Lauderdale County, and the now-fugitive Casey White was confirmed in part through tips from inmates at the county detention center, Sheriff Rick Singleton told CNN.\n\n\"We have confirmed through independent sources and other means that there was in fact a relationship between Casey White and Vicky White outside of her normal work hours -- not physical contact, but a relationship of a different nature,\" Singleton said.\n\n\"We were told Casey White got special privileges and was treated differently while in the facility than the other inmates,\" Singleton said.\n\nAuthorities are looking for both Vicky White and Casey White, who are not related, after the corrections officer on Friday morning left the Lauderdale County detention center with the 38-year-old inmate while he was handcuffed and shackled in her patrol car, the sheriff said.\n\nA warrant has been issued for Vicky White's arrest on charges of permitting or facilitating escape in the first degree, Singleton said Monday\n\nVicky White said she was taking Casey White to a courthouse for a mental health evaluation and would then go get medical care because she wasn't feeling well. Authorities later discovered no hearing or evaluation was scheduled for Casey White that day, and Vicky White never arrived at the medical facility. Her patrol car was found abandoned Friday morning in a shopping center's parking lot, less than a mile from the detention center.\n\nThe situation has left Vicky White's co-workers in shock. The day she disappeared was to be her last day at work after nearly two decades with the department, Singleton has said. She submitted her retirement paperwork last week, sold her home about a month ago, and had thought about moving to the beach, he added.\n\n\"All of her co-workers are devastated. We've never had any situation like this with Vicky White. She was a model employee,\" Singleton told CNN's Ryan Young on Monday. Previously, Singleton had said the corrections official had \"an unblemished record\" and was \"an exemplary employee.\"\n\nLauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton holds a picture of Casey White.\n\n\"If she did this willingly, and all indications are that she did ... I guess we're trying to hold on to that last straw of hope that maybe for some reason she was threatened and did this under coercion, but absolutely you'd feel betrayed,\" Singleton said.\n\nLauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly told CNN he worked with Vicky White almost daily for 17 years and last spoke with her the day before she disappeared.\n\n\"I would have trusted her with my life,\" he said. \"I am so disappointed in her. She was trusted and she exploited that trust.\"\n\nVicky White had been living with her mother for the past five weeks after selling her home, but never mentioned her retirement or Casey White, the mother, Pat Davis, told CNN affiliate WAAY . \"I never heard of him, never seen his picture, nothing. I didn't know anything about him,\" Davis told the outlet.\n\nPat Davis said she is in disbelief about the situation and wants her daughter to come home.\n\n\"We don't know if she was took by force or if she was voluntarily in this. But we just want her back, that's all we want,\" Pat Davis told WAAY\n\nSheriff: 'I'd be surprised if they're still in Alabama'\n\nVideo shows Vicky White's patrol car stopped -- about eight minutes after leaving the jail -- at an intersection about two blocks from the shopping center parking lot where it would be found abandoned, Singleton said.\n\nThat indicates the car was driven straight to the parking lot, and the driver never attempted to go to the courthouse, the sheriff said.\n\nBut the video doesn't show what happened after the car arrived at the parking lot.\n\nSingleton told CNN he believes the pair left the lot in a second vehicle -- perhaps transferring to a vehicle that was staged there or being picked up by someone.\n\nThe gold/copper 2007 Ford Edge was the last car Vicky White and Casey White were believed to be last seen in on April 29, 2022.\n\nThe US Marshals Service said Tuesday the pair was last seen on April 29 in Rogersville, Alabama, in a gold/copper 2007 Ford Edge with unknown Alabama plates.\n\n\"I'd be surprised if they're still in Alabama,\" the sheriff said. He noted officials at the Mexican and Canadian borders have been notified of the search.\n\nVicky White would have money from the recent sale of her home, but her retirement fund paperwork had not yet been processed, Singleton said.\n\nThe US Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $15,000 for information leading to the location of the missing inmate ($10,000) and officer ($5,000).\n\nCasey White is 6-foot-9 and while he may have changed his appearance since leaving the jail, his height will still make him stand out, US Marshal Marty Keely said Monday.\n\nThe inmate and officer should be considered dangerous and may be armed with an AR-15 rifle and a shotgun, Marshals said in a Tuesday news release.\n\nEscaped inmate is 'extremely dangerous'\n\nCasey White is \"an extremely dangerous person,\" Singleton said.\n\nHe was serving 75 years in prison for a series of crimes in 2015, including a home invasion, carjacking and a police chase, according to the Marshals Service.\n\nHe was transferred from a state prison to Lauderdale County's detention center on February 25 to attend court hearings on two capital murder charges he faces related to the 2015 stabbing death of 59-year-old Connie Ridgeway, the Marshals Service said.\n\nHe confessed to the crime in 2020 then pleaded not guilty, according to Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly.\n\nCasey White was serving 75 years for a series of crimes and was awaiting a capital murder trial.\n\n\"We're assuming he's armed because she was armed,\" Singleton said of Casey White. The sheriff warned people not to approach the inmate if they see him and to call police instead.\n\nIn 2020, while Casey White was being held in Lauderdale County's detention center, authorities learned he planned to escape the jail and take a hostage, Singleton said.\n\n\"We shook him down, and we did find a shank in his possession -- a shank is a prison knife. And we retrieved that. We immediately had him shipped back to the Department of Corrections,\" Singleton said Monday.\n\nThe jail already had a policy mandating two sworn deputies accompany inmates at all times, including during transportation to the courthouse -- but \"we emphasized that policy with him,\" Singleton said.\n\nVicky White violated the policy by leaving the jail alone with Casey White, but since she was second-in-command at the facility other officers didn't push back, Singleton said. \"Being the boss and over the transport, she just informed the booking officer that she was going to carry him to the courthouse and drop him off, which was a flagrant violation of policy. But I'm sure because it was her boss, the booking officer didn't question it,\" he noted.\n\nAs part of her job, Vicky White \"was frequently throughout the cell blocks, has contact with all the inmates at one time or another,\" Singleton said. \"But as far as a romantic relationship or something like that, we have no evidence or proof that that was the case, although it's a possibility,\" he added.\n\nCorrection: An earlier version of this story included the wrong age for Connie Ridgeway; she was 59 when she died.", "authors": ["Ryan Young", "Jaide Timm-Garcia", "Jason Hanna", "Kelly Mccleary"], "publish_date": "2022/05/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/07/21/breonna-taylor-protests-nfac-plans-hold-armed-march-louisville/5477815002/", "title": "Breonna Taylor protests: NFAC plans to hold armed march in ...", "text": "LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Black militia is planning to hold an armed march in Louisville on Saturday to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, according to a video from the leader of the group.\n\nJohn Fitzgerald \"Jay\" Johnson, the self-proclaimed grand master and founder of the NFAC, which stands for the Not F***ing Around Coalition, said in a video posted on Sunday that those wishing to march must come in a specific uniform: black boots, black pants, black button-down shirt and black mask. He added that members must come with several types of guns.\n\n\"Understand the seriousness of this situation,\" said Johnson, who goes by the name The Real Grandmaster Jay. \"Breonna Taylor was murdered in her home. ... We gotta go in on this one.\"\n\nFLASH SALE:Click here to get unlimited digital access at $39 for one year. Offer limited to new subscribers.\n\nIn a video published Monday, Johnson said that the group will meet at noon Saturday at Central High School, 1130 W. Chestnut St. But on Tuesday afternoon, Louisville Metro Police spokeswoman Jessie Halladay said the NFAC will change locations so that it is not on school property.\n\nUnlawful possession of a weapon on school property is a felony in Kentucky. Halladay said she did not have any additional information to share about the rally location.\n\nJohnson met electronically with Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Louisville Metro Council President David James on Monday, according to James, who added that he organized the meeting.\n\nCameron is investigating the killing of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was unarmed in her South End apartment when Louisville police fatally shot her March 13. Cameron spokeswoman Elizabeth Kuhn confirmed the phone call took place.\n\n\"The conversation was productive,\" Kuhn wrote in an email. \"Attorney General Cameron discussed his continued commitment to moving forward with our office’s independent and thorough investigation into the death of Ms. Taylor.\"\n\nThe militia made waves July 4 when roughly 1,000 members of the group marched in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where there is a mountainside carving of three Confederate leaders: Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson. Authorities said the event was peaceful, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but the group's presence caused a stir on social media.\n\nProtesters have taken to the streets of Louisville for 55 days to demand justice for Taylor, who was shot as police served a \"no-knock\" search warrant as a part of a narcotics investigation. No drugs were found in the apartment.\n\nCourt records show that police obtained a warrant with a no-knock provision for Taylor's apartment signed by Circuit Judge Mary Shaw. Even so, officials have said that plainclothes officers knocked and announced their presence before breaking in Taylor’s door with a battering ram.\n\nTaylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was also in the apartment, fired one shot in response, hitting Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the thigh. Mattingly and Officers Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove returned fire, striking Taylor five times.\n\nShe died in her hallway.\n\nFACT CHECK: Debunking 7 widely shared rumors in the Breonna Taylor police shooting\n\nMore:Breonna Taylor was briefly alive after police shot her. But no one tried to treat her\n\nLike many of the protesters, Johnson, the leader of the NFAC, is demanding that the three officers involved in the shooting be fired by Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and criminally charged by Cameron. One of the officers in the shooting, Hankison, was fired last month and is in the process of appealing the termination.\n\nIn a call last week organized by local activist Lebron Seay, Johnson told David James, D-6th District, and Louisville Chief of Community Building Vincent James that 5,000 to 6,000 people from his group will hold an armed march in Louisville if there is not progress made in Taylor's case.\n\n\"I would be so remiss not to tell you that there are a lot of people nationwide that are ready to descend on your city to extract justice if you cannot give us some type of guarantee that something is coming soon,\" Johnson said.\n\nDavid James said during the call that the investigation has taken so long due to Fischer's \"piss-poor leadership,\" as the city did not turn over the police's investigative to Attorney General Cameron until a few weeks ago.\n\nIn an interview with The Courier Journal, David James said he had not spoken with Johnson before and joined the call to \"help answer any questions\" and to make sure Johnson \"was aware of whatever the facts were.\"\n\nDavid James also said that the \"lack of transparency\" of Fischer's administration has led to a distortion of facts and that he was asked to join the call after the Louisville mayor refused to do so.\n\nJean Porter, a spokeswoman for Fischer, told The Courier Journal on Tuesday that the mayor was not invited to the call with Johnson.\n\nOpinion:Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron can't submit to outside pressure in Taylor case\n\nDavid James said he is \"not a big fan of people carrying weapons while they're protesting or marching through the city, no matter who they are.\" However, he added that the group consists of \"law-abiding citizens following the rules and laws of the state of Kentucky\" and that they have the right to protest.\n\nThe Metro Council president added that he is more worried about people reacting to the NFAC and that there may \"be one person that does one stupid thing, and then we have a problem.\"\n\nLouisville Metro Police spokesman Dwight Mitchell said the department is aware of Johnson's video announcing the NFAC's intentions to come to Louisville and the department has attempted to reach out to the group's organizers \"to understand what their plans are.\"\n\n\"We have had several protests posted over the past several weeks, some of which have occurred and some which have not,\" Mitchell said. \"We will take the appropriate steps to prepare for whatever may occur.\"\n\nMitchell declined to comment further on whether the department has successfully reached Johnson and what steps the department is taking to ensure the march is safe.\n\nAccording to Porter, Louisville police have been in contact with Johnson about tentative plans for the march and \"their shared goal for a peaceful event.\"\n\nWhen asked during a Tuesday press briefing if the state would send police to the armed march in Louisville, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said his administration has not received a request to get involved.\n\n\"Any time a request comes in, we'll have to look at the danger that's out there for life and safety of folks,\" Behsear said. \"But at the time, we have not received any official request for assistance.\"\n\nContact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-377-5675 or follow on Twitter @TobinBen. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: subscribe.courier-journal.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/01/george-floyd-protests-riots-minneapolis-small-businesses/5300736002/", "title": "Their stores were burned, ransacked and looted. What's next for ...", "text": "MINNEAPOLIS – Brandy Moore likened the charred remains of her south Minneapolis clothing store and recording studio to the pangs for equality that minorities here feel.\n\nSmoke continued to waft in the air 24 hours after people protesting the death of George Floyd burned Moore's storefront and several others along Lake Street.\n\n\"My business burned down two days ago. You see the flames? It's still going,\" Moore, 41, said Sunday. \"That flame down in people's soul? It's still going. They want justice.\"\n\nShe is among dozens of Minneapolis and St. Paul business owners, small and large, trying to rebuild after fiery riots and demonstrations in the Twin Cities on Thursday and Friday. Her company, Levels, which she owns with business partner Daniel Johnson, also has a St. Paul location that remains undamaged. The venture is Moore's \"baby.\"\n\nSweeping the sidewalks, feeding the needy:Minneapolis is trying to recover after days of George Floyd protests\n\nMoore, a black woman, said she started the business from the trunk of her car once she left a job with Minneapolis Public Schools in 2011 to pursue her passion for fashion and music.\n\nIt had been opened for five years before people broke in Friday and started a fire that destroyed the business and several adjacent stores. When she was alerted to the break-in, Moore went to Lake Street and watched nearly a decade of work collapse into the concrete.\n\n\"I'm hurt that I lost this. But ... I can't cry right now,\" she said. \"I can't go home and cry and be hurt because I lost businesses. George Floyd lost his life. He'll never be here again.\"\n\nShe's confident she can recover but isn't sure if she can rebuild at the same location – in the heart of a diverse southside neighborhood. A GoFundMe campaign has been started to help with those expenses. Other small businesses face similar uncertainty, but several fundraisers have been started to help support Minneapolis' smallest companies.\n\nAs looters ransacked his St. Paul store, he hid in the bathroom and whispered to 911\n\nIn St. Paul's Midway neighborhood, just blocks from where Moore's second Levels location was protected by armed men standing on its porch, one business owner said he hid in his office as people ransacked, urinated in and damaged the building.\n\nJim Segal closed Ax-Man Surplus earlier than normal Thursday afternoon because daylight looting took hold at the nearby intersection of University and Snelling avenues. After sending customers and employees home and locking the front door, Segal said he continued to work in the office of the 6-decade-old company. Then he heard multiple glass windows break.\n\n\"Luckily, I have a steel door because they were trying to enter the office,\" said Segal, who bought the surplus store about 20 years ago. \"I don't think they knew anybody was in there, but I basically barricaded myself within a bathroom inside the office.\"\n\nHe felt as if he were in a movie, the St. Paul native said. As display cases were shattered and electronics taken from inside his store, he whispered to 911 dispatch asking for help.\n\n\"Police said, 'Don't even bother boarding up your store,'\" Segal said Saturday. \"'There's a 50/50 chance it won't be here tomorrow.\"\n\n8 minutes, 46 seconds and 'inherently dangerous':What's in the criminal complaint in the George Floyd case\n\nAbout 6:30 p.m. Thursday, he returned to the St. Paul Ax-Man location, one of three in the metro, in an unsuccessful effort to stop people running in and out of his store.\n\nA company agreed to board up his windows, Segal said, but left quickly after arriving, not wanting to work among the crowd. He tried to get a license plate of someone stealing, but others tried to take his phone so he retreated to his car.\n\nSegal sat in his vehicle for hours as rioters peed in his store and took items ranging from knickknacks and DVDs to a snowblower. He said coronavirus concerns forced him to close his business for the better part of two months. They'd been reopened a little more than a week when the building was ransacked.\n\n\"I don't recall ever being in a situation where I was that panicked. I was petrified, actually,\" he said. Ax-Man won't reopen for at least a week or two, and Segal fears it may close permanently because of the lack of sales during the spring. That would mean a loss of livelihood for him and about 10 employees.\n\nWho are they? Officials blame 'out-of-state' agitators but those at the heart of protests are homegrown\n\nHe sympathizes with those upset about Floyd's death in police custody on Memorial Day, describing the video of Minneapolis police officers' actions \"horrific.\"\n\n\"This is just stuff, no comparison (to a person dying),\" said Segal, a white man. \"But what I'm disappointed about is the lack of leadership in the government – Mayor (Melvin) Carter, Mayor (Jacob) Frey, Gov. (Tim) Walz – to just allow lawlessness.\n\n\"Indefensible what happened to Mr. Floyd, but this doesn't make it better. And I don't know what does.\"\n\nInsurance helps small business owners, but a full recovery is 'a lot more complicated'\n\nWhile Moore and Segal both said they are insured, they don't believe insurance alone will enough to replace everything they've lost. People typically see business owner and think \"wealth,\" Segal said.\n\n\"That's not true for me,\" he said. \"I'm the last one to get paid.\"\n\nUnderstanding insurance policies can be difficult for many small business owners, said Allison Sharkey, executive director of the Lake Street Council, which supports local companies. Lake Street has always been an area for Minneapolis's immigrant entrepreneurs to start businesses, she said, and many of those folks may not be familiar with aid systems or insurance proceedings.\n\n\"There's a lot of detail to go through in your contract that most people don't really understand until a situation like this happens,\" Sharkey said. \"It's a lot more complicated than just paying a $500 deductible and thinking the rest is going to be covered.\"\n\nMinority business owners may not have the credit or assets to withstand closures as long as white business owners with more resources, she said. The council, and other metro business associations like it, try to fill that gap and provide guidance, but insurance claims won't stop some businesses from completely fading away.\n\nInjured on the job:Journalists blinded, injured, arrested covering George Floyd protests nationwide\n\nFor Moore, she's frustrated when people bring up the fact she's insured because it ignores the work she put into the building and the items she won't get back.\n\n\"When you get it out the mud – meaning when you get it on your own, no handouts ... someone just handing you money doesn't equate,\" she said. \"It's deeper than that.\"\n\nFinancial support is coming for Twin Cities small businesses left in rubble amid George Floyd protests\n\nWhen Segal returned to his business Friday, he found a person who lived nearby sweeping glass from the sidewalk, which raised his spirits.\n\nMonetary support has begun, too. It's especially vital, small business advocates say, because many companies were already running out of money because of closures due to COVID-19.\n\nThe Lake Street Council has received more than $1.5 million to help support the hundreds of businesses that line the heavily damaged area. Sharkey said companies owned by people of color and immigrants have been especially affected by the days of unrest. Several \"big, beautiful\" buildings on the southside have been replaced by rubble, which will be eventually replaced by vacant lots.\n\n\"($1.5 million) sounds like a big number, but we're gonna need a lot more government and nonprofit support,\" Sharkey said. \"We have a long road ahead of us.\"\n\nGeorge Floyd protests:How did we get here?\n\nShe said her organization had already begun to save money to distribute to companies dealing with financial contractions from the coronavirus, but it has not been shifted to riot recovery. The council will request an aid package from the state, but Sharkey thinks they'll need federal dollars as well.\n\n\"We're headed toward a recession,\" she said. \"We're really going to have to create a long-term strategy along with stakeholders, business owners, property owners business groups, elected officials.\"\n\nDonations to that fund can be made here.\n\nFundraising has begun in Segal's area, as well. The Hamline Midway Coalition has received more than $75,000 to help aid small businesses in their recovery from property damage and lost sales.\n\nKate Mudge, the coalition's director, said the organization has been raising money to help small and minority business owners worried about gentrification and corporatization coming with the new U.S. soccer stadium built nearby.\n\n\"We already have been dealing with a pandemic, we've been dealing with some long-term issues in our community, and this is the icing on the cake. We hope that this is gonna bring new people to Midway, new businesses,\" she said. \"We've dealt with worse.\"\n\nDonations to the Midway fund can be made here.\n\nDespite the uncertainty, the organizations are confident many businesses will survive if community support keeps up.\n\n\"I'm not blaming people, you can't judge anybody's pain or anger. Everyone acts and reacts to things in different ways,\" Moore said. \"I have a black-owned business, it was burned down and we were protesting, for a black man's life that was taken. So, I was just a little confused on where we're going with this. But, at the end of the day, everything is about sacrifices.\"\n\nTyler Davis can be contacted at tjdavis@dmreg.com or on Twitter @TDavisDMR.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/06/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/06/11/fact-check-coke-did-not-write-try-less-white-cans/7641787002/", "title": "Fact check: Coke did not write 'Try to be less white' on its soda cans", "text": "The claim: Coke wrote 'Try to be less white' on its soda cans\n\nA widely shared image of a Coca-Cola can with the words “Try to be less white” printed on its side is drawing online criticism. Several posts encouraged followers to boycott Coca-Cola products.\n\n\"I'm not buying anymore Coke products,\" claims a meme in a June 7 Facebook post.\n\nThis claim is the most recent accusation of anti-white bias on the part of the company. But this is not a real Coke can.\n\nUSA TODAY reached out to several Facebook users that posted the image for comment.\n\nFact check: No, straightaways weren't required as airstrips in Eisenhower interstate system\n\nCoke confirms can is inauthentic\n\nAnn Moore, communications director for the Coca-Cola Co., confirmed in an email to USA TODAY that the can was not real.\n\n“The mock Coca-Cola can appearing in some social media feeds was not created, distributed or authorized by The Coca-Cola Company,” she wrote.\n\nExpert says the image is altered\n\nA reverse image search for the picture in the posts does not yield any relevant results, but expert analysis suggests it was doctored.\n\nMark Scanlon, director of the Centre for Cybersecurity & Cybercrime Investigation at University College Dublin, told Reuters inconsistencies in the can’s lettering indicate it was likely digitally altered.\n\nSnopes debunked other images of Coke cans altered to read “Try to be less white” in February.\n\nCoke is subject of misinformation after being accused of anti-white bias\n\nThis most recent altered image comes after months of criticism and misinformation directed at Coca-Cola.\n\nThe controversy began in February when Newsweek reported Coca-Cola had told employees to “Try to be less white” in a company training course. Accusations of anti-white bias inspired an abundance of online misinformation.\n\nFact check:Georgia is not removing Coca-Cola products from state-owned buildings\n\nSome viral memes falsely claimed Coke CEO James Quincey had insulted conservatives who boycotted the brand.\n\nOver the last few months, USA TODAY has debunked several claims in this vein, including the false claim that Coca-Cola refused to hire white executives.\n\nOur rating: Altered\n\nWe rate the claim that an image shows Coca-Cola wrote \"Try to be less white\" on its soda cans ALTERED, based on our research. A spokesperson for the company confirmed it has not produced or authorized any cans with that phrase. An expert has suggested the image is likely altered. This image is the latest in a string of misinformation about Coke's perceived anti-white bias.\n\nOur fact-check sources:\n\nThank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.\n\nOur fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/02/14/florida-man-received-980-000-refund-taxes-u-s-attorney-says/2878858002/", "title": "Man reported income of $18,497; IRS sent him a $980,000 refund ...", "text": "Darla Mercado\n\nCNBC\n\nThere are big tax refunds, and then there are $980,000 tax refunds.\n\nRamon Christopher Blanchett, of Tampa, Florida, and self-described freelancer, managed to scoop up a $980,000 tax refund after submitting his self-prepared 2016 tax return.\n\nHe also allegedly claimed that he earned a total of $18,497 in wages — and that he had withheld $1 million in income taxes, according to a Jan. 18 forfeiture complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office.\n\nIn reality, Blanchett received $2,098 in wages from one employer and $1,399 from another employer, according to the complaint.\n\nHe withheld no federal income taxes from either, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in the filing.\n\nThe story was initially reported by the Tampa Bay Times.\n\nBlanchett could not be reached by CNBC for comment. His contact information was not immediately available, and no attorney was listed for him in the U.S. Attorney's complaint.\n\nThough the massive refund check made it out the door at the IRS, the taxman is taking steps to get the money back.\n\nMore:Intimidated by taxes? These online tools can help you navigate your federal returns\n\nTaxes 2019:10 common filing mistakes to avoid this year\n\nThus far, Uncle Sam has managed to seize $919,251 from three bank accounts and a 2016 silver Lexus RC registered in Blanchett's name.\n\nThe U.S. Attorney's Office is now fighting over $809.94 — the amount of money refunded to Blanchett when he cancelled the insurance coverage on the Lexus, according to the complaint.\n\nHere's how a case like this one might slip through the cracks.\n\nFraud prevention\n\nWhile the IRS Criminal Investigation Unit managed to identify $9.69 billion in tax fraud in 2018, and it initiated 1,714 investigations around tax crimes, sometimes phony returns slip through.\n\n\"We have filters to try to detect fraudulent refunds and claims, but there are the ones that get through and get paid,\" said Eric Smith, a spokesman for the IRS.\n\nThe IRS can head off phony tax returns by matching them to the information returns businesses send the tax agency to show that they've paid someone, said Leandra Lederman, a tax law professor at Indiana University's Maurer School of Law.\n\nThe agency's fraud detection systems were able to protect $7.6 billion in revenue between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 last year, but they delayed the processing of nearly $20 billion in legitimate refunds, according to the Taxpayer Advocate Service's 2018 annual report to Congress.\n\n\"There's pressure on the IRS to get refunds out to people quickly,\" Lederman said.\n\nThere's an additional set of checks and balances in place for very large tax refunds.\n\nThat kicks in at a high threshold: The Joint Committee on Taxation is supposed to review tax refunds that exceed $2 million (or $5 million if the taxpayer is a C-corporation).\n\nRevamping systems\n\nAdditional funding for the IRS — particularly an investment in its computer systems — could help the agency better sniff out suspicious returns, tax experts said.\n\nFeb. 14:Tax refunds are smaller by an average of $186 after second week of filing season\n\nFeb. 12:Government shutdown stymied frozen tax refunds, tied up IRS phone lines, report shows\n\nIn fact, the Taxpayer Advocate Service's top recommendation in its 2018 report was for Congress to increase IRS resources so that the agency can replace its IT systems.\n\nThe agency received $11.43 billion in funding last year, of which $110 million went toward its tech upgrades via its Business Systems Modernization Account.\n\n\"It comes down to how the system was functioning and whether it was properly staffed,\" said Mark W. Everson, former IRS commissioner from 2003 until 2007 and vice chairman of Alliantgroup, a tax consultancy.\n\n\"Resource constraints affect that almost inevitably,\" he said.\n\n© CNBC is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/02/14"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_1", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:20", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/politics/white-house-free-public-tours-full-operating-schedule/index.html", "title": "White House announces free public tours will resume full operating ...", "text": "(CNN) Public tours of the White House will resume a full operating schedule on July 19 for the first time since they were suspended in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the White House announced Monday.\n\nLimited tours of the White House resumed earlier this year on Fridays and Saturdays but will be offered Tuesdays through Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET, excluding federal holidays, under the full operating schedule. The tours are free to the public and can be scheduled through the office of a member of Congress.\n\nThe White House says it will continue to monitor Covid-19 and operate based on guidance provided by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Face masks are not currently required for the tours. Anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19, has symptoms or has been exposed to the virus within 10 days of their scheduled tour is being told to stay home.\n\nThe White House has hosted several large-scale events at the White House in recent months, after being unable to do so for much of President Joe Biden's first year in office. The President and first lady Jill Biden welcomed thousands of guests to the South Lawn of the White House in April for the Easter Egg Roll, an annual holiday tradition that had been canceled for the past two years because of the pandemic. The White House also hosted spring garden tours this year, which were free and open to the public.\n\nThe Biden administration has been trying to move the country into a new phase of the pandemic that is less disruptive to Americans' daily lives.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Kate Sullivan", "Donald Judd"], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2021/05/19/covid-travel-restrictions-countries-fully-vaccinated-americans-europe/7284487002/", "title": "COVID travel restrictions: Where fully vaccinated Americans can go", "text": "Corrections & clarifications: Germany’s, Spain's and Italy's entry requirements have been updated.\n\nAs vaccination levels continue to rise in the U.S. and around the world, countries that had been off limits to foreigners for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic are beginning to reopen.\n\nOn June 18, the European Union added the U.S. to a list of countries for which travel restrictions should gradually be lifted. The list applies to all American tourists, vaccinated or not, for nonessential travel.\n\nThe recommendation is not legally binding, and the decision on how and when to reopen borders is up to each individual member country.\n\n► Europe travel restrictions for vaccinated visitors:Making sense of rules in France, Spain, Italy\n\n► Spain reopens: Vaccinated Americans can now visit\n\nIn April, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that fully vaccinated Americans could resume travel at low risk to themselves, though the agency still recommended against travel due to rising COVID case counts. On June 7, the agency softened its guidance for dozens of destinations, and now says travelers should make sure they are fully vaccinated before entering these countries.\n\nFederal travel guidance:CDC, State Department downgrade travel alerts for dozens of countries\n\nYou'll still need a negative COVID test to fly back to the US\n\nIf Americans do decide to travel abroad, no matter which country they decide to visit, they'll still need to be tested for COVID within three days of an international flight back to the U.S. – even vaccinated travelers. You can find available testing sites in your destination country and turnaround times on the website for the U.S. embassy there.\n\nSome resorts are also offering COVID testing on site to help satisfy the U.S. requirement.\n\n► Beware: These Americans were stranded in Mexico after testing positive for COVID\n\nAbout the list of countries allowing vaccinated travelers\n\nRules are evolving, so we've chosen to focus on countries that did not admit Americans before COVID-19 vaccines began to roll out and now are open or opening to vaccinated Americans. Keep in mind that countries' rules and plans may shift quickly, so before planning, check with your destination to find out the latest requirements.\n\nThe information below pertaining to vaccination and testing requirements comes from official sources such as government agencies (such as embassies and immigration ministries and the U.S. State Department) or official tourism websites.\n\nIf you would like to find out how much of the local population is at least partially vaccinated in a country you plan to visit, you can find the latest data on USA TODAY. Johns Hopkins University, which has tracked COVID infection and death statistics since the earliest days of the pandemic, drills down even further, with percentages for both the partially and fully vaccinated.\n\nEurope\n\nWhen will Americans be allowed back in Europe? The European Union on June 18 added the U.S. to a list of countries for which travel restrictions should gradually be lifted. The list applies to all American tourists, vaccinated or not, for nonessential travel.\n\nThe recommendation is non-binding, and national governments have authority to require test results or vaccination records and to set other entry conditions.\n\nHowever, some countries had announced their own plans before the EU's recommendation, including Portugal, Spain, Austria and Greece.\n\nAnd finally, while the United Kingdom does admit Americans with a negative COVID test, travelers must have a negative test result from within 72 hours of travel and quarantine for 10 days. They must also schedule follow-up tests for days 2 and 8 of their visit, though they can arrange a private test after five days to be released from quarantine early. This is required even for people who have been vaccinated. Failure to be tested can result in a fine of up to £1,000 ($1,418).\n\nEarlier this month, airlines reiterated their plea for the U.S. and U.K. to rescind their respective travel restrictions, citing rising vaccination rates in both countries. At the G7 conference, President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson launched a travel task force that will make policy recommendations about safely reopening international travel between the U.K. and the U.S. But no specific timing was announced.\n\nCountries that allow Americans in with a negative COVID test (and other conditions: Italy\n\nPortugal announced June 15 that travelers 2 years and older must take a nucleic acid amplification test – such as a PCR test – within the last 72 hours before boarding, or a rapid antigen test within 24 hours of boarding.\n\nItaly has said that Americans can enter and bypass quarantine with a negative COVID test taken no more than 48 hours prior to entry. Italy also noted visitors would be allowed to enter the country even if they've recently been in other EU countries.\n\nAustria travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Vaccinated travelers need a certificate or vaccine passport. Certificates for people who received their first of two shots at least 22 days prior to entry are valid for three months; documents for people who have had both shots or are considered fully vaccinated after a single dose are good for an additional six months.\n\nTesting requirements: Visitors who are unvaccinated or who have not had COVID need a negative PCR test no older than 72 hours or an antigen test no older than 48 hours. If you arrive without a valid negative test, you will have to take one at your own expense within 24 hours after arriving. People who have proof they have recovered from COVID in the past six months or a positive COVID antibodies test no more than three months old may enter.\n\nOther restrictions: Travelers who arrive without a vaccination certificate, proof of recovery or negative COVID test result must complete an advance clearance form to get permission to enter.\n\nDetails: Austria official travel portal\n\nBulgaria travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Visitors need to show proof that their final dose was administered at least 14 days prior to entry may enter Bulgaria.\n\nTesting requirements: Unvaccinated visitors over the age of 5 need a negative PCR test no older than 72 hours or an antigen test no older than 48 hours. People who have recovered from COVID need a positive PCR or antigen test taken between 15 days and 180 days prior.\n\nOther restrictions: Look for businesses with a Safe Travels stamp from World Travel & Tourism Council\n\nDetails: U.S. Embassy, Sofia; Bulgarian government tourism site\n\nCroatia travel\n\nVaccination requirements: Tourists must present a vaccine certificate showing they received their final dose or single dose at least 14 days prior to entering the country.\n\nTesting requirements: Individuals who have not been vaccinated yet must have a negative PCR or rapid antigen test taken within the last 48 hours or proof they have recovered from COVID-19.\n\nOther restrictions: Tourists must pay lodging fully in advance and provide proof. They must also complete an arrival form with their contact-tracing information.\n\nDetails: U.S. Embassy, Zagreb\n\nCyprus travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Though COVID vaccinations are not required to enter Cyprus, Americans who can prove they are fully vaccinated will not be subject to testing or quarantine as long as their vaccine is approved by the European Medicines Agency.\n\nPrior to travel, visitors must upload a copy of their vaccination certificate to the Cyprus Fight Pass platform. Verification is the responsibility of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Cyprus reserves the right to randomly test passengers on any arriving flight, including vaccinated travelers.\n\nTesting requirements: Unvaccinated visitors from countries classified as red must have a PCR test from a certified lab taken within 72 hours prior of departure.\n\nOther restrictions: Visitors must present their Cyprus Flight Pass to enter crowded venues. In addition, there is a curfew in effect from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.\n\nDetails: Cyprus Flight Pass\n\nFrance travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Americans may enter as of June 9, provided they have proof they've had their final dose of an approved vaccine at least two weeks prior to travel. They will also need a negative PCR test no older than 72 hours or a rapid antigen test no older than 48 hours.\n\nTesting requirements: Unvaccinated Americans may not visit France for tourism purposes, according to the French Embassy in Washington, D.C.\n\nOther restrictions: Travelers must complete a sworn document saying they do not have symptoms of COVID-19, nor have they been exposed to it. They must also be willing to be tested upon arrival, quarantine if deemed necessary and undergo retesting afterward.\n\nDetails: French Embassy, Washington; U.S. Embassy, Paris\n\nGermany travel\n\nVaccination requirements: American tourists with proof of vaccination of an approved vaccine may enter Germany via air and bypass testing. They must be two weeks past their final dose.\n\nTesting requirements: Unvaccinated visitors from the U.S. will also be allowed, but they must have proof of a negative PCR test no older than 72 hours or antigen test no older than 48 hours prior to entry. Alternately, people who have recovered from COVID can provide a positive PCR test carried out at least 28 days prior but not more than six months prior.\n\nOther restrictions: Regardless of vaccination or test status, all visitors must complete a digital entry registration prior to travel. Americans who enter Germany from a variant concern area need a negative PCR test and must quarantine for 10 days. Travelers are also advised to check the rules for each German state they plan to visit.\n\nDetails: German Foreign Office; U.S. Embassy, Berlin\n\nGreece travel\n\nVaccine requirements: The country announced it is reopening to international tourists on May 15. Fully vaccinated individuals may bypass the testing requirement if they they present a vaccination certificate issued by a public authority showing their second shot occurred at least 14 days prior to arrival in Greece.\n\nTesting requirements: Unvaccinated visitors must have a negative PCR test performed within 72 hours prior to entering the country.\n\nOther restrictions: All visitors must complete Greece's online Passenger Locator Form at least 48 hours before entering the country.\n\nDetails: U.S. Embassy, Athens\n\nNon EU-member countries that allow Americans in with a negative COVID test (or other conditions):\n\nIceland travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Individuals who can provide proof they are fully vaccinated are exempt from testing and quarantine requirements. Iceland will also accept a yellow card issued by the World Health Organization.\n\nTesting requirements: Unvaccinated Americans need a negative PCR test from within 72 hours of departure and must quarantine at an official facility for five days upon arrival. People who can provide proof they've recovered from COVID are exempt from quarantine requirements.\n\nOther restrictions: Visitors must pre-register online; however, this does not count as a travel authorization.\n\nDetails: U.S. Embassy, Reykjavik; covid.is\n\nIreland travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Vaccinated Americans will be welcome in Ireland beginning July 19. They will need proof of vaccination to bypass quarantine and testing requirements.\n\nTesting requirements: Unvaccinated adult travelers are still required to undergo testing and quarantine, per the Irish government.\n\nOther restrictions: Travelers need to complete a passenger locator form prior to arrival in Ireland.\n\nDetails: Irish government website\n\nItaly travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Travelers from the U.S. can enter Italy without a quarantine period, so long as they submit a passenger locator form and present a COVID-19 Green Pass or CDC vaccination certificate.\n\nIn order to obtain a Green Pass, travelers must either become fully vaccinated against COVID-19; recover from COVID-19 and pass the medical isolation period, or provide a negative COVID-19 test result performed in the 48 hours prior to entering the country.\n\nDetails: U.S. Embassy, Italian National Tourist Board\n\nRomania travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Travelers with proof of vaccination can bypass the mandatory 14-day quarantine.\n\nTesting requirements: Unvaccinated travelers need a negative test taken no sooner than 72 hours prior to departure to bypass quarantine. People who enter without one must quarantine and won't be allowed to test out until day 10.\n\nOther restrictions: Visitors may be asked to complete a questionnaire upon entry.\n\nDetails: RomaniaTourism.com\n\nSlovenia travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Vaccinated Americans need to show proof they are at least 14 days past their final dose.\n\nTesting requirements: Unvaccinated Americans need a negative PCR test result no older than 48 hours. Travelers who have recovered from COVID need either a positive test that is at least 10 days old but no older than six months or a certificate attesting to the same. Children under 15 who cross the border with a direct family member or organized group are exempt from testing.\n\nDetails: Republic of Slovenia\n\nSpain travel\n\nVaccine requirements: U.S. citizens can travel to Spain, regardless of vaccination status, as long as they present a QR code from the Spain Travel Health portal upon arrival. There is no requirement to bring proof of vaccination. This applies to all U.S. citizens, including those who visited another country before making their way to Spain.\n\nInformation required to complete the health portal form includes travelers' identity document number (which can be found on passports) and details such as a traveler's arrival date and flight number.\n\nTesting requirements: U.S. citizens are not required to show a negative COVID test to enter Spain.\n\nDetails: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs; TravelSafe Spain, U.S. Embassy\n\nCaribbean\n\nCountries that allow Americans to bypass quarantine if they present a negative COVID test and meet other conditions:\n\nCountries where Americans don't need proof of vaccine, negative COVID test or quarantine: Dominican Republic\n\nBahamas travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Travelers who are two weeks past their last vaccination are exempt from the testing requirements for entry and inter-island travel.\n\nTesting requirements: Unvaccinated travelers must have a negative PCR test result no older than five days prior to entry. (Children 10 and under are exempt.)\n\nOther restrictions: Visitors must complete a Bahamas Travel Health Visa application.\n\nDetails: Bahamas.com\n\nSaint Lucia\n\nVaccine requirements: Americans who have documentation proving they are at least 14 days past their final dose will be given a wristband and granted freer access to the island as long as they obey mask and social-distancing requirements. Unvaccinated minor children will be granted the same freedom of movement as their vaccinated parents.\n\nTesting requirements: All travelers ages 5 and up, regardless of vaccination status, need a negative PCR test result from within the past five days and can only partake in approved activities and eat at COVID-certified restaurants.\n\nOther restrictions: All visitors must use COVID-certified lodging regardless of vaccination status.\n\nDetails: StLucia.org\n\nNorth America\n\nCanada remains off limits to American leisure travelers, unless they meet certain exemptions. On May 11, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that his government prefers to keep its border closed until 75% of the population has had at least their first vaccine dose.\n\n\"My gut tells me it's going to be (closed) at least well into the fall of 2021,\" he predicted a week earlier.\n\nCountries where Americans don't need proof of vaccine, negative COVID test or quarantine: Mexico\n\nIn mid-May, the governor of Mexico's Quintana Roo state, home to the Caribbean tourist meccas of Cancun, Cozumel and Tulum, warned that the area faced \"imminent risk\" of returning to lockdown conditions due to surging COVID cases there.\n\n►Border closures extended: Canada, Mexico land border closed to nonessential travel through June 21\n\n► Trouble in paradise: Mexico's Caribbean coast including Cancún, Cozumel, Tulum at 'imminent risk' of lockdown\n\nCentral America\n\nCountries where Americans don't need proof of vaccine, negative COVID test or quarantine:\n\n►Costa Rica during COVID: What's it like to vacation there during the pandemic?\n\nCountries where Americans can bypass quarantine with a negative COVID test result:\n\nBelize travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Individuals who are at least two weeks past their second shot and bring their official vaccination card must bring their official certificate. If two weeks have not passed, a negative PCR test no older than 96 hours or a rapid antigen test no older than 48 hours old are required.\n\nTesting requirements: Anyone over the age of 4 who is not vaccinated needs a negative test result.\n\nOther restrictions: It's recommended that visitors stay within the Tourism Safe Corridor, and a curfew is in effect from 10 p.m. to 4:59 a.m. daily.\n\nDetails: U.S. Embassy, Belmopan; Belize Tourism Board\n\nEl Salvador travel\n\nVaccination requirements: Visitors who have completed their shots may present their vaccine certificate in lieu of a negative test. However, it is still recommended that you contact your airline to confirm whether you also need a negative test to board your flight.\n\nTesting requirements: Unvaccinated visitors ages 2 and up need a negative PCR test result no older than 72 hours of their scheduled arrival time.\n\nOther restrictions: The U.S. Embassy notes that El Salvador strictly enforces the policies and cannot assist anyone who arrives without testing or vaccine documentation.\n\nDetails: U.S. Embassy, San Salvador\n\nGuatemala travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Vaccinated individuals ages 10 and up may enter Guatemala by air or land but need proof the last shot was administered at least two weeks before arrival.\n\nTesting requirements: Guatemala will also accept proof of a negative test completed within 72 hours prior to check-in at the airport or documentation from a licensed health care provider attesting the visitor recovered from COVID-19 in the 90 days prior to travel.\n\nOther restrictions: All visitors must complete a Health Pass form prior to arrival.\n\nDetails: U.S. Embassy, Guatemala City\n\nSouth America\n\nCountries where Americans can bypass quarantine with a negative COVID test:\n\nEcuador travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Travelers must have a certificate showing they have received their full course of vaccinations.\n\nTesting requirements: Unvaccinated visitors need a negative PCR or antigen test taken no more than three days before entering Ecuador. Children 2 years of age and younger, as well as airline crew, are exempt from this requirement. People who have had COVID-19 but are at least one month past the onset of symptoms may also present a medical certificate attesting to their recovery.\n\nOther restrictions: International visitors transiting en route to the Galapagos Islands must arrive with a negative PCR test taken within the last three days.\n\nDetails: U.S. Embassy, Quito\n\nMiddle East and North Africa\n\nCountries where Americans can bypass quarantine with a negative COVID test:\n\nDjibouti (Visa required)\n\nEgypt\n\nIran (However, no visas are being issued currently.)\n\nIraq (Visa required)\n\nMorocco (Tourists must have reservation at approved hotel or resort.)\n\nUnited Arab Emirates (All visitors to Dubai and Abu Dhabi still need PCR tests to enter the country; Abu Dhabi also requires a second PCR test on days 6 and 12, regardless of vaccination status.)\n\nBahrain travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Inbound airline passengers vaccinated in the U.S. with approved certificates will be provided with a card for use in Bahrain. However, vaccinated visitors are still required to undergo PCR tests on arrival as well as days 5 and 10 of their stays (at a cost of $95).\n\nTesting requirements: Unvaccinated visitors must test on arrival as well as on days 5 and 10. (Children 6 and younger are exempt.)\n\nOther restrictions: Visitors must download the BeAware Bahrain app prior to arrival.\n\nDetails: U.S. Embassy, Manama\n\nIsrael travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Visitors vaccinated outside of Israel must undergo testing at an approved Israeli lab at their own expense to prove their status. They then will be allowed to apply to be exempted from quarantine. They must provide their vaccination certificate and their negative test result along with their exemption application.\n\nTesting requirements: All visitors, regardless of vaccination status, need a negative PCR test taken no more than 72 hours prior to their scheduled departure to Israel.Unvaccinated people will be required to quarantine for at least 10 days. People who have recovered from COVID must provide medical documentation of their recovery.\n\nOther restrictions: Major U.S airlines have suspended flights to Israel amid the current unrest there.\n\nDetails: Israeli Ministry of Health; U.S. Embassy, Jerusalem\n\nLebanon travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Americans who can prove they are fully vaccinated, have an antibody test showing sufficient antibodies or proof of testing positive for COVID more than 15 days prior to arrival can bypass quarantine.\n\nTesting requirements: All arriving travelers who do not qualify for one of the exemptions need a negative PCR test no older than 96 hours. In addition, travelerswill be tested at the airport at their own expense ($50). They will also have to quarantine for 72 hours and download the CovidLebTracker app.\n\nOther restrictions: Tourists must request permission to enter certain establishments.\n\nDetails:U.S. Embassy, Beirut\n\nAfrica\n\nCountries where Americans can bypass quarantine with a negative COVID test:\n\nWestern and Central Asia\n\nCountries that allow Americans to bypass quarantine if they present a negative COVID test and meet other conditions:\n\nGeorgia travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Vaccinated tourists can enter by air if they present a certificate proving they have received the full round of shots.\n\nTesting requirements: Upon arrival, unvaccinated visitors can avoid quarantine by presenting a negative result from a PCR test conducted 72 hours or less before arrival in Georgia. They will also need to undergo a second test at their own expense on day 3 of their stay.\n\nOther restrictions: Before crossing into Georgia, tourists must complete an authorization form detailing their contact information and their travel history for the previous 14 days.\n\nDetails: U.S. Embassy, Tbilisi; Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia\n\nSouth and East Asia\n\nMuch of Asia either still remains off limits to American tourists (including Olympic host nation Japan and Indonesia) or requires them to quarantine (as is the case in Cambodia, China, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Nepal, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam).\n\nDestinations where Americans can bypass quarantine with a negative COVID test:\n\nOceania/South Pacific\n\nMost South Pacific countries remain off limits to American tourists, most notably Australia, which has indicated it may not reopen its borders until 2022. In addition, New Zealand and Fiji have both been reluctant to speculate about a reopening timeline. Other island destinations either require a lengthy quarantine (Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu) or special permission to visit (Samoa), One notable exception: the U.S. territory of Guam.\n\nCountries that admit Americans who can provide a negative COVID test and meet other conditions:\n\nNorthern Mariana Islands (Health declaration form required)\n\nGuam travel\n\nVaccine requirements: Travelers to the U.S. territory who are two weeks past their last dose of an FDA-approved vaccine who can provide a vaccine record card and a secondary form of vaccine verification (such as a letter from the provider) may bypass quarantine.\n\nTesting requirements: Tourists who have recovered from COVID-19 within three months of visiting Guam and are no longer symptomatic may be eligible to bypass quarantine if they can present a positive PCR test between 10 and 90 days old and a negative PCR test collected within 10 days prior to arrival and clearance from their medical provider attesting to their recovery. Visitors who arrive without a vaccine certificate or proof of recovery must spend five days at a quarantine facility but can test out on day 6 with a negative result.\n\nAdditional requirements: Vaccinated individuals must sign a declaration attesting to their COVID status (under penalty of perjury).\n\nDetails: VisitGuam.com; Guam Department of Health and Social Services\n\nContributing: Matthew Brown, Dawn Gilbertson, Maureen Groppe, Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/05/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2021/12/20/covid-19-sports-postponement-updates-nhl-college-games-affected/8968601002/", "title": "COVID-19 sports postponement updates: NHL, college games affected", "text": "No, this is not March 2020.\n\nThe coronavirus pandemic still poses a threat, and will continue to do so, but the medical field and infectious disease experts have learned plenty about the virus and its spread. Tools such as safe vaccines and masking options offer individual protection.\n\nThat means sports leagues will not shut down like they did 20 months ago. But with each passing day, it seems another sport or league is once again being affected by this pandemic, with postponements and infections. For example, 51 NFL players went on the COVID-19 reserve list Monday, including Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce.\n\nHere is the latest in COVID-19 news and disruptions in the sports world:\n\nNFL:Chiefs' Travis Kelce among 51 NFL players placed on COVID-19 list on Monday\n\nNBA:With more than 90 players in COVID protocols, here's what the league plans to do about it\n\nNHL pausing season two days early\n\nDue to the rising number of positive COVID-19 cases throughout the league, the NHL and NHL Players' Association agreed to start their Christmas break early.\n\nThe NHL plans to pause its season on Wednesday, two days before the originally scheduled holiday break from Dec. 24-26, the league confirmed Monday night.\n\nMonday night's game between the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild was played as scheduled, but the other four games on the docket had been postponed. Two games remain on Tuesday's schedule — Washington Capitals at Philadelphia Flyers (7 p.m. ET) and Tampa Bay Lightning at Vegas Golden Knights (10 p.m. ET) — and both are still a go, pending any additional positive tests.\n\nThere were originally 10 games slated for Tuesday, but some games between Canadian and American teams were already postponed because all cross-border games were put on pause.\n\nThe NHL and NHLPA agreed to postpone the five games that had remained on Thursday's schedule during consultations Monday night. Players are set to report back to team facilities on Dec. 26 and resume daily testing. The NHL schedule is set to resume on Dec. 27.\n\nEarlier Monday, the Columbus Blue Jackets were shut down because of a rising number of cases, and a pair of Tuesday games — New Jersey Devils at Pittsburgh Penguins and Arizona Coyotes at Seattle Kraken — were also called off because of COVID issues on the Devils and Kraken.\n\nNHL:League, players will make decision soon on whether to pull out of Olympics\n\nLouisville-Kentucky men's basketball game called off\n\nThe Louisville men’s basketball game Wednesday at Kentucky is postponed, and the Cardinals have paused basketball activities because of “multiple positive COVID-19 tests within the program,” the school announced Monday.\n\nLouisville is coming off an 82-72 loss at Western Kentucky in which it played without starting center Malik Williams, who was absent from the team. Though Louisville did not name Williams, a spokesman said a player was not with the team due to COVID-19 protocols.\n\nOPINION:Penny Hardaway's negligence around COVID, his Memphis basketball players threaten season\n\nWomen's hockey: USA vs. Canada canceled\n\nUSA Hockey announced Monday that an exhibition between the U.S. women's hockey team and Canada has been canceled due to \"concerns around COVID-19.\"\n\nThe series, which Canada currently leads 4-2, was scheduled to pick back up in Canada after the new year.\n\nRafael Nadal tests positive\n\nRafael Nadal said Monday he tested positive for COVID-19 after returning to Spain from an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi last weekend.\n\nThe timing of the positive test potentially complicates Nadal’s plans for the Australian Open, which begins on Jan. 17. Nadal, 35, has played very little competitive tennis since last year’s French Open because of various injuries and was attempting to ramp back up in time for the first Grand Slam event of the season.\n\nTENNIS:Rafael Nadal tests positive for COVID-19, putting Australian Open in doubt\n\nNBA allows for COVID-19 replacement players\n\nAccording to multiple reports, NBA teams can sign one replacement player for each player that tests positive for the virus between now and Jan. 19. Organizations will be required to sign at least one replacement player in the event of two positive players.\n\nLineups across the league were decimated by roster restrictions over the weekend.\n\nFollowing a weekend of NBA stars testing positive for the virus, Golden State Warriors guard Andrew Wiggins – who received the COVID-19 vaccine after expressing much hesitancy – entered the health and safety protocols.\n\nNFL teams face tall task in containing virus\n\nAs USA TODAY Sports columnist Jarrett Bell writes, \"the NFL must brace for COVID-19 to wreak havoc on playoff ramifications before, during and throughout the run to Super Bowl 56 on Feb. 13 in Los Angeles.\"\n\nBrowns quarterback Baker Mayfield didn't clear protocol and will miss Monday night's game against the Raiders. Nick Mullens will get the start.\n\nBut Bears defensive coordinator Sean Desai was cleared and he will be available on Monday against the Vikings.\n\nTwo games will be played on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET: Washington vs. Philadelphia and Seattle vs. Los Angeles Rams.\n\nWashington said six coaches and a coaching intern would not be available for the game against the Eagles.\n\nContributing: Dan Wolken, Brett Dawson", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/12/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2022/03/18/cdc-cruise-guidelines-2022-new-distancing-quarantine-updates/7054836001/", "title": "CDC cruise guidelines 2022: New distancing, quarantine updates", "text": "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday published an update to its guidance for cruise ships participating in the health agency's COVID-19 program.\n\nThe updates are based on the \"latest public health conditions\" so ships can continue operating in a manner that provides a safe and healthy environment for passengers, crew and the communities ships visit, David Daigle, spokesperson for the CDC, told USA TODAY.\n\nCruise Lines International Association, the leading trade organization for the industry, told USA TODAY in a statement shared by spokesperson Laziza Lambert that the changes to the CDC's guidance were \"welcome.\"\n\n\"The updates announced today acknowledge the effectiveness of the cruise lines in their ability to create an environment that provides one of the highest levels of COVID-19 mitigation and reflect the improvements in the public health landscape,\" CLIA said.\n\nDaigle said Friday's main updates, which are effective immediately, include:\n\nUpdating the physical distancing requirements for shore excursions and transportation.\n\nUpdating quarantine guidance for close contacts.\n\nRevising components of port agreements.\n\n'I felt safer on the cruise than Walmart':COVID-19 protocols on cruises prove effective, initial CDC data shows\n\nBoost and cruise:CDC pushes for COVID-19 boosters in new optional program for cruise lines\n\nWhat do the CDC updates mean for cruisers?\n\nAccording to the CDC's \"Operations Manual for CDC’s COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships Operating in U.S. Waters\":\n\nPhysical distancing during shore excursions and transportation will turn into a recommendation for \"Highly Vaccinated\" and \"Vaccination Standard of Excellence\" ships.\n\n\"Highly vaccinated\" ships have at least 95% of passengers and crew fully vaccinated. \"Not highly vaccinated\" ships have less than 95% of passengers and crew fully vaccinated. Ships that fall under the third and newest tier, \"vaccination standard of excellence,\" have at least 95% of passengers and crew \"up to date\" with their COVID-19 vaccines, which would mean full vaccination plus any eligible booster shots.\n\nCruise lines can resume approved \"passenger interactive experiences\" that had to be suspended before because of COVID-19.\n\nThe length of quarantine for close contacts still depends on vaccination status, Daigle said. However, with the new guidance, if a traveler is disembarking from the ship within 36 hours, the cruise ship operator may allow the traveler to stay in their original cabin if they will be alone in the cabin.\n\nThe general components of port agreements have been revised and the CDC has clarified what documentation is needed for medical and housing agreements, according to Daigle.\n\nThe remainder of the guidance for the voluntary program outlined in February remains the same, Daigle confirmed.\n\n\"While cruising will always pose some risk of COVID-19 transmission, this program provides passengers with the resources and tools they need to determine if the cruise they are planning is safe,\" Daigle said, noting the CDC is working closely with ships participating in the program to monitor COVID-19 protocol.\n\nCDC says risk of getting COVID-19 on ships is moderate\n\nBefore adjusting protocols Friday for cruises in its voluntary COVID-19 program, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last Tuesday lowered its assessment of cruising to Level 2 or \"moderate\" risk.\n\nCruise ships had been lowered to Level 3 status in mid-February after being at Level 4 since December.\n\nThe health agency recommends that all cruise ships operating in U.S. waters choose to take part in the program, though it is voluntary. While it's optional, 110 cruise ships have opted in and only one opted out of participation, according to the CDC's Cruise Ship Status Dashboard which provides info on COVID-19 levels present on ships and what kinds of precautions those vessels are taking.\n\nHere's what this means:The CDC's new COVID-19 mitigation program is optional for cruises\n\nContributing: Bailey Schulz, Eve Chen", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2020/07/10/carnival-corp-cruises-operations-capacity-coronavirus-2022/5405777002/", "title": "Carnival cruises will not operate at pre-COVID-19 capacity until 2022", "text": "Cruise giant Carnival plans a phased-in approach for its return to sailing, beginning with fewer ships and fewer passengers, on a region-by-region basis. The company will not make a full return in terms of passenger capacity until 2022 at the earliest, according to CEO Arnold Donald.\n\n\"[The] nature of restart is going to be almost country by country and destination by destination,\" Donald said on an earnings call Friday, four months after the company paused operations because of the coronavirus.\n\nCarnival's restart will mimic international reopenings.\n\nThe resumption of shoreside social gathering practices will be the \"critical thing\" as an indicator for the resumption of cruising. Donald pointed to Germany, where Carnival subsidiary AIDA Cruises will resume sailing three of its ships in August after the country began to reopen in the spring. Italy, he suggested, might be next.\n\nAIDA's three scheduled cruises will not make port calls in Europe when it begins sailing in early August. Nor will it sail to Canada or the USA for the remainder of the year.\n\nBecause most of its client base varies by region, Donald said he believes Carnival is in a good position looking ahead, in spite of travel restrictions. For example, 95% of AIDA's passengers come from Germany – likewise, 92% of Carnival Cruise Line's passengers are from the USA.\n\nThough AIDA is scheduled to sail, the majority of Carnival's brands, including flagship Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises, Costa Cruises, Seabourn and Cunard will remain on pause for the time being, spokesperson Roger Frizzell told USA TODAY on Thursday, reiterating that \"the time frame for restart in the U.S. has not been determined.\"\n\nWhen will Carnival lines return to service in the USA?\n\nNone of Carnival's lines will sail until at least early October because all have extended their North American suspensions through the end of September, Frizzell said Thursday. That's two weeks longer than members of the trade group Cruise Lines International Association agreed to remain idle and nearly two months beyond the expiration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's \"no-sail order,\" which is scheduled for July 24.\n\nFrizzell said the extended suspension has given Carnival extra time to finalize plans for health protocols and ship-capacity levels when it resumes operations.When its lines resume cruising, they are likely to take a phased approach, returning to sailing over time rather than all at once.\n\n'We are going to be patient':Carnival plans phased return to cruising amid coronavirus pandemic\n\nHow Carnival addresses COVID-19 and onboard health\n\nCarnival hasn't released a full plan for how its ships will combat coronavirus, but Donald noted some changes during Friday's call.\n\nAs they restart operations, ships will not be full. Carnival will follow the social distancing guidelines that the country of operation has determined appropriate.\n\n\"[We'll] probably start at less than 50% occupancy as we work out details,\" Donald said.\n\nThe company hopes to ramp capacity up quickly, if it is safe to do so.\n\nOn July 28, Carnival will host a joint summit with the World Travel and Tourism Council, where Donald represents North America.\n\nDuring the event, open to the public for viewing online, Carnival said, medical, epidemiology and public health experts will \"explore and share the latest best practice on the science of COVID-19 and how best to address the many practical questions people have about the disease.\"\n\n2021 bookings are in demand\n\nIn spite of the industry's operational pause, which will have spanned at least six months in North America by the time CLIA's suspension expires Sept. 15, cruisers are still booking.\n\nThough spending less on advertising, Carnival continues to see demand. In the first three weeks of June, nearly 60% of its 2021 bookings were new; the remaining bookings were the result of customers applying cruise credits in lieu of a canceled cruise.\n\nThe company hasn't seen many changes in the profile of cruisers booking itineraries, but there has been one discrepancy: Longer cruises, particularly those with a duration of longer than 21 days, are not being booked as much as shorter cruises, Donald said.\n\nCarnival brands have attempted to provide cruisers with more \"confidence\" with the announcements of varying incentives and flexibility measures, including reduced or refundable deposits.\n\nDelays, itinerary changes are causing cancellations\n\nThe company is negotiating the delay of delivery of 16 ships on order – 14 ships and two expedition ships – across its brands, Donald said.\n\nMany Carnival cruise lines announced schedule changes and ship repositionings before Friday's call, causing a domino effect that resulted in the cancellation of at least 30 cruises.\n\nBecause of the delay of Carnival Cruise Line's newest ship, the Mardi Gras, and the delay of renovations on the Radiance, Carnival Cruise Line was forced to shift sailings, moving some itineraries to the Carnival Breeze and the Carnival Magic. Princess Cruises altered its plans for Alaska and Europe next summer.\n\n13 ships to leave the fleet\n\nIn June, Carnival announced that six ships would leave its fleet within 90 days. Friday, Carnival said additional ships would be removed from the fleet, reducing it by nearly 9%.\n\nThe 13 ships will meet different fates. One was sold in June, four are agreed upon for sale, five will be disposed of and there are \"preliminary\" agreements for three ships, according to Friday's earnings report.\n\nCompany remains under investigation for its handling of the virus\n\nIn early May, Carnival was put under investigation by the U.S. Congress over its handling of outbreaks of COVID-19 on its ships.\n\nThe House of Representatives required the company, which owns at least nine ships that experienced outbreaks, including the Diamond Princess and the Grand Princess – to turn over all internal documents pertaining to COVID-19 from Jan. 1 onward.\n\nThursday, Frizzell told USA TODAY that Carnival is \"providing any information requested.\"\n\n'Feels very unfair':Families say cruise lines use a 'technicality' to refuse refunds", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2022/05/12/countries-covid-restrictions-israel-myanmar-laos/9744386002/", "title": "Israel, Myanmar, Laos: Countries relaxing COVID-19 travel restrictions", "text": "Countries across the globe are continuing to relax international travel restrictions related to COVID-19 with the European Union dropping its mask mandate for air travelers starting next week.\n\nAnd COVID-19 travel warnings are being dropped, too. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month removed all the remaining countries on its \"Do Not Travel\" list.\n\n\"More and more people are once again traveling to destinations around the world and enjoying all that comes with travel,\" the agency said Thursday in a statement shared by spokesperson Tom Skinner.\n\nWhile many warnings and restrictions around the world have been relaxed, the CDC said that traveling can still increase the risk of exposure to the virus.\n\n\"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and CDC are working with the White House and other federal partners to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the American public while returning to more normal routines safely,\" the CDC continued. \"Travel requirements are made using the best available science.\"\n\nMask rules:Where are masks still required now that the mask mandate has been lifted?\n\nCanada:Is easing entry requirements for some international travelers\n\nNew Zealand opening up to all tourists by July\n\nNew Zealand will reopen its borders to tourists from all countries by July, allow back cruise ships and make it easier for skilled workers to immigrate as it looks outward to the world again following the COVID-19 pandemic, the government said Wednesday.\n\nNew Zealand has been slowly reopening, first to Australians last month and then to tourists from the U.S., Britain and more than 50 other countries earlier this month. Wednesday's announcement will allow tourists from China, India and other countries to come starting July 31.\n\nThe government said it also planned to end the need for people to get predeparture COVID-19 tests by the end of July.\n\nPost-pandemic travel:Is it OK to ask another passenger's vaccine status or request they mask up?\n\nThe European Union:Is dropping its mask mandate for airplanes, airports starting next week\n\nIsrael to drop arrival testing requirement for US visitors\n\nStarting May 20, all U.S. travelers arriving to Israel by plane will no longer have to take a PCR test upon arrival and will not have to quarantine. That said, testing before flying to Israel will remain a requirement.\n\nLaos reopens to international visitors after more than 2 years\n\nThe landlocked Southeast Asian nation of Laos reopened to tourists and other visitors Monday, more than two years after it imposed tight restrictions to fight the coronavirus.\n\nThipphakone Chanthavongsa, head of the government’s agency for controlling COVID-19, announced on Saturday the reopening date, the last in a three-phase plan, state news agency KPL reported. She said vaccination certificates or virus tests will still be required for Lao citizens and foreigners entering the country.\n\nTravelers 12 years of age or older without vaccination certificates must be able to show negative ATK tests taken within 48 hours of departure for Laos.\n\nAs part of the easing of restrictions, entertainment venues including karaoke parlors will be able to reopen, but must comply with COVID-19 control regulations. All border crossings were reopened.\n\nMyanmar issuing tourist visas\n\nMyanmar announced Thursday it will resume issuing visas for visitors in an effort to help its moribund tourism industry, devastated by the coronavirus pandemic and violent political unrest.\n\nStarting on Sunday, tourist “eVisas” will be provided online in a move also intended to harmonize tourism with neighboring countries, according to a government notice in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.\n\nVisitors need a certificate of vaccination, negative results from a COVID-19 RT-PCR test taken shortly before their flight and a travel insurance policy. They must also take an ATK rapid test after arrival.\n\nMyanmar on April 1 had already resumed issuing business visas, and on April 17 dropped a ban on international commercial flights. It had stopped issuing visas and suspended flight arrivals in March 2020.\n\nCzech Republic eases all travel restrictions, too\n\nLast month, the Czech Republic's Ministry of Health eased travel protocols for international visitors and Czech citizens.\n\n\"There are no longer any coronavirus restrictions for entry into the Czech Republic,\" CzechTourism said on its website April 14.\n\nJamaica relaxed some restrictions in April\n\nJamaica rolled back its COVID-19 entry restrictions in April with hoping that easier entry would attract more tourists.\n\nThe Jamaica Tourist Board announced last month that the Caribbean island would drop its indoor mask mandate and its pre-departure PCR COVID-19 testing requirement starting.\n\nDreaming of a Caribbean getaway? Here are the COVID entry restrictions for popular islands\n\nAs you consider travel, consider any restrictions and recommendations\n\nWhile you plan travel, even as restrictions easel the CDC recommends all travelers stay up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines and \"follow all domestic and international travel requirements and recommendations.\"\n\nAnd, each week, the health agency updates its Travel Health Notices to alert travelers.\n\nIn addition, CDC’s COVID-19 Travel Health Notices are updated each week to alert travelers of the COVID-19 situation in international destinations and advise them on how to protect themselves before, during, and after travel.\n\nContributing: Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY, and The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2020/03/12/csu-mountain-west-chsaa-suspend-spring-sports-amid-coronavirus-concerns/5034019002/", "title": "NCAA cancels championships, CSU and CHSAA suspend spring ...", "text": "Colorado State, the Mountain West and the Colorado High School Activities Association announced the suspension of all in-season spring sports Thursday and the NCAA canceled all remaining winter and spring championships amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nThe NCAA not only called off its popular men's and women's basketball tournaments, which were scheduled to begin next week, but also postseason competition in hockey and gymnastics and in all spring sports. The Mountain West, in response, canceled all spring sports for the entire season.\n\n\"These changes are based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat and the ability to ensure the events do not contribute to the spread of the pandemic,\" the conference, of which CSU is a member, said in an evening news release. \"The health and well-being of student-athletes, as well as the campus and general communities, is of utmost priority.\"\n\nThe conference, with the approval of the presidents of each of its member institutions, also \"established a moratorium on all on-campus and off-campus in-person recruiting activities for the foreseeable future.\"\n\nThe NCAA gave a similar explanation for its decision, adding that it would be impractical to host any championship events for the remainder of the academic year, \"given ongoing decisions by other entities.\"\n\nThe American Hockey League, of which the Colorado Eagles are a member, also announced the suspension of its season Thursday.\n\nCSU had two athletes — thrower Taryn Sieg and distance runner Eric Hammer — competing in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Those were originally closed to fans, including family members of the athletes, and then canceled completely along with all other NCAA championship events.\n\nHigh schools across the state were just beginning their spring sports seasons but will not be allowed to practice or compete until at least April 6, CHSAA announced, when the ban will be re-evaluated. CHSAA is the governing body for all high school sports in Colorado. CHSAA said decisions on whether or not to play games as scheduled Thursday would be left up to the participating schools and their school districts.\n\nThere were high school state basketball tournament games played on Thursday, including Resurrection Christian's 3A quarterfinal win over Lutheran.\n\nBut shortly after that game ended, CHSAA announced that all remaining state tournament games have also been cancelled due to coronavirus concerns.\n\nMoving forward, CHSAA's news release said, \"the situation will be monitored and evaluated with key decision-makers from around the state to determine when, or if, to resume a spring season.\"\n\nMore:Fans banned from Colorado basketball tournaments over coronavirus concerns\n\nCoronavirus in Colorado: Tracking the confirmed cases, latest news and updates\n\nMore:Map: Where in Colorado has coronavirus been detected?\n\nThe CSU and MW bans do not apply to practices, with the conference announcing it would leave those decisions up to each member school. CSU was scheduled to hold its final spring football practice before spring break on Thursday, and an athletic department spokesman said it would still be held as scheduled, though there was no media availability.\n\nCSU had previously planned on taking next week off from spring football while students are on spring break and was planning to resume practices March 24.\n\nCSU extended spring break through March 24 on Wednesday and announced that classes will resume online from March 25 through at least April 10. Buildings on campus are scheduled to remain open during spring break and beyond, officials said, with access to some limited to students, faculty and staff.\n\nCSU’s spring football game had been tentatively scheduled for April 9.\n\nThe American Hockey League suspended \"play until further notice, effective immediately, due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic,\" the league announced. \"The AHL will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the 2019-20 season at the appropriate time.\"\n\nThe Colorado Eagles, the Loveland-based minor-league affiliate of the NHL's Colorado Avalanche, are in second place in the AHL's Pacific Division — three points behind the Tucson Roadrunners — with a 34-18-3-1 record. The Eagles defeated the Texas Stars 3-1 on Wednesday night in a home game at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland and were scheduled to play road games Saturday and Sunday in Stockton, California, and Tuesday in San Jose, California.\n\n\"The Colorado Eagles place the health and well-being of our fans, players, partners and staff as paramount to our operation,\" the team said in a news release. \"In light of the American Hockey League suspending all future games as they continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation, the Colorado Eagles fully support the AHL and its decision. In addition to the postponement of future games, the Colorado Eagles will also be postponing all upcoming community events until further notice.\n\n\"The Eagles will continue to work hand-in-hand with the AHL and will continue to communicate updates regarding ticketing, promotional events and community appearances to Eagles Country. Thank you for your understanding and patience as we navigate these extraordinary circumstances.\"\n\nThe AHL is the top level of minor-league hockey in the United States and was following the lead of just about every other major sports organization in the country.\n\nThe NBA suspended its season Wednesday night after learning one of its players had tested positive for the COVID-19 strain of the coronavirus. The NHL and Major League Soccer announced the suspension of their seasons Thursday, and MLB announced a suspension of spring training games and a delay to its Opening Day.\n\nThe decisions by the NCAA, CSU and the MW came on a day that saw every major conference in the country cancel its postseason basketball tournaments, some already in progress, and several schools and conferences — including the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Pacific-12, Western Athletic and Conference USA — also announce the suspension of all spring sports. The Big Ten and ACC pulled their athletes out of competition at the NCAA's Indoor Track and Field Championships.\n\nCoronavirus cancellations: Fort Collins, Loveland events canceled, postponed amid outbreak\n\nMany schools and some conferences have also announced suspensions of spring football, cancellations of spring football games and a suspension of all recruiting activities by their football staffs. The MW said it was leaving decisions on recruiting activity up to individual schools.\n\nEditor's note: As the coronavirus outbreak continues to evolve, we don’t want you to panic. In fact, quite the opposite. That’s why the Coloradoan is committed to providing you with accurate, up-to-date information so you can make informed decisions on issues affecting you and the people you love. As such, this story, and many others, are being provided free for all to read. Help us continue this important work by subscribing to the Coloradoan.\n\nKelly Lyell covers CSU and other local sports and sports-related news for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, follow him on Twitter @KellyLyell and find him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. Help support Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a subscription today.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2020/03/18/coronavirus-closures-tourist-attractions-around-the-world/2862937001/", "title": "Coronavirus: Six Flags, Eiffel Tower, Grand Canyon close", "text": "USA TODAY staff\n\nMajor tourist hot spots across the world, including the San Diego Zoo, the Eiffel Tower, Pearl Harbor and the Grand Canyon, are taking precautionary measures by closing to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.\n\nThe Grand Canyon National Park announced in a press release on Wednesday that it would close to the public after receiving a request to do so from Coconino County, Arizona, health officials.\n\nThe park would close immediately until further notice, the press release said. The closure follows an announcement earlier this week that a Delaware North employee is the Grand Canyon South Rim's first identified case of the new coronavirus.\n\nSince mid-March, facilities inside the park have gradually closed, including restaurants, lodging and trails, and the National Park Service suspended entrance fees.\n\nLegoland New York Resort\n\nIn a statement posted to its website, Legoland announced it will be delaying the opening of its New York Resort until 2021 due to the pandemic.\n\n\"This move is consistent with the closure of venues and postponement of events worldwide. In this unprecedented and challenging time, nothing is more important to us than the health, safety and security of our guests,\" the statement read.\n\nThose who have already purchased an annual pass or single-day tickets will be able to use those tickets for the new opening date.\n\nSan Diego Zoo\n\nThe San Diego Zoo announced Monday that the zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park will remain closed until further notice. The popular California destination initially closed on March 13 and had planned to reopen April 1.\n\nAccording to a statement, the zoo will \"continue to have essential and dedicated staff on grounds at both parks, ensuring that the remarkable wildlife in our care continue to thrive. The urgent nature of our work to save species is unchanged, even in the face of this pandemic.\"\n\nSix Flags\n\nOn March 30, Six Flags President and CEO Mike Spanos announced all of its theme parks across the country will suspended operations through mid-May amid the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"The top priority at Six Flags is the safety and well-being of our guests and team members,\" Spanos wrote on the company's website. \"We continue to monitor and follow the guidance of federal, state, and local officials regarding COVID-19.\"\n\nNavajo Nation tourist sites, casinos closed\n\nThe Navajo Nation declared a state of emergency over the new coronavirus on March 11, and all tourism locations, tribal parks and casinos on the reservation were closed.\n\nAt least three tribal members have tested positive for the virus. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said travel agencies that organize visits to the Navajo Nation have been notified and he hopes they will abide by the request. His emergency order urged Navajo people to stay home for 15 days. \"We're trying to lessen that curve and get ourselves through this pandemic,\" he said. \"We ask for our visitors to respect the sovereignty of the Navajo Nation.\"\n\nPearl Harbor memorial closed\n\nThe National Park Service said the Pearl Harbor National Memorial has closed temporarily. The site includes the USS Arizona Memorial, which honors the 1,177 Marines and sailors killed when their battleship sank during the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. The memorial normally receives about 1.8 million visitors each year.\n\nLouvre, Eiffel Tower, Guggenheim Bilbao\n\nIn case you're in Paris, be warned: The Louvre is closed until further notice. Elsewhere in the French capital, the Eiffel Tower is closed to the public.\n\nIn Spain, the Guggenheim Bilbao on March 14 said it will be closed until further notice.\n\nLas Vegas' Neon Museum\n\nThe Neon Museum in Las Vegas has closed its doors to the public. The museum's president and CEO Rob McCoy announced the temporary closure following a March 17 order by Nevada governor Steve Sisolak to close nonessential businesses in the state for 30 days.\n\nAll events and programs scheduled at the museum have also been cancelled.\n\nEmployees at the museum will continue to receive full pay and benefits during the closure, and customers can call 702-387-6366 ext. 1 or email customerservice@neonmuseum.org to receive refunds for purchased tickets.\n\nThe Neon Museum's mission is to collect, preserve and exhibit classic neon light displays. At the museum, signs for defunct casinos like the Stardust and Riviera share space in the \"Boneyard\" with rejected signs from Binion's and the Golden Nugget that have been replaced with more modern examples.\n\nLas Vegas show cancellations: Cirque du Soleil, Blue Man Group\n\nAnd major Las Vegas shows are suspending performances, too.\n\nAll Las Vegas hotels and casinos are affected by mandatory Nevada state closures, as well as ticketed shows.\n\nCaesars Entertainment previously announced that \"all ticketed live entertainment\" events held in its venues would temporarily suspend performances . Major shows at Caesars properties in Las Vegas include Rod Stewart performances and Reba McEntire, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn's residency at Caesars Palace, plus Kelly Clarkson and Shania Twain residencies at Planet Hollywood.\n\n“Refunds and exchanges for affected dates are available at the point of purchase,\" an announcement on the website read. \"We are taking these bold measures now and look forward to welcoming guests back to enjoy world-class entertainment experiences as soon as we are able. We thank you for your understanding and patience as we work through these challenging circumstances.”\n\nOn March 14, Cirque du Soleil announced it would shut down all its shows on the Las Vegas Strip and throughout the world because of the outbreak.\n\nLas Vegas show closures include \"Ö\" at the Bellagio, \"KA\" at MGM Grand, \"The Beatles LOVE\" at the Mirage, \"Mystere\" at Treasure Island, \"Zumanity\" at New York-New York, \"Michael Jackson ONE\" at Mandalay Bay and Blue Man Group at Luxor.\n\n\"From the very beginning of the new coronavirus outbreak, (Cirque du Soleil) took rigorous measures to protect its work teams and the public,\" the statement said. \"Our priority has always been, and remains, the health and safety of our artists, our partners, our employees and our audiences. We will continue to monitor and assess the situation to determine when shows will resume.\"\n\nTickets for canceled performances will automatically be refunded within 30 days.\n\nAdditionally, Cirque shows in Austin, Chicago, Houston, New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Boston, Denver and Costa Mesa, Calif., as well as Montreal, Tel Aviv, Munich, Spain (Meloneras) and Australia (Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth), also are cancelled.\n\nAlso March 14, Penn & Teller called off their long-running comedy/magic show at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.\n\nPenn Jillette tweeted: \"Out of concern and love for our audiences, & well, concern and love for everyone – we will be canceling our shows starting tonight for the next few weeks.\"\n\nStatue of Liberty, Ellis Island closed\n\nThe Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island are both closed. Customers can go here for refund information, or call 877-523-9849.\n\nChicago shutters 'The Bean' and Navy Pier\n\nCloud Gate Plaza, a section of Millennium Park featuring Chicago's famous Cloud Gate sculpture nicknamed \"The Bean,\" has closed. The rest of the park remains open, though events and programs in the park are canceled through April 12.\n\nNavy Pier also is closed, according to its official website. The pier shut its doors to the public at least through April 2.\n\nBroadway closes until at least April\n\nNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a ban on gatherings of more than 500 people in a news conference March 12, shuttering Broadway. Cuomo said the shutdown, which The Broadway League said will last until at least until April 12, could remain in place for far longer than one month.\n\nThe Tony Awards, scheduled for June 7, also have been postponed to a later date. It is unclear how eligibility rules for the awards will change as a result.\n\nBroadway national tours across the country also have canceled performances.\n\nWashington closures\n\nThe White House and the U.S. Capitol are closed to tours until April 1, the House and Senate Sergeant at Arms announced March 12. The Capitol Visitor Center is closed to tours “out of concern for the health and safety of congressional employees and the public” amid broader fears about the spread of the coronavirus. During this time, only staff, credentialed press and those with official business will be allowed entry.\n\nOn March 13, the National Gallery of Art announced it was closing due to coronavirus concerns.\n\nThe Smithsonian said in a release that all its museums and the National Zoo will close temporarily starting March 14 \"as a public health precaution due to COVID-19.\" No date has been set for reopening and updates will be provided on a week-to-week basis, the Smithsonian announced.\n\nThe John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington announced March 17 that it has canceled all public performances and events scheduled through May 10.\n\nTickets for events can be exchanged or fully refunded, according to a release from the Kennedy Center.\n\nBoston's John F. Kennedy Library announced March 12 in a release that it was closing immediately \"after learning that two employees attended a conference at the Row Hotel in Somerville, MA last week where other attendees were confirmed to have come down with the coronavirus.\" The library said both employees are in self-quarantine, and encouraged people who visited the library between March 5 and March 11 to \"monitor your health for symptoms of coronavirus, including fever, cough, and shortness of breath.\"\n\nNew York City closes the Met, Carnegie Hall, Broadway\n\nOn March 13, the New York Public Library announced it would close through the end of the month due to health concerns.\n\nThe Madison Square Garden Company announced on its website that it \"supports Governor Cuomo’s decision regarding New York venues.\"\n\n\"We encourage you to check back to this site, which will be your source for further details about our future events, which we will update regularly as more information becomes available,\" the statement added.\n\nThe Metropolitan Museum of Art also announced March 12 it would temporarily close its doors at its three locations: the Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer and The Met Cloisters .\n\nAs for the annual Met Gala held at the museum, Anna Wintour wrote in an article posted to Vogue on March 16 that this year's event has been pushed back.\n\nCarnegie Hall also said March 12 all upcoming events and programming through March 31 are canceled.\n\nThose who purchased tickets by credit card from Carnegie Hall for a performance that has been canceled will receive automatic refunds, and those who purchased with cash can also receive a refund through June 30.\n\nThe Frick Collection also announced March 12 it will close its galleries and libraries and cancel all planned events. Visitors requesting a refund for these events are encouraged to contact the institution directly.\n\n'We’ll get you out':Travelers race to get home, prices soar after Europe coronavirus travel ban\n\nWalking tours impacted by coronavirus\n\nThough travel is diminishing as coronavirus concerns increase, some tours are still available for those interested.\n\nFree Tours by Foot, a walking tour company which operates in DC, Seattle, Chicago, New York City and a dozen other North American cities, said it is still hosting tours on a smaller scale.\n\n\"The vast majority of our tours take place outside in small groups already. Our focus is on continuing to offer these and to arrange private tours to individual families and small groups travelling together who do not need to travel far to reach us. Like many in the service industry, we have worked with guides to take measures to help ensure the health of our guides and guests - we have a vast knowledge of where the bathrooms are to wash hands and we encourage online payment rather than cash.\"\n\nQ&A:What you need to know about Trump's travel ban from Europe due to coronavirus\n\nContributing: USA TODAY Network; Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/03/16/shasta-county-coronavirus-updates-forest-service-california/5057882002/", "title": "Coronavirus updates: Whiskeytown closes visitor center, park areas", "text": "This content is being provided for free as a public service to our readers during the coronavirus outbreak. Please support local journalism by subscribing to the Record Searchlight/Redding.com here.\n\nWhiskeytown closes visitor center, park areas\n\nWhiskeytown National Recreation Area announced Tuesday it will close some areas of the park and suspend services in the wake of COVID-19 concerns, and to comply with government-issued safety guidelines.\n\nClosures include the park's visitor center at the intersection of California State Highway 299 and Kennedy Memorial Drive.\n\nSome outdoor areas of the park, including trails and beaches, that allow park staff and visitors to adhere to good health practices — like those that allow people to keep a social distance — will remain open. For a complete list of open areas, go to www.nps.gov/whis.\n\nRead updates about park operations at www.nps.gov/coronavirus.\n\nShasta Regional Community Foundation sets up COVID-19 fund\n\nThe Shasta Regional Community Foundation has set up a relief fund for people impacted by widespread closures and other fallout from the novel coronavirus.\n\nThe COVID-19 Relief Fund \"will address the needs of our region’s most vulnerable residents who will be impacted by the Coronavirus,\" the fund's Chief Executive Officer Kerry Caranci said in a press release.\n\n“We’re concerned about community health, and the potential for people to face economic hardship and food insecurity in the coming months,\" a statement from Caranci reads. \"By being proactive during times of uncertainty, this fund will allow us to help one another through this challenge.\"\n\nWhen funds are collected, the organization will \"deploy resources to best meet evolving needs,\" including through grants to nonprofits, the press release reads.\n\nTo donate, go to https://www.shastarcf.org/funds/covid-19, or you can mail a check to Shasta Regional Community Foundation, 1335 Arboretum Drive, Suite B, Redding, CA 96003 with “COVID-19 Relief Fund” in the memo. You can also call 530-24-1219 Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.\n\nThis year's Kool April Nites canceled\n\nKool April Nites has been canceled this year by its board of directors owing to concerns over COVID-19.\n\n“We understand the disappointment and frustration of the public, but the health, wellness and safety of Redding’s citizens and our participants is our first priority,” the organizers said in a press release.\n\nThe group says the plan is to resume Kool April Nites next year, from April 17-25, 2021.\n\n“This decision was not made lightly as we understand the impact that this will have on our city, however we believe in this community and its ability to move through hardship and come out stronger,” the group said.\n\nThe statement by the group’s board of directors said they canceled the hugely popular auto event based on recommendations from President Trump, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Centers for Disease Control to abandon all non-essential social gatherings.\n\nBoard member Jennifer Fontana said the group is asking for patience before answering more questions because they need to spread the word about this year’s Kool April Nites being called off.\n\n“Our board of directors is comprised of volunteers with limited time and resources, therefore during this time we ask that you please be courteous and patient by limiting communications with our office while we work to inform all of our registrants, sponsors and volunteers,” the press release says.\n\n“At the present time we’re still just trying to figure out how to move forward,” Fontana said minutes after the cancellation was announced Tuesday.\n\nWin-River Resort & Casino closed for two weeks due to COVID-19 concerns\n\nThe Win-River Resort & Casino has closed its casino, hotel, restaurant and meeting facilities for the next two weeks, due to coronavirus concerns.\n\nThe tribal council of the Redding Rancheria, Win-River’s owner, will be meeting regularly to assess the situation and decide when to resume operations at the resort.\n\nThe resort closed its entire operation starting at noon on Tuesday, said Redding Rancheria Chairman Jack Potter.\n\nDuring the two-week shutdown, workers will be “deep cleaning and sanitizing” the facility. “We’ve already implemented that, but it will be easier not having people there,” Potter said.\n\nNo coronavirus cases had been reported at the resort.\n\nTribal members needing to conduct business can come to the Redding Rancheria’s offices for the rest of this week, but will have to conduct transactions by telephone starting on Monday.\n\nNon-Redding Rancheria members will have to conduct business with the tribal office by telephone starting on Wednesday, March 18.\n\nCustomers’ hotel reservations will be honored later in the year and musical performances are being rescheduled, Potter said.\n\nOther casinos in the North State have also closed or curtailed their operations.\n\nCinemark will close all its theaters\n\nCinemark announced that it will close its theaters, including the two in Redding, starting ednesday.\n\nThe theaters will not reopen until “we believe it is safe to once again welcome moviegoers to our auditoriums,” the company said on its website.\n\nThere are two Cinemark theaters in Redding: Movies 14 on Old Alturas Road and Movies 8 on Park Marina Circle.\n\nThe company is extending the expiration date for its Movie Rewards points to June 30, 2020, and pausing Movie Club memberships while theatres are closed. Cinemark also will not bill monthly fees, the company said.\n\nRedding police announce changes in service; emergency calls still top priority\n\nThe Redding Police Department said Tuesday morning it's making some immediate, temporary changes because of the coronavirus.\n\nFirst, Chief of Police Bill Schueller assures residents the 911 system remains in service for emergencies.\n\n\"Our response to emergency calls will not change and will remain our top priority,\" the department said.\n\nHowever, all non-emergency calls for service — where a suspect is not present — will be handled by phone or through the department's online reporting system.\n\n\"Only after initial phone contact will an officer respond and only when absolutely necessary to do so,\" the department said in a news release.\n\nThe police department's lobby at City Hall will still be open but fingerprinting services are being suspended,\n\nAlso being canceled are police ride-a-longs and building tours.\n\n\"Citizen participation in force options training is also suspended until further notice.\"\n\nAll training and meetings with more than 10 people are being canceled unless they're needed to protect public safety\n\nThe measures are being taken to lessen the risk of coronavirus exposure and spread of the virus for the public safety staff and the public.\n\n\"We appreciate your patience during this rapidly evolving situation,\" the department said.\n\nFor more, the RPD says residents can go to its website, reddingpolice.org, and its social media channels @reddingpolice for up-to-date information.\n\nLibraries in Redding, Anderson, Burney likely to close soon\n\nThe Redding Library likely will close soon due to concerns over coronavirus, and if it does, the public libraries in Burney and Anderson will close their doors too, Kim Niemer, the city's director of community services, said Tuesday morning.\n\n\"We don't have a date certain on that,\" Niemer said, but the library's status could be decided at the Redding City Council's special meeting called for 6:05 p.m. Tuesday.\n\nCouncil members will consider an emergency declaration \"to coordinate planning, preparedness and response efforts regarding COVD-19.\"\n\nThe declaration \"will help the community respond to the current threat and provide potential receipt of emergency aid from state, and possibly federal, authorities,\" according to the agendal.\n\nSo far, there is just one confirmed case of coronavirus in Shasta County, reported on March 8, said Kerri Schuette, spokeswoman for Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency. The man, in his 50s, is at home and is expected to make a full recovery, she said.\n\nAnother five Shasta County residents are in self-quarantine at their homes, Schuette said. Those people are not showing symptoms but are in quarantine because they were \"potentially exposed to someone with the virus,\" she said.\n\nMt. Shasta Mall changes hours, postpones arrival of Easter Bunny\n\nThe Mt. Shasta Mall is changing its hours and postponing Easter Bunny visits, the Redding shopping center has announced.\n\nEffective Monday, the mall’s new hours are noon to 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.\n\n“We remain committed to supporting the operations of our retailers. We recognize that, in light of concerns surrounding the coronavirus, retailers and merchants may implement their own corporate policies regarding modified hours or temporary store closure,” mall management posted on the website.\n\nMeanwhile, the mall is postponing the arrival of the Easter Bunny.\n\n“Should the situation change, it may open closer to Easter,” the mall said. Easter is April 12.\n\nNewsom asks restaurants, health clubs, movie theaters to close 'for the moment'\n\nCalifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom has recommended health clubs and movie theaters close, and restaurants provide take-out orders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.\n\n\"We are directing those gyms and the health clubs close down for the moment, as well as those movie theaters,\" Newsom said Monday night.\n\nWhat's more, Newsom is recommending restaurants across the state stop serving patrons inside their establishments.\n\nMore:Coronavirus schools: Local districts shut down K-12 schools\n\nWe \"are asking our restaurants to close down for the moment, provide take out if they wish and operate in that frame,\" Newsom said. \"That will focus alignment throughout the state of California (that) at this point we believe is necessary.\"\n\nMore:Here's how Shasta College is transitioning to online courses during COVID-19 outbreak\n\nThe governor's Monday night advisory for restaurants comes a day after he called for the closure of bars and wineries in the state.\n\nMarch 16\n\nDollar General asks customers to reserve first open hour for senior shoppers\n\nStarting Tuesday, Dollar General is asking customers to devote its stores' first hour of operation in the morning for seniors, one of the groups most vulnerable to the coronavirus.\n\nStaff at Dollar General Corporation, headquartered in Tennessee, announced Monday the company \"wants to provide these at-risk customers with the ability to purchase the items they need and want at the beginning of each day to avoid busier and more crowded shopping periods.\"\n\nStores will close one hour earlier than usual each day to allow employees to clean and restock store shelves. Opening times will stay the same.\n\nCheck your Dollar General store's normal operating hours at https://bit.ly/2wcfqvd.\n\nOne SAFE Place suspends some services\n\nOne SAFE Place will suspend gatherings that are not mandatory at its Sierra Center. It also announced it won't accept physical donations at this time.\n\n\"We understand the (coronavirus) may be creating extra anxiety for people who are experiencing abuse,\" One SAFE Place said on its website. \"We are committed to continuing to serve everyone who needs us, (and) we are also committed to protecting the health of our clients and team, and doing our part to prevent the spread of the (virus).\"\n\nAdvocates will be on site from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, but staff ask those seeking help to call the hotline at 530-244-0117 if possible, especially if they feel sick or suspect they have been exposed.\n\nJury trials could be suspended in Shasta County; casino cuts back on gaming stations\n\nShasta County Superior Court officials are asking the chief justice of the California Supreme Court to allow the lower court to suspend new jury trials over the next month.\n\nGov. Gavin Newsom's strict guidance on public activities, announced Sunday afternoon, as well as the California Department of Public Health's recommendations, guided the court's decision to suspend trials from now through April 13, Shasta Court Executive Officer Melissa Fowler-Bradley said.\n\nThree criminal trials in progress will resume on Tuesday, Fowler-Bradley said. No new jury panels will be ordered to report to the courthouse until April 14.\n\nRolling Hills Casino cuts back on gaming stations\n\nRolling Hills Casino and Resort in Corning has reduced the number of operating gaming stations and taken other measures to ward off the spread of the novel coronavirus.\n\nIn the wake of the widespread outbreak, attendance at Rolling Hills is “definitely off a reasonable amount, for sure,” said General Manager Steve Neely.\n\nHe said the establishment has “shut off every other machine on our floor,” creating more space between patrons and taking the number gaming stations from 850 to 425.\n\nCasino staff members are also cleaning gaming tables, slot machines, ATMs and other frequently-touched surfaces every two hours, according to the casino’s website.\n\nBuffet diners are also now being required to sanitize their hands before going through the line, where restaurant staffers will dish up diners’ food. Before, patrons could pick up the tongs and serve themselves.\n\n“We’re just trying to stay in front of it the best we can,” said Neely.\n\nSome tribally-owned casinos in California have temporarily closed since the virus emerged.\n\nOn Sunday, Cache Creek Casino Resort near Sacramento announced that it will voluntarily close for an unknown amount of time due to coronavirus concerns, but that its employees would still be paid and receive benefits.\n\nCalifornia officials have requested the cancellation of any gathering of 250 or more people in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nOn Monday, President Trump urged people not to gather in groups of more than 10 for the next two weeks to help stop the coronavirus from spreading.\n\nUnited Way of Northern California starts relief fund\n\nUnited Way of Northern California has established the Coronavirus Relief Fund to help North State residents affected by the crisis.\n\nThe fund will provide grants to agencies assisting affected individuals, especially senior citizens; support expanded operations of 2-1-1 NorCal, which has been activated as a public information resource; support coordination of nonprofit response through Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster and similar groups; and allow the United Way to strengthen its staffing and infrastructure to assist.\n\nTo donate:\n\nGo to www.norcalunitedway.org and click the “donate” button\n\nText CORONANORCAL to 91999\n\nOr mail a check to the United Way of Northern California, c/o Coronavirus Relief Fund, 2280 Benton Drive, Building B, Redding, CA 96003.\n\nForest Service says call first before visiting its offices\n\nU.S. Forest Service officials are asking people to call first before they visit their offices in California and Hawaii, officials announced Sunday night.\n\n“We are asking all visitors to self-assess using the following USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture provided questions,” a news release sent out by Lassen National Forest spokesman Mark Gaston said.\n\nQuestions include:\n\nHave you or someone you’ve been in close contact with been diagnosed with the coronavirus.\n\nIn the last two weeks have you or someone you’ve been in close contact with traveled to places like China, Korea, Japan or Europe.\n\nDo you have or have you had any cold or flu symptoms, including a fever greater than 100.4.\n\nIf the answer to these questions are “no” visitors are asked to call the office they plan to visit first for assistance in entering. If you answer “yes” to any of the questions, call the office and someone will see if they can assist through other means besides face-to-face.\n\n“We appreciate your patience and understanding as we all work together to minimize the impacts and spread of COVID-19,” Gaston said in the news release.\n\nThis story will be updated as more information becomes available.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/03/17/latest-iowa-coronavirus-covid-19-updates-outbreak-map-cancellations/5064551002/", "title": "Coronavirus in Iowa: A look back, March 16-22: Reynolds closes ...", "text": "Register staff\n\nState and federal officials say there are simple, everyday steps you can take to avoid catching or spreading respiratory diseases, including COVID-19: Cover your coughs and sneezes, thoroughly wash or sanitize your hands and stay home if you are sick. Get more information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at CDC.gov/coronavirus, or call 211, the Iowa Department of Public Heath's hotline, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.\n\nPersonnel at health care facilities, schools, the state government and businesses in Iowa are taking a series of measures in response to the novel coronavirus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19.\n\n► Looking for the latest? Here's what we know, March 23-29.\n\nHere's the latest on what Iowans need to know:\n\nReynolds signs executive order closing salons, spas, tattoo parlors and more\n\nMarch 22: Iowa's salons, barber shops, medical spas, massage therapists, tattoo shops and swimming pools will be closed until March 31, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced at a news conference Sunday.\n\nShe signed an executive order, which will take effect at 10 p.m. Sunday, she said. She has also suspended foreclosures on residential, commercial and agriculture properties.\n\nReynolds and DHS Director Kelly Garcia are also asking schools, churches and community centers that have space to open day care for children of essential workers, such as hospital staff and first responders.\n\nThe department will conduct an on-site visit to ensure it's age-appropriate, can accommodate groups of 10 children, and that all caregivers have passed background checks. The department will also help locate caregivers, Garcia said.\n\nIowa day care centers have not been ordered closed, but DHS has asked caregivers to do temperature checks of all children before check-in, remove all plush toys and to keep children far apart.\n\n► Read the full story here.\n\nReynolds asks spring break travelers to self-quarantine for 14 days\n\nMarch 22: In announcing Iowa's 22 new cases Sunday, Gov. Kim Reynolds said spring break and other travelers \"should strongly consider\" self-quarantining for 14 days. That extends to domestic and international travelers, she said.\n\n\"This will support Iowa's ongoing efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, and limit the introduction of the virus from other points of travel,\" Reynolds said in a statement.\n\nIf school was in session, children would be returning back from spring break Monday. Many Iowa families still took their spring break vacations as planned.\n\nOn March 15, Reynolds recommended all schools close for four weeks.\n\nIowans turn to homemade masks, hospitals plead for donations\n\nMarch 22: Nurses and other health-care workers across the nation and in Iowa have made pleas for donations of personal protective equipment as they face a nationwide shortage while trying to keep up with an influx of patients.\n\nJoyce Flinn, director of Iowa Homeland Security, said Sunday the state has submitted a request to FEMA for protective medical supplies — based on needs at hospitals and other clinics — and is expected to receive a shipment Monday or Tuesday. The Iowa National Guard and the Iowa Department of Public Health has prioritized \"hot zones\" and will get the equipment to those areas \"as quickly as the product comes in,\" she said.\n\nMeanwhile, Iowans are volunteering during their self-quarantine time to sew homemade masks for hospitals to have as a back-up option and for non-profit organizations like homeless shelters that are also in need of protective masks during the shortage.\n\nA Facebook group of seamstresses has grown to more than 600 members since it started Friday. They're connecting volunteers to organizations who have requested homemade masks.\n\n►Read the full story here.\n\nAnother 22 positive cases in Iowa\n\nMarch 22: There are 22 new positive cases of COVID-19 in Iowa, the Department of Public Health announced Sunday, bringing the total number of cases to 90 across 24 counties.\n\nThe new cases were reported in:\n\nCerro Gordo County — two adults 18- to 40-years-old\n\nDallas County — one adult 61-to 80-years-old\n\nDubuque County — two adults 18- to 40-years-old\n\nHarrison County — two adults 61-to 80-years-old\n\nJohnson County — two adults 18- to 40-years-old; one adult 41- to 60-years old; two adults 61-to 80-years-old\n\nKossuth County — one adult 18- to 40-years-old\n\nLinn County — one adult 41- to 60-years old\n\nPoweshiek County — one adult 81-years-old or older\n\nScott County — one adult 41- to 60-years old\n\nSioux County — one adult 61-to 80-years-old\n\nTama County — two adults 18- to 40-years-old; one adult 41- to 60-years old\n\nWashington County — one adult 41- to 60-years old\n\nWoodbury County — one adult 41- to 60-years old\n\n► MORE:Here's a map of the coronavirus cases in Iowa\n\nJohnson County mayors urge residents to stay home\n\nMarch 22: Mayors in Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty are asking residents to only leave their homes for essential items. They represent the state's third larges\n\nThe Johnson County mayors are also asking residents to strictly adhere to Gov. Kim Reynolds' order to restrict gatherings of 10 people or less and her guidance to self isolate for 14 days if returning from out-of-state for business or spring break vacation. The three mayors represent Iowa's third largest metropolitan area.\n\nTheir plea comes a day after Des Moines' mayor issued a similar voluntary \"stay home, stay healthy\" request to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.\n\nUIHC asks for donated face shields\n\nMarch 22: Leaders at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics have made an \"urgent request\" for face shields to protect all employees who interact with patients, visitors and coworkers as it works to fight COVID-19 in Johnson County — the epicenter of positive cases in Iowa.\n\nThe health system is asking businesses and individuals to donate new or used protective face shields.\n\nUIHC currently has a supply of face shields for staff who provide patient care or do screenings at hospital entrances, but are wanting all employees to wear them.\n\nAccording to a posting on its website, the protective face shields should be lightweight and adjustable, with a shield area that extends below the chin. Staff will disinfect any used face shields that are donated.\n\nThe hospital is also in \"critical need\" of N95 masks, isolation/surgeon masks, face masks with attached eye shields and isolation gowns.\n\nInformation on how to donate can be found on UIHC's website, UIHC.org/kind-donations.\n\n► Read the full story here.\n\nMetro orthopedic employee tests positive for COVID-19\n\nMarch 22: An employee of Iowa Ortho, a metro orthopedic clinic, has tested positive for COVID-19, according to a statement from the company Friday.\n\nThe employee did not display symptoms while working on-site, the company said.\n\nIowa Ortho is working with public health officials to determine its next steps and will continue its enhanced screening measures and temperature checks of all patients coming in its Des Moines and Clive locations.\n\n\"We are proceeding with the utmost caution as the safety and well-being of our patients and staff is our top priority,\" the statement reads. \" ... As essential health care workers, it is critical for our doctors and staff to continue to care for emergent and urgent orthopedic issues.\"\n\nDHS: Keep kids at home, run fever screenings at day cares\n\nMarch 22: The Department of Human Services released new guidance Friday, advising parents working from home to keep their children with them. It also directed day-care providers to take the temperatures of children as they arrive each morning, sending home those running fevers.\n\nDHS also encouraged day-care providers to limit the number of people in a room to 10 or fewer; to keep children farther apart; and to report clusters of absences.\n\nParents and day-care operators across the state are grappling with how to care for their children while also attempting to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus.\n\nIn other states where cases of COVID-19 are more widespread than in Iowa, child care centers have shut down statewide to stem the spread.\n\n► Read the full story here.\n\nFirst downtown Des Moines hotel closes\n\nMarch 22: The Des Lux Hotel in Des Moines has closed temporarily because of the COVID-19 outbreak, making it the first downtown Des Moines hotel to close because of the coronavirus.\n\nOther downtown hotels remain open with skeleton staffs and reduced amenities.\n\n► Read the full story here.\n\nHelp us report this story\n\nThe news surrounding the coronavirus outbreak in Iowa is unlike anything the Register has covered. We'll be updating this story as news develops.\n\nYou can read what happened in central Iowa prior to this week regarding COVID-19 here.\n\nYou can help us report this story by letting us know how novel coronavirus is affecting your routine, your workplace and your day-to-day family life. We also take requests: Just tell us what you want to know. Send news tips to our online contact form, or call us at 515-284-8065.\n\nMore on the outbreak:\n\nMore on preventing the virus' spread:\n\nMore on the impact:\n\nIowa sees largest single-day spike in positive tests\n\nMarch 21: Twenty-three more Iowans have tested positive for COVID-19 — the largest single-day jump in positive cases, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.\n\nThere are now 68 cases of the novel coronavirus across 17 counties in the state.\n\nDes Moines mayor asks residents to leave home only for essentials\n\nMarch 21: Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie has asked residents to voluntarily stay home — only leaving for essential items like groceries, medicine and health care — for at least two weeks to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in Iowa's capital city.\n\nHe has also waived all enforcement at downtown parking meters, recognizing that downtown residents are likely parking on city streets as they work from home or have been laid off.\n\nCownie said the decision was made after consulting mayors from across the country who are considering or have implemented similar measures.\n\n\"I just think it's best practice and I'm hopeful that other mayors, county officials and other elected officials would follow suit,\" he said. \"I think each day that we don’t take these kinds of measures we're threatened by the spread of this coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"And I just think that advising anything different is a step in the wrong direction.\"\n\nMore: Read the entire news release\n\nLoans available to small businesses\n\nMarch 21: The United States Small Business Administration has issued a disaster declaration for Iowa, allowing \"pandemic-impacted\" small businesses to apply for low-interest loans, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Saturday.\n\nThe Economic Injury Disaster Loans offer up to $2 million in assistance to small businesses and private, non-profit organizations that can be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable or other bills.\n\nThe interest rate for small businesses is 3.75% for small businesses and for non-profits is 2.75%.\n\nApplications can be made online at DisasterLoan.sba.gov/ela/. For questions, contact the disaster assistance customer service center at 1-800-659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.\n\nMeskwaki Tribe issues emergency declaration\n\nMarch 21: The Meskwaki Tribe in Iowa issued an emergency declaration after members of the tribe tested positive of COVID-19 from community transmission on the Meskwaki Settlement, according to a Meskwaki Tribal Council news release.\n\n\"Tribal Council hereby determines and directs that all individuals residing on the Settlement shall shelter in place and shall not leave their homes unless going to and from grocery stores, pharmacies, or the Meskwaki Health Clinic effective March 21, 2020; and that all social, community, recreational, leisure, and sporting gatherings and events of more than 10 people are hereby prohibited at all locations and venues on the Meskwaki Settlement; and close the Meskwaki Settlement to outside visitors,\" the statement reads.\n\nAuditor: Public funds can be used to promote businesses\n\nMarch 21: Iowa Auditor Rob Sand said Saturday that public funds can be used to \"encourage the public to patronize local businesses,\" such as printing flyers or using newspaper or radio ads that emphasize ordering take-out or delivery from local restaurants.\n\nSuch use of public money would generally raise red flags in an audit, however, Sand's office said during the novel coronavirus pandemic, it meets the \"public purpose\" test as a way to retain jobs.\n\nThe auditor says governments should follow three procedures: Record the public purpose prior to spending money, don't show favoritism to particular businesses and avoid conflicts of interest.\n\nLocal officials considering other unusual measures should first contact the auditor's office at drew.stensland@aos.iowa.gov.\n\nIowa National Guard cancels some plans, stands ready to help\n\nMarch 20: The Iowa National Guard is postponing and canceling planned drill and training to minimize the possible spread of coronavirus, it announced in a news release Friday evening.\n\nIt has also closed the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum, the Camp Dodge Wellness Center and the USO. It canceled all armory and facility rentals through May 19.\n\nThe National Guard is prepared to send service members to help with coronavirus response \"if necessary\" to help with things such as storage, transportation and delivery of personal protective gear and providing tents to communities affected by the pandemic. Col. Michael Wunn said they may have orders to carry out those missions next week, but expects it would be a small-scale operation to help with transportation and logistics.\n\nNine of its service members are currently supporting the State Emergency Operations Center at Joint Force Headquarters in Johnston. The soldiers attached to the operations center are helping to coordinate with other state agencies that are leading the response to the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Col. Wunn said.\n\nIowa suspends routine hotel, home bakery and restaurant inspections\n\nMarch 20: The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals is temporarily suspending routine inspections of hotels, home bakeries, restaurants, bars, food trucks and other food establishments, it announced in a Friday evening news release.\n\nReynolds closed all bars and suspended dine-in options at restaurants on Tuesday as part of the state's effort to limit the spread of coronavirus.\n\nThe state department is also temporarily suspending inspections of food processing plants. It has a contract with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to inspect those plants, but the FDA ordered it to stop.\n\nIt is also waiving late fees for businesses that need to renew their food licenses if the tardiness is during the governor's disaster proclamation. This does not affect current late fees.\n\nSecretary of State reschedules upcoming special elections\n\nMarch 20: Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate announced on Friday that upcoming special elections in three Iowa counties will be rescheduled for Tuesday, July 7. Concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus prompted the change, he said in a news release.\n\nThe Cedar Falls special election in Black Hawk County, the Craig special election in Plymouth County, and the Board of Supervisors special election in Woodbury County are now set for July 7, which is the first available date, according to release.\n\nPate said he consulted with county auditors before the decision and noted that under Iowa law the special elections can not be held within four weeks of the June 2 primary. Any absentee ballots that were already cast will be counted on July 7, Pate tweeted.\n\n​​​​​​​Additional COVID-19 case identified; total at 45\n\nMarch 20: The Iowa Department of Public Health announced Friday it has been notified that another Iowan has tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of known cases in Iowa to 45.\n\nAccording to a news release, the person is between the ages of 41 and 60 and lives in Allamakee County.\n\nSen. Ernst requests 'immediate action' to help Iowans abroad\n\nMarch 20: After multiple Iowans stranded in Peru during the coronavirus pandemic expressed frustration with a lack of communication from the U.S. Embassy there, wheels seem to be turning on getting them home.\n\nU.S. Sen. Joni Ernst called for \"immediate action\" to get those stuck in Peru and elsewhere abroad returned quickly. Ernst's office said a letter she sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged him to act quickly to ensure the health and safety of these Americans.\n\nKohl's stores close nationwide\n\nMarch 20: Beginning March 19, Kohl's announced it was closing all of its stores nationwide through April 1 \"to support efforts underway to slow the spread\" of coronavirus.\n\nIn a statement, the company said it was giving all of its store associates two week's pay to help them get through the period when they won't be receiving regular hourly wages.\n\nThe department store chain has four stores in metro Des Moines.\n\n► More:Here's a map of the coronavirus cases in Iowa\n\nFederal assistance available to Iowa cities, counties\n\nMarch 20: Local governments in Iowa can apply for federal disaster funds to help pay for costs incurred while fighting the spread of COVID-19.\n\nCities, counties and some nonprofits can now request money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency because of the pandemic last week.\n\nAmong other things, FEMA can offer funds to help governments build additional medical shelters, buy medical equipment, disinfect public facilities, pay for emergency operation center costs, procure and distribute food and medicine and cover overtime costs.\n\n“This grant is designed to reimburse costs associated with emergency operations for jurisdictions and specified private nonprofit organizations that are on the front lines of the COVID-19 response,” said Melissa Spencer, deputy coordinator of the Story County Emergency Management Agency in a news release.\n\nAccording to a fact sheet provided by Polk County officials, the state will receive the FEMA funds before disbursing them to the individual recipients. Governments have 30 days after the disaster declaration — until April 12 — to request the grants.\n\nIowa suspends property tax fee collections, evictions\n\nMarch 20: Gov. Kim Reynolds on Friday suspended the collection of some fees on property taxes and halted most home evictions through a series of relaxed regulations aimed at helping Iowans impacted by the coronavirus.\n\nReynolds' office initially announced she was suspending the collection of property taxes as part of her orders, but her office later corrected that and said it was just for penalties and interest for property taxes.\n\nReynolds announced the temporary changes through a state public health emergency declaration that went into effect immediately.\n\nThe declaration pauses restrictions and regulations from certain statutes and other state rules. That includes suspending the collection of property taxes and related penalties and interest.\n\nThe order also suspends some evictions under the Iowa Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, or the Manufactured Home Communities or Mobile Home Parks Residential Landlord and Tenant Act.\n\nRead more on the proclamation:Iowa suspends property tax fee collection, evictions; relaxes or extends deadlines on regulations in reaction to coronavirus outbreak\n\nCORRECTION: The governor's office initially said Iowa was suspending property taxes, it later corrected that information. Iowa is suspending penalties and interest as it relates to the collection of property taxes. This article has been corrected. ​​​​​​​\n\nUIU will hold virtual commencement ceremony\n\nMarch 19: The Upper Iowa University in Fayette will now hold their commencement ceremony on May 9 as a virtual ceremony.\n\n\"I understand an in-person ceremony is preferred, but I also have no doubt that everyone would agree that the health, safety and welfare of our students, visitors and employees drive this decision,\" Duffy said. \"To provide the graduates their much-deserved recognition, UIU is making arrangements to continue to celebrate this momentous occasion virtually.\"\n\nAs details become available, the school will post them on the commencement web page.\n\nUI dentistry student tests positive for COVID-19\n\nMarch 19: University of Iowa officials informed campus and community members Thursday that a dentistry student has self-identified as having tested positive for the novel coronavirus. It's the first COVID-19 case reported on campus.\n\nIn a letter sent Thursday to the UI community, school officials said others who had contact with the student have been notified of the test results. The student, who was last on campus March 12, also saw a dentistry patient while symptomatic, according to the letter. After learning of the results, school officials informed the Johnson County Public Health department. The student does not live on campus and is self-isolating, according to the letter.\n\n\"It is not the practice of Iowa Department of Public Health to notify employers or institutions of a positive case,\" the letter reads. \"The university is able to share this news because the student self-identified, but the university will not be able to report each time a member of the UI community tests positive, moving forward.\"\n\nRead the full letter and learn of campus resources here.\n\n801 Grand building to undergo deep clean after COVID-19 exposure\n\nMarch 19: A visitor to Principal Financial Group's downtown Des Moines office tested positive for COVID-19, leading to nearly 20 floors at 801 Grand to go through a \"deep clean\" starting tomorrow. The building is expected to\n\nAccording to a notice sent to employees Thursday evening, all workers in the building are being required to self-quarantine for at least 14 days.\n\n\"We have alerted our downtown Des Moines employees and other tenants of the building,\" spokesperson Jane Slusark said in an emailed statement. \"We have asked all Principal employees who work in the 801 Grand office complex to self-quarantine. We will also deep clean the Principal floors on Friday. A majority of Principal employees in Des Moines are already working remote and we have significantly limited visitors to our campus. Our top priority remains protecting our employees and their families, while continuing to serve our customers.”\n\nStory County Sheriff's Office to take reports over the phone\n\nMarch 19: The Story County Sheriff's Office announced it has closed to the general public and is changing how it responds to calls in light of the COVID-19 outbreak, according to a news release Thursday.\n\nDeputies at the sheriff's office dispatch center are asking more questions when someone calls than is standard procedure, and are trying to take reports over the phone whenever possible. If a deputy needs to meet the caller in-person, they ask them to come outside their residence.\n\nSimilarly, the office asks for residents to do as much of their business online, by mail or by phone as possible. In-person meetings are by appointment only with the exception of attorney visits, bail bonds and warrant services, according to the release.\n\nThe Story County Jail is also taking measures limiting contact: all visitations, programming and classes in the facility have been canceled until April 1.\n\nThis doesn't mean all in-person services are suspended; first responders continue to work \"around the clock\" on public safety issues, according to the news release.\n\nDes Moines Public Schools' Central Campus gets a deep clean\n\nMarch 19: The Des Moines Public Schools cleaned Central Campus to disinfect surfaces and clean equipment.\n\nWhile teachers were pitching in, the school's director Tascha Brown found gloves, masks, gowns and other supplies from the school's nursing program, marine biology program, and other science classes. She plans on donating the supplies to Unity Point.\n\nBridgestone plant to close for two weeks\n\nMarch 19: Bridgestone is sending about 1,400 workers home from its Des Moines agricultural tire manufacturing plant for two weeks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, said Steve Vonk, president of U.S. Steelworkers Local 310.\n\nThe shutdown begins at 6 a.m. Sunday, Vonk said, adding that Bridgestone is closing all North and South American facilities to protect the health of employees.\n\n\"They're really looking out for their employees,\" he said.\n\nNo employee at the Des Moines plant, which makes tires for farm equipment, has tested positive for the coronavirus, Vonk said.\n\nMore: New Iowa unemployment figures show slight rise, but don't reflect most coronavirus impact\n\nHy-Vee says it's adding window panels at checkout to protect employees, customers\n\nHy-Vee says the grocer is adding temporary window panels at checkouts to help provide an additional layer of protection for its employees and customers.\n\nThe panels are being installed at the checkout because it’s the point in the store where customers and employees are in the closest contact, the West Des Moines-based grocery chain said Thursday.\n\n\"In the aisles or at our service counters, customers and employees have more flexibility in placing distance between themselves, but the setup of the checkout limits that ability,\" Hy-Vee said in a news release.\n\nThe company said the panels are in place in its Des Moines-area stores, and will be installed in all other Hy-Vee locations over the next few days.\n\nAdditionally, Hy-Vee said it will no longer allow customers to bring in reusable bags, effective Friday. The company said it's not always easy to tell how clean the bags are, and stopping their use is another step the chain can take to help prevent the spread of the virus. The bag restriction will be in place until further notice.\n\nDes Moines Public Library offering digital cards\n\nMarch 19: The Des Moines Public Library tweeted Thursday that it has created digital cards for people who do not yet have a library card to sign up and access thousands of eBooks and Audiobooks. The card also includes streaming video and free digital access to the New York Times.\n\nThe library has also added eBooks and Audiobooks that are available to everyone, including those with library cards outside of Des Moines.\n\nPeople who already have a Des Moines Public Library card do not have to sign up for the digital card, as they already have access to the library's services. People can sign up for the card at www.dmpl.org.\n\nOn Twitter, the library also encouraged people needing an internet connection to drive to its branches and use the branches’ WiFi connection from outside. Even though people aren’t in the buildings, the free internet will still be accessible.\n\nPhysician assistants have expanded abilities under new law\n\nMarch 18: Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday signed a bill that will expand the role of physician assistants in Iowa, a move she said will assist the state in the fight against novel coronavirus.\n\n“As the state continues to combat the spread of COVID-19 and the strains it will place on our health care system, this will be yet another tool in our arsenal,” Reynolds said in a news release.\n\nThe bill, Senate File 2357, gives physician assistants the full ability to prescribe medicine, allows them to be reimbursed by Medicaid and gives them similar legal protections to other health care professions.\n\nThe Iowa Legislature passed the bill last week, prior to suspending the session for 30 days due to the spread of the virus.\n\nUniversity of Iowa closes dorms, cancels commencement ceremonies\n\nMarch 18: Out of fear of exacerbating the spread of COVID-19, the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa and Simpson College are closing dorms, canceling spring commencement ceremonies and extending virtual classes through the end of the school year.\n\nUniversity leaders on all three campuses stressed the need for sweeping action in announcing the news.\n\nThe University of Iowa announced \"sweeping efforts to keep campus safe,\" including closing dorms, canceling commencement ceremonies and extending virtual classes through the end of the school year. UI officials said the decision was made after receiving word of community spread in Johnson County.\n\nPreviously, all classes were scheduled to resume virtually Monday, and in-person classes were expected to start again after two weeks. Now classes will resume as virtual classes on March 30 and continue online for the remainder of the semester.\n\nDining halls and most residence halls — initially planned to stay open — will close Thursday. Exceptions will be made for students who cannot easily move off-campus.\n\nOfficials said they are working to organize an alternative commencement celebration.\n\nMore:University of Iowa, Iowa State, Northern Iowa cancel spring commencements, in-person classes for the semester in response to COVID-19's spread​​​​​​​\n\nNine more COVID-19 cases confirmed; state total to 38\n\nMarch 18: Nine more Iowans have tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus, according to a news release Wednesday from Gov. Kim Reynolds' office.\n\nThis brings the total cases in Iowa to 38. The nine new cases also represent the largest single-day increase in positive diagnoses of COVID-19 since it was first found in Iowa on March 8. The prior biggest jump was on Tuesday, with six new cases.\n\nThe new cases include three residents of Johnson County; two residents of Polk County; two residents of Dallas County; and one resident each from Washington and Winneshiek counties.\n\nReynolds also announced a news conference for Thursday afternoon.\n\nSick Iowans denied coronavirus screenings\n\nMarch 18: There are Iowans frustrated with what they say are testing criteria in the state that are jeopardizing human life in the pandemic. Meanwhile, when tests are completed, the state's public health department is releasing less information about the results than officials in some other states.\n\nThe Iowa Department of Public Health, the main agency tasked with overseeing the state's response to coronavirus, did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday regarding complaints about the lack of testing.\n\nIn recent days, the department has provided general information about Iowa's testing capabilities.\n\nRead the complete story here.\n\nIDPH urges groups to donate extra health care supplies\n\nMarch 18: The Iowa Department of Public Health is urging businesses and organizations to donate health care-related protective devices.\n\nDepartment officials welcome any kind of personal protective equipment, or PPE, but especially gloves, gowns, eye protection and masks. Donations should be made through the local county public health department or emergency management office.\n\n\"This is an unprecedented public health disaster, and stocks of personal protective equipment for health care providers are being used rapidly,\" said Ken Sharp, division director of Acute Disease Prevention, Emergency Response and Environmental Health. \"Any organizations that have extra PPE supplies that aren't immediately needed should consider donating them to help those on the front lines of this disease.\"\n\nHospitals in Cedar Rapids have already canceled non-essential surgeries for at least the next month in part to preserve medical supplies. Des Moines hospital officials have also warned about a lack of medical supplies.\n\nLocal health department contact information can be found here. County emergency management information can be found here.\n\nGrassley criticized for using the term 'Chinese virus' to describe coronavirus\n\nMarch 18: U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley set off a round of criticism for his Wednesday morning tweet asking why China would be upset if people call the novel coronavirus the “Chinese virus.”\n\n“I don’t understand why China gets upset bc we refer to the virus that originated there the 'Chinese virus' Spain never got upset when we referred to the Spanish flu in 1918&1919,” Grassley tweeted.\n\nHis critics on social media told Iowa's senior senator that the term has contributed to racism towards Asian Americans.\n\n\"China is attempting to shield itself from criticism for covering up the gravity of the coronavirus and silencing whistleblowers who tried to warn the world. Despite what the communist Chinese government may want, there’s no hiding that the coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China,\" spokesperson Michael Zona said in a statement.\n\nPresident Donald Trump has used the terms “China virus” and “Chinese virus” to refer to the coronavirus and defended the language, saying he doesn’t believe it creates a stigma.\n\nCOVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, was first linked to an outbreak in Wuhan, China, but has since spread around the world. The World Health Organization has declared the virus a pandemic, meaning a disease that has spread worldwide.\n\nIowa Board of Regents declares state of emergency amid pandemic\n\nMarch 18: Following suit with the governor, the Iowa Board of Regents president declared a state of emergency Wednesday and immediately loosened restrictions around sick leave and family leave.\n\nIn announcing the state of emergency, the Iowa Board of Regents waived limits on the number of hours of accrued sick leave employees can use to care for an immediate family member and limits on using family leave to care for a child whose school or childcare center closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here.\n\nIDOT relaxes expired driver's license, registration rules during emergency\n\n​​​​​​​March 18: The Iowa Department of Transpiration will grant leniency to people with driver's licenses and license plates which expired in the past two months after Gov. Kim Reynolds' Tuesday emergency proclamation to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak.\n\nDrivers' licenses and license plates which expired on Jan. 17 or later will be considered valid for as long as the emergency declaration lasts, IDOT said Wednesday.\n\nPurchasers of vehicles also will not need to obtain a title and register their vehicle within 30 days during the emergency. People purchasing vehicles from a dealer will not be required to obtain license plates within 45 days, IDOT said.\n\nDriver’s license and ID business is being conducted by appointment only to limit the number of people waiting in line. All non-commercial drive tests will be rescheduled.\n\nHy-Vee, Fareway dedicate shopping hour for elderly, others vulnerable to coronavirus\n\nMarch 18: Starting Thursday, Hy-Vee will offer a special shopping hour from 7-8 a.m., seven days a week, for senior citizens ages 60 and older, expectant mothers and those who are considered to be at higher risk for serious illness.\n\nOn Tuesday, Fareway said the first hour of operation each day, 8-9 a.m., will be reserved for customers 65 and over, expectant mothers, people with serious medical conditions and \"anyone with an underlying medical condition that increases the susceptibility to serious illness from COVID-19.\"\n\nBoth Iowa grocery chains said Tuesday they're cutting store hours to give employees more time to clean and restock shelves. Fareway will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Hy-Vee said its new store hours will be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.\n\nDPS says people may be charged with misdemeanors for holding gatherings of 10 or more people\n\nMarch 18: The Iowa Department of Public Safety said Tuesday night that people may be charged with simple misdemeanors for violating Gov. Kim Reynolds' emergency proclamation to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak.\n\nA news release from the governor's office said the proclamation will be in place until nearly midnight on March 31.\n\nUnder the governor's order, restaurants will end dine-in services but can provide food and beverages through drive-thru, carry-out and delivery. Other facilities such as bars, gyms, theaters and casinos must close.\n\nThe prohibition includes events considered social, such as for community, spiritual, religious, recreational, leisure and sports-related purposes.\n\nUnder Iowa law, a simple misdemeanor is punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine between $65 and $625.\n\n“As this public health event rapidly unfolds, we will continue to partner with law enforcement agencies across the state to uphold and respond to Governor Reynolds’ health and safety directives,” said Stephan Bayens, Iowa Department of Public Safety commissioner in a news release. “Together, we will all see this through.”\n\nBeaverdale family trades books for toilet paper, gloves in little free library\n\nMarch 17: Bob Meeley's little free library has been a source of joy to those who stumble upon it. Now it's something more.\n\nOn March 12, Meeley took the books out of the library and put in goods that have been in short supply since the coronavirus was labeled a pandemic. In the place of stories of adventure and intrigue are now rolls of toilet paper, wet wipes, Emergen-C, and gloves. At the top of the library is a sign that says \"Flatten the Curve!\" with a chart advocating for proactive measures to avoid stressing the health care system. Read the story here.\n\n► More good news:Cedar Rapids business owners team up to make, give away hand sanitizer\n\nSix new COVID-19 diagnoses brings total Iowa cases to 29\n\nMarch 17: Six more Iowans have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the respiratory disease that can stem from coronavirus infection. It is the largest single-day jump in cases, and brings the total in Iowa to 29.\n\nAccording to the Iowa Department of Public Health, three of the cases are residents of Johnson County, and one each from Adair, Blackhawk and Dallas counties. The news release did not specify their ages, genders or if they had traveled to high-risk countries, been in contact with other people identified as infected with coronavirus or if they were instances of community transmission, the term for when a case has no easily identifiable point of origin.\n\nAmy McCoy, a policy adviser for the IDPH, said at this point in the virus' spread, trying to pinpoint the source of the infection isn't as important as mitigating the spread. She emphasized the need for social distancing and other individual actions to prevent its spread.\n\n► MORE:Here's a map of the coronavirus cases in Iowa\n\nPhotos: Downtown Des Moinies' Court Avenue closed on St. Patrick's Day\n\nHy-Vee making changes to stem coronavirus' spread\n\nMarch 17:Hy-Vee is shortening its hours, closing the dine-in portion of its restaurants and suspending its weekly coupon ads.\n\nThe company announced Tuesday the grocer will only be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., saying it will use the extra to more thoroughly clean the store. In compliance with Gov. Kim Reynolds’ order earlier in the day, Hy-Vee will not allow diners to eat in the store. It is also closing the Market Grille bar.\n\nCustomers also will not be able to order food directly from Hy-Vee’s Aisle Online program. Any shoppers who want groceries delivered will need to order through apps like Shipt and Door Dash. In its news release, Hy-Vee said this will allow workers to focus on pick-up orders and the needs in the store.\n\nHy-Vee is suspending the weekly coupon ads in newspapers because it cannot guarantee local stores will have those items in stock. The company already printed some of those ads, which consumers may see this weekend. Hy-Vee says it will still honor those advertised sales.\n\n“This is an unprecedented situation for all of us,” Randy Edeker, Hy-Vee’s chairman, CEO and president, said in a statement. “We’ve never dealt with anything like this before, and we know our customers haven’t, either. We appreciate their patience and loyalty as we navigate these changing times.”\n\nCoronavirus patients discharged from hospitals\n\nMarch 17: At least two coronavirus patients have been released from Iowa hospitals.\n\nA coronavirus patient who had been hospitalized at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in recent days has been discharged. Molly Rossiter, a spokeswoman for the Iowa City hospital system, confirmed the information Tuesday.\n\nRossiter did not release any other information about the patient, including whether the patient has recovered.\n\nThe University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics announced Sunday that its latest patient was admitted. The hospital system is separately treating another patient who tested positive for coronavirus. That patient was admitted on March 11, according to the hospital.\n\nIn a news release, it said the individual was infected with the virus through community-acquired transmission, another term for “community spread” that is used to describe infections from an unknown source. At a news conference on Tuesday with Johnson County public health officials, Mercy Iowa City spokeswoman Margaret Reese said its hospital system has been treating two coronavirus patients. One has been discharged, according to Reese. She did not provide more information.\n\nMore:As UIHC treats second patient with COVID-19, staff ramp-up screening, start a hotline\n\n​​​​​​​DMARC hands out food to families\n\nDes Moines Area Religious Council gave bags of food to families in the Carver Elementary parking lot. Many area public school children rely on the school system for meals. When the schools closed to prevent the virus from spreading, many lost access to that meal.\n\nCedar Rapids hospitals suspend non-urgent surgeries\n\nMarch 17: Elective surgeries are being suspended as of Thursday at four prominent health care providers in Cedar Rapids to both prevent the spread of the coronavirus and preserve medical supplies.\n\n“We’re getting down to critical volumes (of supplies), and it's a little uncertain when it can all be replenished,” Dr. David P. Hart, the chief medical officer and board president of the Physician’s Clinic of Iowa, said. “We don't know how bad this can get, and we just want to be prepared and to make sure we have enough supplies if things do get worse.”\n\nThe suspended surgeries include things like carpal tunnel and hip and knee replacement. Urgent procedures will still be done, Hart said. Even so, he expects this will affect hundreds of patients. The suspension is slated for at least a month, with officials revisiting the policy weekly.\n\nThe decision was jointly made by officials at UnityPoint Health – St. Luke’s Hospital, Physician’s Clinic of Iowa, Mercy Medical Center and the Surgery Center of Cedar Rapids. Mercy Medical Center is unaffiliated with MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center.\n\nMore:Des Moines hospital official warns: 'We do not have enough of supplies' to combat coronavirus\n\nDART waving bus fares\n\nMarch 17: Starting Tuesday, the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority is waiving bus fares in an effort to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus.\n\nThe metro’s public transportation provider won’t accept cash, bus passes or tickets, DART said in a news release on its website.\n\nBeginning Wednesday, bus riders will also be instructed to get on and off the bus via the rear doors, away from the driver.\n\nDART also encouraged riders to practice social distancing: staying 6 feet apart, remaining at home when sick and only taking the bus to go to work or other location that’s absolutely necessary.\n\nOn Sunday, the authority began cleaning its buses daily with an antiviral cleaning agent recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Staff have cleaned the buses at the end of the service day.\n\nCorteva says one employee in Johnston tested positive for coronavirus\n\nMarch 17: Corteva Agriscience said Tuesday an employee at its Johnston campus has tested positive for COVID-19.\n\nThe seed company said it’s identifying and reaching out to people who “had close contact with the impacted employee, advising self-quarantine.\"\n\n\"We have informed the appropriate public health officials, the employee is quarantined, and we are working to support the employee and their family at this time,\" the company said in a statement.\n\n\"Within our offices, following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other local authorities, as well as our own policies, we have taken significant actions to contain any potential spread.\"\n\nCorteva, the new parent of Pioneer seed, said it's cleaning and disinfecting the site as needed as well. “The health and safety of our employees is our top priority,\" the company said.\n\nFareway stores restrict operating hours\n\nMarch 17: Fareway supermarkets announced that beginning Wednesday, they will limit their hours to 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Saturday because of the coronavirus outbreak.\n\nIn a statement, Fareway communications manager Emily Toribio said the reduced hours will allow extra time for cleaning, sanitation and restocking.\n\nIn addition, she said the first hour of operation each day, 8 a.m.-9 a.m., will be reserved for customers 65 and over, expectant mothers, people with serious medical conditions and \"anyone with an underlying medical condition that increases the susceptibility to serious illness from COVID-19.\"\n\n​​​​​​​ National Guard deployments to go forward\n\nMarch 17: Deployments announced by the Iowa National Guard prior to the pandemic will move forward as scheduled, a spokesperson said Tuesday.\n\nAbout 680 Iowans from two units who received their deployment orders within the last six weeks will leave in May and June, Col. Michael Wunn said.\n\nIn late May, the 133 Infantry Battalion out of eastern Iowa — also known as the Ironman Battalion — will deploy about 550 soldiers to Operation Spartan Shield in U.S. Central Command, located in the Middle East, Wunn said.\n\nComing from armories in seven communities — Charles City, Davenport, Dubuque, Iowa City, Iowa Falls, Oelwein and Waterloo — this deployment is expected to last a year. Their mission will still involve security and “force protection operations,” as a news release previously announced.\n\nIn June, two troops from the 113th Cavalry Regiment will deploy about 130 soldiers to Operation Enduring Freedom in U.S. Africa Command.\n\nAlso lasting a year, this deployment will include 90 soldiers from Le Mars, Iowa, and 40 from Johnson. These troops will help with “military operations, exercises and security cooperation activities on the African continent, its island nations and surrounding waters,” as a news release previously announced.\n\nFull-time staff members of the Iowa National Guard are following travel restrictions announced Monday by the Department of Defense, which limits military and personal travel to just “mission essential” or personal hardship trips, including funerals and family emergencies. Traditional guardsmen are not subject to the personal travel restrictions, but the Guard has significantly restricted training, conferences and any events that can be delayed or postponed.\n\n“This is a very fluid situation,” Wunn said, adding that they are making decisions every day based on recommendations from the Iowa Department of Public Health, the CDC and the Department of Defense.\n\n“We will protect the health of the force and make sure they are being taken care of while doing what we can to stop the spread,” Wunn said. “And we will balance that with our focus on mission readiness in case we need to support the Governor as well as the strict timeline our forces are on to prepare for deployment.”\n\nThe Iowa Gold Star Military Museum and the Wellness Center at Camp Dodge will be closed to the public by the end of the day Tuesday, though Camp Dodge will remain open, Wunn said.\n\nThe Guard is currently looking at events scheduled to take place at armories across the state and accessing next steps with organizers.\n\nReynolds prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people, closes theaters, casinos, restaurants, bars\n\nMarch 17: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is closing restaurants, bars and other recreational facilities in Iowa for two weeks in an effort to restrict the spread of coronavirus.\n\nReynolds made the announcement in a news release Tuesday. The order goes into effect at noon and continues until March 31.\n\nThe news release says the governor has issued a State of Public Health Disaster Emergency, a proclamation designation that allows her to take these actions.\n\nRestaurants will be able to provide food through drive-through, carry-out and delivery only. Bars and other facilities like gyms, theaters and casinos will close.\n\nIowa lawmakers grant Gov. Kim Reynolds expanded power\n\nMarch 17: The Iowa Legislature has suspended its session for 30 days after passing legislation early Tuesday morning to keep the government running and grant Gov. Kim Reynolds expanded powers to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.\n\nThe bill, unanimously passed by lawmakers just after midnight, grants Reynolds, a Republican, increased ability to transfer spending between state agencies and departments, giving her flexibility to allocate funds where needed. It also allows her to tap 10% of the state's $200 million Economic Emergency Fund to deal with the coronavirus.\n\nThe bill also waives schools' requirement to make up class days canceled as a result of the virus and passes a supplemental appropriation for some state programs, including $525,000 for processing COVID-19 test kits at the State Hygienic Lab at the University of Iowa.\n\nMore:Iowa lawmakers grant Gov. Kim Reynolds expanded power as they suspend legislative session due to coronavirus\n\nMore:Iowa waives 4 weeks from school year as classes stop for coronavirus\n\nUrbandale Community School District employee tests positive for COVID-19\n\nMarch 16: An employee of the Karen Acres Elementary School in Urbandale has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently in quarantine.\n\nThe employee, who is not being identified by the school district out of concerns for confidentiality, has sought medical attention, according to a notification from the Urbandale Community School District. The notice did not specify the person’s condition.\n\nThe district also announced that all of its schools would be closed beginning March 16 for four weeks, adhering to the recommendation from Gov. Kim Reynolds. The closure includes cancellation of all school-related programming, activities, athletics, Adventuretime and community education classes. Under current plans, students would return to school on Monday, April 13.\n\nThere have been 23 known cases of coronavirus in Iowa. Some of the cases involve people who do not know how they contracted the virus, and some of those infected have had to be hospitalized. COVID-19 is the respiratory illness caused by the virus. It is unclear if this employee is part of that 23 or if the person is an additional case.\n\nMore:Urbandale district employee tests positive for coronavirus\n\nDes Moines-area YMCAs completely shut down for 15 days\n\nMarch 16: The six membership branches and the Y-Camp serving the greater Des Moines area will shut down for 15 days, officials announced Monday night.\n\nNo coronavirus cases have been linked to a YMCA facility, but its leadership is following federal, state and local health officials' guidance to try to slow its spread, Ruth Comer, the YMCA's vice president for marketing and communications wrote in an email.\n\nIt had previously canceled all group fitness classes, personal training sessions, youth programming and facility rentals and suspended Learn and Play centers and guest passes.\n\nFull-time staff will remain employed during the closure. President and CEO of YMCA of Greater Des Moines Leisha Barcus asked members to pay dues and register for future programs as they're able to help it operate once the crisis passes.\n\nDes Moines Water Works suspends water shutoffs\n\nMarch 16: Des Moines Water Works, which provides drinking water to most of the Des Moines metro area, announced Monday that it would stop shutting off the water service of delinquent ratepayers.\n\nWater needs to be available to help residents sanitize, which will hopefully slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus, the utility said in a news release. The suspension is temporary.\n\nDes Moines Water Works’ water remains safe to drink, the release said. COVID-19 hasn’t been detected in drinking water, and water works’ treatment practices kill viruses. There’s also no need to boil tap water.\n\nThe U.S Environmental Protection Agency said, “Americans can continue to use and drink water from their tap as usual.”\n\nStarting Tuesday, water works will also prohibit walk-in customers at its general office building on George Flagg Parkway. In-home visits, except for emergencies, will also be suspended.\n\nWater customers can pay online at dmww.com, by phone at (515) 283-8700, at the office’s dropbox, by mail or at pay stations at local Hy-Vee or Wal-Mart stores.\n\nThe utility has also started “stockpiling” chemicals, repair parts and other equipment to ensure the production and distribution of safe drinking water, the news release said.\n\nIowa DOT may make customers wait in cars, encourages appointments\n\nMarch 16: The Iowa Department of Transportation is encouraging people to postpone in-person services and, if unavoidable, for customers to make an appointment before visiting.\n\nMany services, including renewals, address changes and certified copies of driving records, are likely available online. To view those services, or make an appointment, visit https://mymvd.iowadot.gov/. Customers can also call 515-244-8725.\n\nOfficials hope appointments will reduce the number of people waiting at the service centers. Staff will watch the size of groups in the waiting areas and may ask people to come back another time or wait in their vehicles if the room becomes crowded, according to a news release.\n\nStaff will also ask customers questions designed to evaluate their risk of exposure to the coronavirus and risk of exposure to other customers. If someone is determined to be a “heightened risk,” they will be asked to delay their visit. The news release did not specify what criteria will be used to make that judgment.\n\nDOT staff are also instructed to increase how often they clean and disinfect the facilities.\n\nYour subscription makes work like this possible. Subscribe today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/17"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_2", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/tech/daily-harvest-recall-influencers/index.html", "title": "Daily Harvest recall: Influencers recount harrowing experiences with ...", "text": "(CNN) Instagram-friendly meal kit service Daily Harvest is facing a firestorm of online backlash over the voluntary recall of one of its products, after a slew of people who consumed it reported becoming ill with mysterious symptoms, including extremely elevated liver enzymes.\n\nThe direct-to-consumer brand has long utilized a network of online influencers to promote its products. Now several influencers, who say they were sickened, say the company's lackluster handling of the crisis is putting new responsibility on the influencer community to warn the public.\n\nIt's also exposing the swift fallout that can emerge when you aggrieve a demographic with such a wide internet reach.\n\n\"This company was built on the backs of influencers,\" said Cory Silverstein, who runs an organic skincare brand with his wife, and told CNN Business he received the product, called French Lentil and Leek Crumbles, as part of a PR package in mid-May.\n\n\"That is what built them up to be like a billion-dollar valuation company, is all these influencers who did the marketing for them,\" he added. \"At this point, it's the influencers who are alerting the public that you might end up in the hospital if you eat this product.\"\n\nAfter consuming the product, Silverstein said, \"I've never experienced pain like that — it's the first time I felt kind of helpless.\"\n\nIn response to CNN Business' multiple requests for comment, Daily Harvest sent the latest update the company posted on their website related to the voluntary recall.\n\n\"We want to make sure you have the latest update on our voluntary recall of French Lentil + Leek Crumbles. We are taking this very seriously and doing everything we can to get to the bottom of this. Your health and well-being are our top priority,\" the blog post states, adding that it has reached out to impacted customers and is taking a number of steps to investigate the cause.\n\n\"We are working with a group of experts to help us get to the bottom of this—that includes microbiologists, toxin and pathogen experts as well as allergists,\" the statement from Daily Harvest adds. \"All pathogen and toxicology results have come back negative so far, but we're continuing to do extensive testing and will keep you updated.\"\n\nAn image of Daily Harvest's French Lentil + Leek Crumbles meal from their website. Daily Harvest issued a voluntary recall Sunday of a lentil-based product, after receiving customer reports of gastrointestinal issues linked to its French Lentil + Leek Crumbles meal.\n\nIn an updated blog post Thursday evening, the company said it has received approximately 470 reports of illness or adverse reaction, and the investigation into the root cause remains ongoing. It added that some 28,000 units of the recalled product were distributed in the US between April 28 to June 17.\n\nOn June 17, the company first emailed people who received the product warning that \"a small number of customers have reported gastrointestinal discomfort\" after consuming the crumbles and urging those who still had them to throw them away. It first posted a statement warning the public not to consume the crumbles on June 19.\n\nLaunched in 2016, Daily Harvest's emergence as a household name was linked in large part to its aggressive social media campaigns. The company has received multiple celebrity supporters, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Serena Williams (representatives for Paltrow and Williams did not immediately respond to CNN Business' request for comment).\n\nThe meal kit company announced last November that it had secured Series D funding that valued Daily Harvest at over $1 billion.\n\nInfluencers track down a united source for mysterious symptoms\n\nSilverstein said he spent time in an urgent care center where doctors scrambled to figure out what was wrong. He tested negative for all forms of hepatitis, the initial suspect, and did a slew of blood tests that eventually indicated liver enzyme levels that were off the charts. He says that levels of important liver enzymes were elevated as much as twelve times the normal range.\n\nHe spent weeks not knowing the cause of the mysterious illness, until he said his wife saw a post from fellow influencer Luke Wesley Pearson, a content creator from Portland. Pearson was reporting shockingly similar symptoms, he said, and the two realized they had both received these crumbles from the company before they were launched on the public market.\n\nPearson told CNN Business that he underwent emergency surgery on June 12 to get his gallbladder removed after experiencing gastrointestinal issues after consuming the crumbles.\n\nVarious frozen healthy meal items (but not the crumbles that are part of the recall) are visible inside a Daily Harvest frozen meal kit box, Lafayette, California, October 14, 2021. (Photo by Gado/Getty Images)\n\nPearson says he tried the lentil crumbles twice, both times leading to intense stomach aches. It was the second try, however, that sent him to the ER. After symptoms that included \"excruciating\" stomach pains, fever, chills, itching of the hands and feet, and jaundice, Pearson underwent testing that revealed -- just like Silverstein -- elevated liver enzymes, as well as high bilirubin. Doctors ultimately decided to remove Pearson's gallbladder.\n\nFor Pearson, it was only after seeing a viral TikTok by Abby Silverman that he realized the issues could be connected to the food he ingested immediately before his issues began. Silverman, a creative director in New York, posted a video that has garnered more than 100,000 likes on TikTok detailing her own experience after eating the Daily Harvest product. She said the lentils similarly landed her in the ER, twice, with alarmingly high liver enzyme levels. While she suspected it may be from the crumbles, she said she formally connected her medical crisis with the lentils after an email from Daily Harvest on June 19 recalling the food item led her to a Reddit thread of scores of other people detailing similar symptoms. Silverman's lawyer, Mark Apostolos, confirmed to CNN Business in a statement that medical records document her illness and symptoms.\n\n\"It's interesting because I have seen a lot of people on social media over the years try Daily Harvest, which is why I said yes to the PR package,\" Silverman told CNN Business.\n\n\"This whole health situation has just caused so much anxiety,\" said Silverman, who has retained a lawyer, Apostolos, to deal with the fallout. \"Obviously, I didn't expect this. I made the video that I did because I feel like they weren't doing enough to make people aware of what was going on -- I figured people probably still had this in their freezer.\"\n\n\"We are investigating and evaluating all legal remedies for Abby, who was stricken with illness after consuming this product that was mailed to her,\" said Apostolos in a statement.\n\nAnother customer who had her gallbladder removed was Candice Smith, who told CNN Business she initially thought she was having a heart attack after consuming the product. \"It was the worst night of my life,\" said Smith, the CEO of French Press Public Relations in Raleigh, of the night she rushed to the hospital -- where she says she stayed for four days undergoing tests on her enlarged liver and elevated liver enzymes. Her gallbladder was removed on June 19.\n\nThe company declined to comment on claims that customers underwent gallbladder surgeries related to its product. All of the people who spoke to CNN Business said doctors were initially puzzled by their symptoms.\n\nSmith said she had no relevant pre-existing medical conditions before the hospital visit. \"I try to be healthy. I eat plant-based, I'm trying to do all the right things,\" said Smith. \"What am I doing here? Why am I even here? Why am I experiencing this level of pain in my life?\"\n\nCompany's response slammed as insensitive\n\nCaroline Sweet, a freelance actor and writer in Los Angeles, said she was in the emergency room emerging from a CT scan after enduring days of being \"completely doubled-over in pain\" when she received an email on June 17 from Daily Harvest informing her to throw away the crumbles and offering her a $10 store credit. (The company said in a blogpost all consumers were issued a credit for the recalled product).\n\n\"It was just like a huge f**k you,\" Sweet said of the email. \"The fact that they're just handling it so poorly feels like such a huge slap in the face.\"\n\nSarah Schacht, a consultant and property manager in Seattle, said she similarly became \"violently ill\" after consuming the product that she said she was initially drawn to for its organic and health-forward marketing. \"Everyone who's on the internet has been served Daily Harvest ads, right?\" she said.\n\nSchacht has been vocal on Twitter about urging people to take samples to local health departments or their Food and Drug Administration offices.\n\nSilverstein, meanwhile, said he was incredibly dismayed by the Instagram post Daily Harvest used to alert customers of the recall. The post, which was published on June 19, simply used a previous promotional picture of the crumble -- and directed people to click a link for an \"important message,\" which directed them to a blog post about the voluntary recall. At a first glance, Silverstein said most people would assume that the post was promoting the product. Daily Harvest has since removed the post he referenced from their Instagram, which was widely blasted as insensitive.\n\nThe FDA told CNN Business in a statement that it cannot confirm or deny if an investigation is occurring that is not already listed on its website. \"However, the FDA takes seriously reports of possible adulteration of a food that may also cause illnesses or injury,\" an FDA spokesperson said in a statement.\n\nThe agency added that when specific consumer guidance can be developed, the FDA and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will publish outbreak advisories communicating that guidance to the public.\n\n\"I'm very angry because we are all being left in the dark without answers,\" said Pearson. \"I know that accidents happen all the time in the food industry, and I've just seen other companies who are completely transparent, speaking up and making loud and clear announcements of what's going on and what the next steps are and what they found out so far.\"\n\nSilverstein added that he feels that some of the onus has fallen on influencers to alert their followers. While the company emailed customers and posted a statement on its website, he thinks they should be doing more to make people aware on social media.\n\nWhile he and his wife have worked with Daily Harvest for some five years now, and never had any issues in the past, he said they have no choice but to \"cut off our relationship with them.\"", "authors": ["Catherine Thorbecke", "Jennifer Korn", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2022/04/11/lucky-charms-illness/7277179001/", "title": "Lucky Charms recall? FDA looking at reports of cereal causing illness", "text": "The Food and Drug Administration said it is looking into recent online reports of the popular cereal Lucky Charms causing gastrointestinal issues in some consumers.\n\nOn the website iwaspoisoned.com, where people can report any food-related illnesses and share the city and state where they received the food, over 1,300 people have said as of Monday they've felt sick since April 1 after eating the breakfast cereal. Most of the reported symptoms include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, and cases have been reported throughout the United States.\n\n\"We recommend anyone who fell ill after eating Lucky Charms to report it and to keep leftover product for testing. We will communicate procedures for testing to everyone who reports their case,\" the website reads.\n\n\"The FDA is aware of reports and is looking into the matter,\" the FDA said in a statement to USA TODAY. \"The FDA takes seriously any reports of possible adulteration of a food that may also cause illnesses or injury.\"\n\nRecall database: Check USA TODAY's recall resource for the latest updates\n\nKinder recall: Ferrero recalls some Kinder chocolate products after salmonella cases in Europe\n\nThe FDA said it has received few complaints directly. The agency has its own food reporting protocols through its Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition system. The CFSAN Adverse Event Reporting System is a database that collects complaints made about any food, dietary supplement and cosmetic product.\n\nSince 2004, the FDA said it has received 41 reports related to Lucky Charms, with only three since 2021. Of those three reports, only one is related to a complaint also listed on iwaspoisioned.com.\n\nThe FDA said it does not discuss details of a possible or ongoing investigation, but added depending on the seriousness of a problem, it would send investigators to visit a person who has made a complaint and investigate the cause of their sickness. If the problem isn't serious, each incident is tracked and may be used for a future inspection of a company and the plant in which the product is made. No product recall has been made for Lucky Charms as of Monday.\n\n\"The agency has received no calls at the FDA’s Food and Cosmetic Information Center related to Lucky Charms,\" it said.\n\nGeneral Mills, which makes the cereal, also said it has \"not found any evidence that these complaints are attributed to our products\" after an internal investigation.\n\n\"Food safety is our top priority. We take the consumer concerns reported via a third-party website very seriously,\" Andrea Williamson, General Mills spokesperson, told USA TODAY. \"We encourage consumers to please share any concerns directly with General Mills to ensure they can be appropriately addressed.\"\n\nSkippy peanut butter recall:Select products recalled because they may contain steel fragments\n\nHand sanitizer recall:Mickey Mouse, The Mandalorian products recalled for presence of methanol, benzene\n\nFollow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/11"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/01/tech/daily-harvest-recall-lawsuits/index.html", "title": "Daily Harvest hit with lawsuits from people who say they had their ...", "text": "(CNN) Days after meal-kit service Daily Harvest announced the voluntary recall of one of its products, the company has been hit with two lawsuits from individuals who said they had their gallbladders removed after consuming it.\n\nDaily Harvest, a direct-to-consumer brand that relied on a network of online influencers to promote its products, announced earlier this month the voluntary recall of its French Lentil and Leek Crumbles after people who consumed it reported becoming ill. Several influencers told CNN Business last week that they spent time in the hospital with mysterious symptoms that puzzled doctors, including intense gastrointestinal pain and extremely elevated liver enzymes.\n\nOn Wednesday, Luke Wesley Pearson, a content creator from Portland, filed a personal injury lawsuit against Daily Harvest in an Oregon court. The complaint states that Pearson was healthy and had no significant health problems prior to consuming the crumbles.\n\n\"After consuming the Daily Harvest Lentil Crumbles, plaintiff became violently ill, required hospitalization and endured the surgical removal of his gallbladder,\" the complaint states. The suit also alleges Daily Harvest didn't do enough to warn people about the dangers of its product, and \"issued vaguely worded and insufficient warnings to its customers and influencers.\"\n\nCarol Ann Ready, a Daily Harvest customer, is also suing the company after she said she also was hospitalized and had her gallbladder removed after consuming the crumbles. The complaint recounts two emergency room visits in May after consuming the product twice. She described her pain as \"a 9 or 10 out of 10,\" the complaint states.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Catherine Thorbecke", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/07/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2022/02/17/similac-recall-fda-warning-abbott-baby-formula/6837340001/", "title": "Abbott recall: Similac, other baby formula recalled after illnesses", "text": "Abbott Nutrition is voluntarily recalling three types of infant formula after four babies became sick with bacteria infections after consuming the products.\n\nThe recall, announced Thursday, is for select lots of Similac, Alimentum and EleCare formulas that were manufactured at an Abbott facility in Sturgis, Michigan.\n\nThe Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to use or purchase the formulas or certain powdered infant formula produced at the facility.\n\n\"The FDA is investigating complaints of four infant illnesses from three states,\" the agency said in a statement on Thursday. \"All four cases related to these complaints were hospitalized and Cronobacter may have contributed to a death in one case.\"\n\nRECALL DATABASE: Check USA TODAY's recall resource for the latest updates\n\nFORMULA SHORTAGE:5 things you can do to feed your baby during a formula shortage\n\nInfants sick with Cronobacter sakazakii or salmonella\n\nThree of the babies were sick with Cronobacter sakazakii and one had Salmonella Newport, the FDA said.\n\nCronobacter bacteria can cause severe, life-threatening sepsis infections or meningitis while salmonella can cause gastrointestinal illness and fever, according to the FDA.\n\n\"We deeply regret the concern and inconvenience this situation will cause parents, caregivers and health care professionals,\" Joe Manning, Abbott executive vice president, nutritional products, said in a statement.\n\nSTAY ON TOP OF RECALLS:Food safety: How to prevent food poisoning by monitoring recalls\n\nCAR RECALLS:Does my car have a recall? Tesla, Hyundai, Kia and more have vehicles on recalls list\n\nThe FDA said it initiated an onsite inspection at the facility and findings to date include several positive \"Cronobacter sakazakii results.\"\n\n“As this is a product used as the sole source of nutrition for many of our nation’s newborns and infants, the FDA is deeply concerned about these reports of bacterial infections,” said Frank Yiannas, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response, in a statement.\n\nFOOD RECALLS:How technology could alert you before you eat that tainted salad\n\nDEODORANT RECALL 2022:Brut, Sure aerosol deodorant and antiperspirant sprays recalled for benzene risk\n\nAbbott recall: What products are recalled?\n\nThe products under recall include Similac, Alimentum and EleCare powdered infant formulas. Check a multidigit number on the bottom of the container to know if your product is included:\n\nThe first two digits of the code are 22 through 37; and\n\nThe code on the container contains K8, SH or Z2; and\n\nThe expiration date is 4-1-2022 (APR 2022) or later.\n\nMore information is available at Similacrecall.com where you can type in the code on the bottom of the package. You can also call 1-800-986-8540 and follow the instructions provided.\n\nAccording to Abbott, no liquid formulas, powder formulas or nutrition products from other facilities are impacted by the recall. The recalled products were only manufactured in Sturgis, Michigan, the company said.\n\nHOLY GUACAMOLE:Avocados from Mexico are banned. Will this cause an avocado shortage? Will prices increase?\n\nDAILY MONEY NEWSLETTER: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko. For shopping news, tips and deals, join us on our Shopping Ninjas Facebook group.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2022/02/28/similac-recall-2022-baby-formula/9323886002/", "title": "Similac recall: Specialty baby formula recalled after infant death", "text": "Abbott Nutrition's baby formula recall has been expanded to include one lot of Similac PM 60/40.\n\nThe Food and Drug Administration said in an update Monday that health officials were investigating an additional illness of Cronobacter sakazakii with exposure to powdered infant formula produced at the company's Sturgis, Michigan facility. That baby also died of Cronobacter.\n\n\"The most recent patient was reported to have consumed Abbott Nutrition’s Similac PM 60/40 product with the lot code 27032K800 prior to Cronobacter sakazakii infection,\" the FDA said.\n\nSimilac PM is considered \"a specialty formula for certain infants who would benefit from lowered mineral intake.\" It was not included in the previous recall for select lots of Similac, Alimentum and EleCare formulas announced Feb. 17.\n\nRECALL DATABASE: Check USA TODAY's recall resource for the latest updates\n\nFORMULA SHORTAGE:5 things you can do to feed your baby during a formula shortage\n\nThe previously recalled formulas were also produced at the Michigan facility. The lot of Similac PM 60/40 was distributed to the U.S. and Israel.\n\nCronobacter bacteria can cause severe, life-threatening sepsis infections or meningitis while Salmonella can cause gastrointestinal illness and fever, according to the FDA.\n\nAbbott said in an update Monday that in addition to the other formula recalled it was recalling Lot # 27032K80 (can) / Lot # 27032K800 (case) of Similac PM 60/40 after learning of the baby's death.\n\n\"This case is under investigation, and at this time the cause of the infant’s Cronobacter sakazakii infection has not been determined,\" Abbott posted on its recall website. \"We want to extend our heartfelt sympathies to the family.\"\n\nAbbott also said \"no distributed product has tested positive for the presence of Cronobacter sakazakii\" and recently tested retained product samples of Similac PM \"were negative for Cronobacter.\"\n\nThe FDA said its investigation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now includes four reports of Cronobacter sakazakii infections in infants and one complaint of a Salmonella Newport infection. All of the babies were hospitalized and Cronobacter may have contributed to death in two patients.\n\nThe agency said it is \"working with Abbott Nutrition to better assess the impacts of the recall and understand production capacity at other Abbott facilities that produce some of the impacted brands.\" The FDA said it is working with Abbott \"on safe resumption of production at the Sturgis, MI facility.\"\n\nCAR RECALLS:Does my car have a recall? Ford, Kia, Mercedes-Benz and more have vehicles on recalls list\n\nPANCAKE DAY:IHOP has free pancakes for National Pancake Day Tuesday. McDonald's, Taco Bell also have deals\n\nSimilac recall 2022: What Abbott products have been recalled?\n\nAbbott is voluntarily recalling one lot of Similac PM 60/40 Lot # 27032K80 (can) / Lot # 27032K800 (case).\n\nOther products previously recalled include Similac, Alimentum and EleCare powdered infant formulas. Check a multidigit number on the bottom of the container to know if your product is included:\n\nThe first two digits of the code are 22 through 37; and\n\nThe code on the container contains K8, SH or Z2; and\n\nThe expiration date is 4-1-2022 (APR 2022) or later.\n\nMore information is available at Similacrecall.com where you can type in the code on the bottom of the package. You can also call 1-800-986-8540 and follow the instructions provided.\n\nAccording to Abbott, no liquid formulas, powder formulas or nutrition products from other facilities are impacted by the recall. The recalled products were only manufactured in Sturgis, Michigan, the company said.\n\nWhat is Cronobacter sakazakii and how can it spread?\n\nAccording to the CDC, Cronobacter sakazakii is a germ found naturally in the environment and can live in very dry places. The germs can live in dry foods, such as powdered infant formula, powdered milk, herbal teas and starches. It also has been found in wastewater.\n\nCronobacter illnesses are rare – the CDC said it typically receives reports of two to four infections in infants each year – but they are frequently lethal for infants and can be serious among people with immunocompromising conditions and the elderly. Only Minnesota requires reporting the illness.\n\nIn infants, Cronobacter usually causes sepsis or severe meningitis. Some infants may experience seizures. The mortality rate for Cronobacter meningitis may be as high as 40%, the CDC said.\n\nCronobacter can also cause wound infections or urinary tract infections in people of all ages.\n\nDAILY MONEY NEWSLETTER: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nFOOD RECALLS:How technology could alert you before you eat that tainted salad\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko. For shopping news, tips and deals, join us on our Shopping Ninjas Facebook group.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2022/02/21/family-dollar-recall-rodents-stores-closed-list/6879454001/", "title": "Family Dollar recall: 404 stores closed in 6 states after rodent ...", "text": "Family Dollar has temporarily closed more than 400 of its stores in six states related to a rodent infestation that is also tied to a recall.\n\nOn Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced more than 1,000 rodents were found inside a Family Dollar distribution facility in Arkansas that served stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.\n\nFamily Dollar also announced a voluntary recall affecting items purchased from the hundreds of stores purchased between Jan. 1, 2021 through this year.\n\n\"We take situations like this very seriously and are committed to providing safe and quality products to our customers,\" company spokesperson Kayleigh Campbell said in a statement to USA TODAY. \"We have been fully cooperating with all regulatory agencies in the resolution of this matter and are in the process of remediating the issue.\"\n\nRECALL DATABASE: Check USA TODAY's recall resource for the latest updates\n\nFOOD RECALLS:How technology could alert you before you eat that tainted salad\n\nFamily Dollar posted the list of affected stores in a news release (See list of locations below).\n\nThe company, which also owns Dollar Tree stores, confirmed to USA TODAY on Monday that it \"temporarily closed the affected stores in order to proficiently conduct the voluntary recall of certain FDA-regulated products.\"\n\nWhen stores will open was not known as of Monday. \"Our teams are working hard to reopen these stores as soon as possible,\" Campbell said in a statement.\n\nFamily Dollar recall 2022\n\nItems included in the recall include over-the-counter medications, medical devices, cosmetics, dietary supplements, human food and pet food.\n\nFamily Dollar said the \"recall does not apply to products shipped directly to the stores by the distributor or manufacturer, such as all frozen and refrigerated items.\" The recall also applies to the 404 stores on the company's list and not other locations.\n\nThe company said it “is not aware of any consumer complaints or reports of illness related to this recall.”\n\nCustomers that may have purchased affected products can return the items to the Family Dollar store where they were purchased without a receipt, the company said.\n\nFor questions about the recall, contact Family Dollar Customer Service at 844-636-7687 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. EST.\n\nCHECK YOUR BABY FORMULA:Baby formula recall 2022: FDA warns consumers not to use select Similac, Alimentum and EleCare\n\nMONITOR RECALLS:Food safety: How to prevent food poisoning by monitoring recalls\n\nFamily Dollar stores closed temporarily due to rodents\n\nHere are the stores affected by the recall and temporarily closed.\n\nAlabama Family Dollar stores\n\nAliceville: 35 Memorial Parkway E\n\nBrookwood: 15704 Al Highway 216\n\nEutaw: 206 Greensboro St.\n\nLinden: 303 S. Main St.\n\nLivingston: 1307 North Washington St.\n\nMoundville: P O Box 308\n\nSulligent: 5705 Us Highway 278\n\nTuscaloosa: 524 14th St.\n\nTuscaloosa: 1507 Culver Road\n\nTuscaloosa: 2515 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.\n\nTuscaloosa: 3851 Greensboro Ave.\n\nTuscaloosa: 1525 Skyland Blvd. East\n\nVernon: 9598 Highway 18\n\nYork: 700 4th Ave.\n\nArkansas Family Dollar stores\n\nArkadelphia: 1550 Pine St.\n\nAtkins: 603 North Church St.\n\nBatesville: 1275 E Main St.\n\nBlytheville: 2001 W Main St.\n\nBrinkley: 1421 Pinecrest St.\n\nCabot: 1302 S Pine St.\n\nCamden: 216 California Ave.\n\nClarendon: 300 Madison St.\n\nClarksville: P.O. Box 265\n\nConway: 254 Oak St.\n\nCrossett: 308 C Pine St.\n\nDanville: 301 E 8th St.\n\nDermott: 205 E Speedway St.\n\nDes Arc: 1602 Main St.\n\nDewitt: 300 S. Whitehead Drive\n\nDumas: 439 E Choctaw St.\n\nEarle: 17668 Us Highway 64\n\nEl Dorado: 424 N West Ave.\n\nEngland: 1005 E Fordyce St.\n\nEudora: 2963 S Highway 65\n\nFordyce: 1007 W 4th St.\n\nForrest City: 228 W Broadway St.\n\nGreen Forest: 802 E Main St. Suite 1\n\nGurdon: 506 E. Main St.\n\nHamburg: 700 N Main St.\n\nHampton: 214 S Lee St.\n\nHarrisburg: 608 N Illinois St.\n\nHot Springs: 640 Malvern Ave.\n\nHot Springs: 3339 Central Ave.\n\nHot Springs: 899 Park Ave.\n\nHot Springs: 3242 Albert Pike Road\n\nJacksonville: 1700 S Highway 161\n\nJonesboro: 106 S Gee St.\n\nLake Village: 1218 N Highway65\n\nLepanto: 325 W Broad St.\n\nLittle Rock: 801 E. Roosevelt Road\n\nLittle Rock: 4514 W 12th St.\n\nLittle Rock: 3500 Baseline Road\n\nLittle Rock: 8824 Geyer Springs Road\n\nLittle Rock: 3901 S University Ave.\n\nLittle Rock: 20290 Arch St.\n\nLittle Rock: 1711 Main St.\n\nLittle Rock: 8510 Colonel Glenn Road\n\nLittle Rock: 5200 West 65th St.\n\nLittle Rock: 10422 Chicot Road\n\nLittle Rock: 2408 Dr Martin Luther King Jr.\n\nMalvern: 404 E Page Ave.\n\nMarianna: 286 W Chestnut St.\n\nMarion: 138 Block St.\n\nMarvell: P.O. Box 65\n\nMayflower: 652 Highway 365\n\nMcgehee: 606 Holly St.\n\nMelbourne: 609 E Main St.\n\nMonticello: 620 W Gaines St.\n\nMorrilton: 1313 E Broadway\n\nN Little Rock: 2633 Pike Ave.\n\nN Little Rock: 4149 E Broadway St.\n\nN Little Rock: 4204 Camp Robinson Road\n\nN Little Rock: 2121 Highway 161\n\nN Little Rock: 715 E Broadway St.\n\nNorth Little Rock: 4143 John F. Kennedy Blvd.\n\nNorth Little Rock: 5613 Macarthur Drive\n\nOsceola: 1051 W Keiser\n\nParagould: 300 W Kings Highway\n\nPerryville: 416 S Fourche Ave.\n\nPine Bluff: 2801 S Olive St.\n\nPine Bluff: 5316 Dollarway Road\n\nPine Bluff: 1113 S Blake St.\n\nPine Bluff: 3100 W 28th Ave.\n\nPine Bluff: 1607 E Harding Ave.\n\nPine Bluff: 1169 W 16th Ave.\n\nPocahontas: 2104 Highway 62 W\n\nRussellville: 1200 S Knoxville Ave.\n\nSearcy: 2223 W Beebe Capps Expressway\n\nStar City: 601 S Lincoln\n\nStuttgart: 1823 S. Main St.\n\nTrumann: 443 Highway 463 S\n\nVilonia: 10 Eagle St.\n\nWalnut Ridge: 500 Sw Front St.\n\nWarren: 317 S Martin St.\n\nWest Helena: 233 N Sebastian St.\n\nWest Memphis: 2113 E Broadway St.\n\nWest Memphis: 209 Shoppingway Blvd. Suite B\n\nWest Memphis: 420 S Avalon St.\n\nWynne: P O Box 591\n\nCAR RECALLS:Does my car have a recall? Tesla, Hyundai, Kia and more have vehicles on recalls list\n\nHOW RECALLS WORK:Food recalls 101: How the chicken and salad mix get pulled from the shelves\n\nLouisiana Family Dollar stores\n\nAlexandria: 232 Bolton Ave.\n\nAlexandria: 2501 3rd St.\n\nArcadia: 1801 Hazel St.\n\nArnaudville: 1022 Coteau Rodaire Highway\n\nBaker: 810 Main St.\n\nBastrop: 542 N Washington St.\n\nBastrop: 1714 E Madison Ave.\n\nBaton Rouge: 8027 Scenic Highway\n\nBaton Rouge: 6910 Mickens Road\n\nBernice: 60 West 4th St.\n\nBreaux Bridge: 904 Rees St. Suite B\n\nBreaux Bridge: P.O. Box 308\n\nBreaux Bridge: 3047 Grand Point Highway\n\nBreaux Bridge: 1802 Anse Broussard Highway\n\nBunkie: 816 NW Main St.\n\nCalhoun: 161 Highway 80 East\n\nCarencro: 631 Veterans Memorial Drive\n\nCarencro: P.O. Box 537\n\nCarencro: 2405 Highway 93\n\nCenter Point: 1045 Highway 107\n\nChatham: 1234 Highway 4\n\nChurch Point: 336 S. Main St.\n\nClinton: 9203 Highway 67\n\nColumbia: 7741 Highway 165\n\nCottonport: 409 Choupique Lane\n\nDelhi: 807 Broadway Drive\n\nDeville: 12905 La 28 East\n\nFarmerville: 505 S Main St.\n\nFerriday: 504 E Wallace Road\n\nGreensburg: 6194 Highway 10\n\nHarrisonburg: 707 Highway 8\n\nJackson: 3000 Highway 10\n\nJonesboro: 448 Old Winnfield Road\n\nJonesville: 1904 4th St.\n\nKentwood: 512 Ave. G\n\nLafayette: 2009 W University Ave.\n\nLafayette: 107 Carmel Ave.\n\nLafayette: 2228 Ambassador Caffery Parkway\n\nLafayette: 1100 W Willow St.\n\nLafayette: 3550 W Pinhook Road\n\nLafayette: 4301 Moss Road\n\nLafayette: 501 E Pinhook Road\n\nLafayette: 3841 W Congress St.\n\nLafayette: 1944 Moss St.\n\nLake Providence: 300 Sparrow St.\n\nLawtell: 10251 Prejean Highway\n\nLivonia: 8389 Highway 190 SE\n\nMansura: P O Box 6\n\nMarksville: 355 W Tunica Drive\n\nMonroe: 1421 Winnsboro Road\n\nMonroe: 3038 Desiard St.\n\nMonroe: 7916 Desiard St.\n\nMonroe: 3390 Sterlington Road\n\nNew Roads: 1420 Hospital Road\n\nNew Roads: 401 Elm St.\n\nNewellton: 1106 Verona St.\n\nOak Grove: 310 West Main St.\n\nOpelousas: 209 Natchez Blvd.\n\nOpelousas: 933 Cresswell Lane\n\nOpelousas: 718 S Union St.\n\nOpelousas: 1322 W Landry St\n\nPineville: 8311 Highway 71 N\n\nPollock: 8016 Ridge St.\n\nPort Allen: 12902 Highway 190 W\n\nPort Barre: 17491 Highway 190\n\nRayville: 1910 Julia St.\n\nRichwood: 3296 Highway 165 South\n\nRichwood: 2610 Richwood Road 2\n\nRuston: 612 S Monroe St.\n\nRuston: 601 E Georgia Ave.\n\nScott: 5620 Cameron St.\n\nScott: 1061 Renaud Drive\n\nSimsboro: 9447 Highway 80\n\nSt. Joseph: 1101 Plank Road\n\nSterlington: 10008 Highway 165 N\n\nSunset: 122 Oak Tree Park Drive\n\nTallulah: 300 N Chestnut St.\n\nVidalia: 1919 Carter St.\n\nVille Platte: 710 W Main St.\n\nWashington: 553 Veterans Blvd.\n\nWest Monroe: 117 Smith St.\n\nWest Monroe: 1202 Cypress St.\n\nWest Monroe: 3002 Cypress St.\n\nWest Monroe: 5075 Cypress St.\n\nWest Monroe: 5872 Jonesboro Road\n\nWinnfield: 815 W Court St.\n\nWinnsboro: 3636 Front St.\n\nWisner: 139 Maple St.\n\nYoungsville: P.O. Box 1346\n\nZachary: 4950 Highway 19\n\nMississippi Family Dollar stores\n\nAberdeen: 103 Highway 45 N\n\nAckerman: 222 Mabus St.\n\nBaldwyn: 209 N 2Nd Ave.\n\nBassfield: 4168 Highway 42\n\nBatesville: 116 Highway 51 N\n\nBay Springs: 2760D Highway 15\n\nBelmont: P.O. Box 1143\n\nBelzoni: 620 E First St.\n\nBrandon: 304 E Government St.\n\nBrookhaven: 600 E Monticello St.\n\nCanton: 1074 E Peace St.\n\nCanton: 1131 W Peace St.\n\nCanton: 3376 N. Liberty St.\n\nCentreville: Po Box 1029\n\nCharleston: 310 W Main St.\n\nClarksdale: 620 S State St.\n\nClarksdale: 1032 N State St.\n\nCleveland: 406 S Davis Ave.\n\nClinton: 222 Clinton Blvd.\n\nCollins: 816 Main St.\n\nColumbus: 1412 Main St.\n\nColumbus: 202 Alabama St.\n\nColumbus: 60 Mike Parra Road\n\nCrystal Springs: P. O. Box 542\n\nDe Kalb: 14916 Highway 16 W\n\nDecatur: 15458 Highway 15\n\nDrew: 144 W Park Ave.\n\nDurant: 369 E Madison St.\n\nEupora: 1960 Veteran'S Memorial Blvd. S\n\nFlora: 101 Mansker Drive\n\nFulton: 1409 S Adams St.\n\nGloster: 437 N Captain Gloster Drive\n\nGoodman: 9563 Main St.\n\nGreenville: 110 N Harvey St.\n\nGreenville: 2101 Highway 82 E\n\nGreenville: 1443 Mlk Blvd. S.\n\nGreenville: 1325 Highway 82 W\n\nGreenwood: 700 Highway 7 N\n\nGreenwood: 320 Highway 82 W\n\nGrenada: 1815 Commerce St.\n\nGrenada: 100 N Dr. Mlk Jr. Blvd.\n\nGulfport: 20014 Highway 53\n\nHamilton: 40055 Hamilton Road\n\nHattiesburg: 215 Broadway Drive\n\nHazelhurst: 130 Trade Center Lane\n\nHollandale: 1002 East Ave. N\n\nHolly Springs: 183 N. Memphis St.\n\nHorn Lake: 3230 Goodman Road W\n\nIndianola: 903C Highway 82 E\n\nJackson: 3204 Medgar Evers Boulevard\n\nJackson: 3140 W Northside Drive\n\nJackson: 4445 N State St.\n\nJackson: 2566 Robinson St. Suite B\n\nJackson: 516 Nakoma Drive\n\nJackson: 3366 Terry Road\n\nJackson: 320 W Woodrow Wilson Ave.\n\nJackson: 2019A Raymond Road\n\nJackson: 3111 W Capital St.\n\nJackson: 311 Briarwood Drive\n\nJackson: 4747 Clinton Blvd.\n\nJackson: 3707 S Siwell Road\n\nJackson: 2820 Terry Road\n\nJackson: 1201 University Boulevard\n\nJackson: 4610 Terry Road\n\nJackson: 5060 Parkway Drive\n\nKosciusko: 329 Highway 12 East\n\nLeland: 604 N Broad St.\n\nLexington: 327 Depot St.\n\nLiberty: 332 E Main St.\n\nLouisville: 401 South Church Ave.\n\nMacon: 601 S Jefferson St.\n\nMagnolia: 115 N. Clark Ave.\n\nMantachie: 67 Watson Drive\n\nMarion: 5321 Dale Drive\n\nMarks: 713 Martin Luther King Drive\n\nMc Comb: 1209 Delaware Ave.\n\nMccomb: 1200 Lasalle St.\n\nMeadville: P.O. Box 709\n\nMendenhall: 1736 Simpson Highway 149\n\nMeridian: 2815 8th St.\n\nMonticello: 713 E Broad St.\n\nNatchez: 395 John R Junkin Drive\n\nNatchez: 1196 N Martin Luther King Jr S\n\nNewton: 188 Northside Drive\n\nOkolona: 511 W Monroe Ave.\n\nPearl: 3123 Highway 80 E\n\nPearl: 621 South Pearson Road\n\nPhiladelphia: 800 E Main St.\n\nPort Gibson: P O Box 41\n\nPrentiss: Po Box 1556\n\nQuitman: 548 S Archusa Ave.\n\nRaleigh: 202 White Oak\n\nRaymond: 825 E Main St.\n\nRidgeland: 1606 E County Line Road\n\nRidgeland: 398 Highway 51\n\nRobinsonville: 1115 Casino Center Drive\n\nRolling Fork: 20503 Highway 61\n\nRuleville: P O Box 218\n\nSeminary: 23 Highway 590 W\n\nSmithdale: 13824 Us-98\n\nSouthaven: 8650 Highway 51 N\n\nSouthaven: 980 Church Road W\n\nStarkville: 213 N Jackson St.\n\nTunica: 1440 Us Highway. 61 N\n\nTupelo: 701 W Main St.\n\nTylertown: 900 Beulah Ave.\n\nUnion: 803 E Jackson Road\n\nVaiden: 34195 Highway 35\n\nVicksburg: 2080 S Frontage Road\n\nVicksburg: 1305 Mission 66\n\nVicksburg: 135 Highway 27\n\nVicksburg: 1800 Highway 61 North\n\nVicksburg: 5100 Highway 61 South\n\nWater Valley: 409 Duncan St.\n\nWesson: 2071 Highway 51\n\nWinona: 106 S Applegate St.\n\nWoodville: 184 Main St.\n\nYazoo: 301 Broadway St.\n\nYazoo City: 760 E 15th St.\n\nMissouri Family Dollar stores\n\nCharleston: 601 S Main St.\n\nDexter: 312 W Stoddard St.\n\nEast Prairie: 125 Prairie Drive\n\nKennett: 401 First St.\n\nSikeston: 1031 E Malone Ave.\n\nSikeston: 209 W Malone Ave.\n\nVan Buren: 1409 Main St.\n\nWest Plains: 1308 Porter Wagoner Blvd.\n\nTennessee Family Dollar stores\n\nAdamsville: 306 E. Main St.\n\nBartlett: 2686 Kirby Whitten Road\n\nBartlett: 1745 Sycamore View Road\n\nBolivar: 605 W Market St.\n\nBrownsville: 605 E Main St.\n\nCordova: 1683 Appling Road\n\nCordova: 9109 Us 64\n\nCovington: 605 Highway 51 N\n\nDyersburg: 1935 St John Ave. #C\n\nGrand Junction: 228 Highway 57 W\n\nHenderson: 121 Whitley Ave.\n\nJackson: 903 Hollywood Drive\n\nJackson: 1011 Old Hickory Blvd.\n\nJackson: 224 N Royal St.\n\nJackson: 1000 Whitehall St.\n\nJackson: 1301 N Highland Ave.\n\nLexington: 117 W. Church St.\n\nMedina: 211 Three Oaks Drive\n\nMemphis: 3223 Winchester Road\n\nMemphis: 2168 Frayser Blvd.\n\nMemphis: 3975 Jackson Ave.\n\nMemphis: 3190 N Thomas #3192\n\nMemphis: 4100 S Plaza Drive\n\nMemphis: 142 N Avalon St.\n\nMemphis: 2920 Lamar Ave.\n\nMemphis: 4724 Millbranch Road\n\nMemphis: 3400 Summer Ave.\n\nMemphis: 1107 S Bellevue Blvd.\n\nMemphis: 2500 Elvis Pressley Blvd.\n\nMemphis: 3682 North Watkins St.\n\nMemphis: 4689 Knight Arnold Road\n\nMemphis: 3242 Jackson Ave.\n\nMemphis: 4216 Summer Ave.\n\nMemphis: 2570 Frayser Blvd.\n\nMemphis: 2912 Coleman Road\n\nMemphis: 4330 Winchester Road\n\nMemphis: 3315 E Shelby Drive\n\nMemphis: 4727 Neely Road\n\nMemphis: 3566 S Mendenhall Road\n\nMemphis: 6636 E Shelby Drive\n\nMemphis: 5355 Elvis Presley Blvd.\n\nMemphis: 3141 S Mendenhall Road\n\nMemphis: 3255 Hickory Hill Road\n\nMemphis: 3338 Austin Peay Highway\n\nMemphis: 2743 N Watkins St.\n\nMemphis: 2981 Park Ave.\n\nMemphis: 3515 Ridgemont Ave.\n\nMemphis: 3435 Millbranch Road\n\nMemphis: 3500 Ramill Road\n\nMemphis: 6415 E Raines Road\n\nMemphis: 2374 Summer Ave.\n\nMemphis: 287 N. Cleveland St.\n\nMemphis: 2715 S Perkins Road\n\nMemphis: 1636 Getwell Road\n\nMemphis: 180 East E H Crump Blvd.\n\nMemphis: 831 Thomas St.\n\nMemphis: 3390 S Us Highway 61\n\nMemphis: 2760 Lamar Ave.\n\nMemphis: 656 S Highland St.\n\nMemphis: 1870 N Germantown Parkway\n\nMemphis: 1427 N Hollywood St.\n\nMemphis: 6550 Mt. Moriah Road\n\nMemphis: 2644 James Road\n\nMemphis: 4082 Us Highway 61 Suite 101\n\nMemphis: 4280 Macon Road\n\nMemphis: 3544 Covington Pike\n\nMemphis: 1539 Whitten Road\n\nMemphis: 4202 Hacks Cross Road\n\nMemphis: 2711 Getwell Road\n\nMemphis: 2970 Poplar Ave.\n\nMemphis: 4618 Quince Road\n\nMemphis: 2360 Airways Blvd.\n\nMemphis: 1688 Jackson Ave.\n\nMemphis: 3403 Elvis Presley Blvd.\n\nMemphis: 5245 Riverdale Road\n\nMemphis: 4194 Hickory Hill Road\n\nMemphis: 910 Jackson Ave.\n\nMemphis: 6222 Winchester Road\n\nMemphis: 1450 S Trezevant St.\n\nMiddleton: 716 S Main St.\n\nMillington: 4839 Navy Road\n\nMunford: 1345 Munford Ave.\n\nParsons: 503 Tennessee Ave. N\n\nRidgely: 101 Lake St.\n\nRipley: 180 South Washington St.\n\nSavannah: 2007 Wayne Road\n\nSomerville: 17575 Us Highway 64\n\nTrenton: 128 Davy Crockett Mall\n\nDAILY MONEY NEWSLETTER: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nDEODORANT RECALL:Sure and Brut aerosol deodorant and antiperspirant sprays recalled for benzene risk\n\nContributing: Associated Press; Brett Molina, USA TODAY\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko. For shopping news, tips and deals, join us on our Shopping Ninjas Facebook group.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/19/us/family-dollar-recall-rodent/index.html", "title": "Family Dollar issues recall for various products after FDA inspection ...", "text": "(CNN) The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday issued an alert that various products purchased within the last year from Family Dollar Stores across six states may be contaminated and unsafe to use.\n\nItems ranging from dietary supplements and medication to cosmetics and pet foods may have been exposed to insanitary conditions at Family Dollar's distribution facility in West Memphis, Arkansas, federal officials said in a news release. An FDA inspection found that a rodent infestation could have potentially contaminated the products.\n\nFamily Dollar on Friday issued a voluntary recall of particular items that were sold after January 1, 2021, at hundreds of stores throughout Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee, according to a news release\n\nThe company said it's not aware of consumer complaints or reports of illnesses related to the recall.\n\n\"Family Dollar is notifying its affected stores by letter asking them to check their stock immediately and to quarantine and discontinue the sale of any affected product. Customers that may have bought affected product may return such product to the Family Dollar store where they were purchased without receipt,\" the company said.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Aya Elamroussi"], "publish_date": "2022/02/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2021/01/12/recall-alert-midwestern-pet-foods-sportsmix-recalled-aflatoxin-risk/6642035002/", "title": "Pet food recall: Midwestern Pet Foods expands recall after dog deaths", "text": "Midwestern Pet Foods Inc. has expanded its recall of some of its products after reports that the food is linked to multiple dog deaths and may contain potentially unsafe levels of aflatoxin, a byproduct of mold.\n\nThe Food and Drug Administration said in a statement that it has been “aware of more than 70 dogs that have died and more than 80 that are sick after eating Sportmix pet food.”\n\nAflatoxin is a toxin that can grow on corn and other grains used as ingredients in pet food, according to the FDA. At high levels, aflatoxin can cause illness and death in pets.\n\nThe Evansville, Indiana, family-owned company said in a statement Wednesday that in its nearly 100 years it has never had a recall until recently.\n\nCostco closing photo departments:Costco will soon close photo centers in all of its clubs, but some services will be available online\n\nEarly Thanksgiving shopping news:It's not even Valentine's Day and Target has already decided stores will be closed on Thanksgiving Day 2021\n\nMidwestern Pet Foods first announced a voluntary recall on Dec. 30 and expanded it this week. The FDA said in December it was aware of 28 deaths and eight illnesses in dogs that ate the recalled product.\n\n\"There have been reports of illnesses and deaths in dogs associated with certain lots of products. No human illnesses have been reported,\" the company said in a recall notice. \"Out of an abundance of caution, we have expanded this recall to cover all corn products containing pet foods with expiration dates prior to 07/09/22.\"\n\nPets experiencing aflatoxin poisoning may have the following symptoms: sluggishness, loss of appetite, vomiting, jaundice (a yellowish tint to the skin, eyes, or gums due to liver damage) and diarrhea.\n\nThe expanded recall includes \"additional corn-containing lot codes of Sportmix, Pro Pac Originals, Splash, Sportstrail, and Nunn Better dry dog and cat foods\" that were produced in its Oklahoma manufacturing plant.\n\nThe company says it has a call center with licensed veterinarians for consumers who have questions or concerns regarding their pet’s health. Call 800-474-4163, extension 455, or email info@midwesternpetfoods.com for more information.\n\nUpcoming merger?:Staples proposes buying rival Office Depot for $2.1 billion after past merger attempts were blocked\n\nDoggie Desserts:Ben & Jerry's enters pet food business with a line of frozen dog treats\n\nMidwestern Pet Foods recall 2021\n\nThe following are the recalled products and the lot codes are listed in a 23-page document posted at www.midwesternpetfoods.com\n\nPro Pac Adult Mini Chunk\n\nPro Pac Performance Puppy\n\nSplash Fat Cat 32%\n\nNunn Better Maintenance\n\nSportstrail 50\n\nSportmix Original Cat 15\n\nSportmix Original Cat 31\n\nSportmix Maintenance 44\n\nSportmix Maintenance 50\n\nSportmix High Protein 50\n\nSportmix Energy Plus 44\n\nSportmix Energy Plus 50\n\nSportmix Stamina 44\n\nSportmix Stamina 50\n\nSportmix Bite Size 40\n\nSportmix Bite Size 44\n\nSportmix High Energy 44\n\nSportmix High Energy 50\n\nSportmix Premium Puppy 16.5\n\nSportmix Premium Puppy 33\n\nContributing: Sarah Brookbank, Cincinnati Enquirer\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/01/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2021/07/03/tyson-chicken-recall-precooked-chicken-possible-listeria-contamination/7856780002/", "title": "Tyson Foods recall: Chicken recalled for listeria contamination risk", "text": "UPDATE: The size of the recall grew by close to 500,000 pounds to nearly 9 million pounds. Learn more about the increase here.\n\nTyson Foods is recalling approximately 8.5 million pounds of frozen, cooked chicken products for possible listeria contamination.\n\nThe company and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced the recall Saturday night.\n\nThe recall includes Tyson branded products sold at stores nationwide and private label products for restaurants, which include Jet’s Pizza, Casey’s General Store, Marco’s Pizza and Little Caesars. Walmart, Publix and Wegmans are among the stores that sold the products.\n\nThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also issued a food safety alert saying the products – which were shipped nationwide to retailers and institutions including hospitals, nursing facilities, restaurants and schools – may be linked to a listeria outbreak that has caused three illnesses and one death.\n\n► Recalls you need to know about: Check out USA TODAY's curated database of consumer product recalls for the latest information\n\n► CVS ExtraCare program update:CVS updates ExtraCare program with faster rewards and a birthday freebie. Here's how to earn more ExtraBucks\n\n“We are taking this precautionary step out of an abundance of caution and in keeping with our commitment to safety,\" said Scott Brooks, Tyson Foods senior vice president, food safety and quality assurance, in a news release.\n\nAccording to Tyson Foods, the affected products were produced at one plant located in Dexter, Missouri, between Dec. 26 and April 13.\n\nA list of the retailers that sold the affected products was not available Saturday and will be posted on the USDA website in the future, according to Tyson's news release.\n\nThe company said it has been working with the USDA on the recall and said \"while there is no conclusive evidence that the products were contaminated at the time of shipment, the voluntary recall is being initiated out of an abundance of caution.\"\n\nEach package of the recalled products has the establishment code P-7089. A full list of the recalled products is posted on the USDA website and Tysonfoods.com.\n\nThe USDA said consumers should not eat the products and should throw them away or return them. The CDC advises businesses to not serve or sell the recalled products.\n\n“No other Tyson products are impacted by the recall, including but not limited to any Tyson brand fresh chicken; frozen, raw chicken products or chicken nuggets,” the company said.\n\nConsumers with questions about the recall can call or text 1-855-382-3101, the company said, noting customer service representatives will be available beginning Sunday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CDT.\n\nListeria outbreak linked to chicken\n\nAccording to the CDC, the three people who were sick in this outbreak ate foods served at a long-term care facility or hospital between April 6 and June 5. Two illnesses were in Texas and the other case was in Delaware.\n\nWhen two or more people get \"the same illness from the same contaminated food or drink, the event is called a foodborne disease outbreak,\" the CDC says.\n\nListeria can cause common food poisoning symptoms, like diarrhea and fever, the CDC says. But it can also cause severe illness, known as invasive listeriosis, when the bacteria spread beyond the gut to other parts of the body.\n\nSymptoms of severe illness usually start one to four weeks after eating contaminated food, but symptoms can start as late as 10 weeks after.\n\nAdults 65 or older, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk for severe illness from listeria, the CDC says.\n\n► What stores and restaurants are open July 4?:Walmart, Target, Home Depot open; Costco closed Sunday\n\n► Save better, spend better: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nTyson Foods chicken recall 2021\n\nThe following products are included in the recall, which in addition to products sold at stores nationwide, includes chicken distributed to restaurants and institutions, including hospitals, nursing facilities, restaurants and schools.\n\nFind product codes and date codes of the affected products on the USDA list.\n\n20-ounce bag Tyson Pulled Chicken Breast – Fully Cooked, Boneless Skinless with Rib Meat, Seasoned, Smoke Flavor Added\n\n22-ounce bag Tyson Fully Cooked Oven Roasted Diced Chicken Breast – Boneless Skinless with Rib Meat, Seasoned\n\n12-ounce bag Tyson Fully Cooked Fajita Chicken Breast Strips – Boneless Skinless with Rib Meat Smoke Flavor and Caramel Color Added\n\n22-ounce bag Tyson Fully Cooked Chicken Breast Strips – Boneless, Skinless with Rib Meat, Seasoned Smoke Flavor\n\n12-ounce bag Tyson Fully Cooked Oven Roasted Diced Chicken Breast – Boneless skinless with Rib Meat, Seasoned\n\n12-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Boneless, Skinless – Pulled Chicken Breasts with Rib Meat\n\n10-pound bag Jet’s Pizza – Fully Cooked, Fajita Seasoned, Boneless, Skinless – Diced Chicken Breasts with Rib Meat\n\n10-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked Diced Grilled Chicken Breast with Rib Meat\n\n39.93-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Seasoned, Grilled – Boneless, Skinless Chicken Strips CN for Fajitas\n\n10-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, All Natural, Low Sodium Boneless, Skinless – Pulled Dark and White Chicken\n\n10-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Low Sodium, Boneless, Skinless – Pulled White Chicken\n\n10-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Low Sodium, Boneless, Skinless – Pulled Chicken Natural Proportion\n\n10-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Low Sodium, All Natural – ½ \" Diced Chicken Natural Proportion\n\n10-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Low Sodium – ½ \" Diced White Chicken\n\n10-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Grilled, Boneless, Skinless – Chicken Breast Strips with Rib Meat, for Fajitas\n\n10-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked Grilled Chicken Breast Strips with Rib Meat\n\n8-pound bag Fully Cooked Grilled Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast Strips with Rib Meat\n\n10-pound bag Casey’s General Store – Fully Cooked, Grilled Chicken Breast Strips with Rib Meat\n\n10-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Wood Fired Seasoned, Dice, Grilled, Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts with Rib Meat, Smoke Flavor Added\n\n7.5-pound bag Fully Cooked Grilled Chicken Breast Strips – Boneless, Skinless with Rib Meat\n\n10-pound bag Marco’s Pizza Fully Cooked, Sliced Chicken Breast Strips with Rib Meat, Smoke Flavor Added\n\n10-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Wood Fire Seasoned, Grilled Chicken Breast Strips with Rib Meat, Smoke Flavor Added\n\n12-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Boneless Skinless Pulled Chicken Breast with Rib Meat\n\n10.32-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, All Natural Low Sodium, Boneless, Skinless Pulled Dark and White Chicken\n\n10-pound bag Little Caesars Fully Cooked Chicken Wing Sections\n\n10-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Char-Broiled Boneless Chicken Meat for Fajitas\n\n30-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Boneless, Skinless Dark Chicken Fajita Strips Smoke Flavor Added\n\n30-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Roasted, Grill Marked, All Natural Boneless, Skinless Chicken Leg Strips\n\n10-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Low Sodium, Boneless, Skinless Pulled Dark and White Chicken\n\n12-pound bag Tyson Fully Cooked, Boneless, Skinless Pulled Chicken Breast with Rib Meat\n\n► Chipotle BOGO deal:Chipotle has a COVID vaccine incentive July 6: Buy-one-get-one free burritos, tacos and more\n\n► July 4th barbecue food safety tips:You might be grilling your burgers, steaks wrong\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2022/02/19/family-dollar-rodent-infestation/6860094001/", "title": "FDA finds rodents in Family Dollar facility, recall issued in 6 states", "text": "The Associated Press\n\nWEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — More than 1,000 rodents were found inside a Family Dollar distribution facility in Arkansas, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Friday as the chain issued a voluntary recall affecting items purchased from hundreds of stores in the South.\n\nA consumer complaint prompted officials to inspect the West Memphis, Arkansas, facility in January, the FDA said in a news release. Inside the building, inspectors said they found live rodents, dead rodents in \"various states of decay,\" rodent feces, dead birds and bird droppings.\n\nAfter fumigating the facility, more than 1,100 dead rodents were recovered, officials said.\n\n\"No one should be subjected to products stored in the kind of unacceptable conditions that we found in this Family Dollar distribution facility,\" said Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs Judith McMeekin.\n\nThe FDA said it is working with Family Dollar to begin a voluntary recall of affected products.\n\nThose products include human food, pet food, dietary supplements, cosmetics, medical devices and over-the-counter medications that were purchased in January or February from Family Dollar stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri or Tennessee.\n\n►Baby formula recall 2022:FDA warns consumers not to use select Similac, Alimentum and EleCare\n\n►Recalls database:Are there other recalled products you need to know about?\n\nIn a news release, Family Dollar listed the 404 stores that may have sold products from the contaminated facility.\n\nThe company said it \"is not aware of any consumer complaints or reports of illness related to this recall.\"\n\nThe FDA said food in non-permeable packaging \"may be suitable for use if thoroughly cleaned.\" Regardless of packaging, all drugs, medical devices, cosmetics and dietary supplements should be thrown away, officials said.\n\n\"Family Dollar is notifying its affected stores by letter asking them to check their stock immediately and to quarantine and discontinue the sale of any affected product,\" the company said. \"Customers that may have bought affected product may return such product to the Family Dollar store where they were purchased without receipt.\"\n\nRead more about food safety:", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/19"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_3", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/07/11/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-historic-spaceflight/7929775002/", "title": "Richard Branson: Virgin Galactic historic spaceflight lands safely", "text": "Richard Branson was accompanied by two pilots and three mission specialists.\n\nBranson, who turns 71 in a week, had originally planned the flight for later this summer.\n\nVirgin Galactic has plans for two more test flights before commercial service begins in 2022.\n\nTRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. – Billionaire entrepreneur and adventurer Richard Branson's dream of space travel was realized and celestial tourism took a leap forward Sunday as Virgin Galactic's rocket ship reached the edge of space during a historic flight from Spaceport America.\n\nBranson and his crew experienced about four minutes of weightlessness before their space plane smoothly glided to a runway landing. The entire trip, delayed 90 minutes because of bad weather the previous night, lasted about an hour. An ecstatic Branson hugged family and friends who greeted him after landing.\n\n\"It was just magical,\" Branson said. \"It's 17 years of painstaking work, the occasional horrible down – and large ups with it. And today was definitely the biggest up.\"\n\nBranson, who turns 71 this week, and a crew of two pilots and three mission specialists were carried to an altitude of more than eight miles by the aircraft VMS Eve, named after Branson's mother. Live video then showed the space plane VSS Unity release from between the mother ship's twin fuselages, using rocket power to fly to the boundary of space, more than 50 miles above the Earth.\n\nTributes – and criticism – rolled in on social media.\n\n\"Congrats to @richardbranson & the entire team @virgingalactic!\" tweeted Gen. Jay Raymond, chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force. \"Your years of hard work & dedication paid off today with a flawless flight to the edge of Space.\"\n\nVermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was less impressed: \"Here on Earth, in the richest country on the planet, half our people live paycheck to paycheck, people are struggling to feed themselves, struggling to see a doctor – but hey, the richest guys in the world are off in outer space! Yes. It's time to tax the billionaires.\"\n\nYou could win a trip on the same Virgin Galactic space plane that flew Richard Branson to space\n\nBranson, a brash, charismatic London native who founded Virgin Atlantic Airways in 1984 and Virgin Galactic 20 years later, had planned the flight for later this summer. He moved it up after competitor Blue Origin and its founder, Jeff Bezos, announced plans to ride their rocket into space from West Texas on July 20.\n\nBlue Origin, which in recent days has launched a social media campaign disparaging Virgin Galactic, softened its tone in the hours before the flight, tweeting: \"Wishing you a great flight tomorrow @virgingalactic!\"\n\nAfter the flight, Bezos tweeted: \"@richardbranson and crew, congratulations on the flight. Can’t wait to join the club!\"\n\nIn keeping with Branson's reputation as a showman, The Late Show's Stephen Colbert was hosting Virgin Galactic's livestream of the event. R&B singer-songwriter Khalid performed his new song \"New Normal\" on stage after Branson and his entourage returned to Earth.\n\nVirgin Galactic has plans for two more test flights before commercial service is expected to begin in 2022. The company says more than 600 people already have signed up for flights at an estimated $250,000 per person.\n\nBranson announced that charity fundraising platform Omaze is giving away two tickets for one of the VSS Unity’s first commercial flights. The winner and one guest are set to be among the first everyday citizens to travel aboard a spacecraft.\n\nThe sweepstakes are open through Aug. 31, and donations will support the nonprofit Space for Humanity, which aims to send citizen astronauts of diverse racial, economic and disciplinary backgrounds to space.\n\n\"We're here to make space more accessible to all,\" Branson said. \"We want to turn the next generation of dreamers into the astronauts of today and tomorrow.\"\n\nBlue Origin has not begun to sell tickets but has dismissed Virgin Galactic's flight plans as failing to actually reach space.\n\n\"Only 4% of the world recognizes a lower limit of 80 km or 50 miles as the beginning of space,\" Blue Origin tweeted Friday. \"New Shepard flies above both boundaries. One of the many benefits of flying with Blue Origin.\"\n\nBlue Origin launches capsules atop reusable booster rockets, while Virgin Galactic uses an aircraft to get its rocket ship aloft.\n\nBlue Origin intends to send tourists past the so-called Karman line 62 miles above Earth, which is is recognized by international aviation and aerospace federations as the threshold of space.\n\nNASA, the Air Force, the Federal Aviation Administration and some astrophysicists consider the boundary between the atmosphere and space to begin 50 miles up. Thus passengers on Virgin Galactic trips, which can reach a maximum altitude of about 55 miles, earn astronaut wings.\n\nVirgin Galactic's efforts have come at a price. An earlier version of VSS Unity, the VSS Enterprise, broke apart during a 2014 test flight. One pilot died and another was injured.\n\nVirgin Galactic reached space for the first time in 2018. Successful flights were also recorded in 2019 and most recently in May. The company gained permission from the FAA last month to start launching customers.\n\nBranson's presence on the flight raised global interest in the test flight and reflected his confidence in the safety of his enterprise. Branson also became the second oldest person to reach space. In 1998, astronaut John Glenn flew on the shuttle at age 77.\n\n\"I have dreamt about this moment since I was a child,\" Branson tweeted. \"But going to space was more magical than I ever imagined.\"\n\nBacon reported from Arlington, Va. Contributing: Nate Chute, USA TODAY Network; The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/spaceport/2021/05/22/virgin-galactic-space-branson-governor-lujan-grisham-richardson-new-mexico-spaceport/5222986001/", "title": "Virgin Galactic touches space over New Mexico; Richard Branson ...", "text": "SIERRA COUNTY – Commercial spaceflight company Virgin Galactic achieved its third space flight Saturday morning and its first from New Mexico's Spaceport America, a milestone both for the company and the state.\n\nThe first in the company's projected final test phase before beginning commercial passenger service on suborbital flights, Saturday's flight saw the spacecraft VSS Unity reach an altitude of 55.45 miles, coming just short of the Kármán line that bridges the Earth's atmosphere and outer space at 62 miles. It then descended, gliding back to a safe landing at the spaceport.\n\nThe spacecraft was carried into the sky by the aircraft VMS Eve, from which the space plane launched in mid-air, reaching a reported speed of Mach 3 during its upward trajectory.\n\nThe flight was crewed by pilots C.J. Sturckow and Dave Mackay, while the aircraft was piloted by Kelly Latimer and Michael Masucci. The Unity held a research payload as part of a service contract with the NASA space agency. The flight also gathered data from the passenger cabin while testing its live stream technology, the company reported.\n\nMore: Spaceport America Cup to return virtually in 2021\n\nIt was the first crewed space flight to launch from New Mexico, making it the third state to do so, behind California and Florida. As it happens, Sturckow — a former NASA astronaut who has participated in missions to the International Space Station — has been launched into space from all three. After joining Virgin, Sturckow was on board when the company first reached space in December 2018.\n\nSpaceport America director Scott McLaughlin witnessed the flight with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, former Gov. Bill Richardson and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson. There was no public viewing of the flight at the spaceport, but a video stream was provided via www.NASASpaceFlight.com.\n\nIt was Richardson and Branson who together pitched the spaceport to lawmakers and taxpayers with the promise that Virgin Galactic would be the anchor tenant. Located in Sierra County outside Truth or Consequences and near White Sands Missile Range, the spaceport was initially constructed between 2006 and 2012 with $220 million in public funds.\n\nWhile a series of delays have set back Virgin Galactic's plans to be the first commercial service into space, the spaceport has welcomed additional tenants and clients to its facilities over the years, and hosts an annual international rocketry competition.\n\nMcLaughlin expressed hope that the successful test flight will temper some of the skepticism about Virgin Galactic's enterprise and the spaceport's prospects as a viable enterprise.\n\nMore: 60 years since 1st American in space: Tourists lining up\n\n\"It's a big day and we're moving from just a vision of the future to a reality in the next several months, and years to come,\" McLaughlin said Saturday afternoon. \"I'm hoping that people will see that this is now a reality, not just a far-flung vision. We are on our way to regular space tourism.\"\n\nHe said that witnessing the Unity speed into space was \"thrilling beyond belief.\"\n\nThe mission completed Saturday was first attempted in December. Then, an onboard computer lost contact and prevented ignition of a rocket on board. The trouble was later attributed to electromagnetic interference.\n\nFixes to that problem as well as maintenance reviews of the aircraft threatened to delay the mission past May, pushing the beginning of commercial service back further into 2022, when the company now anticipates beginning to fly passengers, 600 of whom hold ticket reservations. However, the company announced tentative plans for Saturday's mission on Thursday.\n\nSubsequent test flights are planned to carry crew members in its passenger cabin followed by a flight with founder Richard Branson, at which point the company will resume ticket sales. A fourth test flight is planned as a \"full revenue\" flight with research payloads and members of the Italian Air Force training as astronauts.\n\nThe company was contending to be the first to fly passengers on suborbital flights. Instead, competitor Blue Origin, a venture founded by Jeff Bezos, may win that race with a planned tourist flight on July 20. Elon Musk's venture SpaceX is aiming to launch its founders and other passengers into space later this year as well.\n\n\"After so many years and so much hard work, New Mexico has finally reached the stars,” Lujan Grisham said in a written statement Saturday. “Our state's scientific legacy has been honored by this important achievement, one that took guts and faith and an unwavering belief in what New Mexico can achieve — and indeed is destined to achieve.\"\n\nThis is a developing story and will be updated.\n\nMore: Spaceport welcomes Canadian satellite company\n\nAlgernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/05/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/13/tech/spacex-launch-pace-schedule-scn/index.html", "title": "SpaceX on pace to shatter US launch records. Again - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) SpaceX has been on a tear in 2022, notching 18 rocket launches and two astronaut splashdowns in just the first 130 days of the year — an unprecedented pace for the company and the commercial launch industry.\n\nThe latest is scheduled for Friday evening with the launch of 53 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites out of California's Vandenberg Space Force Base. It will be the twelfth Starlink launch so far this year, and it could be followed over the weekend with another mission set to take off out of Florida.\n\nIt's been an dizzying year of activity so far, further cementing SpaceX's dominance over the commercial launch industry. Led by SpaceX, the industry is on pace to blow past the annual launch highs of the mid-20th century space race, when most launches were carried out by governments rather than the private sector. 2021 already set a new record with 145 total launches, compared to 129 carried out in 1984, the previous record-setting year, according to data from research firm Quilty Analytics.\n\nIf SpaceX keeps up its current pace, it could launch more than 52 rockets this year alone, far outpacing its record, set last year, of 31.\n\n\"Even 10 years ago, launches were rare,\" Chris Quilty, the founder of Quilty Analytics, told CNN Business.", "authors": ["Jackie Wattles", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/05/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/spaceport/2017/08/25/after-delays-virgin-galactic-prepares-spaceflights-new-mexico/582773001/", "title": "After years of delays, Virgin Galactic prepares for spaceflights from NM", "text": "Heath Haussamen\n\nNMPolitics.net\n\nAbout this series: This article is part of an NMPolitics.net series examining Spaceport America’s impact on New Mexico’s economy and future. A decade ago, the state and local voters in Doña Ana and Sierra counties approved public funding to build the facility on the promise of Virgin Galactic flying paying customers into space from southern New Mexico and elected officials pledging thousands of new jobs in the tech and tourism sectors. We spent months investigating where things stand today.\n\nPete Nickolenko remembers meeting with two men who would pilot SpaceShipTwo about an hour before a test flight on Oct. 31, 2014. He wished them well.\n\nThe flight from a spaceport in Mojave, Calif. of the vehicle Virgin Galactic is building to fly paying passengers into space didn’t go well. Co-pilot Michael Alsbury unlocked a feathering system too early. The spacecraft wasn’t built to account for such an error.\n\nThe first SpaceShipTwo broke apart mid-flight, killing Alsbury. Pilot Peter Siebold was seriously injured but survived.\n\nThe accident was a massive blow to Virgin Galactic’s efforts to make space more accessible — and to New Mexico’s hopes of diversifying its economy by building a commercial space industry with Virgin Galactic’s spaceflights at its core. It set back plans to relocate Virgin Galactic employees from California to southern New Mexico and begin long-awaited flights from Spaceport America, located east of Truth or Consequences.\n\nDealing with disaster wasn’t new for Nickolenko, Virgin Galactic’s director of spaceline engineering. He worked for NASA’s space shuttle program in Florida for 24 years. He was in the control room when Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas in 2003, killing all seven crew members.\n\nSo after the SpaceShipTwo accident, Nickolenko helped bring people together to “focus on the task at hand,” he said in a recent interview. Virgin Galactic brought on Nickolenko months before the accident, and based his job in Las Cruces because at the time the company thought it was on the verge of moving the bulk of its spaceline operation here. But on the day of the accident he was in Mojave for the test flight.\n\nThe company stopped providing public estimates of when it will begin taking passengers into space for years while it worked to fix the design flaw and complete SpaceShipTwo.\n\nWith lives at stake, its reputation on the line, and facing criticism of its business model and plans, the company is focused on getting it right, Nickolenko said.\n\n“We intend this to be a spaceline for Earth — so, just as the airlines now, we want to be very safe, need to be repeatable and also very consistent,” he said. “And we need to deliver the best experience for our customers.”\n\nNickolenko is one of 21 full-time employees the company already has in Las Cruces, according to Jonathan Firth, the company’s executive vice president for spaceport and program development. They work out of an office off Roadrunner Parkway marked on the outside only by a small sign that illustrates the evolution of flight. The thin, vertical strip of metal points upward from bird to small plane to fighter jet to commercial airliner to NASA’s Lunar Earth Module — and then finally to Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo. The door to the office remains locked even during business hours.\n\nInside, Virgin Galactic’s office is techy and bright, with furniture in shades of gray and white. Visitors have to sign in on an iPad. A model of SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo — the cargo aircraft designed to carry the spaceship to a release altitude closer to space — sits on a table in the entryway.\n\nThe office is the most tangible sign in Las Cruces of the vision voters embraced a decade ago when they helped fund Spaceport America’s construction with a tax increase — a vision that has yet to become reality.\n\nVirgin Galactic’s founder, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, recently said the company is aiming to get paying customers into space in 2018 — the first publicly-shared estimate in years. That would come long after Branson’s original estimate of 2009. Another reason for the delay was an explosion at the Mojave test site a decade ago that killed three workers.\n\nBranson’s original prediction was critical to winning about $220 million in state and local public funding to help build the spaceport, including tax increases in Doña Ana and Sierra counties. So was then-Gov. Bill Richardson’s promise of the development of a commercial space industry that would create 5,000 new jobs. Virgin Galactic has always been called the spaceport’s anchor tenant, so its operation is critical to Spaceport America’s success.\n\nVirgin Galactic has completed several successful tests this year in Mojave, most recently on Aug. 4. Once those are complete, the company will move 85-90 employees to southern New Mexico, Firth said — people who were hired in Mojave with the understanding that their jobs would eventually relocate. Virgin Galactic will need to conduct additional test flights in New Mexico to ensure its spacecraft performs as expected in the different environment.\n\nThen, officials say, passenger flights will begin.\n\n“Virgin is doing some exciting things and helping to lead the commercial space industry, and we’re very fortunate to have them as our foundational partner in southern New Mexico,” said Dan Hicks, Spaceport America’s CEO.\n\nA tourist experience\n\nVirgin Galactic’s delays have fueled doubt in a poor state that took a risk by investing surplus cash in the spaceport during an oil and gas boom. Among the skeptics is Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, who thinks Virgin Galactic’s plan is nonsense. In 2015 he unsuccessfully sponsored legislation to sell Spaceport America, which is owned by the state.\n\n“If you’re a billionaire and you’re going to do space travel, where are you going to do it? You’re going to go to Dubai or England, and stay in five-star hotels,” Muñoz said. “That doesn’t happen in T or C.”\n\nSpace tourism flights aren’t yet happening anywhere. Firth said “in excess of 600 customers” from more than 50 countries have signed up to fly from Spaceport America.\n\nInitially, a ticket cost $200,000, but Virgin Galactic raised the price to $250,000 in 2013.\n\nStill, Virgin Galactic officials say they’re sympathetic to public frustration. “We’d love for it to be sooner as well,” Nickolenko said. “But you’ve got to make sure it’s done right and we’ve got to make sure it’s safe as well. We will not cut corners.”\n\nVirgin Galactic has global ambitions for its space-related companies that include operations elsewhere. But it’s primarily focused at the moment on getting things right in Mojave and then building a tourist experience in southern New Mexico centered on flights into space. Firth says the facts demonstrate the company’s commitment to New Mexico.\n\nTo date Virgin Galactic has paid $7.1 million in rent and user fees to the state for its use of a hangar and other facilities at Spaceport America. Since 2010, Firth said, the company has spent another $9.4 million with New Mexico business on construction and other things.\n\nThe company has “forward commitments” with Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces and billionaire Ted Turner’s Sierra Grande Lodge in T or C for its customers, Firth said. Virgin Galactic has brought some people who have paid for seats on SpaceShipTwo to southern New Mexico “to familiarize them with the environment,” he said. And several years ago the company brought about 90 travel agents from around the world to the region to learn about area attractions astronauts and their families could enjoy.\n\nThe travel agents spent an afternoon in Kingston, a historic silver mining town located in the Black Range mountains west of T or C. Catherine Wanek, who owns Kingston’s Black Range Lodge, said the group watched a historic recreation of the town’s “wild west” history — a mock robbery of the historic Percha Bank and a gunfight on Main Street. The lodge catered lunch for the group.\n\nThe travel agent at that event who had sold the most Virgin Galactic tickets was from Japan, Wanek said.\n\nState Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Las Cruces, co-chaired a political action committee a decade ago that helped convince voters to fund the spaceport. He said he remains optimistic.\n\n“I think when Virgin starts launching a lot of these problems solve themselves because you’re going to see more employees here and you’re going to see more people visiting, so it becomes a visible reality,” he said.\n\n‘Embedding in the community’\n\nBut first, SpaceShipTwo must be ready for flights. Kim Sandoval will be in charge of relocating the Mojave employees when it’s time. She’s Virgin Galactic’s “people coordinator” – basically a human resources director.\n\nSandoval lives in Las Cruces with her family. She has shown some of the company’s planned southern New Mexico residents around when they’re in town and said it’s “so much fun to talk to them about this place.”\n\nSandoval speaks with a smile about her job. She is excited that her daughters will be able to witness spaceflights, she said.\n\n“I think it’s a pretty amazing thing that I can be part of the team that’s going to make that happen,” Sandoval said.\n\nShe grew up in Michigan and came to the Southwest to attend the University of Texas-El Paso. She moved to Las Cruces from Santa Teresa in 2009 with her husband and started a family.\n\nSandoval began working for Virgin Galactic as an administrative assistant last year and was promoted in January. She called Virgin Galactic a flexible employer that promotes a positive “work-life balance.” That has made it easier for her to work while also raising Annabelle, 5, and Emily, 4, she said.\n\n“I feel like my family is part of this adventure with Virgin Galactic,” Sandoval said. “ We’re opening space for them.”\n\nNickolenko, like Sandoval, said he’s “embedding in the community.” His family owns a home in Las Cruces. His daughter is completing a master’s degree at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales. His son is studying engineering at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.\n\n“We love the people. We love the environment. We love so much about what Las Cruces and New Mexico have to offer, and so we’ve been very thankful for the move,” he said.\n\nA new, global space race\n\nThe global space economy was estimated at $330 billion in 2014. The partnership between Virgin Galactic and Spaceport America puts New Mexicans in the middle of a new space race with intense competition.\n\nTesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX, based in California, currently has two spacecraft that deliver payloads into orbit. The company has flown 10 resupply missions to the International Space Station. It launches from spaceports in Florida, California and Texas. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which is based in Washington State, is developing a rocket-powered spacecraft. It’s building the engine in Alabama and testing at a private facility east of El Paso, Texas. Blue Origin has leased a facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida for launches, which are estimated to begin in 2020.\n\nVirgin Galactic began with a focus on sending paying customers into suborbital space, which means they reach space but then fall back to Earth rather than completing at least one orbit around the planet. Given the SpaceShipTwo delays and the rapidly changing industry, Virgin has created another company, Virgin Orbit, to focus on launching satellites into space. That operation is headquartered in California.\n\nVirgin Galactic remains focused on its Spaceport America plans for now, though it has its eyes elsewhere too. SpaceShipTwo could eventually fly passengers to various points around the globe more quickly than commercial airliners can. The company has said it will launch eventually from spaceports in Sweden and maybe Scotland. A firm based in the United Arab Emirates has invested big in Virgin Galactic in exchange for “exclusive regional rights” to launch from Abu Dhabi.\n\nNew Mexico has advantages. Its commercial spaceport is the first facility designed and built for that purpose anywhere. Its elevation makes reaching space cheaper than from coastal facilities. The spaceport benefits from White Sands Missile Range’s no-fly zone, which means rerouting commercial airline traffic during space flights isn’t necessary like it is other places.\n\nAnd the growing cross-border industrial area between Santa Teresa, N.M. and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico provides cargo potential. Suborbital spaceflights to other points on the planet would be much quicker than commercial airliners can fly. The ability nearby to put cargo on a quick flight to other continents has potential.\n\nCarrying research experiments into space is another possibility, Firth said. Virgin Galactic, in that case, would be competing with other companies that are already using rockets to launch experiments from Spaceport America and elsewhere.\n\nVirgin Galactic’s plans aren’t the whims of a rich billionaire, company officials say. The development of SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo, Firth said, has cost “hundreds of millions of dollars” — more, he said, than New Mexico’s $220 million investment in Spaceport America.\n\n“There are hundreds of people working in Mojave to make it happen, and Virgin is putting hundreds of millions of dollars’ investment into making it happen, and you better think they think it’s worthwhile,” Firth said.\n\nAnd the benefit to New Mexicans? The goal, Firth said, is to “create a central gravity of activity” in southern New Mexico. That’s why partnerships with hotels and others are important to creating the tourist experience high-dollar travelers expect. It’s why the growing border industrial economy is critical. It’s why local space-related educational programs, funded in part by tax dollars and with some support from Virgin Galactic, are essential for building a workforce — and providing greater opportunities for New Mexicans to stay in the state after college.\n\nThat vision, if realized, would mean more good-paying jobs in a high-tech sector and additional tourism.\n\n“That’s exactly what we had in mind when the proposal was first made,” McCamley said. “When we start moving in that direction, that’s when this will start being a real success, but it’s getting there.”\n\nOn a mission\n\nVirgin Galactic doesn’t know how many people beyond the hundreds who have already reserved seats will pay to fly into suborbital space, which helps explain why the company is branching out. “We’ve got no set view of the future,” Firth said. “We’ve got an open mind.”\n\nNickolenko speaks about Virgin Galactic’s work as more than a business. It’s a mission, he said. Virgin Galactic plans to start flights from Spaceport America with one ship, but he envisions the company needing a fleet of several. He said he expects the company’s presence in southern New Mexico to grow substantially.\n\nThat optimism is fitting for Nickolenko, who lived in Florida as a child and got to witness the last of the Apollo launches to the moon in 1972. He wanted to become an astronaut, but poor vision prevented it. So he became a space engineer.\n\nNickolenko’s job with Virgin Galactic came at the right time. While NASA has struggled to figure out how to return to space, private companies are moving ahead more quickly.\n\n“I wanted to be closer to a really special mission about launching humans back into space,” Nickolenko said. “…I wanted to be part of something that was special, exciting and more immediate.”\n\nSandoval spoke with a smile about increasing human access to space.\n\n“We’re trying to focus on the good, not just for Las Cruces, but for the world and the global economy,” Sandoval said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/08/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/01/18/10-things-you-probably-dont-know-space-coast/1028241001/", "title": "10 things you probably don't know about the Space Coast", "text": "Sure, there are things everyone seems to know about the Space Coast.\n\nWe launch rockets, we claim Kate Upton as one of our own, and all those bikini billboards on I-95 lead you to the world-famous Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach.\n\nBut we're more than just a pretty face, right? You bet your next rocket launch scrub we are!\n\nHere are 10 things you may not know about Florida's Space Coast:\n\n1. We have the nation's first and only resident airport \"ambassadog.\"\n\nNever heard the term ambassadog? Well, that's probably because it didn't exist before last year when the Orlando Melbourne International Airport welcomed Kuma to its terminal. Kuma is a 10-year-old black Labrador that serves the airport and its guests as a \"comfort\" animal, there to relieve stressors associated with flying. Kuma can offer a furry cuddle or friendly lick to the face for anyone who needs a pick-me-up. Kuma has a unique certification that provided her training for an airport setting.\n\nMore:Photos: Kuma the ambassadog for MLB\n\n2. We test missiles off our coast.\n\nEveryone knows we launch rockets, but did you know we test missiles here, too? Except you probably won't see these launch. The Naval Ordinance Test Unit based right here in Brevard usually tests the SSBN Trident II D5 missile system way out yonder in the Atlantic. Worried about the crazy man in North Korea? Rest a little easier tonight knowing that this unit is ready to knock down any nuclear warhead that could come our way.\n\n“Whose mere presence deters enemies from even thinking about attacking? The Ballistic Missile Submarine,\" said Command Master Chief Tracy Kuchta at a recent LEAD Brevard session presentation. \"In terms of firepower, it’s the fifth most powerful in the world. NOTU provides test and evaluation of the SSBN Trident II D5 missile system, validating these mighty weapons system to ensure continued peace.”\n\nBoom baby. Literally.\n\nMore:Brevard to get 300 Lockheed Martin ballistic missile jobs\n\n3. Port Canaveral may be the reason you have salt in the pantry. You can thank Port Canaveral. The port plays host to Morton Salt, which annually produces about 200,000 tons of pool, premium water softener, sea salt and agricultural salts. The salt is shipped from the Bahamas to Port Canaveral where it is manufactured at the Morton Salt facility. Morton Salt has had a partnership with the port since 1990 and even expanded its operations in 2015. Although Port Canaveral is the second busiest cruise ship port in the world, it also ships tons of cargo. No, really. Tons. It shipped in more than 6 million tons last year.\n\n4. The vision for the Cape Canaveral Space Port and Kennedy Space Center will blow your mind.\n\nThink we have a lot of launches and launch pads now? Check out the master plan from Space Florida that shows 12 launch complexes, a skid strip and a stratolaunch facility.\n\nSee for yourself:\n\nCompare that to what we have now and your head might spin:\n\n5. Patrick Air Force base serves more retirees than it does active service members.\n\nFun fact. There are 43,000 retirees that utilize PAFB, 125,000 if you include their families, and there are only 4,000 military men and women on base. Total personnel is 15,500 if you include civilians, contractors and dependents. Of course, the busiest place on the base is the Manatee Cove golf course, of which 74 percent of golfers are retirees, said Chief Master Sergeant Michael Worden at a recent Leadership Brevard session.\n\n6. One of the greatest archeological discoveries in history happened in ... a Titusville subdivision.\n\nOne of the greatest archeological discoveries in history occurred in …. get this… a Titusville subdivision. In 1982 backhoe operator Steve Vanderjagt was clearing an area around a pond that would become the Windover Farms subdivision when he stumbled across human remains … very, very old human remains.\n\n“The remains uncovered at the Windover site were between 7,000 and 8,000 years old, making them 3,200 years older than King Tutankhamen and 2,000 years older than the Great Pyramids of Egypt,\" according to Florida Frontiers. Nearly 200 separate, intact burials were excavated at the Windover site in an underwater cemetery.\n\nMaybe those Titusville \"ghost town\" accusations a few years back were meant literally...\n\nMore:Brevard archaeology group earns statewide recognition\n\n7. There is an endangered plant that only grows here.\n\nIt looks as if Titusville has yet another claim to fame. The city is the only place in the world where a certain type of gangling herb can grow. It's fancy scientific name is Dicerandra thinicola Miller, but experts call it the \"Titusville mint\" for short. It has a strong minty smell and may have long term medicinal use. It grows along a narrow, 13-mile strip between the Titusville wellfield (between State Road 405 and SR 50) and Mims. The city has taken precautions to preserve the rare and endangered species.\n\nMore:You won't find this Titusville mint anywhere else on Earth\n\n8. A piece of Melbourne will appear in this year's Super Bowl.\n\nSpeaking of mint ... That shiny piece of metal that flies through the air just before kick off at the Super Bowl comes straight from, you guessed it, Brevard County. The Super Bowl coin is made by a company called The Highland Mint. Of course, not to be confused with the Titusville Mint. The company is based in Melbourne and has designed and manufactured the Super Bowl coin since 1994.\n\n9. The Space Coast doesn't get sinkholes (at least so far).\n\nEvery property owner in the county can let out a big sigh of relief, because sinkholes are not among the disasters that will likely haunt our coastline. Yes, it's true. Unlike Central Florida areas such as Apopka that have seen massive sinkholes form overnight, Brevard County's geological makeup doesn't allow for that kind of crazy quick sand.\n\n\"We don't have sinkholes in Brevard County,\" said county spokesman Don Walker. \"We've had culverts collapse, washouts and emergency road closings ... Because of our geological makeup, we don't have sinkholes.\"\n\nThe Florida Geological Survey shows where sinkholes have popped up across the state, and not a one has ever been in Brevard.\n\nOh, and we also don't get direct hurricane hits, either. There has never been a major hurricane landfall in Brevard County since records began being kept in 1851, said Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane researcher at Colorado State University. *Knock on wood.*\n\nMore:Despite large holes in the road, Brevard just doesn't get sinkholes\n\nMore:Seems major hurricanes spare Brevard County\n\n10. Rock Star Jim Morrison's house is still standing ...and you won't believe its value\n\nAmong our famous Brevardians is Jim Morrison, the late great rock star and lead singer of The Doors. Morrison was born in Melbourne and his childhood home is still standing, a modest cottage on Vernon Place. Somebody lives there, so don't be weird and stalk the house. Get this, though, according to the Brevard County Property Appraiser the home's latest market value was only $194,550.\n\nKnow more one-of-a-kind facts about Brevard?\n\nContact Saggio at 321-242-3664\n\nor jsaggio@floridatoday.com.\n\nTwitter: @jessicajsaggio", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/01/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2021/09/28/pancake-record-battered-sea-tortoise-tourist-coronado-motel-news-around-states/118974670/", "title": "Pancake record battered, sea tortoise tourist, Coronado Motel: News ...", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: A federal judge paved the way for Alabama to proceed with a lethal injection next month, but also reprimanded the state attorney general’s office for giving false information to the court during the litigation centered on forms given to death-row inmates for selecting an execution method. Chief U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks dismissed a lawsuit that argued the state failed to give Willie Smith, who has an IQ below 75, required help under the Americans with Disabilities Act in filling out forms that affected the timing of his execution. Smith is scheduled to be executed on Oct. 21 by lethal injection for the 1991 kidnapping and murder of 22-year-old Sharma Ruth Johnson in Birmingham. After Alabama authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method, the state gave death row inmates a brief window to select that as their execution method. The state has not yet developed a protocol for using nitrogen hypoxia and is not setting execution dates for inmates who requested it. Smith did not turn in a form selecting nitrogen. His attorneys argued that the state was required by law to help intellectually disabled inmates like Smith with the form. Marks dismissed the claim, saying the form was not required by state law and that Smith could have have written on his own to request nitrogen.\n\nAlaska\n\nJuneau: The state plans to emphasize telework for state employees for the next month as the COVID-19 pandemic strains Alaska’s health care system. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, in a memo to state department leaders last week, said the state “must take measures to protect its health care infrastructure while still providing essential government services to its residents.” He wrote that, effective Monday, the state will emphasize telework “to the maximum extent practical, while still maintaining public facing presence and services.” This is to be in effect until Oct. 29, he said. A determination on any possible extensions will be made later, he said. Brian Penner, director of the union that represents supervisory employees, told the Anchorage Daily News the decision was welcomed.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix:Gov. Doug Ducey has ousted and replaced all five members of the Arizona State Board of Massage Therapy in the wake of a newspaper’s critical report about the occupational regulatory panel’s handling of complaints about alleged sexual abuse by therapists. Ducey’s announcement Friday didn’t mention the Arizona Republic’s Sept. 15 investigative report that the board was lax in disciplining therapists accused of abuse, but he said it was crucial that the board “protects massage clients, especially those who are in a vulnerable position.” The announcement also said Ducey’s appointments implemented legislation enacted in 2020 to have the massage board and certain other regulatory panels have majorities of public members once current members’ terms expired. Public members are people not in the regulated occupations. Ducey noted that three of the five new members have experience in victim advocacy and support. The other two are licensed massage therapists with more than 25 years of experience.\n\nArkansas\n\nFort Smith:A new individualized-approached, tuition-free charter school will open for Fort Smith high school students next year. The Premier High School-Fort Smith will start enrolling in May and start its first school year in August, said Dennis Felton, state director of Premier schools. The school offers an educational environment that is individualized and small by design, according to the Premier website. “(It’s) for students when traditional school isn’t a fit for them,” said Jake Kurz, director of communications for Responsive Ed. “Sometimes that means a schedule and sometimes that means they need to recover credits (from where) they got behind. Sometimes that means they want to graduate early.” The school's curriculum is more student mastery-based, giving them a chance to work at their pace as opposed to a teacher’s pace, Felton said. The school offers different sessions for students so they can deal with a job or attend to other obligations if needed, Kurz said. The first Premier high school in Arkansas opened in Little Rock in 2013. The Fort Smith school will mark the fourth location in the state.\n\nCalifornia\n\nLos Angeles: U.S. Rep Karen Bass, D-Calif., intends to launch a campaign for Los Angeles mayor, joining a field of candidates that has rapidly grown over the last week, according to three people familiar with her plans. Such a move would deliver another shakeup to a contest that had been a sleepy affair for much of the year. Bass, a high-profile Democrat who has served in Sacramento and Washington, could announce her entry into the mayor’s race as early as this week, those sources told the Los Angeles Times. If Bass enters the race, she would be a formidable competitor, said Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who described himself as an ally of Bass since 1978.\n\nColorado\n\nPueblo:The Coronado Motel, once one of the few spots in the city Black travelers could rely on for safe accommodation – it was one of a handful of places listed in “The Negro Traveler’s Green Book,” a guidebook that identified facilities hospitable to Black guests during the Jim Crow era – received the Stephen H. Hart Award from History Colorado’s State Historical Fund for its commercial, architectural and ethnic significance. It is one of five sites in Colorado to receive the award this year. The motel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places last year. The owners of the then-Coronado Lodge began officially listing the motel in the Green Book in 1957. The Green Book listed hotels, service stations, restaurants, drug stores and other locations that were safe ports of call for Black travelers, who faced discrimination and the threat of harm while traveling throughout the segregated country. Victor Hugo Green published the book annually until just after the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: More than 70 members of the Connecticut National Guard were honored Saturday for their service after completing nearly one-year tours of duty. A welcome home ceremony was held for members of the Middletown-based 143rd Regional Support Group and several members of Detachment 2, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 641st Aviation Regiment at the state armory in Hartford. The Middletown-based soldiers supported Operation Spartan Shield in Jordan from October 2020 to July 2021, overseeing base operations and contracts at various facilities. The Windsor Locks-based aviation regiment conducted 166 C-12 air movement missions throughout eastern Africa in support of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa from September 2020 to July 2021. “These soldiers left their homes and families during a very difficult time in this country to answer the nation’s call and support U.S. security interests abroad,” Maj. Gen. Francis Evon said in a written statement. “We thank them for their sacrifice and their families who took care of the home front for almost a year. It’s always a great feeling when we get to welcome our people back home after completion of a successful mission.”\n\nDelaware\n\nDover:Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings has filed a lawsuit against chemical company Monsanto and spinoffs Solutia and Pharmacia, alleging long-lasting damage to the state’s natural resources. The lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court last Wednesday alleged Monsanto knew as early as 1937 that polychlorinated biphenyls had systemic toxic effects on humans and animals and it seeks to recover damages and clean-up costs, Jennings said in a news release. “Monsanto knew that PCBs were toxic and that once they entered the environment, they would be there to stay,” Jennings said. “Even as PCBs’ environmental harms became undeniable, Monsanto not only continued to manufacture and sell PCBs, but increased production. Now, decades since PCBs were banned, Delaware taxpayers are still footing the cleanup bill. We’re suing Monsanto and its spinoffs to make them pay to clean up their mess.” The suit also claims Monsanto understood and “actively promoted the fact that PCBs do not naturally break down; and continued to manufacture, market and sell PCBs despite full awareness of these dangers.” Bayer, which purchased Monsanto in 2016, responded to the lawsuit saying the company voluntarily ceased all PCB production in 1977, two years before production was banned, The News-Journal reported.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington:Students at George Washington University continue to voice concerns about possible mold exposure on campus. In early September, the university ordered 175 students to temporarily evacuate their housing in Townhouse Row, along 23rd Street NW, because of environmental concerns. According to Maralee Csellar, director of communications at George Washington University, a team that inspected the housing identified conditions “conducive to biological growth”. The university did not say it had discovered mold. Around the same time of that investigation, another GW student also claimed he and his roommates had found a mold-like substance in Shenkman Hall, which is a residential tower located across the street from Townhouse Row. Shenkman resident and GW sophomore Luc Saint-Genies said his roommates were coughing for over a week after they found the material in parts of their living unit. Saint-Genies said he and his roommates were recently moved by the university to emergency housing at the River Inn hotel in Foggy Bottom after GW’s facilities division conducted an inspection of their residence. GW moved Townhouse Row students to two hotels, including the River Inn, after its inspection of that site as well.\n\nFlorida\n\nCape Canaveral:Space Florida, the state’s spaceport authority and aerospace development agency, is investigating what it will take to bring more Space Force operations to Brevard County, an area already home to two military installations, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and dozens of commercial spaceflight companies. The branch established in late 2019 still needs to make decisions on where to establish some operations like training centers. Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station were among the first former Air Force facilities to be renamed as Space Force installations. Much like the Marine Corps falls under the purview of the Navy, the Space Force is positioned under Air Force leadership. Mark Bontrager, Space Florida’s vice president for spaceport operations, said, Florida could be an ideal location for training facilities, or what are known as technical schools. Tech schools usually come immediately after basic training and prepare new military members – in this case, Space Force guardians – for their specific roles. Vandenberg Space Force Base near Los Angeles, California, was already selected for the first of five STARCOM sub-commands, or “deltas,” but more selections are expected in the coming months. Its command headquarters, however, is still up for grabs.\n\nGeorgia\n\nSt. Simons Island: Leaders on one of Georgia’s most popular coastal islands are considering letting developers build closer to sand dunes. The Brunswick News reported that a planning commission that governs construction on St. Simons Island is discussing reducing the required setback for new construction in areas with active dunes from 40 feet to 25 feet. The new rule would increase the required setback from 20 feet to 25 feet for an area without dunes. Commissioners agreed Tuesday to postpone action until November to allow time for a public workshop. The idea originated from a planning commission meeting with Glynn County commissioners to discuss growth on the island. Glynn County Commissioner Cap Fendig said the proposed changes would match Georgia Department of Natural Resources rules. Current Glynn County rules are more restrictive. Dunes can protect beaches and inland areas and also provide habitat for plants and wildlife. Alice Keyes of the environmental group One Hundred Miles said rising sea levels make setbacks even more important.\n\nHawaii\n\nLihue: The island of Kauai is planning to revise its coronavirus restriction structure as the delta variant continues to impact the county. Mayor Derek Kawakami said officials will continue to enforce strict COVID-19 safety measures even as the state approaches a vaccination rate of 70%, a milestone earlier set for loosening rules under a tiered reopening plan, The Garden Island reported Friday. “Throughout this pandemic, we have adjusted to the changing realities of COVID-19, and we continually work to keep our community safe while doing everything we can to keep our businesses and activities open,” Kawakami said. Changes will need to be approved by Gov. David Ige. The current tier system would have allowed for all restrictions, including business capacity rules and gathering sizes, to be dropped when the population was 70% vaccinated. About 67% of state residents and 65% of Kauai residents are fully vaccinated.\n\nIdaho\n\nCoeur d’Alene:, The Coeur d’Alene School District’s Board of Trustees canceled a special meeting on Friday to consider a temporary COVID-19 mask mandate after protesters swarmed the building. The crowd gathered outside of the Midtown Center Meeting Room at 1 p.m., KREM-TV reported. The meeting agenda included a reopening plan for the 2021-2022 school year, including masking and quarantine. Earlier this month, the board adopted a plan that strongly recommended masks be worn in schools. The school district has seen hundreds of positive COVID-19 cases since the first day of school Sept. 7. The meeting was postponed officials said for safety reasons after the crowd banged on doors and shouted at police. A video tweeted by a reporter for KREM showed a large group of people standing outside of the meeting room chanting, “No more masks.” Estimated at up to 200 people, the group then moved to the district’s administrative center, which was placed on lockdown for safety precautions. Many protesters said school board members should be fired for refusing to hold the meeting.\n\nIllinois\n\nEast Moline: Inmates at East Moline Correctional Center have begun a Bachelor of Arts program through Augustana College. State officials said 10 students began studies late in the summer. They are taking courses from professors who lecture on the same subjects on Augustana’s Rock Island campus. It’s the first BA program offered East Moline inmates in more than 20 years. The initial program offers a communications studies major with other majors to be added. The liberal arts curriculum includes history, literature, math, foreign languages, religion, science and the arts. Illinois Department of Corrections Director Rob Jeffreys said a college degree is key to those in custody who want to change their lives and provide financially for their families. Augustana modeled its program after the Bard Prison Initiative. It was featured in the 2019 PBS documentary “College Behind Bars.” Students in the Augustana Prison Education Program pay no tuition or any costs associated with coursework. The program is funded by the Austin E. Knowlton Foundation.\n\nIndiana\n\nGreenwood: Another Indiana school board meeting was disrupted when residents refused to wear face masks while objecting to the district’s requirement. Sheriff’s deputies were called to the Center Grove school board meeting last Thursday night after those not wearing masks wouldn’t leave so the meeting could start, the (Franklin) Daily Journal reported. Those protesting left after two deputies arrived. A similar disruption happened in the southern Indianapolis suburbs as the Clark-Pleasant board meeting in Whiteland was adjourned after just two minutes last week because some people refused to wear masks. State officials have allowed mask rules and other steps to stem COVID-19 spread even as several school boards have faced vocal – and sometimes misleading – opposition to such actions. A man was arrested in July when a handgun fell from his pocket during a Carmel school board meeting, The Bartholomew Consolidated school board in Columbus decided this past week it will hold meetings virtually because of parent conduct. Center Grove’s board could make a similar move, district Superintendent Rich Arkanoff said.\n\nIowa\n\nCenterville:Residents gathered to help break a syrupy Guinness World Record on Saturday by plating 14,280 pancakes in a single-serving. A Hy-Vee store in Blue Springs, Missouri, a Kansas City suburb, set the record of 13,000 pancakes in June. Hy-Vee donated 2,400 pounds of pancake mix to help residents break the record during Centerville’s Pancake Day celebration. The Guinness World Record attempt took place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. Pancake Day started in 1948 as a way for manufacturers, including a Pillsbury facility, across Centerville show appreciation for their employees by giving them free pancakes. Community members took on the event and turned it into a regional celebration as manufacturers left Centerville. The town typically serves about 17,000 pancakes on Pancake Day, said Centerville Tourism Director Delaney Evers. This year, pancakes had to be made to strict specifications of at least 5 inches in diameter, but no more than 1 centimeter in thickness. About 100 people volunteered to accomplish the feat.\n\nKansas\n\nOlathe: A suburban Kansas City school district is investigating after a student asked a girl to homecoming using an offensive sign. The sign reads: “If I was Black I would be picking cotton but I’m white so I’m picking you for HOCO.” A picture of two white students holding the sign and smiling that was posted online drew sharp criticism on social media, according to the Kansas City Star. School officials in Olathe said they are working to contact everyone involved, including the parents of the students. “The type of behavior displayed in the social media post does not meet the expectations of our core values,” Olathe South High School Principal Dale Longenecker said in a letter sent to parents. “Any behavior like this will be immediately addressed in accordance with our Student Code of Conduct.” A copy of the photo posted on Twitter was criticized by the Arizona Cardinals Isaiah Simmons’, who grew up in Olathe. “This is disgusting. Sad that people think this is funny or acceptable,” he wrote. “Very disappointing and honestly just sad to see this kind of stuff happening in my hometown. I hope this is handled in the correct manner.”\n\nKentucky\n\nFrankfort: Horse Soldier Bourbon plans to create more than 50 jobs with a new $200 million tourism project in Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear said. The Pulaski County site will contain a 27,585-square-foot distillery visitor center; 5,000-person amphitheater; 500-person outdoor event space; 3,200-square-foot wedding chapel; and an activity center, shops and more. Horse Soldier Bourbon was founded by retired members of the U.S. Special Forces who were among the first to enter Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The company has been approved by the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority for $29.9 million in incentives for the project.\n\nLouisiana\n\nGrand Isle: Grand Isle officials said the narrow barrier island is closed to all but people who live there or those who own camps there as residents try to recover from Hurricane Ida’s devastating impacts. In a posting on the town’s website Saturday, officials said the widespread devastation caused the town council and the mayor to make the decision to close the island, which is a destination spot for fishing and vacation getaways. “The decision to close the island was a difficult one,” said Mayor David Camardelle in the announcement, “but it is in everyone’s best interest.” Ida came ashore on Aug. 29 just a few miles away near Port Fourchon. The Category 4 hurricane’s ferocious winds and storm surge destroyed the city’s electrical infrastructure. The town said in its announcement that 80% of the structures on the island sustained damage. According to the post, about 200 personnel from various agencies are on the island specifically to help with the recovery. That number is expected to increase as energy provider, Entergy, works to restore the grid, the statement said. But Grand Isle residents have vowed to come back, despite the damage.\n\nMaine\n\nHampden: The northbound stretch of a $45 million bridge replacement project in the Bangor area is almost finished. The project is called the Hampden Bridge Bundle. The Maine Department of Transportation said it planned to shift traffic onto the fourth of four new northbound Interstate 95 bridges on Monday. The transportation department said traffic is still using three temporary bridges to accommodate construction work on the southbound side of the highway. The department said more southbound traffic shifts are expected, and the project will continue into next year. The entire project requires rebuilding eight bridges and rehabilitating a ninth along a 4-mile stretch of the interstate in Hampden.\n\nMaryland\n\nBaltimore: Four enormous container cranes have arrived in their new home in Baltimore after a two-month trip from China. The cranes, which are some of the tallest in the world, squeezed under the Chesapeake Bay and Key Bridges on their way to the Port of Baltimore, stopping traffic on the spans on Sept. 9, news outlets reported. Each crane is about 450 feet tall, about 25 feet taller than the current cranes, port officials said. With the cranes hanging off each side of the ship, they were about 176 feet tall, leaving just about 10 feet of clearance under the bridges, according to the state and Coast Guard. The new cranes will help double the port’s container capacity once the Howard Street Tunnel is expanded to allow freight trains to carry containers stacked two-high. Ports America Chesapeake, which runs the Seagirt Marine Terminal under a lease with the state, purchased the massive cranes, which will allow longshoremen to unload two even larger and wider container ships at once. The 1,740-ton cranes can reach 23 containers across a container ship and each can lift 187,500 pounds of cargo at once.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nLowell: A University of Massachusetts Lowell researcher has received a $2.7 million federal grant to continue her research into the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The National Institutes of Health grant will help engineering associate professor Joyita Dutta look at the disease from a network perspective, viewing the interconnections between the regions of the brain, the university said in a statement last week. She will use machine learning and artificial intelligence tools to build models from existing patient imaging data. She aims to develop models that predict the progression of primary protein markers for Alzheimer’s disease. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as many as 5.8 million Americans were living with Alzheimer’s last year. That number is projected to rise to 14 million by 2060. There is no known cure for the disease.\n\nMichigan\n\nEast China Township:Three years after DTE Energy paid more than $5,000 to relocate rare milkweed plants at its future Blue Water Energy Center site in East China Township, the plants are thriving. Daniel Okon, a DTE Energy senior environmental specialist, said 400 Sullivant’s milkweed stems were relocated in 2018 and the population has grown to 502 stems. Milkweed is the host plant for the monarch butterfly, a candidate under the Endangered Species Act, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Milkweed and flowering plants are needed for monarch habitat. Adult monarchs feed on the nectar of many flowers, but they breed only where milkweeds are found, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Sullivant’s milkweed differs from common milkweed, with smooth leaves instead of the common variety’s rough leaves, and a pink vein pressed closely to the stems. Sullivant’s milkweed is classified as threatened and legally protected in Michigan. It has been observed in eight Michigan counties with the most occurrences found in St. Clair County, according to scientific biodiversity resource the Michigan Natural Features Inventory.\n\nMinnesota\n\nMinneapolis: Gov. Tim Walz proposed a $10 million relief package for farmers who suffered losses because of drought across most of Minnesota this summer – a plan that would require a special legislative session to approve. The Democratic governor’s proposal includes $5 million in rapid response grants for livestock producers and specialty crop growers for costs of water-related equipment such as tanks, pipelines, wells, water wagons and irrigation equipment. It also includes $5 million for zero-interest disaster recovery loans for losses not covered by insurance. But Walz said he’s still insisting that Senate Republicans agree not to fire Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm if he calls lawmakers back for a special session that was already in the works for a $250 million bonus package for front-line workers in the COVID-19 pandemic. Negotiators from the House Democratic and Senate GOP majorities and the Walz administration missed a Labor Day target for agreeing to which workers are most deserving and how much money they should get. Republicans so far have not backed off a threat to use the Senate’s confirmation powers to oust Malcolm over the administration’s pandemic response. Walz called on them to “put the political posturing and things aside” and get both packages done without ousting his health commissioner.\n\nMississippi\n\nGreenwood: A hospital in the Mississippi Delta has been losing millions of dollars a year, and its CEO said the problems are exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic as nurses, laboratory technicians and respiratory therapists are being hired by out-of-state hospitals for short-term contract work at higher salaries. Leaders of Greenwood Leflore Hospital held closed-door hearings in the past week to brief local officials and its employees about proposals for a financial turnaround. CEO Jason Studley said no layoffs or terminations are anticipated, although some positions might not be filled as employees leave, the Greenwood Commonwealth reported. Studley told the newspaper he would publicly release details of the financial plan in the coming week. The hospital has about 1,000 employees and is owned by the city of Greenwood and Leflore County. Local government officials asked for Tuesday’s meeting. “I think we’re on the right track to move forward,” said Leflore County Supervisor Sam Abraham after emerging from the closed-door session with the hospital board and top administrators. The hospital has spent nearly all of the $25 million in federal pandemic relief money. For the first 11 months of the current budget year, it has lost $13.2 million, even after using $11 million in federal grant money. For the same period last year, the loss was $755,000 when $15.5 million in coronavirus grant money was used. The hospital started the current budget year with $52.8 million cash on hand. By the end of August, it had $28.3 million.\n\nMissouri\n\nWoodson Terrace: The FBI has opened an investigation into the arrest of a Black man during which cellphone video showed three white officers allowing a police dog to repeatedly bite him. Woodson Terrace police Chief Randy Halstead said in an email to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that his department was “fully cooperating” with the investigations being conducted by the FBI and the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office into last week’s arrest. Federal officials and St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell declined to discuss their investigations with the newspaper. Officers were called Monday morning to a report that a man had broken into a business in Woodson Terrace, according to a police statement posted on Facebook. The man appeared to be on drugs and threatened officers, and they warned him the dog would be used if he continued to resist arrest, the department wrote. Cellphone video from an onlooker showed the dog biting the man’s foot as he yells. The dog’s handler holds it by a leash but allows the biting to go on for about 30 seconds. After the officer pulls off the dog, the man appears to take a step but stumbles and the dog lunges at him again, biting a leg for another 30 seconds until the officer stops the animal. The man was treated at a hospital and released. He hasn’t been charged with any crimes. Protesters gathered outside the Woodson Terrace Police Department on Friday to demand the firing and prosecution of the three officers.\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: A coalition including worker unions and a disability rights group filed a lawsuit last Wednesday against Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen over a law passed earlier this year that eliminates same-day voter registration. The lawsuit was filed by the Montana Federation of Public Employees, the Montana AFL-CIO, the Montana Association of Centers for Independent Living, and several citizens. Montana Federal of Public Employees president Amanda Curtis called the law “a slap in the face” to the tens of thousands of Montana residents who use same-day voter registration and to the majority of Montanans who voted to maintain election-day registration when the question was on the ballot in 2014. “People who work for a living do not always have the privilege to register to vote or address their issues with their registration during the regular business hours,” said Montana AFL-CIO Executive Secretary James Holbrook. County election offices are open later on Election Day. Montana Independent Living Project advocacy coordinator Joel Peden said same-day registration eases the experience of people living with disabilities by saving the need for two trips to election offices. Republicans who supported the measure have said the law would help election officials conduct elections more efficiently while reducing long lines and voter frustration on election day. Secretary of State spokesman Richie Melby called the lawsuit “completely baseless.” This is the fourth lawsuit challenging the same law passed earlier this year by the Republican-dominated Legislature.\n\nNebraska\n\nDakota City: The owners of a defunct biogas plant in northeast Nebraska have agreed to pay a $1.1 million fine to the state and federal governments for repeated violations of environmental rules. Big Ox Energy and its owners agreed to pay the fine as part of a settlement with regulators. The company and its insurers previously agreed to be part of a separate $1.75 million settlement with homeowners who accused the plant of sending rancid fumes through the city sewer system and ruining their homes. Big Ox began operations in September 2016, separating solids from industry wastewater to create methane. The plant sold the methane and injected it into a nearby natural gas pipeline. Big Ox was subject to odor complaints soon after it began operations and was cited for numerous environmental violations until it shut down in 2019. “The Big Ox facility’s operations presented a significant risk to their workers and nearby property owners,” said acting regional EPA Administrator Edward H. Chu. The EPA said that some of the liquid wastewater went over the sides of the facility’s roof and onto the ground at least 16 times between 2017 and 2019. On one occasion in 2018, a malfunction at the plant resulted in 80,000 gallons of liquid wastewater overflowing from its equipment. At times the plant was also discharging methane at levels that could be flammable and hydrogen sulfide in amounts that could cause injury or death if it was inhaled.\n\nNevada\n\nCarson City: The Great Basin Institute has been awarded a $160,000 federal grant to establish a professional recreational trail building school, which would be the first of its kind in the nation. The funds came from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. The proposed school will be in Ely. The hope is to draw outdoor recreation professionals from all over the U.S. Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto praised the idea of the school. She said it will enhance Nevada’s reputation as an outdoor recreation destination, create more jobs and give students practical experience. Kyle Horvath, director of White Pine County Tourism and Recreation, said Ely is an ideal spot with its proximity to the Mountain West.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nDurham: The University of New Hampshire is making some of its pandemic-related graduation ceremony changes permanent. The school traditionally has held one large ceremony in its outdoor football stadium, but because of the pandemic, it divided seniors up by their colleges and held a handful of separate ceremonies. That gave students the chance to walk across the stage and receive their diplomas instead of being recognized all at once, and officials have decided to keep that practice going forward. Starting in May, commencement exercises will be moved indoors to the Whittemore Center and graduates will be split up by academic college, the Foster’s Daily Democrat reported.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nTrenton: Construction of a nearly 120-mile-long proposed natural gas pipeline from northeastern Pennsylvania to central New Jersey will not go forward, the group behind the project said Monday. PennEast Pipeline Company, which won a recent legal fight against New Jersey at the Supreme Court, nonetheless said the state has failed to provide certain permits and is putting the project on ice. “PennEast partners, following extensive evaluation and discussion, recently determined further development of the Project no longer is supported. Accordingly, PennEast has ceased all further development of the Project,” spokesperson Pat Kornick said in an email. The decision is the latest swing in a long-running effort to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania. It’s also a major victory for environmental groups who opposed the project, arguing it would cut a scar across the landscape, threaten wildlife and contribute the use of fossil fuels. PennEast, a company made up of five energy firms, won federal and Pennsylvania permitting approvals including a key Federal Energy Regulatory Commission certificate that could allow the firm to use eminent domain to acquire land. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court said companies building interstate pipelines can obtain the land they need even in the face of state opposition, once their projects have been given the green light by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The Trump and Biden administrations had supported PennEast. Nineteen states had urged the Supreme Court to rule the other way and side with New Jersey.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nAlbuquerque: Rio Rancho Public Schools canceled classes Monday because of an internet service outage. Officials sent a letter to parents Sunday saying a damaged fiber optic circuit was causing the outage. With no internet, some key systems that involve safety and student transportation would be at risk. District officials said contractors are coming from out of state to do the repairs. Classes were expected to resume Tuesday.\n\nNew York\n\nAlbany: The state has stopped paying legal bills for employees who worked for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he faces ongoing investigations on the state and federal levels. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s spokesperson Haley Viccaro said last Wednesday that the state stopped paying for those aides’ legal bills after Sept. 2. The administration is now deciding whether there is a legal basis for the state to pay bills for legal services on or before Sept. 2. Viccaro did not specify how many staffers had legal bills paid for by the state. Cuomo and his former aides face an ongoing investigation by the state attorney general into Cuomo’s use of state employees to help with a book he wrote about his leadership during the pandemic and scrutiny from federal prosecutors who are investigating his administration’s handling of nursing home death data. Cuomo is also facing a state ethics commission inquiry. The state has agreed to pay a maximum of $9.5 million in bills for attorneys representing Cuomo and his administration over sexual harassment allegations and other matters, as well as for attorneys investigating the former governor and his administration, according to the Associated Press’ review of available contracts. That figure includes up to $5 million for attorneys who have represented Cuomo’s office. It doesn’t include the legal fees of Cuomo’s private attorney, Rita Glavin, whose bills are being paid by his campaign committee.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: A construction company founded by former NFL players and brothers Torry and Terrence Holt will build a project designed to honor the contributions of African Americans in North Carolina. Leaders of the North Carolina Freedom Park initiative announced Monday that the Black-owned Holt Brothers Construction has been awarded the contract to complete the $5.4 million project in Raleigh. The park, to be located between the Executive Mansion and the Legislative Building. will be anchored by the Beacon of Freedom, a piece of public art that will be illuminated at night. Freedom Park’s leaders broke ground last fall on the park, which is expected to be completed by next year. The Holts grew up in Gibsonville and played at North Carolina State University. Torry Holt was an All-America wide receiver and played on the Super Bowl-winning St. Louis Rams in 2000. The brothers’ construction company has completed other projects such as a Durham County library renovation and North Carolina Central University’s new student center. Freedom Park was designed by the late architect Phil Freelon, who also designed the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, and the Durham firm Perkins & Will.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong, North Dakota’s only congressman, is in isolation after testing positive for the coronavirus. Armstrong said in a Twitter post Sunday that he had been experiencing mild coronavirus symptoms and took a test which came back positive. The 44-year-old Republican said he has been vaccinated. “I have been fully vaccinated since January, and I am taking all precautions and recovering at home in North Dakota. I have been advised by my doctor to quarantine for ten days,” Armstrong wrote. Armstrong said he has contacted friends in Congress and will be casting his votes this week by proxy, as Capitol Hill gears up for a busy week that includes a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure package. “Unfortunately, I am not going to be able to be in D.C. next week,” Armstrong wrote. “However, the votes we are taking are simply too important to miss, so I have reached out to friends in Congress and I will be casting my votes by proxy.”\n\nOhio\n\nAkron:Summa Health is reducing inpatient hospital beds by more than 20% and temporarily stopping some elective surgeries while the Akron-based health system tries to adjust to a nationwide staffing shortage exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a memo distributed to staff at 9 a.m. Monday, hospital executives said Summa would make multiple adjustments to help the care of patients as health care staff at Summa and nationwide are in some cases burned out and leaving the health care field. “We are no longer able to maintain the current level of capacity in our hospitals and we must make adjustments to align with the current level of clinical staff,” Summa executives said. The following measures will go into effect immediately: adjusting the combined inpatient bed capacity at Akron City and Barberton hospitals from 551 to about 430 by Oct. 24; the number of available inpatient beds will be cut from 439 to about 350 at Akron City Hospital and 112 to 80 at Barberton Hospital; improve Emergency Department flow by embeding specialists, primary care physicians and/or hospitalists in the emergency department on the Akron and Barberton campuses to initiate care more efficiently. There will be no changes at St. Thomas Hospital, which treats Summa’s behavioral health patients.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City:A northwest Oklahoma City church hopes to become a transitional living community to temporarily house individuals experiencing homelessness and provide support to help them find permanent housing and a brighter future. Clark Memorial United Methodist Church wants to build up to 20 small structures similar to tiny homes or tiny housing units on its property. The Rev. Bo Ireland, the church’s senior pastor, is also executive director of what is being called the Lazarus Community at Clark Memorial. The name of the new housing community comes from well-known scripture which told the story of Jesus raising a man named Lazarus from the dead. “It’s a ministry that will be bringing back those who are homeless to a restored state,” Ireland said.\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: Despite a threat to block new political maps, Republican state lawmakers returned to the state Capitol on Monday – the final day for the Legislature to complete redistricting. Enough GOP lawmakers returned to the House floor to achieve a quorum required to vote. With the Republican reverse, it is likely Democrats will pass new district maps – including a sixth, U.S. House seat. Congressional plans were sent to the redistricting committee on Monday morning to be formally adopted and the House was scheduled to reconvene at 1 p.m. Although Oregon Democrats hold the majority in both legislative chambers, they don’t have enough seats to vote without a few Republicans present. As the House convened Monday morning,47 of 60 House members were present – 40 lawmakers are needed to meet quorum. The Oregon Legislature had until the end of the day on Monday to participate in the once-a-decade job of redrawing the state’s congressional and legislative districts in accordance with new U.S. Census numbers. If lawmakers missed the deadline, the job of redrawing congressional maps would fall to a panel of five current and former judges appointed by the Oregon Supreme Court, and Democratic Secretary of State Shemia Fagan will be tasked with redrawing the state’s legislative districts. On Saturday, Republicans in the House did not show up for a floor session, upset that Democratic House Speaker Tina Kotek earlier this week rescinded a deal she made with them to split power in the redistricting debate, even though Democrats have large majorities in the Senate and House.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nPhiladelphia: Transgender women in Pennsylvania tried again Monday to knock down state rules that govern legal name changes for people with felony records. The state requires them to wait two years after completing their sentence to apply for a name change. People who have committed the most serious felonies, including rape and murder, are barred from changing their legal names. The 1998 rules are meant to enhance public safety and thwart fraud attempts. However, advocates said the transgender community simply wants the right to use names that match their identities rather than their dead or given names. Gabriel Arkles, senior counsel of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, said his clients risk being harassed if they apply for jobs, or are stopped by police, and show identification that doesn’t match their gender identities. “For the people it affects, it has such a profound affect,” Arkles said. “Our clients are transgender people who are just trying to live their lives and are not trying to commit any fraud.” Similar efforts have been underway in other states, with varying degrees of success, he said. Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court, which handles cases involving state agencies, dismissed a related lawsuit last year on procedural grounds without addressing the underlying constitutional claims.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: An open government coalition is asking Democratic Gov. Dan McKee to allow public agencies to hold meetings online because of a surge of COVID-19 infections. ACCESS/RI said it sent a letter to McKee asking him to issue an executive order because his previous order to waive the requirement that members of public bodies meet in person expired in July. Since then, the coalition said, some public bodies have had difficulty getting enough members to attend in person for a quorum and some members of the public have been reluctant to attend. “Members of the public face a choice between their health and their ability to participate in our democracy,” the coalition said. State legislatures in neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts codified similar executive orders to allow for online meetings until the spring, the coalition added. Rhode Island’s legislature considered allowing online meetings until July 2023, which ACCESS/RI opposed because of the length of time and the belief that in-person meetings should be the default.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nBeaufort: Crews are getting ready to start restoring windows in a century-old building in Beaufort that were damaged by hurricanes over the past several years. The work on the 29 windows of the Carnegie Library building is being paid for through a $188,000 federal grant, The Island Packet of Hilton Head reported. Work is expected to start in October and last six months. The windows were damaged when Hurricane Matthew passed just offshore in 2016 and Hurricane Irma in 2017. Beaufort officials also hired a building preservation expert to look at the entire former library and provide an estimate for any other worked needed to preserve it. The library in downtown Beaufort is one of 14 in South Carolina and more than 1,600 public libraries across the United States funded by steel industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The old library now houses the Beaufort/Port Royal Convention & Visitors Bureau.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nRapid City: The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology has been awarded an $11 million federal grant to develop better material and manufacturing technology to withstand cold weather. South Dakota Mines will partner with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Cold Regions and Engineering Lab. The research will be done over five years and is aimed at developing better materials and technology to support the Army’s military objectives in cold and remote regions. U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds said funding for the project has been his top defense appropriation request for three years, the Rapid City Journal reported. Dr. Jim Rankin, president of South Dakota Mines, said the research is a win-win for the university and for national defense.\n\nTennessee\n\nMemphis:A state senator charged with stealing $600,000 in federal grant money from a health care school she operated has been acquitted on 15 of 20 charges, according to court records. U.S. District Court Judge Sheryl Lipman filed the order Sunday after attorneys for Sen. Katrina Robinson filed a motion Friday seeking acquittal on all charges, Memphis news outlets reported. Robinson, 40, a Memphis Democrat elected to the Tennessee General Assembly in 2018, was charged in July 2020 with wire fraud, as well as theft and embezzlement involving government programs after the FBI searched the school and her home. She was accused of stealing federal grant money awarded to The Healthcare Institute, which provides training in the health care field, including nursing assistant jobs in geriatric care. The school received more than $2.2 million in federal grants from the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The federal grant money was earmarked for student scholarships from 2015 through 2019. Robinson’s attorneys argued for an acquittal Friday after federal prosecutors rested their case. They argued that prosecutors didn’t prove allegations that Robinson used the federal grant funds on personal expenses. The trial was expected to continue Tuesday on the five remaining charges, court filings showed..\n\nTexas\n\nSouth Padre Island: A large loggerhead sea turtle rehabilitated at the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital was flown by private plane Sunday to live at a conservation facility in Texas. The 230-pound female turtle took the nearly 5-hour flight from the Middle Keys to South Padre Island, with the help of “Turtles Fly Too,” a nonprofit group that works with general aviation pilots who donate their aircraft, fuel and time to provide emergency transport for endangered species. Matthew, named for one of her rescuers before her sex was determined, suffered injuries to her shell in May 2020 from a boat strike that left her unable to dive and forage for food – a condition termed “bubble butt syndrome” by the hospital’s rehabilitation staff. “She’s being transported to Sea Turtle Inc. in South Padre Island because she’s unable to dive,” said Bette Zirkelbach, the Turtle Hospital’s general manager, who accompanied the reptile during the flight. “That makes her nonreleasable and she will act as an ambassador for her species there at the Texas facility where they see lots of visitors.” The reptile joins other rehabilitated, nonreleasable turtle patients at Sea Turtle Inc., located on the Gulf of Mexico. The organization’s conservation outreach programs are designed to raise public awareness about sea turtles and the threats to their survival. Matthew’s carapace has been fitted with weights, fashioned to adhere to the shell and help the turtle submerge and rest comfortably during her residency at the Texas center.\n\nUtah\n\nSt. George:The St. George Marathon returns Saturday for its 45th edition and the first since 2019 after the 2020 race was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The race is set to start at its usual spot north of the city along State Route 18 at the base of the Pine Valley Mountains and descending nearly 2,600 feet in elevation back to the finish line downtown. The race starts at 7 a.m. and will force some road closures and detours along SR-18 and a number of streets in and around downtown. “We are so excited to have the marathon back in 2021. It is St. George’s signature event,” said Michelle Graves, race director and the Deputy Director of Arts and Events for the city of St. George. “This might be the best St. George Marathon ever. There has been a vibrant return to racing and we are happy to have a strong field of runners for this year's event.” This year's event will include a mini-marathon starting at 6:15 a.m, with races of 1 mile and 200 meters at Vernon Worthen Park. Children ages 3 to 12 and people with special needs are invited to participate. After the races, a party in the park is set to last until 8 a.m. Organizers expect about 7,000 runners to participate. Many others have signed on to be volunteers. The annual Mayor's Walk is also scheduled for Saturday morning, with Mayor Michele Randall leading a 1-mile walk from the Washington County School District offices at 121 W. Tabernacle Street over to Vernon Worthen. The marathon has been run every year except last year since 1977 and is regularly rated as one of the most scenic races in the country, as well as one of the fastest because of its downhill course.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: Registration opened Monday for Vermonters ages 75 and older to get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster. On Wednesday, people 70 and older can start signing up followed by the 65-and-older age group on Friday. Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed booster shots for millions of older or otherwise vulnerable Americans six months after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. On Friday, those ages 18 to 64 with underlying medical conditions or who work in certain occupational settings will become eligible for boosters, the state said. The state is waiting for guidance from the CDC on the type of underlying medical conditions and occupational settings. Booster shots are available where Pfizer vaccines are offered, including at a Health Department clinic, pharmacy or health care provider, state officials said. People must make an appointment to get a shot at a state clinic and are asked to bring their vaccine cards with them. Information can be found on the Vermont Health Department website.\n\nVirginia\n\nLafayette: A small earthquake shook southwestern Virginia on Monday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 2.6 happened about 9:37 a.m. It was centered about 2.5 miles north of Lafayette, and was about 8 miles deep. News outlets reported that people in nearby Salem reported feeling the ground shaking, but there were no immediate reports of damage.\n\nWashington\n\nSeattle: Twenty-five media and transparency groups are asking the state Supreme Court to allow the release of the names of the Seattle police officers who attended events in the nation’s caital on Jan. 6. The Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press and the news organizations filed an amicus brief Friday asking the court to deny an injunction filed by the officers that seeks to block the release of public records that identify the officers. Police officers “are public servants who, when on-duty, wield tremendous power to detain, arrest, jail, and, in extreme circumstances, employ deadly force in connection with their duties,” the groups said. “Without access to officer names, the public has no insight into whether certain officers have been the subject of multiple misconduct investigations or whether police oversight boards are effectively evaluating and responding to repeated misconduct complaints, particularly when such complaints are deemed unsubstantiated.” The officers have argued that they did nothing wrong and revealing their names would violate their privacy. But the media groups said their attendance at a public demonstration that drew thousands of people and news organizations was not a private activity. A message left for Mike Solan, the president of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild, seeking comment was not immediately returned. Arguments before the Supreme Court are set for Nov. 9.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: West Virginia internet customers are being asked to take a broadband speed test to improve access in the state. “Data collected from the speed test will be instrumental in making decisions about broadband access in West Virginia moving forward,” state Department of Economic Development Secretary Mitch Carmichael said in a news release. Information from the tests will be used to create a map identifying where investment in broadband is needed most, the agency said. The test is available at broadband.wv.gov. Click the red button that reads “TAKE THE SPEED TEST” at the top of the page and follow the steps. A few additional questions about location and internet service follow the test, and the whole process takes about 5 minutes. The Broadband Enhancement Council is also involved in publicizing the speed test through a campaign using text messages and digital advertising.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: Cardinal Raymond Burke, 73, one of Catholic Church’s most outspoken conservatives and a vaccine skeptic who was placed on a ventilator after contracting COVID-19, said he has moved into a house but is still struggling to recover from the disease. Burke posted a letter on his website Saturday saying he left a hospital Sept. 3 and moved into a house near his family. He didn’t say where. Burke said he’s going through in-home rehabilitation, still suffers from fatigue and has difficulty breathing. He didn’t detail what his rehabilitation regimen included but said he is making steady but slow progress. He said a secretary from Rome has moved in with him to help him with his rehabilitation and catch up on his work. “I cannot predict when I will be able to return to my normal activities,” Burke wrote. “Seemingly, it will be several more weeks.” He said God saved him for “some work” he wants him to carry out with the help of the church and asked people to pray for him, the world and the church, all of which are “beset with so much confusion and error to the great and even mortal harm of many souls.” He didn’t elaborate.\n\nWyoming\n\nCasper: Felicia, a mama grizzly bear whose troubles won the hearts of the Internet, has successfully shepherded her cubs through a perilous summer. Her fans miss seeing the bear family grazing and frolicking along Togwotee Pass. But they hope, for Felicia’s sake, that she will stay out of sight. This spring, record numbers of tourists were clogging the roads around Wyoming’s national parks when Felicia emerged from hibernation with two fuzzy, bumbling, roly-poly cubs, and established herself by the side of the highway. Passersby were mesmerized. Bear jams proliferated. The congestion wasn’t just a nuisance, however. Too many drivers were spotting Felicia and her cubs, swerving to the side of a 55 mph highway and leaving their cars to approach the bears – in violation of posted signs that forbade exactly that, the Casper Star-Tribune reported. Three government agencies that watch over Felicia, the highway and the land she inhabited, lacked the resources to continually enforce parking laws or uphold the protections that grizzlies, a threatened species, are afforded under the Endangered Species Act. So rather than attempt to manage the people, officials managed the bear. Rangers typically use pain and noise to train bears to fear undesirable locations. That strategy, known as hazing, separated Felicia from her surviving cub for a month in 2019. Though the two ultimately reunited, the cub didn’t survive the following winter. Hazing, though less risky than relocation, isn’t a perfect solution. It can cause bears to act erratically around roads, increasing the risk of collisions. It can separate mothers from their cubs – sometimes temporarily, like with Felicia in 2019, and sometimes permanently. But it can also work. In Felicia’s case, hazing has been effective. Nearly four months after Felicia – known to rangers as grizzly 863 – fled a barrage of rubber bullets, beanbags and noisemakers, the bear has maintained her distance from roads, vehicles and people, and has kept her cubs by her side.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/28"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_4", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/sport/brittney-griner-court-hearing-spt-intl/index.html", "title": "Brittney Griner: Russian court schedules start of trial for Friday, her ...", "text": "(CNN) A Russian court on Monday scheduled Brittney Griner 's trial to start Friday, according to her lawyer, and ruled the WNBA star's detention be extended six months pending its outcome.\n\nGriner -- who has been held in Russia since her arrest at a Moscow airport on allegations of attempted drug smuggling -- attended the preliminary hearing in person Monday, arriving at court handcuffed and flanked by guards in black vests, according to a photo by AFP photographer Kirill Kudryavstev.\n\nHer lawyer, Alexander Boykov, previously told CNN the hearing would occur behind closed doors at the Khimki court, just outside Moscow.\n\nGriner, 31, a Phoenix Mercury player who plays in Russia during the WNBA's offseason, was arrested February 17. Russian authorities claimed she had cannabis oil in her luggage and accused her of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance, an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.\n\nThe US State Department, however, has classified Griner as \"wrongfully detained,\" a department official told CNN in May.\n\nWNBA star Brittney Griner arrives at a hearing at the Khimki court outside Moscow on Monday.\n\nGriner's detention, which has been repeatedly extended, has sparked a wave of support among dozens of organizations in the US that have joined Cherelle Griner, Brittney Griner's wife, in urging President Joe Biden to strike an exchange deal with Russian authorities to release Griner and bring her home safely as soon as possible.\n\nMore than 40 organizations -- including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, the National Urban League and the Women's National Basketball Players Association -- signed a letter to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris calling for action to get Griner released.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Cherelle Griner one-on-one last Wednesday, according to a senior State Department official. And US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday he and Blinken spoke with Cherelle \"in the last few days ... to convey that we just can't even begin to imagine what the family must be going through\" and what \"Brittney must be going through.\"\n\nCherelle Griner said last week she hasn't talked to her wife since February 17.\n\n\"I've got no higher priority than making sure that Americans who are being illegally detained in one way or another around the world come home,\" Sec. Blinken told CNN's \"State of the Union\" at the Group of 7 summit Sunday\n\n\"That includes Paul Whelan, that includes Brittney Griner, that includes people in a number of other countries,\" he added. Whelan is a US citizen who was detained in Moscow in 2018 and arrested on espionage charges. He has denied the charges.\n\n\"I can't comment in any detail on what we're doing, except to say this is an absolute priority,\" Blinken said.\n\nWhile Griner's trial has been scheduled, that should not prevent US officials from trying to negotiate her release, her agent said on Twitter , calling Monday's hearing \"administrative in nature and not on the merits.\"\n\n\"The negotiation for her immediate release regardless of the legal proceedings should remain a top priority,\" Lindsay Kagawa Colas wrote, \"and we expect @POTUS and @VP to do everything in their power, right now, to get a deal done to bring her home.\"\n\nThe US Embassy in Moscow will send a US diplomat to Brittney Griner's hearing on Friday, a US official told CNN.\n\nA State Department spokesperson reiterated that the Griner is \"wrongfully detained,\" and said that support for her and her family will continue. \"The US government will continue to provide appropriate support to Ms. Griner and her family. We will continue to ​press for her release.\"\n\nGriner was named an honorary WNBA All-Star Game starter last week, with the All-Star Game scheduled to take place on July 10 in Chicago.\n\nGriner's detention abroad is still \"tough on our team,\" Phoenix Mercury head coach Vanessa Nygaard told reporters before the team's game Monday against the Indiana Fever.\n\nShe expressed hope Griner will return home soon and that President Joe Biden will \"take the steps to ensure that she comes home.\"", "authors": ["Anna Chernova", "Dakin Andone"], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/30/politics/brittney-griner-wife-chenelle-interview-spt-intl/index.html", "title": "Brittney Griner: It's been 130 days since the WNBA star was ...", "text": "Phoenix (CNN) Cherelle Griner, the wife of WNBA star Brittney Griner , told CNN on Thursday she wants US officials to do whatever they have to do to bring the basketball legend home -- and she needs to see them do more.\n\nIn the only interview she is giving on the eve of her wife's trial in Russia, Cherelle Griner sat in the Phoenix Mercury locker room and called for more action.\n\n\"It's really, really difficult. This is not a situation where the rhetoric is matching the action,\" she said. \"I do have to unfortunately push people to make sure that the things they're telling me is also matching their actions and so it's been the hardest thing to balance because I can't let up. It's over 130 days and BG's still not back.\"\n\nBrittney Griner, 31, who has played in Russia during the WNBA's offseason, was arrested February 17 at a Moscow airport. Russian authorities claimed she had cannabis oil in her luggage and accused her of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance, an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.\n\nEarlier this week, a Russian court scheduled her trial to start Friday , according to her lawyer, and ruled her detention be extended six months pending its outcome. The US Embassy in Moscow will send a diplomat to Friday's hearing, a US official has told CNN.\n\nCherelle Griner told CNN she wants to see more from US officials and meet with them to be reassured that they are \"at that phase where you're actually doing everything in your power to bring her home,\" she said.\n\nRight now, Cherelle said that what the US government is saying isn't matching their actions. She referred to a day when she was supposed to speak to her wife and Brittney called the embassy in Moscow 11 times but wasn't connected with Cherelle. The State Department blamed the mistake on staffing restrictions imposed by Russian officials.\n\n\"You don't have my trust at that point until I see actions that are in BG's best interest,\" Cherelle said.\n\nShe also said she would \"absolutely\" like to meet with President Joe Biden and humanize Brittney to him so he can \"see BG as we see BG.\"\n\n\"While everyone wants to tell me they care, I'd love for him to tell me he cares,\" she added.\n\nState Department says it is 'actively engaged'\n\nUS national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Cherelle this week, Sullivan told reporters Tuesday aboard Air Force One.\n\n\"Brittney Griner is wrongfully detained, unjustly detained and we have made that clear as an official determination of the US government. Second, the Russian government should release her and allow her to be returned and reunited with her family and come home safe and sound,\" Sullivan said.\n\nSullivan declined to detail US efforts to resolve Griner's case, citing the \"sensitive matter,\" but maintained that the Biden administration is \"actively engaged.\"\n\n'Don't be quiet,' families of other detained Americans told her\n\nWhile Cherelle has not been able to speak to Brittney, the couple writes each other letters. Cherelle said Brittney recently reassured her that her time in detention hasn't driven her crazy after photos from Brittney's court appearance left her wife disheartened. Brittany wrote that she is exhausted and it was disconcerting to emerge into a courtroom where there were 100 or so media members and cameras, Cherelle said.\n\nA photo from Kirill Kudryavstev of Agence France-Presse shows Brittney at her preliminary hearing Monday, arriving at court handcuffed and flanked by guards in black vests.\n\nBrittney Griner at a Russian court Monday for a preliminary hearing.\n\nCherelle noted her wife, who is 6-foot-9, has a five-hour round-trip drive on court days, and when she is moved, she is in a \"very, very, very tiny cage\" with her long legs bent at the knee.\n\nCherelle said she's also met with families of people who have been or remain detained in Russia and other countries. She described the families are loving, genuine and broken people. \"And the first thing they said was, you know, 'Do not be quiet about this. Do not let them forget about your loved one,'\" she said.\n\nIt blew her mind when she learned that for some of those families it has been a three- or four-year ordeal, she added.\n\n\"My heart was breaking hearing it because I, I pray to God, you know, three years does not pass by and BG is still wrongfully detained in Russia,\" she said.\n\nMake a trade if that is what's necessary, wife says\n\nAt first, it was hard for her to imagine that her wife could be used as a pawn, Cherelle told CNN. But she said realizes the answer to the question whether it is possible is \"Yes.\" She said she thinks Russia can get something in return for letting Brittney go\n\n\"And at this point, I want them to. Whatever you want, please ask,\" she said with a laugh.\n\nShe said she hasn't listened much to what the measures are that are being contemplated to bring her wife home.\n\nBut if a prisoner swap is what's necessary then, \"Yes, do it.\"\n\nMercury coach wants Griner to be a priority for Washington\n\nIn a pregame news conference Wednesday, Phoenix Mercury head coach Vanessa Nygaard said, \"We've been hearing some more noise from the Biden administration that there is -- they're supporting us and they know this is a priority. Well, let's make it a priority. I know our Phoenix community feels deeply. Everywhere I go in Phoenix, everyone asks me about BG. ... We just need our government and everybody in power to really push for that (release).\"\n\nNygaard also said that the team will be having a rally for Griner next week.\n\nGriner is one of the best basketball players in the world. The center has won two Olympic gold medals and one WNBA title. She has been a six-time WNBA All-Star, three times as a starter. This season she will be honored as a starter in the All-Star game, scheduled for July 10.\n\nLast season, she averaged a sterling 20.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game.", "authors": ["Abphillip", "Steve Almasy"], "publish_date": "2022/06/30"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/30/world/gallery/photos-this-week-june-23-june-30/index.html", "title": "Photos this week: June 23-30, 2022", "text": "Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP Anti-abortion protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, after Roe v. Wade was overturned on Friday, June 24. The week in 32 photos\n\nGemunu Amarasinghe/AP Anti-abortion protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, after Roe v. Wade was overturned on Friday, June 24.\n\nThe US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24, holding that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to an abortion.\n\nIt's the most consequential Supreme Court decision in decades, and it reverses nearly 50 years of precedent. Going forward, abortion rights will be determined by states unless Congress acts.\n\nAt least 21 states have laws or constitutional amendments already in place that would make them certain to attempt to ban abortion as quickly as possible, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which favors abortion rights. And an additional four states are likely to ban abortions as soon as possible without federal protections.\n\nThe vote was 5-4 in favor of overturning Roe, and it was made possible by a solid conservative majority, including three of Donald Trump's nominees.\n\n\"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,\" Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his majority opinion. \"Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.\"\n\nJustices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented, saying women's rights are under attack. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a concurring opinion that he would not have overturned Roe; he only would have upheld Mississippi's law banning abortions after 15 weeks.\n\nHere are some of the stories that made headlines over the past week, as well as some photos that caught our eye.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/30"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/01/us/five-things-july-1-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for July 1: SCOTUS, Abortion, Ukraine, Brittney ...", "text": "If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter.\n\nToday is the traditional getaway day for many people heading into the July 4 holiday weekend , and the 5 Things crew is hitting the road too. We'll see you back here on Tuesday after enjoying some fun in the sun and fireworks shows! If you need a little diversion before your holiday festivities begin, take CNN's Summer Quiz ! Here's what you need to know to\n\n(You can get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Supreme Court\n\nThe Supreme Court ended its blockbuster term on Thursday with two major opinions on climate change and immigration. The court dealt a huge blow to the Biden administration by curbing the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to broadly regulate carbon emissions from existing power plants . But in a win for the White House, the court gave President Joe Biden the green light to end the Trump-era \"Remain in Mexico\" immigration policy , which allows officials to send non-Mexican migrants to Mexico to await their US immigration court hearings. These rulings come as the conservative Supreme Court continues to transform the legal landscape around an assortment of hot-button issues, including abortion, gun rights, and religious liberty.\n\n2. Abortion\n\nPresident Biden on Thursday called for dropping filibuster rules to pass abortion rights into law. Ending the filibuster -- the 60-vote threshold in the Senate needed to pass most legislation -- would mean bills could pass by a simple majority instead of being held up by a minority. However, despite Biden's newly announced support for the filibuster carveout, his best bet in doing so would be next year, and only if Democrats gain at least two Senate seats and hold the House of Representatives, an extremely tall task. Meanwhile, several Democratic-leaning states are implementing regulations that either further protect or expand abortion-related laws and policies. Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee , for example, issued a directive Thursday that bars state police from cooperating with out-of-state agency requests for abortion-related information.\n\nJUST WATCHED Watch Biden call for filibuster rule change to codify abortion rights into law Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Watch Biden call for filibuster rule change to codify abortion rights into law 01:12\n\n3. Ukraine\n\nAfter a highly consequential summit this week, President Biden and NATO leaders pledged to support Ukraine for \" as long as it takes ,\" although few were willing to offer an actual timeframe for an end to the conflict. Ukraine's allies ramped up their response to the war this week with new sanctions and more military aid, but it remains unclear whether these steps can change the battlefield momentum that currently favors Russia . Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged NATO leaders to help him regain the initiative during a virtual address to the summit, pleading for more modern weapons and sustained support to battle the Russians. On the ground, Russian forces left Snake Island in the Black Sea , after Zelensky on Thursday said Ukraine carried out a \"remarkable operation.\" Russia, however, claimed it had withdrawn \"as a gesture of goodwill.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED Symbol of Ukrainian resistance at center of new dispute Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Symbol of Ukrainian resistance at center of new dispute 02:20\n\n4. Brittney Griner\n\nThe trial in Russia of American basketball star Brittney Griner is expected to begin today after officials there claimed she had cannabis oil in her luggage in February, a week before Russia invaded Ukraine. Griner , a Phoenix Mercury player who plays in Russia during the WNBA's offseason, was arrested at a Moscow airport and has been detained for more than four months. Russian authorities accused her of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance, an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Her detention, which has been extended for six months pending the trial's outcome, has sparked a wave of support in the US. Griner's wife, Cherelle , is urging President Biden to strike an exchange deal with Russian authorities to release Griner and bring her home safely as soon as possible.\n\nJUST WATCHED Brittney Griner's wife: Effort to free her doesn't match the rhetoric Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Brittney Griner's wife: Effort to free her doesn't match the rhetoric 01:32\n\n5. Travel chaos\n\nAs the US heads into the busy July 4 holiday weekend, travel experts warn delays and cancellations are likely to impact flights over the next few days. More than 1,500 flights were canceled in the US this past weekend alone, and Delta Air Lines has already trimmed about 100 flights a day from its July schedule to \"minimize disruptions.\" Delta also issued a waiver for July 4 travelers as it braces for passenger volumes \"not seen since before the pandemic.\" And as airports fill up with the most travelers in years, weather will also be a big factor this weekend, impacting both airlines and fireworks displays. Most of the US will see the chance of rain through Monday, with the South and Northeast expecting thunderstorms in several areas.\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nSee what's streaming in July\n\n\"Stranger Things\" Season 4 Volume 2 hit Netflix at midnight! Here's what else you should stream this month\n\nUCLA and USC to join Big Ten conference\n\nThe two Southern California powerhouse universities -- UCLA and USC -- are completely shaking up the college sports landscape . (Fight on!)\n\nEnormous chocolate factory shuts over salmonella outbreak\n\nThe biggest chocolate factory in the world is facing a not-so-sweet situation\n\n'Extraordinarily rare' Princess Diana portrait goes on display in London\n\nInteresting fact: Princess Diana went to an art studio for more than 30 sittings to complete this masterpiece\n\nHow two women with the exact same name became best friends\n\nThese women quickly realized they had more in common than their relatively unusual name\n\nQUIZ TIME\n\nWhich company is being accused of turning off the AC in its stores to save money as its sales plummet?\n\nA. IKEA\n\nB. Bed Bath & Beyond\n\nC. Best Buy\n\nD. Petco\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n141\n\nThat's how many reports of rape Uber recorded on its platform in 2020, the rideshare company disclosed in a safety report released Thursday . About 91% of the victims of rape were riders and about 7% of the victims were drivers. Women made up 81% of the victims while men comprised about 15%, according to the 78-page report.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"The Navy accepts responsibility for what happened.\"\n\n-- Navy Adm. Samuel Paparo, the commander of US Pacific Fleet, acknowledging a series of failures led to a , the commander of US Pacific Fleet, acknowledging a series of failures led to a fuel leak at a Hawaii military facility that sickened nearby families. In March, the Defense Department announced it would permanently close the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility after approximately 20,000 gallons of fuel spilled and hundreds of people complained about illnesses linked to the contaminated water.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Storms could impact holiday travel Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Storms could impact holiday travel 02:53\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nBigfoot and Bamboo: The Unlikely History of Fireworks", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/07/01"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/us/five-things-june-28-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for June 28:Roe v. Wade, Jan. 6, Amtrak crash ...", "text": "If your day doesn't start until you're up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to your new favorite morning fix. Sign up here for the '5 Things' newsletter.\n\n(CNN) Can you keep a secret? Not many people know that pilots and cabin crew have access to hidden capsule-like spaces on some planes -- usually right above the main cabin -- to rest and recharge. A passenger walking by would probably think it's a closet, but behind the door is a ladder that leads to a secret room with cozy bunk beds and changing areas.\n\nHere's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.\n\n(You can get \"5 Things You Need to Know Today\" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here .)\n\n1. Roe v. Wade\n\nMost Americans disapprove of the Supreme Court's historic decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a new poll conducted in the immediate wake of the ruling. A 59% majority of US adults disapprove, with 41% approving, the CBS News/YouGov poll showed. Most Americans also say they believe it's at least somewhat likely that the Supreme Court will eventually end or limit same-sex marriage (57%) and access to birth control and contraception (55%). Vice President Kamala Harris told CNN on Monday that the conservative court majority will likely revisit cases of precedent that ensure rights related to same-sex marriage and contraception. \"This is not over,\" Harris said, adding the Biden administration is doing everything within its power to defend access to medication abortion.\n\n2. January 6\n\nThe committee investigating the Capitol Hill insurrection on January 6, 2021, has added an unexpected public hearing today. Cassidy Hutchinson , an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and a witness to many critical events and conversations, is expected to testify publicly later today, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Hutchinson's live testimony would mark a significant moment in the committee's series of hearings as she has long been considered one of its most consequential witnesses who can speak to former President Donald Trump's reaction to the Capitol riot . The announcement of the hearing -- which will start at 1 p.m. ET -- came as a surprise as the committee had said it was not going to resume its hearings until mid-July.\n\nJUST WATCHED GOP strategist reveals a big change in Trump voters during her focus groups Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH GOP strategist reveals a big change in Trump voters during her focus groups 02:05\n\n3. Amtrak crash\n\nAt least three people were killed and at least 50 injured after an Amtrak train derailed Monday in Missouri, authorities said. The train was traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago and had about 243 passengers on board when it collided with a dump truck near the city of Mendon, about 100 miles northeast of Kansas City, according to the passenger rail company. Aerial footage of the crash showed the train toppled to the side as authorities responded to the scene. Preliminary reports indicate the incident happened at an uncontrolled intersection -- without warning lights or motion gates -- where a gravel road crossed the railroad tracks southwest of town. The collision was the second in two days in which an Amtrak train hit a passenger vehicle.\n\nJUST WATCHED Video shows aftermath of Amtrak train derailment Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Video shows aftermath of Amtrak train derailment 02:05\n\n4. Immigration\n\nAt least 46 migrants were found dead inside of a semitruck in San Antonio Monday, according to authorities, in a scene that Mayor Ron Nirenberg called a \" horrific human tragedy .\" Investigators were alerted to the scene after a worker in a nearby building heard a cry for help, San Antonio Police Chief Bill McManus said. The worker found a trailer with doors partially opened and saw a number of people deceased inside, McManus said. Sixteen people, including 12 children, were taken to nearby medical facilities for care. Those who were found alive were hot to the touch and suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion, officials said. There was also no sign of water in the trailer and no visible working air conditioning unit. High temperatures in the San Antonio area ranged from the high 90s to low 100s on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'A horrific human tragedy:' 46 migrants found dead in a semi-truck Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'A horrific human tragedy:' 46 migrants found dead in a semi-truck 01:24\n\n5. Ukraine\n\nWhite House officials are losing confidence that Ukraine will ever be able to take back all of the land it has lost to Russia over the past four months of war, US officials told CNN, even with the more sophisticated weaponry the US and its allies plan to send. The officials emphasized that this more pessimistic assessment does not mean the US plans to pressure Ukraine into making any formal territorial concessions to Russia in order to end the war. There is also hope that Ukrainian forces will be able to take back significant chunks of territory in a likely counteroffensive later this year. Separately, Ukraine has requested a meeting of the UN Security Council today to discuss the Russian strike on a shopping mall as the death toll rose to at least 18. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack \"one of the most defiant terrorist acts in European history.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED See how a US volunteer fighter is training Ukrainians to use weapons Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See how a US volunteer fighter is training Ukrainians to use weapons 02:34\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nMeet Mr. Happy Face, the 'World's Ugliest Dog'\n\nSome call him ugly, we prefer the word unique! Watch Mr. Happy Face get crowned \"World's Ugliest Dog\" here\n\nX-ray finds 109 live animals in women's luggage at airport\n\nStop right there... Wildlife officials were called to the scene after porcupines, armadillos, turtles, lizards and snakes were found stuffed in two suitcases\n\nWhite House announces public tours will resume full operating schedule\n\nMagnificent ancient mosaic found near Tel Aviv returns home\n\nArt buffs, this one is for you . Check out this stunning 1,700-year-old mosaic from the late Roman period.\n\nChris Hemsworth reflects on playing Thor ahead of 'Love and Thunder'\n\nAfter 10-plus years in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the actor shared a sweet video reminiscing about his love for the role.\n\nHAPPENING LATER\n\nGhislaine Maxwell to be sentenced for sex trafficking\n\nGhislaine Maxwell is set to be sentenced later today for her sex trafficking conviction connected to her role facilitating the late Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse of underage girls. Maxwell, 60, was convicted in December on five of six counts against her , including sex trafficking of a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and three related counts of conspiracy. Prosecutors have asked the judge to sentence Maxwell to 30 to 55 years in prison, which is on par with federal sentencing guidelines, though the probation department recommended 20 years.\n\nIN MEMORIAM\n\nMary Mara, an actress known for roles on \"ER\" and \"Ray Donavan,\" has died, her manager confirmed to CNN on Monday. She was 61. A preliminary investigation suggests , an actress known for roles on \"ER\" and \"Ray Donavan,\" has died, her manager confirmed to CNN on Monday. She was 61. A preliminary investigation suggests Mara drowned while swimming in the St. Lawrence River in New York, according to police. There were no signs of foul play, police said. Mara had a list of credits that spanned television and film, but was arguably most recognizable for her roles on \"Nash Bridges,\" \"ER\" and \"Ray Donovan.\"\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n470\n\nThat's approximately how many reports of illness the popular meal kit service Daily Harvest said it received after recalling one of its products. A slew of people who consumed the product, called French Lentil and Leek Crumbles, reported becoming ill with mysterious symptoms, including extremely elevated liver enzymes. Daily Harvest said it has reached out to impacted customers and is investigating the cause. Some 28,000 units of the product were distributed in the US between April 28 and June 17, according to the company.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"I've got no higher priority than making sure that Americans who are being illegally detained in one way or another around the world come home. That includes Paul Whelan, that includes Brittney Griner, that includes people in a number of other countries.\"\n\n-- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, telling CNN this week that officials are , telling CNN this week that officials are pressing for the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and other citizens who are classified as \"wrongfully detained.\" Griner has been held in Russia on allegations of attempted drug smuggling since February 17. A Russian court has scheduled Griner's trial to start on Friday, according to her lawyer, and ruled that her detention be extended six months pending its outcome.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Monsoon rain for the Southwest as the Pacific Northwest cools Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Monsoon rain for the Southwest as the Pacific Northwest cools 02:11\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nBoogie Woogie Swing Dancing", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_5", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/health/cdc-eoc-monkeypox/index.html", "title": "CDC activates Emergency Operations Center for monkeypox | CNN", "text": "(CNN) The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Tuesday the activation of its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to respond to the US monkeypox outbreak.\n\nGet CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.\n\nThe activation of the EOC \"allows the agency to further increase operational support for the response to meet the outbreak's evolving challenges,\" the agency said in a news release.\n\nThis facility is currently activated for Covid-19 and is where experts monitor information on other public health emergencies, such as hurricanes, earthquakes and oil spills.\n\nAccording to CDC's webpage, the center works to outline a structure of response from the government and alongside non-government actors in emergency response.\n\nMost recent data from the CDC show at least 244 probable or confirmed cases of monkeypox in the US.", "authors": ["Virginia Langmaid"], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/health/monkeypox-vaccines-states-high-case-rates/index.html", "title": "US set to offer monkeypox vaccines in states with high case rates ...", "text": "(CNN) The Biden administration announced steps to beef up its response to monkeypox on Tuesday, detailing plans to offer more vaccines and more tests to people who are most at risk of getting it -- including men who have sex with men and their partners.\n\nThe move comes after pressure from states, who have been pushing the administration to release more doses of monkeypox vaccine from the Strategic National Stockpile managed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services. Critics have also charged that the United States is not offering enough testing to monitor the spread of the virus, which is thought to be more widespread than current case counts suggest.\n\nThe new plan tackles both. It will release more vaccines to areas with the highest case rates, and it will scale up testing, making tests available at five commercial laboratories in addition to an existing network of public health labs.\n\nOn Tuesday, HHS also activated the CDC's Emergency Operations Center to give the agency more flexibility and manpower to manage the nation's monkeypox response.\n\nThe new plan will allocate vaccine doses based on case rates in a state, focusing on men who have sex with men and their known partners, as well as anyone who thinks they might have been recently exposed to the virus as an anonymous partner.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Brenda Goodman"], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/02/28/coronavirus-michigan-emergency-whitmer-cases/4896540002/", "title": "Whitmer activates state Emergency Operations Center to coordinate ...", "text": "LANSING – State emergency coordinators are urging Michigan residents to practice good hygiene to prevent an emerging disease from spreading.\n\nThere are no confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said, but she wants emergency responders, government agencies, schools, businesses and community groups to be prepared.\n\n\"The progress [of the disease] in the U.S. is still slow,\" she said at a Friday press conference. \"That's a good thing, but based on what we’ve seen in other countries, we should expect to see more cases of coronavirus in the United States.\"\n\nWhitmer activated the state Emergency Operations Center at the Michigan State Police headquarters in Dimondale on Friday to coordinate the response of state, federal and local agencies to the disease.\n\nThe coronavirus, known officially as COVID-19, was first detected in China in 2019. The outbreak is still centered there, with 78,000 of the global 81,000 cases in the country's mainland. More than 2,600 people in China have died from the disease.\n\nThe disease continues to spread around the world, with 15 cases in the United States, including one person who did not travel to an affected zone.\n\nIt's unlikely that precautions will prevent coronavirus from reaching Michigan, but Whitmer said careful hygiene practices could slow its spread.\n\nShe encouraged people to wash their hands, avoid touching their faces, avoid handshakes and cover coughs and sneezes to prevent germs from spreading. She urged people to stay home if they feel sick.\n\nThe Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will launch a hand-washing educational campaign next week, Chief Medical Executive and Chief Deputy Director for Health Joneigh Khaldun said.\n\nThe department also is working with local health care agencies and providers to identify potential cases and prepare for a possible outbreak.\n\nAs of Thursday, MDHHS is able to conduct coronavirus tests within the state, Khaldun said.\n\n\"We no longer have to send samples to the CDC,\" she said. \"This means we can know more quickly if the person under observation has the disease.\"\n\nIn Michigan, 357 people have been referred for testing or monitoring to date. Five have been tested, and all of the tests were negative for coronavirus, Khaldun said.\n\nThe COVID-19 coronavirus can cause mild to serious illness or death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms include coughing, shortness of breath and fever.\n\nU.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar II declared a public health emergency in the U.S. on Jan. 31, a day after the World Health Organization ruled the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.\n\nIf large numbers of people get sick, health care facilities could be overwhelmed, large numbers of people could be absent from school and work, potentially affecting services such as transportation and law enforcement, the CDC warned.\n\nThe federal government limited travel for people coming from China in early February and issued warnings for Americans traveling to cruise ships and countries with outbreaks. It is screening incoming travelers and quarantining some.\n\nState officials will update michigan.gov/coronavirus with current information about the disease in Michigan.\n\nContact Carol Thompson at (517) 377-1018 or ckthompson@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @thompsoncarolk.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/02/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/02/08/obama-asks-emergency-zika-funding/80002570/", "title": "Obama asks for $1.8 billion in emergency Zika funding", "text": "Gregory Korte, and Liz Szabo\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nWASHINGTON — President Obama will ask Congress for $1.8 billion in emergency funding to combat the Zika virus through mosquito control programs, vaccine research, education and improving health care for low-income pregnant women, the White House said Monday.\n\nThe new request comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that its emergency operations center has been put on a “Level 1” status — its highest level of activation — because of the Zika outbreak. The CDC has only put its operations center at Level 1 three times in the past: during the Ebola outbreak in 2014; during the H1N1 pandemic in in 2009; and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.\n\nObama's spending proposal includes $355 million in foreign aid to South America, Central America, the Caribbean, where the Zika virus is spreading most rapidly. The World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency last week, warning that the mosquito-borne virus is strongly suspected as the cause of a cluster of cases of microcephaly, a neurological disorder that afflicts the babies of pregnant women with the virus.\n\n\"And so we are going to be putting up a legislative proposal to Congress to resource both the research on vaccines and diagnostics but also helping in terms of public health systems,\" Obama toldCBS This Morning in an interview taped Sunday.\n\nEven as he asked for the additional resources, Obama sought to reassure Americans about the risks. \"There shouldn't be panic on this. This is not something where people are going to die from it. It is something we have to take seriously,\" he said.\n\nZika Q&A: What to know about efforts to fight the virus, conspiracy theories\n\n\"The good news is this is not like Ebola. People don't die of Zika. A lot of people get it and don't even know that they have it,\" Obama said. \"What we now know, though, is that there appears to be some significant risk for pregnant women or women who are thinking about getting pregnant.\"\n\nThe additional funding is \"an important step and needed measure,\" said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He said the funding should also be targeted in low-income areas along the Gulf of Mexico, which tend to be hit hardest by mosquito-borne diseases, partly because residents may not be able to afford air conditioning or even window screens.\n\n“We're also going to need to conduct environmental clean up to help wipe out mosquito breeding areas, while providing quality house screens to pregnant women who live in poverty,” Hotez said.\n\nOne area of concern: Current diagnostic tests can detect a family of viruses that includes Zika and dengue, but don't immediately identify which one. The National Institutes of Health also wants to accelerate vaccine research.\n\nIn a briefing at the White House, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said he hopes to complete the first phase of trials by the end of the year — and have a vaccine widely available long before the usual three- to five-year time frame. \"When you’re in an emergency situation, I think you can move much more quickly than that and get an accelerated approval,\" he said.\n\nObama is scheduled to submit his 2017 budget to Congress Tuesday. But if Congress approves the emergency funding request, the money would be available in this fiscal year.\n\nThe Obama administration is also briefing Senate leaders Tuesday on the Zika response at the invitation of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.\n\n\"Protecting Americans, particularly children, from communicable diseases is a high priority for everyone,\" said McConnell Deputy Chief of Staff Don Stewart. He said Congress would consider the emergency funding proposal, but in the context of larger budget. \"And given limited federal resources, we expect the administration will brief Congress on their funding priorities at the briefing.\"\n\nIf it's not isn't immediately approved, Fauci said he'd have to consider diverting money from other health programs. He also could not rule out an additional emergency request in the future.\n\nAsked how the government would pay for the $1.8 billion plan, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, \"Those are the kinds of things Congress will have to work out.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/02/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2020/03/18/coronavirus-arizona-outbreak-scottsdale-declares-state-emergency-covid-19/2867574001/", "title": "Coronavirus Arizona outbreak: Scottsdale declares state of emergency", "text": "Scottsdale joined other metro Phoenix cities in mid-March that declared states of emergency to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.\n\nScottsdale, with arguably the Valley's hottest restaurant and bar scene, stopped short of shuttering or restricting those businesses.\n\nBut the following day, Gov. Doug Ducey announced he would prohibit dining in restaurants and close bars, theaters and gyms in counties with confirmed COVID-19 cases, including Maricopa County.\n\nLess than two weeks later, Ducey on March 30 issued a statewide stay-at-home order that will run through April.\n\nScottsdale has closed all buildings to the public, except the City Court and Vista del Camino Food Bank. The Granite Reef Senior Center is closed, except to distribute meals for seniors enrolled in the city’s nutrition programs.\n\nScottsdale Mayor Jim Lane during a City Council meeting on March 17 — a day before the city declared an emergency — had said he was not looking to exacerbate the tense situation by making such a declaration.\n\n\"Some of our neighbors … are taking some extraordinary moves,\" Lane had said. \"We’re not looking to exaggerate things any further than they are.\"\n\nWhile a state of emergency allows mayors to ramp up responses at the local level, Lane said Scottsdale was working to \"calm some of the terror.\"\n\nHe called the process of making decisions amid the outbreak a \"balance.\"\n\n\"The health of our individual citizens is really also dependent upon a healthy city and a healthy community,\" he said. \"We're responsible as a city to minimize harm to our citizens both physically and economically. Right now that's what our focus is.\"\n\nThe emergency declaration now in place authorizes City Manager Jim Thompson to take \"any lawful actions necessary to mitigate the effects and spread of the virus.\"\n\nWhat's the point without closures?\n\nLane said that he declared a state of emergency so the city could more easily access supplies and materials and to request financial assistance from federal, state and county authorities.\n\nScottsdale’s incident management team and emergency operations center were activated nearly four weeks ago at the earliest indication that COVID-19 was spreading to the community, he said.\n\nThe city has been working with federal, state and county public health departments since then.\n\n\"This declaration is the next step: it expands the city’s authority to take additional measures we may need as part of our ongoing response,” the mayor said.\n\nBut Lane said that he was wary of making decisions driven by fear.\n\nIf Scottsdale officials immediately resorted to closing down bars and restaurants, it could jeopardize critical infrastructure in the city, as well as the city's food supply chain, he said.\n\n\"We want to maintain a community that survives,\" he said. \"Does that mean people need to make money and have jobs? Yes.\"\n\nDespite the hesitancy from City Hall to order closure of businesses, numerous city programs and events have ground to a halt in the last week, including spring training, Scottsdale Fashion Week and Arizona Bike Week.\n\nScottsdale closures\n\nThe city closed all buildings to the public on March 24.\n\nAll baseball and softball fields, as well as the Skate Park at McDowell Mountain Ranch Aquatic Center, will be closed through April 30. All reservations at the fields have been canceled.\n\nScottsdale aquatic and fitness centers, including Club SAR, are closed. Senior Center Fitness centers are closed.\n\nOutdoor parks and hiking and biking trails remain open, although residents should observe social distancing guidelines.\n\nPark playgrounds are not closed and city staff are cleaning these areas daily.\n\nMcCormick-Stillman Railroad Park is open to the public, although the train, carousel, model railroad building and Hartley’s General Store are closed.\n\n\"While families are welcome to picnic or play in the park, we strongly recommend that is done taking into the considerations of the CDC and Arizona Department of Health Services relative to Covid-19 virus,\" the park said in a statement on Facebook.\n\nThe Granite Reef Senior Center is closed, except to distribute meals for seniors enrolled in the city’s nutrition programs.\n\nResidents may call 480-312-2323 to schedule food box distribution and emergency assistance at the Vista del Camino Food Bank.\n\nAll Scottsdale trolley services were suspended beginning Wednesday, March 25.\n\nScottsdale has canceled all special events being held by the city or at a city facility for the next eight weeks, including Good Guys car show and other events at WestWorld.\n\nAll Scottsdale library buildings are closed to the public. Residents can still access drive-thru and pick-up service for holds and continued online digital services, such as Ask-a-Librarian support.\n\nThe library call center is available 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday at 480-312-7327.\n\nMost city events and programs have been canceled until further notice, including recreation programs and classes. Pro-rated refunds for unfinished classes will be given.\n\nThe city is allowing people to register for upcoming recreation spring programs taking place after April 6. Refunds will be given if the programs are canceled.\n\nCity services such as trash pickup, water and public safety continue, although residents can complete much of their city business, including development services, online at scottsdaleaz.gov.\n\nScottsdale’s planning department remains open but implemented changes to minimize contact.\n\nThe city said its incident management team is meeting regularly to discuss ways to protect residents and ensure minimal disruptions to city services.\n\nThe city's call center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the week at 480-312-3111.\n\nCity Council meetings, court appearances continue\n\nThe Scottsdale City Council held its March 17 meeting as scheduled, as well as a remote special meeting on March 24. The city has asked that residents view the meeting remotely on TV at Cox cable Channel 11 or online at ScottsdaleAZ.gov.\n\nBoard and commission meetings through March were canceled unless necessary to meet statutory obligations or specific business, according to a city statement. The city encourages remote participation for those meetings if necessary.\n\nScottsdale City Court has suspended all jury trials and continued many cases.\n\nThe court is offering online services for individuals to address their cases, including filing motions online at www.Scottsdaleaz.gov/court.\n\nIndividuals with questions about their court appearance can contact the court at 480-312-2442 or email them at Court@ScottsdaleAZ.gov.\n\nHave a tip out of Scottsdale? Reach the reporter Lorraine Longhi at llonghi@gannett.com or 480-243-4086. Follow her on Twitter @lolonghi.\n\nSupport local journalism.Subscribe to azcentral.com today.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/03/04/iowa-coronavirus-covid-19-preparation-testing-virus-sick-cases-test-news-map/4955581002/", "title": "Coronavirus in Iowa: A look back, March 3-15: Urbandale school ...", "text": "Register staff\n\nState and federal officials say there are simple, everyday steps you can take to avoid catching or spreading respiratory diseases, including COVID-19: Cover your coughs and sneezes, thoroughly wash or sanitize your hands and stay home if you are sick. Get more information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at CDC.gov/coronavirus, or call 211, the Iowa Department of Public Heath's hotline, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.\n\nOfficials in Iowa are dealing with the effects of the novel coronavirus spreading around the world, the United States and in Iowa.\n\nPersonnel at health care facilities, schools, the state government and businesses in Iowa are taking a series of measures in response to the virus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19.\n\n► Looking for the latest? Here's what we know, March 16-22.\n\nHere's the latest on what Iowans need to know:\n\nUrbandale Community School District employee tests positive for COVID-19\n\nMarch 16: An employee of the Karen Acres Elementary School in Urbandale has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently in quarantine.\n\nThe employee, who is not being identified by the school district out of concerns for confidentiality, has sought medical attention, according to a notification from the Urbandale Community School District. The notice did not specify the person’s condition.\n\nThe district also announced that all of its schools would be closed beginning March 16 for four weeks, adhering to the recommendation from Gov. Kim Reynolds. The closure includes cancellation of all school-related programming, activities, athletics, Adventuretime and community education classes. Under current plans, students would return to school on Monday, April 13.\n\nThere have been 23 known cases of coronavirus in Iowa. Some of the cases involve people who do not know how they contracted the virus, and some of those infected have had to be hospitalized. COVID-19 is the respiratory illness caused by the virus. It is unclear if this employee is part of that 23 or if the person is an additional case.\n\nDes Moines-area YMCAs completely shut down for 15 days\n\nThe six membership branches and the Y-Camp serving the greater Des Moines area will shut down for 15 days, officials announced Monday night.\n\nNo coronavirus cases have been linked to a YMCA facility, but its leadership is following federal, state and local health officials' guidance to try to slow its spread, Ruth Comer, the YMCA's vice president for marketing and communications wrote in an email.\n\nIt had previously canceled all group fitness classes, personal training sessions, youth programming and facility rentals and suspended Learn and Play centers and guest passes.\n\nFull-time staff will remain employed during the closure. President and CEO of YMCA of Greater Des Moines Leisha Barcus asked members to pay dues and register for future programs as they're able to help it operate once the crisis passes.\n\nDes Moines Water Works suspends water shutoffs\n\nMarch 16: Des Moines Water Works, which provides drinking water to most of the Des Moines metro area, announced Monday that it would stop shutting off the water service of delinquent ratepayers.\n\nWater needs to be available to help residents sanitize, which will hopefully slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus, the utility said in a news release. The suspension is temporary.\n\nDes Moines Water Works’ water remains safe to drink, the release said. COVID-19 hasn’t been detected in drinking water, and water works’ treatment practices kill viruses. There’s also no need to boil tap water.\n\nThe U.S Environmental Protection Agency said, “Americans can continue to use and drink water from their tap as usual.”\n\nStarting Tuesday, water works will also prohibit walk-in customers at its general office building on George Flagg Parkway. In-home visits, except for emergencies, will also be suspended.\n\nWater customers can pay online at dmww.com, by phone at (515) 283-8700, at the office’s dropbox, by mail or at pay stations at local Hy-Vee or Wal-Mart stores.\n\nThe utility has also started “stockpiling” chemicals, repair parts and other equipment to ensure the production and distribution of safe drinking water, the news release said.\n\nIowa DOT may make customers wait in cars, encourages appointments\n\nMarch 16: The Iowa Department of Transportation is encouraging people to postpone in-person services and, if unavoidable, for customers to make an appointment before visiting.\n\nMany services, including renewals, address changes and certified copies of driving records, are likely available online. To view those services, or make an appointment, visit https://mymvd.iowadot.gov/. Customers can also call 515-244-8725.\n\nOfficials hope appointments will reduce the number of people waiting at the service centers. Staff will watch the size of groups in the waiting areas and may ask people to come back another time or wait in their vehicles if the room becomes crowded, according to a news release.\n\nStaff will also ask customers questions designed to evaluate their risk of exposure to the coronavirus and risk of exposure to other customers. If someone is determined to be a “heightened risk,” they will be asked to delay their visit. The news release did not specify what criteria will be used to make that judgment.\n\nDOT staff are also instructed to increase how often they clean and disinfect the facilities.\n\nGov. Reynolds holds news conference\n\nOne more case in Iowa, total now 23\n\nLegislature agrees to waive the requirement to reschedule school days\n\nMarch 16: Iowa House and Senate leaders announced Monday that they would pass legislation to waive the requirement for Iowa schools to reschedule school days canceled as a result of COVID-19. Gov. Kim Reynolds has recommended schools close for four weeks as a result of the outbreak.\n\nClasses previously scheduled from March 16 to April 12 will not be rescheduled. Republican lawmakers said the Legislature would advance legislation on Monday to implement the arrangement.\n\n\"This decision will provide Iowa school districts with the certainty that they need to make decisions locally and move ahead this school year,\" said House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford.\n\nACT cancels April national test date\n\nMarch 16: ACT rescheduled its April 4 national test date to June 13 across the U.S. due to concerns over spreading COVID-19. It announced Monday that all students registered for the date will receive an email in the next few days informing them about the postponement and instructions for free rescheduling to the June 13 or a later date.\n\nAfter April, there are only two more chances to take the test in order to meet 2020 admission deadlines. The June 13 test date's registration deadline is May 8. The July 18 test date's registration deadline is June 19.\n\nSen. Chuck Grassley: 'I’d rather overreact than underreact'\n\nMarch 16: U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is urging Iowans to take seriously the threat of the coronavirus.\n\n“Maybe” the response to the outbreak has been an overreaction, he told reporters on a press call Monday afternoon. “But I’d rather overreact than underreact and have more people die, for sure.”\n\nGrassley said that anybody shrugging off the situation “should take it more seriously.”\n\n“You’ve got to wash your hands. You’ve got to use disinfectant. You shouldn’t shake hands. Don’t touch your face. All of those things,” he said. “Everybody ought be trying to do it because we don’t know where you’re going to get (the virus).”\n\nGrassley said he expects the Senate to take up and pass the coronavirus aid package this week. He said the conversation immediately will turn to the next phase of the government response: economic stimulus.\n\nFoundation starts disaster fund\n\nMarch 16: The Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines announced Monday that it would be activating its disaster recovery fund to help people affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak.\n\n“The disaster recovery fund provides an opportunity for the public to give with the reassurance their donations will be used to quickly move resources where they’re most needed and to adapt to evolving needs,” said Kristi Knous, president of the foundation.\n\nGroups have pledged more than $200,000 so far, and the money will go toward filling needs not being covered by governments or nonprofits.\n\nClick here to donate.\n\nPolk County Health Department news conference\n\nMarch 16: The Polk County Health Department and community partners held a COVID-19 joint news conference at 2 p.m. at the Polk County Emergency Operations Center.\n\nThe news conference discussed strategies to help mitigate the virus, including having those with mild symptoms call 211 instead of going to the doctor.\n\nMore:Des Moines hospital official warns: 'We do not have enough of supplies' to combat coronavirus\n\nKemin Industries mandates employees who can work from home must do so\n\nMarch 16: Kemin Industries said Monday that employees who can effectively work from home must do so. The Des Moines company, which manufactures nutritional ingredients, said it is “actively working with all of our employees, whether based in Des Moines, the U.S. or abroad to make sure we’re protecting the health and safety of those in our facilities.”\n\nKemin, which employs about 600 people in Des Moines, said it was still assessing how many employees would work from home and continue in offices or manufacturing facilities.\n\nKemin said it's continuing to monitor the rapidly developing situation in the U.S. and around the world. \"Our teams in China, Singapore and Italy have been navigating this global challenge very well, and we are following many of their best practices here in the U.S. as this unprecedented situation evolves,\" the company said.\n\nA subscription makes work like this possible. Sign up at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.\n\nNationwide expands call for employees to work at home\n\nMarch 16: Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. now says it’s asking all of its 3,300 employees in Des Moines to work from home starting next Monday amid concerns about the spread of coronavirus.\n\nLast week, the Columbus, Ohio-based insurance and financial services company said it wanted to have at least half of its employees working at home at any given time. Nationwide said the percentage could ramp up, depending on the spread of the coronavirus, which causes the respiratory illness COVID-19.\n\nThe company said Monday its goal is to “flatten the curve” of coronavirus cases in its communities “by each of us staying home when we are ill, practicing social distancing, avoiding crowds, washing our hands, and cleaning and disinfecting workspaces daily.”\n\nNationwide said it’s confident it can make the move without impacting its business or service to customers. “As in every case, there are positions that are mission critical for which work-from-home does not apply. Associates are being advised to consult with their leaders on how this change will impact them,” the company said.\n\nIowa streamlines coronavirus-related unemployment claims\n\nMarch 16: Iowa workers who lose their jobs because of coronavirus, and the businesses that let them go, will have fewer bureaucratic hurdles to cross for filing unemployment insurance claims, Iowa Workforce Development has announced.\n\nThe agency in a statement said that during the current crisis, it will waive the requirement for fact-finding interviews for unemployment claims resulting directly or indirectly from COVID-19, the illness caused by coronavirus. Workers who qualify will begin receiving payments in seven to 10 days, the agency said.\n\nIt also clarified that workers will be eligible for unemployment insurance if they are \"laid off due to COVID-19 or have to stay home to self-isolate, care for family members or due to illness related to COVID-19,\" provided they meet all other eligibility requirements. Those requirements include working for wages from an employer who can claim them as an employee in six of the last 18 months and having earned at least $2,500 in the same time period.\n\nFor more details, workers and employers may go to the Iowa Workforce Development website.\n\nHealth Department screening Capitol visitors\n\nMarch 16: The Iowa Department of Health set up screening tents for those entering the state Capitol on Monday.\n\nWorkers wore gowns and asked visitors if they had traveled outside of the country in the past two weeks, and if they had a runny nose or cough. If visitors answered no to those questions, there were are sent to a second screening person who took their temperature.\n\nPeople are being turned away for answering yes, or having a temperature that is too high or too low.\n\nOn Sunday, Gov. Kim Reynolds recommended closing all Iowa public schools, and the Legislature announced it would suspend the session\n\nAthene reopens building after coronavirus exposure concern\n\nMarch 16: West Des Moines insurance company Athene announced Monday that it had reopened its office after sending employees home Friday because of concern that one of them may have been exposed to a person with coronavirus.\n\nIn a statement, the company said the building had undergone a thorough cleaning process that included a disinfectant fog and running the hearing, ventilation and air conditioning systems to circulate fresh air.\n\nIt also said that based on the advice of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, local governments and public health officials, it will adjust work schedules for all of its locations \"and will reduce building occupancy to support the CDC’s recommendation for social distancing, while continuing to operate and respond to the needs of our customers.\"\n\nWaukee closes library, public works building, cancels parks and rec events\n\nMarch 16: Waukee closed its public works building and the Waukee Public Library on Monday morning because of concerns about the COVID-19 outbreak.\n\nIn a news release, the city encouraged residents to pay utility bills online or by mail. The Waukee Parks & Recreation Department is also located in the public works building and canceled several programs because of the outbreak:\n\nThe WASP senior luncheon on March 26 was canceled.\n\nAll Waukee Parks & Recreation facility rentals are canceled through April 12 and all public ball fields are closed.\n\nAll recreational programming is canceled or postponed through April 12.\n\nSugar Creek Municipal Golf Course will remain open. Trailside Dog Park will remain open at this time, but staff will be increasing the frequency of sanitizing gates and keypads.\n\nReynolds announces four new cases of coronavirus in Iowa, recommends schools close for four weeks\n\nMarch 15: Polk County has its first case of coronavirus, one of two in Iowa that public health officials attribute to “community spread,” without the patients having been exposed to the illness as a result of travel outside the state, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced late Sunday.\n\nThe other community-spread case was in Johnson County, and also was its first. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics said in a new release that the patient was being cared for there in isolation.\n\nTwo other new cases, in Allamakee County, were related to international travel, Reynolds said. The cases announced Sunday brought the total in Iowa to 22.\n\nIn a statement, Reynolds called the new community-spread cases, on top of one announced Saturday in Dallas County, \"substantial,\" and recommended measures to contain the outbreak that included closing all Iowa schools for four weeks.\n\n“Based on new information today from the Iowa Department of Public Health, now is the time to move to the next level of response,” Reynolds said in the statement. The statement said she will hold a press conference on Monday.\n\n► MORE:Iowa confirms 4 more cases of COVID-19; governor recommends all schools close for 4 weeks\n\nNew Johnson County case being treated at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics\n\nMarch 15: A Johnson County resident who acquired the novel coronavirus through community spread is being treated at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, the hospital announced Sunday.\n\nThe patient is currently in isolation there after arriving with symptoms associated with COVID-19. They are the second patient treated at the hospital with COVID-19.\n\nGov. Kim Reynolds announced the case earlier Sunday night when she said that the state's total number of coronavirus cases has increased to 22.\n\nIowa Legislature to suspend session for 30 days over coronavirus concerns\n\nMarch 15: The Iowa Legislature is suspending its session for 30 days because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The announcement came Sunday evening in a news release.\n\nSunday's announcement is a change from Thursday, when top Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate said they expected to continue with the legislative session as normal.\n\nThe news comes after Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Saturday night that the state had seen its first case of \"community spread\" of the virus. Reynolds met Sunday with Republican and Democratic leaders from the House and Senate \"to discuss next steps for the legislative session.\"\n\n► MORE:Iowa Legislature to suspend session for 30 days over coronavirus concerns\n\nDes Moines mayor declares state of emergency over coronavirus concerns\n\nMarch 15: Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie has declared a state of emergency, prohibiting gatherings of more than 250 people on public property.\n\nCownie signed the proclamation Sunday, less than a day after Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced the state's first case of \"community spread\" of the novel coronavirus. The designation means COVID-19 has spread from an unknown source and isn't linked to travel.\n\nThe proclamation forces the cancellation of the 2020 St. Patrick's Day Parade, which was scheduled to close several streets downtown Tuesday during working hours.\n\n► MORE:Des Moines mayor declares state of emergency over Iowa's coronavirus 'community spread'\n\nMerle Hay AT&T temporarily closes, deep cleans after employee exposed to coronavirus\n\nMarch 15: The AT&T on Merle Hay Road temporarily closed Sunday and has been deep cleaned after an employee had contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19, or coronavirus.\n\n“A retail store employee in Des Moines reported feeling ill and having contact with someone diagnosed with coronavirus (COVID-19). We have not been notified of a positive test result. Out of an abundance of caution, we closed and deep cleaned the store. The store will reopen tomorrow as staffing allows,\" said AT&T spokesman Mark Giga.\n\nNola Aigner Davis, public information officer for the Polk County Health Department also claimed there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the AT&T on Merle Hay.\n\nState Auditor Rob Sand mandates employees work from home, suspends travel\n\nMarch 15: In order to take precaution, State Auditor Rob Sand is suspending travel and has directed his employees to work from home.\n\n\"These measures to enact social distancing in and from the auditor's office are intended to help flatten the curve of infections,\" Sand wrote in a news release published on Twitter.\n\nCDC: Avoid gatherings of 50 or more\n\nMarch 15: Warning that mass gatherings can contribute to the spread of the coronavirus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday said it is recommending cancellation or postponement for the next eight weeks of any event that would be attended by 50 or more people.\n\n\"Events of any size should only be continued if they can be carried out with adherence to guidelines for protecting vulnerable populations, hand hygiene, and social distancing,\" the CDC said in a statement. \"When feasible, organizers could modify events to be virtual.\"\n\nThe statement said the recommendation does not apply \"to the day to day operation of organizations such as schools, institutes of higher learning, or businesses,\" and \"is not intended to supersede the advice of local public health officials.\" Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie, in declaring a state of emergency for the city on Sunday, prohibited gatherings of more than 250 people on public property.\n\nDHS announces measures to ensure day care availability\n\nMarch 15: The Iowa Department of Human Service announced Sunday that it is taking several measures to help ensure child care continues to be available during the coronavirus crisis.\n\nAmong the actions DHS announced in a news release:\n\nPaying child care providers based on enrollment, not on attendance, to ensure providers have a stable source of income.\n\nUsing Child Care Development Funds for Quality to assist providers in meeting standards for health and safety, including additional cleaning.\n\nFocusing the agency’s child care regulation and inspections on providing technical assistance in hygiene and sanitation.\n\nPrioritizing child care providers to receive additional sanitizer produced by the state Department of Corrections.\n\nIn addition, DHS said it is exploring ways to expand child care capacity, including expedited licensing, alternative site locations and “funding flexibilities.”\n\nAll Iowa Auto Show cancels final day on Sunday\n\nMarch 15: The All Iowa Auto Show canceled its final day Sunday morning after the Iowa Department of Public Health recommended that Iowans not hold nor attend large gatherings of more than 250 people. The recommendation that came from IDPH on Saturday is an effort aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus.\n\n\"In the spirit of IDPH’s new guidance, we will be closing the show on its final day as we regularly exceeded that minimum attendance requirement hourly to comply,\" according to James Maurer, LOCALiQ Automotive in a news release. He also thanked those who attended Thursday through Saturday and said organizers look forward to bringing the car show back in 2021.\n\nMore:What's been closed, canceled or postponed around Iowa as a result of the spreading coronavirus\n\nPositive cases in Iowa rise to 18\n\nMarch 14: Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Sunday night that a new coronavirus case was linked to \"community spread\", a sign that the virus is spreading in the state without connection to travel to an infected area.\n\nThe number of people in Iowa who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus has slowly risen since last Sunday, when the state reported its first three cases. Reynolds’ announcement brings the total number of cases in the state to 18. The previous 17 cases were all tied to travel.\n\nThe new case is a person who lives in Dallas County, according to public health officials, who is between 61 and 80 years old.\n\nReynolds made the announcement about the new transmission method from a state emergency operations center just north of Des Moines. She recommended Iowans should not attend or hold gatherings of more than 250 people, but she still does not recommend school closures.\n\nReynolds said state public health officials have been preparing for this scenario.\n\nState prisons end all visiting\n\nMarch 14: Iowa Department of Corrections announced late Saturday night that it was suspending all visits to prisons to \"prevent and mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 in the state prisons.\"\n\nThe agency's release said:\n\n\"Effective immediately, visiting has been cancelled at all state prisons until further notice. This is being done out of an abundance of caution for the department's vulnerable population. While most other correctional departments across the country have also suspended visiting, this decision is rarely easy. The DOC realizes the impact this can have on institution morale over time, and also knows the value of keeping inmates connected with their families. To help address this concern, the department has been exploring reduced cost or free phone calls, reduced cost O-mails, and is working to establish the capability for video visitations. \"\n\nAll volunteer activities in the prisons had also been suspended, according to the agency's website.\n\nIowa Supreme Court issued order postponing all criminal and civil jury trials\n\nMarch 14: The Iowa Supreme Court issued an order postponing all criminal and civil jury trials.\n\nCriminal jury trials will be postponed until April 20 and civil jury trials until May 4 — unless the jury has already been sworn in — due to the spread of COVID-19, according to a news release from the Iowa Judicial Branch.\n\n“We are very concerned about balancing the need to keep our courthouses open with the safety of our jurors and everyone who uses Iowa courthouses,” Chief Justice Susan Christensen said in the news release. “We have heard concerns from judges, attorneys, and jurors about court procedures that require large groups of people to gather in the courthouse or a courtroom so we completed a comprehensive review of what other states have done in response to coronavirus/COVID-19. The procedures in this order keep Iowa courts open to the fullest possible extent while protecting the public and our employees by giving judges the tools and flexibility that they need.”\n\nIn addition, the news release states that the order sets priorities for rescheduling criminal jury trials, allows district courts to accept written guilty pleas in felony cases, suspends all grand jury proceedings, and allows defendants to waive initial appearances via a written waiver.\n\nThere are also procedures detailed in the order to mitigating the impact of coronavirus/COVID-19 in small claim cases, juvenile cases, appellate cases and problem solving courts, the news release states.\n\nMeredith recommends Des Moines employees work from home\n\nMarch 14: Meredith Corp. said Saturday it recommends — but isn't requiring — employees in Des Moines and elsewhere in the nation work from home, if it's not essential to be in the office, beginning Monday.\n\nThe Des Moines-based media company that publishes People, Better Homes and Gardens and other magazines, already recommended that employees in its New York, Seattle, Chicago and Los Angeles offices work from home to reduce coronavirus' spread. Meredith employs about 900 workers in Des Moines and 5,500 nationwide.\n\nThe company joins Nationwide in recommending its employees work from home.\n\nIowa Board of Regents direct universities to recall students, faculty, staff who are out of the country\n\nMarch 14: The Iowa Board of Regents directed Regent Universities to bring home all students, faculty, and staff who are out of the country.\n\nUniversities impacted are the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, University of Northern Iowa, Iowa School for the Deaf, and Iowa Braille and Sight Saving school.\n\nInitially, the recall included only countries the CDC designated as a Level 3 travel health notice.\n\n\"This now applies to all countries. Each university president has the flexibility to make exceptions on a case-by-case basis. The Board’s rolling 30-day university-sponsored international travel ban remains in effect, and we continue to recommend avoiding travel to any area with high numbers of infection,\" the Board wrote in a tweet Saturday.\n\n\"We recognize this decision may cause frustration and hardship, but the COVID-19 pandemic continues to expand worldwide. The Board is taking this action in the interest of the health and safety of everyone,\" Board of Regents President Mike Richards said in a statement. \"As the COVID-19 pandemic is a rapidly evolving situation, the Board will continue to evaluate this on a daily basis and provide additional guidance if needed.\"\n\nBehind the scenes of the first days of Iowa's outbreak\n\nMarch 14: At first, the impact of the novel coronavirus to Iowa was minor. Then three people tested positive for the illness, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced on March 8. That number increased to eight cases by Monday and 13 by Tuesday. By Friday night, 17 Iowans had tested positive for the disease.\n\nThe virus has continued to spread across the country and around the world, hitting the famous and the unknown. Globally, it's infected more than 140,000 and caused more than 5,000 deaths.\n\nPolk County supervisors prepare for pandemic\n\nMarch 14: Several modifications have been made from Polk County in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nTo protect its employees, Polk County supervisors announced cleaning practice have increased in all offices and plans are set for employees to work remotely if necessary, according to a Polk County news release.\n\n\"To protect your personal health and the health of our employees, before visiting a Polk County building please call ahead to see if you can conduct your business electronically or over the phone,\" wrote Jon Cahill, communications specialist for the board of supervisors.\n\nPolk County supervisors also lay out modifications to numerous services:\n\nCommunity, Family & Youth Services (March 16-27):\n\nPolk County community and congregate meal sites are closed starting March 16. Instead, meals will be provided to participants from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. via a \"drive-through\" system in the parking lots of community and senior centers: Norwoodville, South, East, North, Northwest, West, Central, Ankeny and Grimes. \"Meals can be reserved for future days by calling the selected site or at the time of picking up a meal,\" Cahill wrote. For more information, call 515-286-3679 or click here.\n\nPolk County community evening meals at the Norwoodville, Central, West and South Community Centers will continue to be served at regularly scheduled times, but will be delivered outside starting March 26.\n\nPolk County General Assistance will be processing applications by phone or e-mail effective March 18. In-person processing is by appointment only. To apply for General Assistance, call 515-286-2088 or e-mail GA.Intake@polkcountyiowa.gov.\n\nThe Polk County Food Pantries will be distributing food from the parking lots of the River Place Pantry and North Side Community Center Pantry starting March 18. Admission to the stores will be restricted but staff will take orders, prepare the food packages and bring them outside for customers. “Free Wall” products will be prepackaged and delivered outside instead of self-selection. Hours of operation may vary. Customers may also call ahead at 286-2220 (North) or 286-3695 (River Place). If not yet registered for the food pantry, please call ahead. There are no income requirements for access to the pantry.\n\nPolk County Commodity Supplemental Foods, providing food packages for income-restricted seniors age 60 and over, will close the store to walk-in shopping effective March 18. All food packages will be delivered directly to registered customers. Staff will be calling registered residents to review, but for questions, or to apply, call 286-3655 or 1-877- 288-3655.\n\nPersons seeking crime victim or sexual assault advocacy are encouraged to call Polk County Crisis and Advocacy at 515-286-3600. Advocates remain ready and available to provide support and assistance. For the near future assistance will be through individual advocacy; group activities will resume at a later date.\n\nBusiness conducted at other services, such as Polk County Assessor, Polk County Treasurer, and Polk County Recorder should also be done electronically or over the phone. For more information, the following numbers have been provided:\n\nPolk County Assessor: 515-286-3014\n\nPolk County Recorder: 515-286-3160\n\nPolk County Treasurer: 515-286-3030 for vehicle transactions and 515-286-3060 for property tax transactions\n\nPolk County Veteran Affairs: 515-286-3670\n\nUtilities moratorium extended\n\nLow-income Iowa residents struggling to pay their electric bills now have until May 1 before gas and electric utilities may cut off services.\n\nThe Iowa Utilities Board issued an emergency order directing all electric and natural gas utilities to stop disconnecting residential service because low-income customers are behind in paying their bills.\n\nThe order, issued in light of the coronavirus spread in Iowa, extends the state’s moratorium on disconnecting low-income families from gas and electric service from Nov. 1 to April 1.\n\nLow-income Iowans have until April 30 each year to apply for limited financial heating assistance through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The application was not extended with Friday’s emergency order.\n\nThe energy assistance program is designed to help low-income families meet the partial cost of home heating through a one-time payment made directly to the utility or heating fuel vendor.\n\nLutheran Church of Hope suspends all public services for the first time in history\n\nMarch 13: Lutheran Church of Hope senior pastor Mike Housholder took to Facebook Friday night letting the metro Des Moines community know public services have been postponed at all Hope locations for the first time in the Church’s history.\n\nWorship services will be broadcasted online.\n\n“The good news is we will still worship this weekend. Hope has a long history of broadcasting our weekly services online. Instead of showing up in person, please join us LIVE at www.HopeOnline.tv on Saturday at 5 p.m., Sunday at 8 a.m., 9:15 a.m., 11 a.m. or 5 p.m. The traditional 8:30 a.m. service will also be recorded and posted by 7 p.m. Sunday evening,” Housholder said. “Our sermon theme this weekend is ‘How to Pray,’ and given the current level of angst in our world, I can’t imagine a more appropriate subject to preach on.”\n\n“Ultimately, we could not get past the very real and sobering possibility that by holding public services at Hope this weekend, our life-giving church could be a setting for the spread of the life-taking coronavirus for the people we serve and love,” he continued.\n\nHuman services suspend visits to facilities\n\nMarch 13: Iowa’s human services department is suspending in-person visits at its six state-run facilities to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nKelly Garcia, director of the Iowa Department of Human Services, announced the news Friday in an email to the guardians of patients at state resource centers in Glenwood and Woodward; the State Training School at Eldora; and two mental health institutes in Cherokee and Independence. Staff will also call guardians.\n\nThe facilities treat some of the state's most vulnerable residents.\n\nDHS will accommodate guardians with video chat options like Skype and FaceTime.\n\nThe department is also suspending \"all non-essential outings and outside employment opportunities\" until further notice.\n\nThe decision to suspend visitors came one day after the department announced limitations to in-person visitations, including a requirement that visitors undergo a health screening.\n\n\"Today, after further discussion with our other state agency partners, we are taking additional precautionary measures to help protect the individuals we serve and our direct care staff by suspending in-person visitation at our facilities,\" Garcia said in her email.\n\nThe department said it will consider exceptions to this policy in limited circumstances. Garcia will make the final determination \"based on the resident’s need to experience face-to-face interaction with their loved ones and the risk to that resident and need and the risk to our broader campus.\"\n\nThe facilities in Glenwood and Woodard treat Iowans with severe mental disabilities. The state training school treats youth who have been found guilty by a judge of committing a delinquent act. The Cherokee and Independence facilities treat people with short-term psychiatric needs and severe symptoms of mental illness.\n\nWDM insurance company Athene takes precautions after employee may have been exposed to coronavirus\n\nMarch 13: The West Des Moines insurance company Athene announced Friday an employee may have been exposed to an individual with confirmed COVID-19, or coronavirus, this week, according to a statement provided by the company.\n\nAthene responded by asking employees who work in the WDM office to work from home on Friday.\n\n\"Out of an abundance of caution, we asked employees who work in the same facility to work from home on Friday, March 13 so we can further limit exposure and disinfect the building per CDC guidelines on top of our enhanced cleaning protocol. We are taking appropriate precautions to protect all our stakeholders, including our employees, to ensure we are able to maintain the high level of service our customers deserve,\" said Karen Lynn, head of corporate communications.\n\nGov. Kim Reynolds announces additional case of coronavirus\n\n​​​​​​​March 13: Gov. Kim Reynolds announced another case of COVID-19 in Iowa bringing the total to 17. A resident from Harrison County tested positive.\n\nReynolds said that the state is not now recommending that schools shut down at a news conference late afternoon Friday at the State Emergency Operations Center in Johnston.\n\nThe governor addressed the media shortly after President Donald Trump declared a national state of emergency Friday, calling for a \"responsible, measured\" approach to addressing the novel coronavirus in Iowa.\n\nThe governor and other state officials said that all of the Iowa cases were related to travel but they anticipated the novel coronavirus could soon spread.\n\n\"And now is the time to prepare,\" Reynolds said.\n\nMore:State response to coronavirus reports dangerously deficient, these Iowans contend\n\nMore:Gov. Kim Reynolds says there are now 17 cases of the coronavirus in Iowa, all travel-related\n\nPolk County Jail cancels all programs, classes inside facility\n\nMarch 13: Polk County Sheriff's Office responded to the COVID-19 pandemic on Friday, announcing all classes and programs at the Polk County Jail are cancelled.\n\n\"The cleaning and sanitation procedures of the facility has aggressively increased. In addition, all persons that are being presented to the Polk County Jail for booking are being screened with the guidance of the Polk County Health Department,\" Lt. Heath Osberg wrote in a PCSO news release.\n\nFurther, the PCSO is encouraging visitors to utilize their \"I-Web\" visit service at offsite locations.\n\nSuburban schools plan to resume classes as normal after spring break\n\nMarch 13: Nearly two dozen central Iowa school districts plan to resume classes after spring break.\n\nIn a joint news release Friday afternoon, school officials said:\n\n\"At this time, we believe it is in the best interest of our families and staff to resume school as planned after spring break. Student and staff safety remains our top priority. We all look to the Iowa Department of Public Health for their expertise and direction. IDPH currently believes the risk to our student and staff population is low. We also acknowledge many of our families rely on district-provided childcare and nutritional resources.\"\n\nThe schools included on the release are Adel, Ames, Ankeny, Ballard, Bondurant-Farrar, Carlisle, Dallas Center-Grimes, Indianola, Interstate 35, Johnston, North Polk, Norwalk, Pleasantville, Prairie City-Monroe, Saydel, Southeast Polk, Urbandale, Van Meter, Waukee, West Des Moines, Winterset and Woodward-Granger.\n\nHigh School Boys Basketball plays in mostly empty arena\n\nMarch 13: The Iowa High School Athletic Association only permitted family and \"essential personnel\" to the boys' high school state basketball finals.\n\nDes Moines Book Festival is canceled\n\nMarch 13: The DSM Book Festival slated for Saturday, March 28, has been canceled, according to a member of the board.\n\n\"The Des Moines Public Library has made the decision to postpone and cancel large gatherings based on the news surrounding the COVID-19 - to limit the potential spread and exposure,\" a statement to the Register read. \"As a public institution, they have determined it is their civic responsibility to begin canceling large events taking place in March and April.\"\n\nThe first four AVID authors: Tayari Jones, Hanif Abdurraqib, David Baldacci, and Kate Quinn, will be canceled with possible rescheduled dates later in the year.\n\nMore:What's been closed, canceled or postponed around Iowa as a result of the spreading coronavirus\n\nBishop excuses Johnson County Catholics from Mass\n\nMarch 13: All Catholics in Johnson County, site of Iowa's largest coronavirus outbreak, are excused from the obligation of attending Mass, the bishop of the Diocese of Davenport announced Friday.\n\nBishop Thomas Zinkula, in a statement, also excused from Mass anyone in the diocese who is ill, caring for someone who is sick or who is especially susceptible to contracting COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.\n\nZinkula also said those who do attend Mass or other church gatherings in Johnson County should sit at least six feet apart, and that it may be necessary to limit attendance.\n\nDes Moines Mayor urges people to consider canceling, skipping large events\n\nMarch 13: Des Moines’ mayor is urging the city’s businesses, churches and event planners to consider canceling gatherings to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus.\n\nFrank Cownie, in his fifth term as mayor, encouraged city residents to be smart when leaving their homes and think about whether they should at all.\n\nThe city has already postponed several public meetings in hopes to prevent the virus from spreading. As of late Thursday, daily city operations, including police and fire services, were continuing as normal.\n\nMore: Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie urges people consider canceling, skipping large events ​​​​​​​\n\nSen. Chuck Grassley calls for mitigation of spread in federal prisons\n\nMarch 13: U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley asked the Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons to provide public guidance on efforts to slow or stop the spread of the novel coronavirus in those facilities.\n\nThe longtime Republican senator lamented that no COVID-19 information is posted on the BOP website for inmate visitors.\n\n“At this critical junction, it is essential that BOP, the Justice Department, and other branches of the Department of Corrections band together to highlight their procedures if there is an outbreak, and what steps are actively being taken to mitigate this,” Grassley wrote.\n\nHe asked DOJ and BOP to:\n\nMake available online for the public the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, and in which BOP or Department of Corrections facilities these cases have been found;\n\nPublicly post the proactive measures that BOP is considering or currently doing to prevent the spread of COVID-19; and\n\nProvide clear information for all visitors to BOP facilities on measures to be taken to limit the spread of COVID-19.\n\nThe outbreak:\n\nPrevention:\n\nImpact:\n\nIowa Judicial Branch orders safety precautions\n\nMarch 13: Those who visit Iowa's 100 courthouses are asked to take special care to minimize the threat of COVID-19:\n\nAttorneys, or any party due in court, are ordered to let opposing counsel and the clerk of court know if any participants in a hearing, conference, trial or other settings may have an elevated risk of transmitting the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19.\n\nCounsel must \"affirmatively\" ask witnesses and clients if they have an elevated risk of transmitting the virus. No one with an elevated risk can attend any hearing, conference, trial or other proceedings without prior authorization from the courts.\n\nJurors with elevated risks are ordered to tell their jury manager, who must reschedule that person to a new term of service.\n\nRemote proceedings are permitted if practical and efficient. Any requests for a remote hearing must be promptly considered by the court.\n\nJuvenile Court Services\n\nMany of the parameters apply to JCS, which falls under the judicial branch. Other orders include:\n\nCourt staff must affirmatively inquire about juveniles' or their family members' risk level.\n\nJCS may conduct remote hearings and intakes if deemed practical.\n\nPresident Trump addresses the nation around 2 p.m.\n\nMarch 13: President Donald Trump declared a national emergency Friday to free up billions of dollars to combat the coronavirus as he sought to persuade anxious Americans and battered financial markets that he was responding forcefully to the crisis.\n\nTrump said there is no deal yet on an emergency package to respond to the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic and accused Democrats of reneging on negotiations.\n\nMore:Trump declares national emergency over coronavirus, allowing officials to direct billions in aid to those fighting virus\n\n'Worse than Black Friday': shoppers descend on stores\n\nMarch 13: Sam's Club in Des Moines limited shoppers to two items per day on toilet paper, paper towels, bottled water and cough drops.\n\n\"It's been a zoo all week,\" assistant manager Xyander Zuhlke said as he unwrapped a palette of Puffs facial tissues. He said an entire truckload of paper products had been delivered to the store that morning, but by noon, the toilet paper supply was dwindling.\n\nAn hour later, it was gone.\n\nMore:'Worse than Black Friday': Des Moines shoppers descend on retail warehouse amid coronavirus concerns\n\nWorld Food Prize youth institute delayed, future events going online\n\nMarch 13: The World Food Prize Foundation is delaying its next youth institute amid concerns over the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nThe Des Moines nonprofit was scheduled to host its next youth institute with the University of Nebraska on Monday. But Foundation spokeswoman Nicole Barreca told the Des Moines Register on Friday afternoon that the event is postponed.\n\n\"We are working with our partners on campus at the University to devise the best date that will work for all participants in the near future,\" she said in an email.\n\nWhen the youth institute in Nebraska does occur, Barreca added, it won't take place in person. Professors, students and high school teachers will convene through an online platform.\n\nThe Foundation hosts 27 youth institutes in the United States, Honduras and the Netherlands. High school students apply to attend by writing essays about food scarcity.\n\nSelected students then travel to universities, where they usually meet with the professors for a couple days to learn about how to tackle the problems of food scarcity on the local, national and international levels.\n\nIn addition to Nebraska's event, youth institutes in Mississippi and New York are scheduled for this month. There are another 10 scheduled for next month, including a youth institute at Iowa State University on April 27. (Students can still apply for that program through April 6.)\n\nIowa State President Wendy Wintersteen announced Wednesday that the campus is shutting down in-person classes through at least April 3. In a statement Friday, World Food Prize Foundation President Barbara Stinson said her staff is working with university representatives to figure out what to do about the youth institutes.\n\nMost, she said, will be postponed or placed online.\n\n\"At this time, some partners are maintaining the scheduled date and time for their virtual WFPF Youth Institute, while others are rescheduling to a new date,\" she said. \"Some of our partners, as of now, are still on track to host their WFPF Youth Institute in-person, as originally planned.”\n\nDemocrats postpone county conventions\n\nMarch 13: The Iowa Democratic Party announced Friday it will postpone its county conventions, which had been scheduled for March 21, to a later undetermined date.\n\n“This is not an easy decision, but we believe it is the right decision,” party chairman Mark Smith said in a statement. “By their design, caucuses are gatherings built around a sense of community, and throughout every step, we have worked to ensure the process is safe and accessible for every Iowan. However, Iowa Democrats should not have to choose between democratic participation and remaining in good health, and concerns for the wellbeing of our delegates, thousands of volunteers, workers at convention venues, and the public come first.”\n\nThe county conventions are used to elect delegates and alternates who are then sent on to the district and state conventions. Those delegates then elect Iowa’s national convention delegates. According to the news release, planning for the district and state conventions is proceeding as scheduled.\n\nThe Republican Party of Iowa is moving ahead with its county conventions March 14.\n\nSouth Calhoun County school building may have been exposed to coronavirus\n\nMarch 13: Classes at South Central Calhoun schools were canceled Friday after officials were told someone potentially infected with coronavirus visited one of its school buildings, according to the Carroll Times Herald.\n\n\"Someone who was in a SCC building has met the criteria for COVID-19 testing,\" Superintendent Jeff Kruse told the newspaper. \"Risk is low, but the district is taking precautions pending the results of the test.\"\n\nFull story from the Carroll Times Herald\n\nA statement on the school's website stated:\n\n\"Although there are no confirmed cases in our district, SCC wants to take extreme precautions in this current health environment in our country to protect our students, staff, and community.\"\n\nAll school activities have also been canceled for March 13-15.\n\nThe district's high school is located in Lake City while the middle school and elementary buildings are in Rockwell City.\n\nThe state announced a presumptive positive coronavirus test for someone in Carroll County, the county's first, on Thursday night.\n\nRAGBRAI extends sign-up, refund deadline\n\nMarch 12: To accommodate concerns over Iowa's coronavirus outbreak, organizers of the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa say they are extending the deadline to register for the ride and receive refunds.\n\nThe new date will be June 1, a two-month extension from the original date, April 1.\n\nIn a post on RAGBRAI's Facebook account, staff said it had spoken with the Iowa Department of Public Health and intends to go forward with the ride, scheduled for July 19-25.\n\n\"We will continue to work closely with the IDPH and community officials to ensure we are taking the proper precautions and making decisions that are in the best interest of our riders, communities and business partners,\" staff wrote in the post.\n\nOrganizers pledged to \"communicate with all impacted parties should any of our policies or timeline change.\"\n\n​​​​​​​\n\nIowa has 2 more coronavirus cases, public health officials say\n\nMarch 12: There are now 16 cases of the coronavirus in Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Thursday.\n\nReynolds' office said in a news release Thursday that two additional people have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. One is from Johnson County and one is from Carroll County. Both are recovering at home in isolation. This brings the state’s total to 16.\n\nBoth cases involve people who were on a cruise to Egypt. Most cases in the state are linked to this trip.\n\nState response to coronavirus reports dangerously deficient, Iowans contend\n\nMarch 12: Two Iowans contend that health officials failed to take action when they reported incidents of direct contact with people who tested positive for coronavirus.\n\nIn one case, an Ames woman says her call to the Iowa Department of Public Health was referred to the wrong place. And, in another, an Iowa City-area man contends that health officials have not responded to his neighbor's report, made days ago, that he and others were exposed to a man who has since been hospitalized with COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.\n\n“I feel like I’m going to watch everyone I love die and all I can do is scream from inside my house,” said the Ames resident, Sara Willette, who has an immunodeficiency disorder and this week voluntarily isolated herself and her family to avoid infection.\n\n► More:State response to coronavirus reports dangerously deficient, Iowans contend\n\nDes Moines Public Schools closed until March 30\n\nMarch 12: Des Moines Public Schools will be closed for at least 16 days, starting at 6 p.m. Friday, in the hopes of stemming the spread of the novel coronavirus, district officials announced Thursday afternoon.\n\nDistrict officials are not aware of any staff who have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Superintendent Thomas Ahart said. The closure is a precaution but will include a \"deep clean\" of the schools.\n\nThe closure includes all planned activities and programs. The district hopes to resume school on Monday, March 30.\n\n► MORE:\n\nDes Moines Public Library staying open, canceling programs, removing toys and games\n\nThe Des Moines Public Library said in an email that it will remain open and keep regular hours as long as it is safe to do so.\n\nHowever, they are canceling several programs that use shared materials and increasing the level and frequency of cleaning.\n\nAll toys, LEGO blocks, board games, plush animals and other materials are being removed.\n\nThe library does lean out digital materials, which can be accessed online.\n\nStory County residents encouraged to conduct business by mail\n\nMarch 12: Those who have to pay Story County property taxes or want to submit other official paperwork have been asked to do so electronically or by mail.\n\nProperty taxes that are due March 31 can be paid online or by mail to the Story County Treasurer, PO Box 498, Nevada, Iowa, 50201. Payments can also be dropped at the County Administration Building, 900 6th St. in Nevada.\n\nMore from a county news release:\n\nFor information, visit the county's website.\n\nPrivate labs are now testing for the coronavirus in Iowa\n\nMarch 12: Three private laboratories have stepped in to conduct testing for the coronavirus in Iowa, state public health officials confirmed Thursday, as the state lab that has been the primary location for testing says it has dwindling supplies.\n\nThe Iowa Department of Public Health confirmed to the Des Moines Register that New Jersey-based Quest Diagnostics, North Carolina-based LabCorp and Utah-based ARUP Laboratories have begun receiving specimens from Iowa health care providers for coronavirus testing.\n\nKen Sharp, director of the state department's division on acute disease prevention and emergency response, said Iowa state officials are not tracking how many Iowa health care providers have sent specimens to the private labs for testing.\n\nNationwide is keeping employees at home\n\nMarch 12: Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. says many of its 3,300 employees in Des Moines will begin working from home beginning March 16 given concerns about the U.S. spread of the coronavirus.\n\nThe Columbus, Ohio-based company said Thursday its goal is to have half of its employees working at home at any given time.\n\nNationwide, an insurance and financial services company, said its \"work at home policy\" will stay in place through April 3.\n\nRepublican Iowa Senate leader: No cancellation, expecting 'a normal session'\n\nMarch 12: Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver said there are no plans currently for the Iowa Legislature to restrict its activities or restrict access to the public next week in light of the coronavirus.\n\n“We’re working with Department of Public health to provide any guidance going forward,” he told reporters Thursday afternoon. “There’s a lot of things we’re watching right now but at this time we plan to have subcommittees on Monday and have committees on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.”\n\nWhitver, an Ankeny Republican, said lawmakers are in close communication with Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Public Health about best practices. As of Thursday afternoon, the department had not recommended the Legislature make any changes in how it conducts its activities, Whitver said.\n\nOn Wednesday, Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, called on the Legislature to temporarily suspend meeting until at least March 23 as a precaution against spreading the coronavirus.\n\nWhitver said he doesn’t expect the legislative session to wrap up early. Lawmakers will receive per diem expenses through April 21.\n\n“I expect it to be a normal session. As normal as it can be. And whenever we get done we’ll get done, whether that’s earlier or later, just like always,” he said.\n\nWhitver said the Legislature is in a position to act if it needs to make any changes to Iowa law to respond to the coronavirus, such as additional funding or providing guidance to schools if any were to close.\n\n“I think we’re monitoring all of that and we’re obviously very nimble down here if we need to make those decisions at some point,” he said. “To this point, no school has closed so it’s not something we need to decide right now. But there are certainly talks going on about any changes we need to make with our laws.”\n\nSports leagues announce suspensions and cancellations of events\n\nMarch 12: Multiple sports leagues with Iowa connections have made announcements that they have suspended or canceled their 2019-20 seasons.\n\nThe Big 12 Conference men's and women's basketball tournaments in Kansas City, Missouri, have been canceled. The Iowa State men had been eliminated and the Cyclones women had yet to play.\n\nThe Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament in Indianapolis has also been canceled. Iowa was scheduled to play its first game Thursday afternoon.\n\nThe Missouri Valley Conference women's basketball tournament in Moline, Illinois, has been canceled. The Drake and Northern Iowa women's teams were scheduled to participate.\n\nAs such, the NCAA also canceled the remainder of its winter and spring seasons and championships, including the upcoming wrestling and men's and women's basketball tournaments.\n\nThe NBA G League, of which the Iowa Wolves are a member, suspended its season indefinitely after the conclusion of Wednesday night's games.\n\nThe Des Moines Buccaneers are part of the United States Hockey League, which announced Thursday afternoon that it has suspended its season indefinitely. All hockey activities, which included practices, workouts and meetings, were also suspended.\n\nThe National Hockey League has \"paused\" its season, and the American Hockey League has suspended all activities until further notice. The Iowa Wild are a member of the AHL.\n\nThe American Rivers Conference and the Midwest Conference, home to several Division III schools in Iowa, have canceled the remainder of its spring seasons and championships.\n\nThe NAIA has canceled all of its winter championships, which included its Division II women's basketball tournament in Sioux City.\n\nMinor League Baseball announced it will be delaying the start of the 2020 season to an unspecified date. The Iowa Cubs are a Triple-A minor-league team in the Pacific Coast League.\n\nOn a local level, the Iowa state boys' basketball tournament, scheduled to run through Friday evening, is still a go as of early Thursday afternoon.\n\nDemocrats monitoring whether to postpone county conventions, Republicans going ahead\n\nMarch 12: The Iowa Democratic Party said in a memo published to its website Thursday that party leaders are monitoring public health developments and are considering alternative options for their county conventions, including postponing them until a later date. Party leaders are scheduled to discuss the issue with the state central committee and county chairs Thursday evening.\n\nThe county conventions, which are scheduled for March 21, are used to elect delegates and alternates who are then sent on to the district and state conventions. Those delegates then elect Iowa’s national convention delegates.\n\nAccording to the memo, the IDP is working with the Democratic National Committee and legal experts to ensure that any postponement or alternate meeting wouldn’t run afoul of party rules and jeopardize its ability to send a delegation to the national convention later this summer.\n\nThe Republican Party of Iowa will hold its county conventions March 14 as planned, according to news a release.\n\n“After consulting with the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Governor’s office, we have decided to move forward and hold our county conventions this Saturday,” party spokesman Aaron Britt said in a statement. “Of course, the health and safety of Iowans is of the utmost importance. We strongly advise any Iowan who isn’t feeling well to stay home, and we will be in contact with county chairs to provide guidance for their events.”\n\nIowa board: Coronavirus shouldn’t shutter government transparency\n\nMarch 12: Iowa governments must maintain the public’s access to meetings by its decision-makers even while trying to protect against coronavirus, a state board that enforces the state’s records and meetings laws said in a release Thursday.\n\nHowever, that access may be conducted electronically if there are valid concerns that an in-person meeting is impossible or impractical, the Iowa Public Information Board said in a news release Thursday.\n\nIowa law requires the public to be allowed access when the majority of a governmental body meets for deliberation or action.\n\nGovernments must still abide by its meeting notice and minute keeping requirements when conducting electronic meetings, the board said.\n\n1 more Iowan tests positive for the virus\n\nMarch 11: Just one additional Iowan tested positive for the coronavirus Wednesday, public health officials announced Wednesday evening, increasing the state's tally to 14 cases statewide.\n\nThe Iowan lives in Johnson County and, along with 12 others there, contracted the virus while traveling on a cruise to Egypt that ended earlier this month.\n\nThe cases previously identified as presumptive positive are now considered positive, according to a Wednesday news release sent from the Iowa Department of Public Health. The first five cases in Iowa were confirmed by CDC, and so any further cases are also considered positive, according to CDC policy.\n\n► More Wednesday:University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics admits first coronavirus patient, who is in 'critical condition'\n\nIowa state senator calls for a pause in the legislative session\n\nMarch 11: State Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, said he'd like the Iowa Legislature to pass a resolution pushing back its deadlines and pause meeting until at least March 23 as public health officials monitor the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nLegislative leaders said there are no current plans to halt the legislative session.\n\n\"I can’t think of a single bigger incubator for a viral disease to spread statewide than the Iowa State Capitol,\" Hogg said. \"Every day, we have hundreds or thousands of people in the Capitol from all over Iowa when we’re in session — and then everybody goes back home. And so if we were to have a coronavirus case at the state Capitol, that would spread all across Iowa.\"\n\nMore:Iowa state senator calls for pausing legislative session as a precaution against spreading coronavirus\n\nUniversity of Iowa, Iowa State, University of Northern Iowa and Drake cancel in-person classes\n\nMarch 11: All four colleges informed students that in-person classes are canceled and will be held online because of COVID-19.\n\nIn-person classes are canceled will be held online from March 23 until at least April 3 when they will reevaluate. Spring break for the schools begins Friday.\n\nThe Drake Relays, which attract tens of thousands of fans and alumni, are still planned for April, according to the University.\n\nMore:Iowa State University, University of Iowa, Drake tell students they're moving classes online\n\nUniversity of Iowa administrators are holding a news conference Wednesday at 2 p.m. to address the school's response to COVID-19, including \"virtual instruction,\" according to a news release.\n\nIowa State has around 33,000 students, the University of Iowa has around 35,000, University of Northern Iowa has about 11,000 and Drake has about 5,000.\n\nIowa State professor:What college faculty ponder as classes go online\n\nChuck Grassley tells Iowans to ignore politicians on coronavirus\n\nMarch 11: U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley encouraged Iowans on Wednesday to “forget about listening to political leaders” when it comes to the coronavirus.\n\n“There's some conflicting information coming out, so I'd encourage folks to forget about listening to political leaders on the subject,” Grassley told reporters in his opening statement Wednesday morning, referring to coronavirus. “Listen to our public health experts and our professional leaders, both at the state and federal government.”\n\nHe said he wasn’t alluding to any specific misinformation, but merely that “political leaders aren’t experts on health care issues.”\n\nMore:Grassley: 'Forget about listening to political leaders' on coronavirus\n\nBasu:Don't take president's word on the coronavirus. Heed medical experts, take precautions.\n\nWhat does 'presumptive positive' mean?\n\nMarch 11: Presumptive positive — A presumptive positive test is for the time between an initial positive test for the virus by a public health lab but before the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the results. A presumptive positive result from a CDC test is treated as if the patient is positive for the virus, according to the CDC.\n\nRead up on other terms you may be seeing in news about the coronavirus\n\nNo toliet paper at Walmart in Windsor Heights\n\nMarch 11: Former Register reporter William Petroski posted a photo of empty shelves at the Walmart in Windsor Heights, saying \"every single roll of gone, and they are being sold quickly when shelves are restocked.\"\n\nEarlier in the week, a Register staffer snapped a photo of a sign at a drug store in Clive that listed products that were out of stock, including varieties of hand sanitizers, wipes and face masks.\n\nUnityPoint, MercyOne and Broadlawns implement new visitor restrictions\n\nMarch 11: New temporary visitor restrictions are in place at all three Des Moines Hospitals.\n\nUnityPoint Health Des Moines, MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center and Broadlawns Medical Center said in a joint news release that effective immediately only primary caregivers including parents and stepparents, spouses or significant others and \"other defined caregivers\" will be allowed to see patients.\n\nPrimary caregivers must be:\n\nPeople 16 years of age and older.\n\nPeople free from illness such as fever, sore throat, cough or diarrhea.\n\nCaregivers also must:\n\nRemain in patient rooms \"as appropriate.\"\n\nLimit movement in the facilities and avoid common areas.\n\nSiblings will not be allowed unless they are over the age of 16 and defined as the primary caregiver.\n\nAll visitors must wash their hands with soap and water or use alcohol-based hand sanitizer upon entering patients' rooms, according to the release.\n\n\"We understand these visitor restrictions may be difficult for you,\" the hospitals said in a joint statement. \"While we are committed to providing a family-centered care environment, right now restricting visitors is in the best interest of our patients and staff.\"\n\nIowa's Gary Barta: Hawkeye staff monitoring coronavirus news, but not changing tournament travel\n\nMarch 10: Iowa is concluding one of its most successful winter sports seasons ever against the backdrop of the spreading coronavirus scare.\n\nBut Hawkeye teams that are scheduled to compete in NCAA tournaments in men’s and women’s basketball and wrestling are still proceeding as if those events will take place, athletic director Gary Barta said Tuesday.\n\n“You’re just preparing for any possibility, but not panicking,” Barta said. “We’re going to do what’s safe and best.”\n\n“It's business as usual as far as I'm concerned,” Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery said of his team’s preparations to compete in the Big Ten Conference Tournament starting Thursday.\n\nBarta said the athletic department is following the same protocols that the university has in place, and will continue to do so. So far, that has meant a ban on international travel only. A few Hawkeye coaches had to scrap overseas recruiting trips. The women’s golf team had to back out of a tournament in Mexico, replacing it with one in Las Vegas.\n\n► Map:Coronavirus in Iowa: How many cases have been confirmed in Iowa and where are they located?\n\n5 more Iowans test positive for virus\n\nMarch 10: Public health officials say there are five new presumptive cases of the coronavirus in Iowa, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 13.\n\nThe Iowans live in Johnson County, were on the same Egyptian cruise as seven other presumptive positive cases, are in self-isolation and are recovering at home, according to a news release sent Tuesday evening from the Iowa Department of Public Health. The cases are presumptive until confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nThe federal agency has a backlog of tests as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Polly Carver-Kimm, spokeswoman for the Iowa public health department.\n\nGov. Kim Reynolds warned at a news conference earlier in the day that she expected the number of cases in the state to increase.\n\n“The reality is COVID-19 is now here, and we can expect the number of tests and the number of positive cases will continue to increase in the days to come,” she said from the state Capitol. “While this news is concerning, it’s not cause for alarm. I want to assure Iowans that we are prepared, and we are taking additional steps to ensure access to resources to effectively manage the situation.”\n\nIowa public universities told to prep for online instruction 'as quickly as possible'\n\nMarch 10: The state's three public universities are being asked to move online in response to the coronavirus.\n\nThe Board of Regents —which oversees the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa State University in Ames and the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls — announced Tuesday that it wants the schools \"to move as quickly as possible toward the ability to deliver instruction virtually.\"\n\nThe regents have not announced a set deadline for institutions to move to online instruction but have urged administrators to provide more information about their own timelines no later than Thursday morning.\n\nWest Des Moines schools asking parents to notify them if spring break travel involves high-risk areas\n\nMarch 10: West Des Moines Community Schools is asking that families who are traveling to high-risk areas for COVID-19 for spring break to notify the student’s school “to make arrangements for reentry to school.”\n\nThe Center for Disease Control and Prevention identifies the five countries that are high risk for spreading coronavirus as China, Iran, Italy, Japan and South Korea.\n\nSpring break is scheduled from March 13 to 22.\n\n► Map:How many cases have been confirmed in Iowa and where are they located?\n\nWoman who tested presumptive positive in Pottawattamie County worked at Panera Bread\n\nMarch 10: A woman between the ages of 41 and 60 who tested presumptive positive for the coronavirus was an employee at a Council Bluffs Panera Bread.\n\nMatt Wyant, the Pottwattamie County planning director, said the restaurant closed over the weekend and on Monday to disinfect the space twice. The restaurant reopened on Tuesday.\n\nWyant said the county is advising people not to panic if they visited the Panera Bread within the last week. He said public health officials have determined there is no risk to the general public.\n\nAccording to the Iowa Department of Public Health, the woman had recently traveled to California and had come into contact with someone with the virus while there.\n\nGrinnell College sending its students home\n\nMarch 10: In an effort to prevent or delay transmission of the novel coronavirus, Grinnell College students will be required to leave campus by March 23, according to a letter President Raynard S. Kington sent to campus Tuesday afternoon.\n\nClasses will meet through Friday, the last day of class before the school’s spring break. After March 30, the college will shift to online classes for the remainder of the semester, including for students who secure an exception to stay on campus.\n\nThe college wants its students to go home for spring break and stay there.\n\n► More:To stave off coronavirus' spread, Grinnell College cancels in-person classes for rest of year, instructs students to leave campus\n\n► More:Coronavirus: Iowa's public universities told to prep for online instruction 'as quickly as possible'\n\nBig 12's Bob Bowlsby: We're full speed ahead right now, but circumstances are constantly evolving around coronavirus\n\nMarch 10: This week’s Big 12 Conference basketball tournament, right now anyway, is expected to happen as planned, commissioner Bob Bowlsby told the Des Moines Register on Tuesday.\n\n“We’re full speed ahead right now, but the circumstances are constantly evolving,” Bowlsby said around noon Tuesday. “I expect to be playing basketball (Wednesday) night and through the week.”\n\nBowlsby spoke shortly after the Ivy League canceled its conference tournament in the wake of the worldwide coronavirus outbreak. Other events throughout the world have either been canceled or are being played in empty arenas.\n\nThe Big 12 tournament starts Wednesday at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. The women’s tournament, at Kansas City’s Memorial Auditorium, starts Thursday. Iowa State’s men play at 6 p.m., Wednesday. Bill Fennelly’s women’s team opens on Friday.\n\n► More:Myth or fact: We dispel the rumors surrounding the coronavirus\n\nAttorney General warns the public to watch out for scams and price gouging\n\nMarch 10: Attorney General Tom Miller warned that Iowans should watch out for price gouging and other scams related to the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.\n\n“Price gouging is substantially raising prices for needed goods or services,” Miller said Tuesday in a news release. “This is illegal and is something our office will pursue.”\n\nThe Attorney General advises Iowans to watch out for products that claim scientific benefits, phishing scams, charities or organizations that claim to be raising funds for a group, and investment fraud.\n\nAny concerns or complaints should be directed to IowaAttorneyGeneral.gov, or by calling 888-777-4590 or emailing consumer@ag.iowa.gov.\n\n► Don't fall for coronavirus scams:What you need to know to avoid fraud\n\nGov. Reynolds held her weekly news conference, focuses on COVID-19\n\nMarch 10: At least three dozen Iowans who traveled recently on cruise ships linked to the coronavirus are being quarantined or will be quarantined as they return home, state officials announced Tuesday.\n\nTwenty-one Iowans traveled on a cruise to Egypt that ended earlier this month. Seven of those individuals represent eight of the presumptive coronavirus cases now reported in Iowa.\n\nReynolds said the other 14 Iowans from the Egyptian cruise are at home under quarantine. Ten have been tested for the coronavirus and their results are pending.\n\nReynolds said these Iowans “had limited interaction in their communities” prior to being quarantined.\n\nAnother 22 Iowans were on the separate Grand Princess cruise ship along the California coast that is linked to cases of the virus — 18 of them will be returning to Iowa soon through a chartered flight coordinated by the federal government.\n\nThey will be screened before they return to Iowa, and they will be quarantined, officials said. Reynolds said none have shown symptoms of the virus.\n\n► More:Gov. Kim Reynolds holds weekly news conference, addressed coronavirus cases\n\nIowa Department of Corrections restricts volunteer access\n\nMarch 9: The Iowa Department of Corrections is asking that all prison volunteers stay home until DOC officials tell them otherwise. They’re also advising staff who don’t feel well to stay home and contact their doctor immediately.\n\nInmates arriving from the jails are screened; if they display any symptoms, they will be isolated for observation, DOC spokesman Cord Overton said.\n\nVisitors must now fill out a health questionnaire before they can see an inmate, and DOC staff are allowed to cut visits short if they have any concerns about the visitor’s health.\n\nIf the outbreak in Iowa escalates, DOC officials said they may temporarily halt all visitor access to their prison facilities.\n\n\"If or when a case is confirmed at an institution, quarantine protocols would be initiated immediately, and those infected would begin treatment for illness, similar to flu outbreak protocols,\" Overton said.\n\nOverton said the departments' medical staff is working to stock up on medical supplies such as masks, face shields and gowns.\n\n8 presumptive positives in Iowa, governor issues disaster proclamation\n\nMarch 9: On Monday, public health officials said there were five new presumptive cases of the coronavirus in Iowa, bringing the total number of cases in the state to eight.\n\nGov. Kim Reynolds also signed a Proclamation of Disaster Emergency, activating the disaster response and recovery aspects of the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management’s Iowa Emergency Response Plan, her office said.\n\n\"The proclamation authorizes state agencies to utilize resources including personnel, equipment and facilities to perform activities necessary to prevent, contain and mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 virus,\" according to a news release from the governor's office.\n\nNew coronavirus case in Pottawattamie County, local officials said\n\nMarch 9: There is one new presumptive case of the coronavirus in Pottawattamie County in western Iowa, according to a public health official.\n\nMatt Wyant, Pottawattamie County's director of planning and development, told the Des Moines Register on Monday that a person has tested presumptively positive for the coronavirus. The person is in self-isolation at home, Wyant said.\n\nThe case must also be confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nHealth officials will hold a news conference at 5 p.m. to share more information, according to Wyant, who said he has alerted state public health officials to the case.\n\nA spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Public Health did not respond immediately to a request for comment.\n\nThe announcement comes one day after Gov. Kim Reynolds announced three presumptive cases of the coronavirus, which causes a respiratory disease currently spreading around the world and the United States.\n\nIowa Poll shows Iowans washing hands more frequently, considering other changes as coronavirus spreads\n\nMarch 9: In results released Monday of a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll, conducted March 2-5, a majority of Iowans said they are washing their hands more frequently in response to the coronavirus outbreak.\n\nSixty-one percent of respondents said they are washing their hands more often, and another 10% said they were seriously considering it. A quarter of Iowans said they have not considered more frequent handwashing.\n\nHealth experts say washing hands with soap and water is the easiest way to help prevent the spread of the virus.\n\nWomen are more likely to say they have increased their handwashing: 68% of women said they are already washing their hands more often, compared to 53% of men. One in three men said they are not considering doing this, compared to just 18% of women.\n\nAround one in five Iowans said they were avoiding crowds or shaking hands with others.\n\nEight percent said they had changed travel plans because of the virus and another 10% had considered changing travel plans.\n\nThree people test presumptively positive for COVID-19\n\nMarch 8: Reynolds' announcement Sunday night that three people in Iowa tested presumptively positive for the novel coronavirus marked the first time the virus has been detected in the state.\n\nThe three people, who live in Johnson County, tested positive after returning March 3 from a cruise that traveled through Egypt, officials told reporters at an evening news conference.\n\nMore:Coronavirus is here in Iowa. What does that mean for you?\n\nReynolds said Sunday that Iowans did not need to take additional or special precautions other than routine advice like washing their hands with soap and water, covering their coughs and sneezes and staying home when sick.\n\n\"While this news is concerning, it's not cause for alarm,\" Reynolds said from the Capitol. \"The most important thing that we can do right now is to remain calm, understand the situation and stay informed in the days and weeks ahead.\"\n\nReynolds also ordered the State Emergency Operations Center in Johnston to full activation, after announcing Saturday that she had partially activated it. The move is aimed at better coordination between state agencies to respond to the virus.\n\nMore:3 test presumptively positive for novel coronavirus in Iowa, Gov. Reynolds announces\n\nAmerican Cruise Lines, with stops in Iowa, starts new cleaning techniques\n\nMarch 9: The U.S. State Department said Sunday that U.S. citizens should not travel by cruise ship, especially travelers with underlying health conditions, given the increased risk of infection of COVID-19 and because of strict screening measures that have denied port entry into several countries.\n\nWhile there's little danger of the latter, American Cruise Lines, which operates Upper Mississippi River cruises with stops in Dubuque, Davenport and Burlington, has implemented prevention measures, including pre-screening and \"more rigorous shipboard sanitation techniques,\" according to a statement from the company.\n\nThe new measures are based on guidelines from the Cruise Lines International Association.\n\n\"American will continue to update procedures and take all appropriate steps to ensure the safety of our guests, crew and the communities we visit,\" the company’s statement says.\n\nFor cruises departing between March 9 and June 30, American Cruise Lines will allow guests to cancel up to 24 hours prior to departure. Guests will get a voucher to be used within a year.\n\n\"American operates small 100-200 passenger ships completely within the United States, cruising only between domestic ports,\" the company’s statement says.\n\nThe first cruise scheduled to stop in Iowa starts July 31, according to its website.\n\nGrassley exploring coronavirus-related tax relief\n\nMarch 9: U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, plans to look into possible financial relief for industry and the economy related to the impact of coronavirus. Grassley is the chair of the Senate Finance Committee.\n\n\"While we continue to assess the economic impacts, Chairman Grassley is exploring the possibility of targeted tax relief measures that could provide a timely and effective response to the coronavirus. Several options within the committee’s jurisdiction are being considered as we learn more about the effects on specific industries and the overall economy,\" said a statement from Grassley spokesman Michael Zona.\n\nThe virus' spread has already rattled financial markets.\n\nDes Moines preparing for worker absences\n\nMarch 9: Des Moines officials have begun preparing for the arrival new coronavirus.\n\nIn a Monday morning workshop, City Manager Scott Sanders told the Des Moines City Council the city’s department heads have been working on continuity plans for essential city operations in case large numbers of staff are kept from work because of the illness.\n\n“It is an exercise in, how would you operate with fewer and fewer staff?” he said.\n\nIf enough people are catch the virus -- or are stuck at home caring for a family member — Des Moines residents could see city service levels affected, Sanders added.\n\nCity officials are also working on ways staff members can work remotely. They’ve also posted hand-washing and COVID-19 symptom guides in City Hall bathrooms.\n\nTesting continues for others\n\nMarch 8: The State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa, the sole laboratory in the state testing for the coronavirus, said it has materials to test about 500 people.\n\nAs of Sunday, the lab had tested just 37. Three have tested positive, 26 have tested negative and there are now 8 pending tests.\n\nPeople in Iowa cannot request to be tested for the coronavirus at this point, according to Polly Carver-Kimm, a spokeswoman at the Iowa Department of Public Health. Instead, health care providers, following guidelines around a person's symptoms, must contact the department.\n\nThe Iowa Department of Public Health told reporters it is covering testing for coronavirus, but other expenses related to seeking medical care remains up to individuals.\n\nPublic health officials in Iowa have said for weeks that the risk of contracting the virus in the state is low, in part because many of the early reported cases were linked to international travel in areas with large outbreaks.\n\nBut some of the cases now reported around the U.S. do not have clear connections to that kind of travel, a potential sign that infection could spread through a community.\n\nThe state is also monitoring 15 people who have either traveled to China or Iran in the past 14 days or have had contact with a confirmed case of the virus. The monitoring process includes those individuals checking in periodically with officials. The state had completed the monitoring of 40 people.\n\nThe public health department has also asked Iowans returning home from certain areas overseas to \"self-isolate\" to stop potential spread of the virus. The request is for travelers coming back from Italy, Japan and South Korea.\n\n► National coronavirus updates: The latest on deaths, cases and preparation across the U.S.\n\nNo travel restrictions or testing at Des Moines' airport\n\nMarch 8: Des Moines International Airport had previously announced it was not imposing travel restrictions or requiring testing of arriving passengers for the coronavirus. It planned no immediate changes after Reynolds announced presumptive cases of COVID-19 in Iowa, airport spokeswoman Kayla Kovarna said Sunday night.\n\nThe outbreak:\n\nPrevention:\n\nWells Fargo announces donations to aid coronavirus response\n\nMarch 8: The Wells Fargo Foundation announced Sunday it will give up to $6.25 million to support domestic and global response to the coronavirus outbreak and to aid public health relief efforts.\n\nIn a news release, the San Francisco-based company, which is among Des Moines' largest employers, said its giving will include $1 million for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s emergency relief fund and $250,000 to the International Medical Corps. The company said it will also donate up to $5 million to aid local-level efforts. It did not specify the localities.\n\n“We recognize and appreciate the role of front-line health care providers as they apply their expertise on this fast-moving issue and care for the well-being of our communities,” Bill Daley, Wells Fargo vice chairman of public affairs at Wells Fargo and chairman of the board of the Wells Fargo Foundation, said in a statement. “We also continue to monitor this situation closely for our employees, customers and the communities we serve and are prepared to adapt as needed.”\n\nTwo hospitals begin limiting patient visits\n\nMarch 6: Two hospitals in Cedar Rapids are limiting their patient visits.\n\nMercy Medical Center and UnityPoint Health-St. Luke's Hospital announced in a news release Friday that staff is limiting patient visitations to minimize their potential exposure to \"seasonal influenza and other respiratory viruses.\"\n\nThe hospitals note in their news release that there are no cases of the novel coronavirus in Iowa.\n\nVisitors at both hospitals will be limited to two adults per patient room at any time unless there is a special circumstance, according to a news release. There are different visiting rules for the maternity and pediatrics floors, as well as the neonatal intensive care unit.\n\nIowa company plans to deliver 1 million test kits\n\nMarch 6: An Iowa company is at the center of the federal government's effort to increase the availability of testing for the novel coronavirus, which Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged Thursday is in short supply.\n\nBased in Coralville, Integrated DNA Technologies manufactures and distributes a wide variety of testing kits and related products worldwide. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters Thursday that the company expects to ship 1 million testing kits to U.S. laboratories by week's end. That amounts to the capacity to test roughly 400,000 people, given that it takes multiple test samples to confirm a result.\n\nOn Friday, company officials said they had delivered materials that enabled testing of over 700,000 individuals for the coronavirus. A company spokeswoman said the biotech firm is ready to send additional materials for more testing.\n\nThe U.S. has trailed other countries in rolling out tests because of problems with its test kits, and because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially limited the number of eligible people.\n\nU.S. senators who were briefed on the plan said it could take days or weeks before thousands of medical personnel are trained to use the tests.\n\nIowa has increased its capacity to test for the coronavirus\n\nMarch 6: The State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa has upped its capacity to test for the coronavirus in recent days.\n\nAnne Bassett, a spokeswoman for the Coralville-based facility, said that as of Friday, the lab has materials to test about 500 people for the virus. That is an increase from about 250 people.\n\nMichael Pentella, director of the State Hygienic Laboratory, told reporters at a news conference last week that he's not concerned about the state's capacity to test people.\n\n\"I think we have the resources that we need,\" Pentella said.\n\nThe lab is able to confirm the negative results of the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must confirm potential positive results.\n\nIowa's public universities cancel travel plans\n\nMarch 5: Iowa's three public universities have limited their travel over the next month.\n\nThe Iowa Board of Regents, which oversees the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, announced Thursday that it has canceled all university-sponsored international travel for all faculty, staff and students for 30 days, effective immediately. That includes spring break travel.\n\nOfficials are recalling faculty, staff and students already abroad who are in areas with large outbreaks as determined by the CDC. As of Thursday, those countries are China, Iran, South Korea and Italy.\n\nThe University of Northern Iowa announced Friday that it is canceling all summer study abroad courses in light of the virus' spread, impacting more than 250 students with trips planned to countries including Egypt, Italy and the United Kingdom, according to a news release.\n\nIowa's congressional delegation approves money to combat coronavirus\n\nMarch 6: All of Iowa's congressional delegation approved federal money last week to help combat coronavirus.\n\nThe U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday in support of an $8.3 billion package. The U.S. Senate approved the funding Thursday, and President Donald Trump signed it on Friday morning.\n\nThat included votes from Democratic U.S. Reps. Cindy Axne, Abby Finkenauer and Dave Loebsack, as well as Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King.\n\nU.S. Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst also approved the funding.\n\nThe money includes more than $3 billion for research and development for vaccines, $2.2 billion for prevention and response, and $1 billion for state and local responses.\n\nHow has the virus affected Iowa?\n\nMarch 3: The coronavirus has begun to affect daily life in Iowa, though the full scope of potential impact is unclear.\n\nState and local officials are evaluating a range of considerations about Iowans' ability to do things such as work, learn and congregate. Restrictions remain limited, but they have the potential, in some cases, to upend Iowans' routines and lives.\n\nRegister reporters Nick Coltrain, Barbara Rodriguez, Jason Clayworth, Brianne Pfannenstiel, Austin Cannon, Sarah LeBlanc, Cecelia Hanley, the Associated Press and Iowa City Press-Citizen reporter Aimee Breaux contributed to this report.\n\nA subscription makes work like this possible. Sign up at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/06/28/monkeypox-vaccine-outbreak-us/7760674001/", "title": "Monkeypox outbreak: 1.6 million vaccines to be released in the U.S.", "text": "More than 1.6 million vaccines to combat monkeypox will be released in the United States throughout the rest of the year, and anyone possibly exposed to the virus is encouraged to get vaccinated, federal health officials said Tuesday.\n\nThe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will release 56,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine immediately in areas where monkeypox transmission rates are high, followed by an additional 240,000 doses in the coming weeks. The vaccines will be distributed through a tier system, prioritizing areas with a high number of confirmed cases.\n\nThe move comes as the U.S. has recorded more than 300 cases of monkeypox across more than two dozen states.\n\n\"We are recommending that vaccines be provided to both people with known monkeypox exposures who are contacted by public health, and also to those people who've been recently exposed to monkeypox but may not be identified through case investigation and contact tracing,\" Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday.\n\nJennifer McQuiston, deputy director of CDC’s Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, said intimate or sexual contact \"seems to be a primary driver for transmission.\"\n\nHealth officials said those who have had a sexual partner diagnosed with monkeypox, as well as men who have had sex with other men who have had multiple sexual partners in areas where monkeypox cases are rising, should get vaccinated.\n\nThere are no treatments specifically for monkeypox infections, but smallpox viruses are genetically similar, meaning smallpox vaccines could be used to prevent monkeypox infections. The Jynneos vaccine is one of those vaccines, and it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2019 for monkeypox prevention in people ages 18 and older. It requires two doses, taken four weeks apart.\n\nResearch data from Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security suggests the vaccine is 85% effective against preventing monkeypox, but it is unknown how well it protects humans from contracting the virus.\n\nOn top of the nearly 300,000 vaccine doses becoming available in the U.S. in the next few weeks, the HHS expects 750,000 additional Jynneos vaccines will be made available over the summer, with 500,000 doses released throughout the fall, pushing the expected total to 1.6 million doses this year.\n\nMonkeypox vaccines: What to know about the Jynneos vaccine\n\nCloser look:Rising reports of rare monkeypox cases in US and around the world raise concern\n\nThe announcement comes the same day the CDC announced it was activating its Emergency Operations Center, which \"allows the agency to further increase operational support for the response to meet the outbreak’s evolving challenges.\"\n\n'This is not a novel virus'\n\nThe concern surrounding the rise of monkeypox, which is typically found in parts of Central and West Africa, comes because cases have popped up in places where it usually isn't reported. More than 4,700 cases have been reported in 49 countries this year as of Tuesday, Walensky said. The largest outbreak is in the United Kingdom.\n\nIn the U.S., 306 cases have been reported in more than 26 states, most of them in California, New York, Illinois and Florida, according to CDC data.\n\nCaused by a virus in the same family as smallpox, monkeypox is transmissible through person-to-person contact with rashes, scabs or bodily fluids, as well as touching infected items such as clothes. Symptoms, which can begin to appear seven to 14 days after exposure, include fever, muscle aches, exhaustion and a rash that can appear through the body. It is fatal for up to 1 in 10 people, the World Health Organization says.\n\nAreas where monkeypox transmission is high can also request shipments of the ACAM2000 vaccine. Although the vaccine has proved effective against the virus, the FDA says, it carries a risk of serious side effects, such as myocarditis and pericarditis, or inflammation and swelling of the heart and surrounding tissues.\n\nWhite House COVID-19 response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said monkeypox outbreaks have happened before and have been handled effectively.\n\n\"This is not a novel virus. Unlike COVID of two years ago, monkeypox is a virus that's been around forever. We've known about it for at least 60-some-odd years, and we've spent years studying and treating monkeypox in endemic nations,\" Jha said. \"This outbreak requires both vigilance, as well as a comprehensive approach, so that's why we're prepared to act rapidly.\"\n\nContributing: Mike Snider, Elizabeth Weise\n\nFollow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/14/governor-give-florida-coronavirus-update-officials-plan-feed-students-while-out-school/5049490002/", "title": "Florida Governor activates EOC to highest level as officials plan to ...", "text": "James Call\n\nUSA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau\n\nAs the number of reported coronavirus infections grows in Florida, the state's top leaders Saturday battened down, messaging the need for a greater effort — and patience — to get to the other side of the pandemic.\n\nGov. Ron DeSantis announced that the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee was moving to Level 1, its highest degree of activation.\n\nEmergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz told residents to stock up on supplies while quickly adding there are as yet no supply chain issues.\n\nPublic health and emergency officials spent the day marshaling forces to blunt the virus' transmission and help people navigate a near shutdown of social, business and civil life for at least the next two weeks, if not longer.\n\nEarlier:Coronavirus in Florida: Gov. DeSantis announces more test kits, courts suspending jury trials\n\nAnd Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried huddled in a conference call with school district administrators to figure out how to provide food to kids who rely on free and reduced meals until schools re-open March 31. More than 2 million Florida school children rely on schools for breakfast and lunch.\n\nAs of Saturday morning, the Florida Department of Health reported 70 Florida residents and seven non-residents have tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. There have been four deaths attributed to the pandemic.\n\n(Later Saturday, the Department of Health confirmed another person who previously tested positive for COVID-19 had died. He was a 77-year-old Lee County man.)\n\nMost patients are in South Florida, with Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties accounting for 33 known cases. Officials are awaiting the results of 221 tests and 365 individuals are being monitored for the virus.\n\nDeSantis said most of the Florida infections stemmed from international travel and that there has been little \"community spread\" of the virus in Florida, as of yet. The CDC defines community spread as occurring when a person infected with the coronavirus \"reportedly did not have relevant travel history or exposure to another known patient with COVID-19.\"\n\nBut DeSantis, who appeared at an EOC briefing, said Florida can expect more infections as he focused attention on the fatality rate among those over the age of 70 or with underlying medical conditions.\n\nThe governor extended a prohibition to the entire state on visitations to nursing homes and similar facilities that he imposed just on Broward County Friday. He extended all nursing home licenses for 90 days and 30 days for other group home facilities so that staff would not “be distracted” during the crisis.\n\nHe also suspended deadlines for driver’s license renewals and professional licensing renewal for 30 days and directed Health Secretary and state Surgeon General Scott Rivkee to reach to the state's public health schools to recruit workers — and ideas.\n\n“It's all hands on deck to help,” DeSantis said. “We are on an emergency posture here.”\n\nStill, he continued to say the likelihood of any Floridian to be infected is relatively low: “Particularly if you are not in a frail or vulnerable population, (the chance of) being negatively impacted is very small.\"\n\nHe did justify the need to avoid large crowds and for \"social distancing\" and self-isolation by noting the death rate among the elderly in Italy is near 20%. \"You could acquire this, have no negative impact on you personally, but then can be involved transmitting to someone where it could be serious,” he said.\n\nWith Level 1 activation of the EOC, the state's response to the outbreak will be coordinated out of Tallahassee.\n\n“Let me be clear: We are not waiting for the situation on the ground to dictate response. We are doing things ... before they are necessary,” Moskowitz said.\n\nHe said people should not be alarmed by empty shelves at stores because unlike a hurricane, supply chains have not been disrupted and he is in touch with large suppliers like Wal-Mart and Amazon.\n\nDeSantis has joined with other states shuttered public-school house doors for the next two weeks. As of Saturday, nine states have acted on the federal recommendation to avoid large gatherings, and nine states have closed schools.\n\nBack story:Leon County schools closed until March 30 due to coronavirus concerns\n\nElsewhere in Tallahassee, Fried and her staff held conference calls with local school officials to help school districts with the paperwork that will ensure they are reimbursed for the food they distribute during the shutdown.\n\n“School meals are the only meals they can count on,” said Fried, about the importance of the state’s Food Service Program for schools who serve needy populations.\n\nHer department administers more than $1.3 billion in federal grants to provide breakfast and lunch during the school year and a summer food program.\n\nIt has received waivers to U.S. Agriculture Department rules that prohibit use of the funds when classes are not in session, or be spent for meals provided in a “non-congregrant” setting, as recommended by social-distancing guidelines.\n\nFried wants to post a “Meal Locator” map online Monday to show the public where the food distribution sites are located. Plans that have been submitted as of Saturday included distribution from the after-school pick-up site, through the traditional school bus route, a grab-and-go service and a drive-through method.\n\nThe coronavirus can stay infectious for days on a surface, be present in a person without any symptoms and linger in a body for many weeks. As of Friday, nationwide, about 25,000 schools with 22 million students were scheduled to be closed for up to a month, according to Education Week.\n\nThe feds have recommended schools use the time to have staff disinfect frequently touched areas such as desks, countertops, electronics and doorknobs.\n\nJames Call is part of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on Twitter @CallTallahassee.\n\nNever miss a story: Subscribe to the Tallahassee Democrat.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/arizona/2020/03/15/arizona-tribes-respond-covid-19-emergency-declarations-and-testing/5055702002/", "title": "Arizona tribes respond to COVID-19 with emergency declarations ...", "text": "At least 18 of Arizona's 22 tribes have declared states of emergency in response to COVID-19.\n\nThe Navajo Nation and Gila River Indian Community are the only tribes in Arizona to announce they have positive cases of COVID-19 among their tribal citizens, and more tribes have shut down their gaming enterprises and implemented more precautions for their communities.\n\nAk-Chin Indian Community\n\nThe Ak-Chin Community Council declared a state of emergency on March 27 in response to the \"growing public health threat\" posed by COVID-19.\n\nThere are no positive cases of COVID-19 in the Ak-Chin Indian Community, according to a press release.\n\n“This emergency declaration authorizes Ak-Chin leaders to take all steps necessary to protect our people from this dangerous viral outbreak,” Ak-Chin Chairman Robert Miguel said in the press release. “We’ve activated our Emergency Operation Center to centralize the Tribe’s disease response efforts, and now have authorization to utilize all necessary resources, including equipment, manpower and more, to meet this historic challenge.\"\n\nThe state of emergency declaration is the latest action the Ak-Chin Indian Community Council has taken in response to COVID-19. Before the declaration, the tribe closed Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino & Resort and the Ultra-Star Multi-Tainment Center at Ak-Chin Circle until at least April 2 and canceled all in-person, community-sponsored events, programs and gatherings.\n\n“We ask that Ak-Chin members take extra care to avoid groups of people, stay home as much as possible, and be vigilant in washing hands and practicing good hygiene,\" Miguel said. \"Be especially mindful of elders, young children and other individuals who may be vulnerable to this disease. We’re all in this together.”\n\nFort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe\n\nThe Quechan Tribal Council declared a state of emergency on March 27 in an effort to minimize the threat of a potential outbreak and spread of COVID-19 on tribal land.\n\nThe tribe will cease all casino operations and reduce the operation of tribal programs and facilities for \"the health and safety\" of tribal citizens and surrounding communities of Yuma and Imperial counties, according to an update posted by the Quechan Tribal Council.\n\n\"A State of Emergency will make it possible to apply for state and federal funds when and if they become available to Tribes,\" the council stated. \"Such funding will make Quechan resources available to help formalize emergency actions that are already underway within the tribal government while assisting the Tribe to prepare for the potential outbreak of COVID-19.\"\n\nTribal administration offices are closed to the public, and the council said it's undetermined when employees can report back to work.\n\n\"These are trying and uncertain times and we would like to thank our membership, guests and dedicated employees for helping us take the preventative measure for the benefit of many,\" the council stated.\n\nPueblo of Zuni\n\nThe Zuni Tribal Council declared a state of emergency on March 19.\n\nAccording to the resolution, all tribal divisions and programs comply with federal and state recommendations related to COVID-19 and have implemented reasonable measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Tribal Emergency Operation manager will implement an Incident Command Team to provide information and recommendations on how to minimize the impacts of COVID-19.\n\nAll tribal administrative offices are closed until April 6.\n\nThe tribe has not taken any official action to close the Pueblo of Zuni community, but discourages community members from leaving for unnecessary travel.\n\nSan Juan Southern Paiute Tribe\n\nThe San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe declared a state of emergency on March 17.\n\nThe resolution includes the restriction of all government-related travel by tribal employees, as well as the cancellation of any event sponsored by the tribe or gatherings of more than 10 people.\n\nAs of March 23, an announcement was posted on the tribe's website indicating that the council will be closed until further notice in an effort to protect the community, elders and staff from COVID-19.\n\nColorado River Indian Tribes\n\nThe Colorado River Tribal Council declared a state of emergency March 13.\n\nThere are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Colorado River Indian Tribe, according to a community update written by Chairman Dennis Patch.\n\nThe tribe announced the temporary closure of the BlueWater Resort & Casino, effective March 20. The facility will reopen in two weeks or when the tribe determines it's safe, the announcement states.\n\nAll other tribal enterprises will remain open \"under new safety measures.\"\n\nAll tribal departments and enterprises are required to disinfect all surfaces multiple times a day, according to the emergency declaration. Hand sanitizer is available in all departments and enterprises for employees and the public.\n\nHopi Tribe\n\nThe Hopi Tribe declared a state of emergency March 17.\n\nSome of the things the declaration includes are the activation of the Hopi Emergency Response Team, suspension of travel for business for 30 days as well as the cancellation or postponement of all events that gather 50 or more people for the next eight weeks.\n\nAll Hopi tribal department managers, village community service administrators and program managers should develop a plan that allows employees to work from home. Vendors will also not be allowed to sell on any tribally owned property.\n\nHualapai Tribe\n\nThe Hualapai Tribal Council declared a state of emergency March 17.\n\nAs part of the declaration, an incident command team has been activated to develop a response plan, all non-essential tribal employees will be placed on administrative leave for 14 days and all gatherings of more than 20 people are discouraged.\n\n\"The community is not quarantined but we are self-isolating to help prevent the spread of this virus,\" Incident Commander Melvin Hunter Jr. said in a press release. \"Until April 1, non-essential departments will either be closed or have minimal staff available.\"\n\nHunter said in a press release that they are encouraging all community members returning home to the Hualapai community from travel or extended absences to check in with EMS for precautionary screening.\n\nSan Carlos Apache\n\nThe San Carlos Apache Tribe declared a state of emergency March 14.\n\nThe tribal council held meetings with health care providers and tribal emergency response officials to determine how best to respond to the pandemic, San Carlos Apache Tribal Chairman Terry Rambler wrote on his Facebook page.\n\n\"In these challenging times with this virus that currently does not have a cure, I ask all of us to work together, to look out for each other, and rely on the power of prayer,\" Rambler wrote.\n\nThe resolution ordered tribal government workers to work from home where possible, while others will be placed on paid administrative leave for 30 days to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.\n\nGatherings of more than 100 people are barred, with the exclusion of religious or traditional ceremonial gatherings, economic venues such as the Apache Gold Casino Resort and health care services. Most travel by tribal officials has been halted.\n\nAs of March 11, the tribe said that two patients were seen at the San Carlos Apache Healthcare Corporation with COVID-19 symptoms. They were both tested and the results came back negative, according to a press release.\n\nThe tribe is preparing for COVID-19, and the medical staff is following the CDC rules for testing, the release states.\n\nThe San Carlos Apache Gaming Enterprise has closed its gaming facilities — the Apache Gold Casino Resort and the Apache Sky Casino — from March 19 until April 3, according to Chief Executive Officer Matt Olin.\n\nFort McDowell Yavapai\n\nThe Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation declared a state of emergency March 18 and announced the temporary closure of the We-Ko-Pa Casino and Resort and tribal government offices until April 2.\n\n\"This was a painful decision as our casino is the economic lifeblood of our Nation,\" said Bernadine Burnette, president of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation.\n\n\"The global coronavirus crisis threatens the physical health and economic welfare of all Americans. Addressing this crisis requires significant sacrifices from all of us. The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation will do its part to defeat this threat,\" she said.\n\nThe tribe will pay employees with benefits during the shutdown, the press release states. The casino and resort closed March 18, and tribal government offices closed March 19.\n\nThe Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation closed its senior center March 12 until further notice, according to a release. Only home-bound services will continue, and meals normally served to elders at the center will be delivered.\n\nAll gatherings of more than 25 people, including religious services and traditional ceremonies, are now prohibited.\n\nSalt River\n\nThe Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community declared a state of emergency on March 18.\n\n\"An emergency declaration allows the government to act outside normal business practices, for example, normal purchasing procedures do not apply during emergency declarations,\" said Martin Harvier, president of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, in a video posted on the tribe's Facebook page.\n\n\"The SPPIMC government will provide essential services even with this emergency declaration in place,\" he said.\n\nThe tribe activated a command team to deal with the pandemic, said Kim Secakuku, a spokesperson for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.\n\n\"We have established a hotline for community members to use if they need help or show symptoms,\" said Secakuku.\n\nThe tribal government is providing its citizens and employees with regular updates and information on the virus' spread, as Secakuku noted that \"things change daily.\" The tribe has also canceled community programs and events to prevent disease spread.\n\nThe tribe suspended all gaming and resort operations at Talking Stick Resort and Casino Arizona from March 18 to March 31, according to a press release. No employees or guests have been identified with the virus.\n\nGila River\n\nThe tribal council for the Gila River Indian Community announced March 18 that it will be closing all three of its gaming facilities for two weeks.\n\nThe salaries and wages for employees impacted by the closure will be maintained for the two-week period, according to the press release.\n\n\"The Community Council is aware of the heavy responsibility we bear for the health and well-being of our customers and employees and has determined that this is the best course of action at this time,\" Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said.\n\nThe tribe declared a state of emergency March 13 in response to COVID-19. This executive order includes suspending all travel for tribal employees for the next 30 days as well as all community-sponsored gatherings of more than 100 people.\n\n\"There have been no reported cases of coronavirus within our community,\" Lewis said in a video posted on Facebook.\n\nHe said that information comes from his recent meeting with the Gila River Indian Community's COVID-19 task force, which is made up of the Gila River Health Care Department and Gila River Emergency Management Department.\n\nThe Gila River Indian Community developed a website to keep its citizens up to date on anything related to COVID-19. The website is grhc.org and the hotline number is 520-550-6079.\n\nTohono O'odham\n\nThe Tohono O'odham Nation declared a state of emergency on March 13.\n\nTohono O'odham Chairman Ned Norris announced that under the nation's constitution, he is establishing a \"unified command\" which will centralize the nation's efforts to respond to the COVID-19 threat to its 28,000 citizens.\n\nOn March 18, Norris signed an executive order stating that all the nation's non-essential programs will be closed, non-essential employees are relieved of their work duties with pay and non-essential employees may be detailed to essential employees, as needed, to assist in the efforts of COVID-19. This order will remain in effect until April 23.\n\nThe tribe also announced the temporary suspension of all gaming operations starting March 18. The closure will impact all four Desert Diamond Casinos near Tucson, Sahuarita, Why (Ajo), and the West Valley, in Glendale.\n\n“In this unprecedented time, it is our duty to protect the community and collective action is needed to slow this virus,\" Norris said in a press release.\n\n\"I commend the other tribal casinos who are also making tough decisions for their own communities as well,\" he added. \"It is in moments like these that our communities must rise to the challenge by relying on the shared values of compassion, collaboration, and generosity that have inspired us for generations.”\n\nPascua Yaqui\n\nThe Pascua Yaqui Tribe, which has a community and a satellite tribal office in Guadalupe, declared a state of emergency March 19 in response to COVID-19.\n\nThe tribe formed an Incident Command System so that all the information coming in about COVID-19 is funneled through a central source so it's accurate and up to date.\n\n“The ICS is comprised of representatives from police, fire, health, IT, communications, among others, who have been authorized by Tribal Council to communicate directly to the community information regarding COVID-19,” said Chairman Robert Valencia in a press release.\n\nThe emergency declaration is in addition to the travel restrictions and other preventative measures set in place for the Pascua Yaqui tribal communities. The tribe issued its first health advisory on Jan. 30, then travel restrictions on March 6 with expanded tribal restrictions on March 12.\n\n“It is critically important that we do what we can to protect our community members, especially our most vulnerable members,” Valencia said.\n\nThe tribe also ceased all operations at Casino Del Sol from March 18 until April 13.\n\nTonto Apache Tribe\n\nThe Tonto Apache Tribal Council declared a state of emergency on March 18.\n\nAll tribal enterprises will be closed as of March 19 for a minimum of two weeks. This includes the tribal government and Mazatzal Hotel & Casino.\n\nThe hotel and casino made the announcement on Facebook, indicating that all tribal employees will be on paid leave.\n\n\"As one of the largest employers in Payson, we felt it was in the best interests of our employees to be proactive and close our tribal enterprises. We must do our part to prevent the spread of this disease,\" Chairwoman Jeri DeCola said on her Facebook page.\n\nWhite Mountain Apache\n\nThe White Mountain Apache Nation declared a state of emergency March 19 in response to COVID-19, and the tribe's emergency management group has been activated to manage the public health threat.\n\nThere have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the White Mountain Apache community, according to the declaration.\n\nThe tribe also announced the temporary suspension of gaming operations at Hon-Dah Resort and Casino, effective March 20.\n\n\"Out of an abundance of caution; out of concern for Hon-Dah's employees and guests; and in solidarity with local communities and our sister tribes, the Tribal Council finds that temporarily suspending gaming operations at Hon-Dah is in the best interests of the tribe and its members,\" Chairwoman Gwendena Lee-Gatewood said in a press release.\n\nYavapai-Apache Nation\n\nThe Yavapai Apache Nation declared a state of emergency on March 19.\n\nOn March 26, the Yavapai-Apache Nation announced that the tribal government and casino will remain closed until at least April 10.\n\nThe tribal government has been closed since March 19.\n\nIn a statement from Yavapai-Apache Chairman Jon Huey, all employees will work from home. The tribe closed its casino and hotel operations on March 18.\n\n\"As a people, we have historically faced extremely difficult times and were always able to call upon our inner strength to support ourselves and our families,\" Huey said in his statement. \"Together we will do what needs to be done to face the threat and protect our Nation for the brighter days that are surely ahead.\"\n\nHavasupai Tribe\n\nThe Havasupai Tribe declared a state of emergency on March 20. A resolution by the tribal council blocked most travel into the village of Supai, which sits on the floor of the Grand Canyon.\n\nThe declaration came five days after the council suspended visits to Havasupai Falls, the world-famous tourist destination that provides the overwhelming majority of the tribe's operating budget. It authorized the tribe to seek federal funding to cover what is expected to be a gaping hole in the tribe's finances.\n\nAbout 75% of jobs on the Havasupai Nation are based on tourism. The tribe estimates that a 30-day closure of its tourism office and lodge would cut its annual revenue by 7%.\n\nThe declaration also sealed off the village of Supai, which is accessible only by helicopter or a hike down the canyon. The tribe will allow only essential personnel into the community, naming employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service as examples.\n\n“With an already limited access point, any possible closures or restrictions on movement will wreak havoc on the health, safety, and welfare of Havasupai Tribal Members if it interrupts the flow of food, cleaning, and medical supplies to the Havasupai Reservation,” Havasupai Tribe chairwoman Eva Kissoon said in a statement.\n\nAbout 426 people live in Supai. Many of them, the declaration notes, are diabetic, asthmatic or have otherwise weakened immune systems.\n\nThere is no hospital in Supai. The community is served by a single clinic, which has one physician and two nurses. The declaration notes that there is almost no flu medicine within the community.\n\nThis is a developing story and will be updated.\n\nReach the reporter at debra.krol@AZCentral.com or at 602-444-8490. Follow her on Twitter at @debkrol. Reporter Shondiin Silversmith covers Indigenous people and communities in Arizona. Reach her at ssilversmi@arizonarepublic.com and follow her Twitter @DiinSilversmith.\n\nRepublic reporter Alden Woods contributed to this article.\n\nSupport local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/coronavirus/2021/01/01/nj-covid-reflections-our-health-reporter-looks-back-2020-coverage/4093431001/", "title": "NJ COVID reflections: Our health reporter looks back on 2020 ...", "text": "In early December 2019, I sat in a conference room at the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, listening to its director, Dr. Robert Redfield, answer a question: Is America ready for another major infectious disease like Ebola or the Zika virus?\n\nRedfield's response reiterated what most public health experts knew, but coming from him, it was jarring. \"It’s not a secret,” he said. “Our nation is not prepared for a flu pandemic.”\n\nHe was certain such a pandemic would one day arrive, and although he couldn't foresee when, he knew it would be bad: “It’s going to be a huge loss of life.”\n\nLittle did I — or possibly even he — know how prescient his response was. Substitute \"flu\" with the generic word “virus,” and it’s clear the leader of what was then regarded as the world’s premier public health institution saw trouble on the horizon.\n\nI was in Atlanta along with a dozen other members of the Association of Health Care Journalists for a weeklong program called “Inside the CDC.” We covered it all, from databases to diabetes, vaping to vaccinations.\n\nAfter three decades of covering health care in New Jersey, it honestly was a thrill. I was past security and inside the black box, the sanctum sanctorum of health care.\n\nWe toured the CDC emergency operations center, with its giant wall of interactive maps and screens. We sat in its conference room, whose windows can be fogged for high security video chats with the White House. We heard from the disease detectives — members of the Epidemic Intelligence Service — who had first identified Legionnaire’s disease and HIV.\n\nDespite all this — and Redfield’s honest assessment of the next big thing — I had no idea what was about to hit me and the North Jersey community I write about.\n\nBut when reports began to emerge from China at the end of December about a novel virus infecting people in Wuhan — one never before seen in humans — I could picture what was happening at the CDC. Back in New Jersey, I pricked up my ears. I paid attention.\n\nThe first CDC teleconference for reporters about the virus took place on Jan. 17. Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, announced plans for travelers arriving in the United States from Wuhan to undergo health screenings at airports.\n\nFour days later, she was back. The first case of the novel coronavirus in the U.S.— it wasn’t named COVID-19 for several more weeks — had been diagnosed in a Washington State man who had arrived from China before the screenings began. \"CDC activated emergency response center,” my notes read. “Expect additional cases in United States and globally,\" and “believe the risk to the public is low.”\n\nAnd so it began.\n\nMessonnier, who once sought to calm our fears, dramatically changed course on Feb. 25. “This could be bad,” she warned the public. She explained that community spread of the disease was imminent and urged Americans to prepare.\n\nAfter that, she and the CDC were largely shunted aside.\n\nThat's when I warned friends on Facebook. Not to be alarmist, I wrote, but \"It's time to have a plan. Figure out whether you can work from home, consult the doctor without visiting the office, and what you'll do if schools close. Buy canned food and antiseptic wipes.\"\n\nSince then, I have joined more than 150 press conferences via Zoom, YouTube, Facebook and phone, with the CDC, the federal Health and Human Services Department, and Gov. Phil Murphy. I have written more than 400 online stories and about 150 for print, all but a handful about the coronavirus. I have lost sleep, canceled vacations and declined a corporate buyout offer. It has been the story of my career — and it’s not over.\n\nIt’s shocking how much has changed since those first days.\n\nIt has been an emotional roller coaster — for me, as an eyewitness to what front-line health care workers have had to endure, and for those whose lives the virus has disrupted, and ultimately destroyed.\n\nIn early March, I started a file in which I attempted to list every patient diagnosed with the coronavirus in New Jersey — not each fatality, mind you, but each patient. That's when each day’s report by state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli contained fewer than 10 new patients. Tests were few and far between.\n\nThe first was James Cai, who was admitted to Hackensack University Medical Center on March 4. Now, we’re up to a statewide total of over 479,000 cases — more than 5% of New Jersey’s population.\n\nMy attempts at such a list, of course, were soon overwhelmed. What followed was far more grim.\n\nOn March 24, Alan Finder, my friend and a onetime Record editor who also was an esteemed journalist at the New York Times, died at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood. My husband, a USA Today reporter who had taken the buyout I declined, wrote his obituary for The Record.\n\nThe deaths came quickly back then. Each was a story like Alan’s: a tragic loss, deeply mourned. At The Record, we decided to try to memorialize them — as many as we could. That's how the statewide Loved and Lost series, now coordinated by Montclair State University, began.\n\nWe wanted to ensure that the grandparents, parents, children and other loved ones lost to COVID were not reduced to a set of statistics, and to remind readers that these victims were the life and blood, the unique and important threads that helped stitch together the beautiful fabric of our community.\n\nMy own role has been to spotlight the health care workers who have died — literally in the line of duty.\n\nLoved and Lost:Emmanuel 'Manny' Carrillo, a family man with a megawatt smile\n\nIn memoriam:Waldwick family physician who died of COVID-19 remembered as inspiration for doctors, nurses\n\nLoved and Lost:Nancy Martell was a voice for patient safety while working at Palisades hospital\n\nFor me, this job has never been so emotional. Despite all the newly familiar jargon — flattening the curve, PPE, test positivity rates and rates of transmission — for the doctors, nurses, nursing home aides, patients and family members I’ve interviewed, these pandemic months have been a crucible of anxiety, frustration, exhaustion, and horrific loss.\n\nI think of the nurse’s aides who told me in early April of the unseen, smoldering outbreaks at nursing homes around the state, where personal protective equipment and test swabs were locked away, and of their co-workers who were falling sick — sometimes fatally — and of the residents who were dying so quickly they couldn't even be tested.\n\nThe residents of one Jersey City nursing home were crying, a nurse there told me. “They're afraid they're going to die. We tell them they'll be OK,” she said. “But we know they won't be.\" During that interview, she herself was at home with a 103-degree fever.\n\nI think of Arlene Van Dyk, a critical care nurse at Holy Name Medical Center, who told me in late March about the sights and sounds of a 12-hour shift in the intensive care unit where 19 patients were on ventilators. Her patients were sedated into paralysis, but still she spoke words of encouragement to them. They are not “COVID-19 patients,” she said. “They are people.”\n\nAnd I think of Sofia Burke, whose entire Elmwood Park household of eight became infected with COVID as the result of a single act of kindness — her mother giving a lift to an elderly friend. Sofia’s father died, her mother was hospitalized, and Sophia herself spent Thanksgiving and Christmas on oxygen in the hospital.\n\nShe couldn’t help but think of her father’s death and her family’s struggle at home. \"Every time I cry,” she said, “my oxygen level goes down.”\n\nThere are so many other stories I tried to report: the desperation of family members unable to visit their loved ones in nursing homes, frantic as long-term care deaths mounted. The trauma of nurses who ran out of body bags and toe tags and feared the pandemic’s second wave. The lack of transparency about hospital staff outbreaks. The slow recovery of a man who’d been on a ventilator for nearly a month.\n\nI found I wanted to do something more about COVID-19 than write about it. So in September, I joined a clinical trial for the Moderna vaccine. I hoped it would yield an interesting story and also allow me an inside glimpse of the research process and the “warp speed” race to develop a defense against the virus.\n\nI still don’t know whether I received a vaccine or the placebo, although based on my reaction, I believe it was the vaccine. Both Moderna’s vaccine and another, similar vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, were recently authorized for emergency use by the federal Food and Drug Administration. This month, I wrote about some of the first vaccines being administered to health care workers in New Jersey.\n\nI’m paid to report fact, not share my opinions. But I’d be kidding you if I didn’t admit that the next time a CDC director tells me disaster is looming, I hope that person is wrong, or that we’ve learned from this disaster — and do something about it.\n\nLindy Washburn is a senior health care reporter for NorthJersey.com. To keep up-to-date about how changes in the medical world affect the health of you and your family, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.\n\nEmail: washburn@northjersey.com\n\nTwitter: @lindywa", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/01/01"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_6", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/26/sport/colorado-avalanche-stanley-cup-winner/index.html", "title": "Colorado Avalanche win first Stanley Cup title since 2001 - CNN", "text": "(CNN) The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 6 to win the team's first Stanley Cup since 2001 on Sunday night. It's the team's third Stanley Cup title overall.\n\nWith the score tied 1-1 a little over halfway through the second period, Avalanche winger Artturi Lehkonen scored the game-deciding goal.\n\nColorado Avalanche players celebrate after defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.\n\nThe Lightning won the last two Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021.\n\nAvalanche defenseman and 2021-2022 Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player throughout the playoffs after scoring 29 points in the postseason.\n\n\"I was trying not to look at the clock too much. Just trying to stay in the moment.\" Makar said after the game.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Jacob Lev"], "publish_date": "2022/06/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/05/02/nhl-playoffs-picks-2022-first-round-and-stanley-cup-predictions/9554863002/", "title": "NHL playoffs picks: 2022 first round and Stanley Cup predictions", "text": "Will the Tampa Bay Lightning take their first step toward a third consecutive Stanley Cup or will the Toronto Maple Leafs pick up their first playoff series win since 2004?\n\nWill the Edmonton Oilers get their first playoff win since Todd McLellan coached the team or will McLellan's Los Angeles Kings stop them?\n\nCan the West-leading Colorado Avalanche bounce back from a 1-5-1 finish to the season? Will the Florida Panthers be the first Presidents' Trophy winner since 2013 to win a Cup?\n\nThose are among the questions that will be answered when the NHL playoffs get underway on Monday night.\n\nUSA TODAY Sports' NHL experts predict the winners for the first round and the Stanley Cup:\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up to get daily updates delivered to your inbox\n\nNHL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE:Dates, times, television and results\n\nPLAYOFFS:One major question for each postseason team\n\nNHL AWARD PICKS:MVP race is loaded with possibilities; Igor Shesterkin a lock for Vezina?\n\nJimmy Hascup\n\nFlorida vs. Washington: Panthers in five. The best team in the regular season will have no problems taking down a team that is too reliant on one player, Alex Ovechkin, (yes, an all-time great) to carry the offense.\n\nCarolina vs. Boston: Bruins in seven. In a battle of two of the best coaches, Boston gets the nod because of Patrice Bergeron still being at the height of his powers and a more stable goalie situation.\n\nToronto vs. Tampa Bay: Lightning in six. Tampa Bay played this season like a team that knew it could make the playoffs without playing its best but would ramp up again in the postseason.\n\nN.Y. Rangers vs. Pittsburgh: Rangers in six. The Rangers lost the first meeting with the Penguins then won the next three and just seem to be a more complete team.\n\nColorado vs. Nashville: Avalanche in five. There seems to be too much doubt about goalie Juuse Saros' playoff availability and missing him will sink Nashville even quicker in this series.\n\nCalgary vs. Dallas: Flames in five. The Stars are too reliant on the Joe Pavelski-Jason Robertson-Roope Hintz line and haven't shown enough secondary scoring to compensate against a deeper Calgary team.\n\nMinnesota vs. St. Louis: Blues in seven. The Wild had more points (113-109) but the Blues had six more regulation wins (43-37), and I like their defensive depth more.\n\nEdmonton vs. Los Angeles: Kings in seven. Perhaps the most lopsided series on paper, what's the NHL playoffs without some chaos to start? Los Angeles is better than you think.\n\nStanley Cup Final: Panthers vs. Flames\n\nChampion: Panthers in six. Florida has a well-rounded team with elite players (Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad), dangerous depth, a strong defensive core and a goalie (Sergei Bobrovsky) who had a strong season (and depth there, too, if he struggles).\n\nConn Smythe winner: Aleksander Barkov, Panthers.\n\nMike Brehm\n\nFlorida vs. Washington: Panthers in five: The Panthers are a deep, powerful team and the Capitals will have trouble shutting them down, especially with their inconsistent goaltending.\n\nCarolina vs. Boston: Hurricanes in seven. Both are well-coached and it will come down to Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour having home ice for Game 7.\n\nToronto vs. Tampa Bay: Lightning in six. The Lightning's offense is back on track. They won't romp like they did in a recent 8-1 win vs. Toronto, but their championship pedigree will win out.\n\nN.Y. Rangers vs. Pittsburgh: Rangers in six. Rangers No. 1 goalie Igor Shesterkin will win the Vezina Trophy. Penguins No. 1 goalie Tristan Jarry is hurt.\n\nColorado vs. Nashville: Avalanche in six. It will be fun to watch Norris Trophy candidates Roman Josi and Cale Makar. The Avalanche will be healthier than the team that stumbled down the stretch.\n\nCalgary vs. Dallas: Flames in five. Goalie Jake Oettinger might get the Stars a win in Dallas. But two-time Stanley Cup-winning coach Darryl Sutter has had the Flames playing playoff hockey.\n\nMinnesota vs. St. Louis: Blues in seven. This will be the best series of the first round. The Blues' offense has several lines that can hurt an opponent, and Minnesota's Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Foligno are coming off injuries.\n\nEdmonton vs. Los Angeles: Oilers in six. The Oilers will be keen to make up for last year's playoff embarrassment and coach Jay Woodcroft has them playing to their potential.\n\nStanley Cup Final: Avalanche vs. Hurricanes\n\nChampion: Avalanche in six. This is the third consecutive season that I picked the Avalanche. They addressed their weaknesses at the trade deadline. If they can just get past the second round, they will win it all.\n\nConn Smythe winner: Cale Makar, Avalanche\n\nJace Evans\n\nFlorida vs. Washington: Panthers in five. The Capitals' unsettled goaltending situation seems like a major liability against the best offense in the NHL.\n\nCarolina vs. Boston: Hurricanes in seven. This is a true toss-up series and though I worry about the Hurricanes' goaltending to an extent, their system is so sound as to help alleviate those worries.\n\nToronto vs. Tampa Bay: Lightning in seven. I have been burned too many times by the Maple Leafs to trust them to get their first series win since 2004 against the two-time defending champs.\n\nN.Y. Rangers vs. Pittsburgh: Rangers in six. The Penguins have plenty of playoff experience but they'll be without their All-Star goalie for at least the beginning of the series while the Rangers have the best goaltender in the NHL by far this season.\n\nColorado vs. Nashville: Avalanche in four. I'm not worried about their closing stretch of play: The Avalanche were a machine most of this season and they have taken care of business in the first round three years in a row.\n\nCalgary vs. Dallas: Flames in five. The Stars are the only team in the playoffs with a negative goal differential. The Flames' plus-85 trailed only the Presidents' Trophy-winning Panthers for the best mark in the NHL.\n\nMinnesota vs. St. Louis: Wild in seven. The Wild have a true superstar in Kirill Kaprizov and home ice. Marc-Andre Fleury is also 9-2 since coming over to Minnesota.\n\nEdmonton vs. Los Angeles: Oilers in six. Edmonton is hardly a pillar of consistency thanks to shaky goaltending and questionable depth, but the Oilers have two of the best offensive players in the league and the Kings are missing their No. 1 defenseman.\n\nStanley Cup Final: Flames vs. Lightning\n\nChampion: Lightning in six. In a rematch of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final, Tampa Bay will cement its place as an all-time great team and remove all talk of \"asterisk championships\" with a third consecutive title. The Lightning are deep, talented and – most important – they know what it takes to win.\n\nConn Smythe winner: Nikita Kucherov, Lightning", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/06/11/nhl-playoffs-lightning-beat-rangers-head-stanley-cup-final/7598677001/", "title": "NHL playoffs: Lightning beat Rangers, head to Stanley Cup Final", "text": "The Tampa Bay Lightning are heading to the Stanley Cup Final for the third consecutive season and the reward is starting on the road again against the Western Conference’s top regular-season team.\n\nThe way the two-time defending champions beat the New York Rangers 2-1 in Game 6 will help them when they face the Colorado Avalanche in Game 1 on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET, ABC).\n\nCaptain Steven Stamkos scored two goals, the second just 21 seconds after the Rangers had tied the game in the third period.\n\n\"We don’t care how it gets done, it just needs to get done,\" he told reporters after the game. \"I’m very proud of this group. We’re going to the Finals again and have a chance to do something special.”\n\nStamkos opened the scoring in Saturday's goaltending battle when his wrist shot eluded a partially screened Igor Shesterkin at 10:43 of the second period.\n\nSTANLEY CUP FINAL:Schedule, TV info for the NHL's championship round\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up to get daily headlines sent to your inbox\n\nStamkos was in the penalty box when New York's Frank Vatrano tied the game on a power play at 13:07 of the third period.\n\nBut Stamkos scored on the next shift on a 2-on-1 break when the rebound of his shot went in off his leg.\n\n\"Obviously a little disappointed in myself for taking the penalty,\" he said. \"You see them score and you're in the box. It was weird. For some reason, I wasn't as rattled as I usually am in those situations. I was just confident in our group that we'd find a way, whether it was in regulation or in overtime. We deserved to win tonight.\"\n\nShesterkin complained but the goal survived a review.\n\n\"It's not the individuals,\" Stamkos said. \"It's great to score a couple goals in a huge game like this, but if I didn't score and we won, I'd be just as happy. ... We know that everyone in our room plays a huge part in our group success.\"\n\nShesterkin, a finalist for the Vezina and Hart trophies, made 28 saves as he fell short in his bid to improve to 6-0 in elimination games this postseason.\n\n\"I thought Igor was outstanding,\" Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. \"He gave us a chance to win every night and we got outchanced in a lot of the games, but he was outstanding. He was our best player all year long and did it again in this series.\"\n\nAndrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves and was aided by 17 blocked shots by defenders.\n\nThe fact that the Lightning were able to hold the Rangers to one goal in each of the last three games bodes well as they prepare to face the high-flying Avalanche.\n\n“There’s no secret that they have some electric players,” Stamkos said. “To be honest, they’re probably a team that we thought we’d play the last couple years. … Now they’ve broken through and they have just an unbelievable mix of veteran presence, star power, grinders, the goalie. A huge challenge for us.”\n\nThe Lightning are trying to become the first team to win three consecutive Stanley Cups since the New York Islanders won four in a row from 1980-83.\n\nThough the Lightning have lacked home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs, they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games, swept the No. 1 overall seed Florida Panthers and beat the Rangers in six. They rallied in the Eastern Conference final after losing the first two games, including 6-2 in Game 1 after a long layoff.\n\n“As the series progressed, we got better and better, and I think maybe tonight might have been our best game overall,” forward Alex Killorn said.\n\nLightning's Victor Hedman temporarily leaves game\n\nVictor Hedman was pulled out of the game in the second period when Alexis Lafrenière caught him in the head with a check. The defenseman, who is a Norris Trophy finalist for the fifth consecutive season, grabbed his head and broke his stick as he returned to the bench.\n\nHedman rubbed his jaw as he sat on the bench and had to go to the dressing room, presumably because of concussion protocol.\n\nBut he returned to action in the third period and played a regular shift.\n\nRangers' Kaapo Kakko a healthy scratch\n\nGallant had limited the use of the Kid Line during the team's loss in Game 5.\n\nIn Game 6, he sat out Kaapo Kakko and moved the other two members of the Kid Line to other lines. Lafrenière started alongside Mika Zibanejad and Vatrano and Filip Chytil was on a line with Chris Kreider and Barclay Goodrow, though the lines changed up later.\n\nKakko, the No. 2 overall pick in 2019, has five points in 19 playoff games. Forward Brayden Hunt made his third appearance of his postseason and first since the first round.\n\nNew York's Ryan Strome, who has been playing through an injury, left warmups briefly but dressed for the game. He didn't play in the third period.\n\nLightning center Brayden Point, who was injured in the first round, sat out again, though he is skating.\n\n\"I don't know about the probability of Game 1, but it's extremely probable that he will play in the series,\" coach Jon Cooper said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/06/06/nhl-playoffs-avalanche-sweep-oilers-reach-stanley-cup-final/7527361001/", "title": "NHL playoffs: Avalanche sweep Oilers, reach Stanley Cup Final", "text": "The Colorado Avalanche reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since their 2001 championship on Monday, shredding their reputation of a highly talented team that disappointed in the playoffs.\n\nThey staged a furious third-period comeback and won in overtime on a goal by trade deadline acquisition Artturi Lehkonen to sweep the Edmonton Oilers with a 6-5 victory in Game 4. Lehkonen, then with Montreal, also got the Canadiens into the Final last season with an overtime goal.\n\nThe Avalanche will face the winner of the Tampa Bay Lightning-New York Rangers series. The Rangers lead the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final 2-1 with Game 4 on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) in Tampa.\n\nColorado overcame deficits of 3-1 and 4-2 on goals by Devon Toews, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen to go ahead before Zack Kassian forced overtime. Cale Makar, who scored in the first period, had four assists, including on Lehkonen's winner.\n\nThough the Avalanche stars dominated in regulation of Game 4, it was moves made at the trade deadline that helped turn Colorado into Western Conference champions.\n\nGeneral manager Joe Sakic, the captain of the 2001 team, acquired defenseman Josh Manson to add grit on the blue line and brought in forwards Lehkonen, Nico Sturm and Andrew Cogliano to aid the penalty killing.\n\nLehkonen had two assists to go with his winner. Cogliano had a key block Monday night but appeared to hurt his hand on the play.\n\nThe newcomers joined stars MacKinnon, Makar, Landeskog and Rantanen to form a powerhouse that needed 14 games to get past the Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues and Oilers.\n\nAnd the depth helped them survive key injuries. Defenseman Sam Girard was hurt in the second round and No. 2 center Nazem Kadri missed Game 4 after being shoved into the boards in Game 3, which cost Oilers forward a one-game suspension.\n\nTSN reported that Kadri had thumb surgery and his status for the Cup Final is uncertain.\n\n\"Naz has been one of our best players all season, clutch guy,\" MacKinnon told TNT. \"Hoping he's doing well and we'll get him back next series.\"\n\nBRUINS:Coach Bruce Cassidy fired after first-round exit\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up now to get top sports headlines delivered daily\n\nRangers hopeful two forwards can play in Game 4\n\nThe Rangers came out of Sunday's 3-2 loss in Game 3 with their center depth ailing, but head coach Gerard Gallant is hopeful that neither Barclay Goodrow nor Ryan Strome will miss any time.\n\nStrome's lower-body injury came on his first shift of the second period, as he was lightly shoved from behind by Lightning forward Ondrej Palat and appeared to awkwardly plant on his right leg. He came out for one more 36-second shift, but could not continue beyond that.\n\n\"He should be fine,\" Gallant said following Monday's optional practice at Amalie Arena. \"We'll see (Tuesday). ... But we fully expect him to play.\"\n\nGoodrow was hurt during the third period when he blocked a shot from Victor Hedman.\n\nDespite the obvious pain, the 29-year-old went to the locker room and was back on the ice for his next shift just 2:23 later.\n\n\"It hurt a little bit, but Barclay's a competitor,\" Gallant said. \"He comes back and plays. That's what he does.\"\n\nJets' Kyle Connor wins Lady Byng Trophy\n\nWinnipeg Jets forward Kyle Connor has won the Lady Byng Trophy, given to the NHL’s most gentlemanly player.\n\nThe league announced the honor Monday night before Game 4 of the Western Conference final.\n\nConnor tied for the second-fewest number of minor penalties during the regular season. He was penalized just twice in more than 1,700 minutes of ice time that included regular short-handed shifts and matchups against top offensive opponents.\n\nIt’s his first time winning the Lady Byng. Last year’s winner, Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin, was second in voting by the Professional Hockey Writer Association. Minnesota captain Jared Spurgeon was third.\n\nContributing: Vincent Z. Mercogliano, Northjersey.com; Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/beijing/2022/02/08/2022-winter-olympics-ice-hockey-rosters-former-nhl-players/9211178002/", "title": "2022 Olympics: Former NHL players, Cup winners on hockey rosters", "text": "Eric Staal, who won a gold medal with Canada in 2010 and didn't go in 2014, had little chance of making the 2022 team. He was an unsigned free agent and Canada has enough talent to field multiple teams of NHL players.\n\nBut his fortunes changed when the NHL dropped out of the Olympics in December amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.\n\nNow, the 2003 No. 2 overall pick will be one of the key players as Team Canada's captain tries to help his country improve on its 2018 bronze medal and win gold for the third time in the last four Olympics.\n\nTHE NEXT NHL STARS:You'll see the future at the Winter Olympics\n\nFOLLOW THE CHASE FOR GOLD:Sign up for our Olympic newsletter for the latest sent to your inbox!\n\nBEIJING TEXT UPDATES: Get behind-the-scenes access to the Winter Olympics\n\n\"When you think of Team Canada, you think of a guy like Eric Staal,\" general manager Shane Doan said. \"I think that gives credibility to the group, and I think he's somebody we're going to count on for his leadership and lots of parts of his game.\"\n\nStaal, 37, won a Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006, was the team's captain for seven seasons and had 1,034 points in 1,293 games with five teams over 17 seasons. He went to the Final with the Montreal Canadiens last season.\n\nHe had kept skating in a bid to land an NHL contract and played four games for the AHL Iowa Wild so Team Canada management could watch him. He impressed Doan with his play and an overtime goal.\n\n“Sometimes an opportunity like this just kind of comes and falls into your lap and you need to cherish and relish the moment,\" Staal said. \"For me, I’m prepared for it and excited for it.\"\n\nTeam Canada's Jason Demers, Daniel Winnik, David Desharnais and Josh Ho-Sang also have NHL experience.\n\nA look at some other recognizable former NHL players in Beijing:\n\nForward David Krejci, 35, Czech Republic: The former Boston Bruins' No. 2 center returned to his native country during the offseason. He won a Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011 and had 730 points in 962 games. He's averaging close to a point a game in the Czech League. He also played in the 2010 and 2014 Olympics. Former NHLers Michael Frolik and Vladimir Sobotka also made the roster.\n\nValtteri Filppula, 37, Finland: He won a Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008 and played more than 1,000 NHL games. He's averaging close to a point a game in the Swiss league. Former NHLers Sami Vatanen, Markus Granlund, Leo Komarov and Mikko Lehtonen also made the team.\n\nArtem Anisimov, 33, Russia: He had four 20-goal seasons in the NHL and went to the 2012 conference finals with the New York Rangers. He's playing in the Kontinental Hockey League this season. This will be his second Olympics. Former NHLers Mikhail Grigorenko, Slava Voynov and Nikita Gusev also made the team for the defending Olympic gold medalists.\n\nFrans Nielsen, 37, Denmark: He played 10 seasons with the New York Islanders and five with the Red Wings, scoring 25 goals in 2013-14. He's playing this season in Germany. Denmark has qualified for the Olympics for the first time. Former NHLer Mikkel Boedker also made the team.\n\nMarcus Kruger, 31, Sweden: The role player and penalty killer played eight seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks — winning Stanley Cups in 2013 and 2015 — and one season with the Carolina Hurricanes. He won a silver medal in 2014 and is currently playing in Switzerland. Forwards Jacob de la Rose and Lucas Wallmark also played in the NHL.\n\nFormer NHL players for other countries:\n\nUSA: The American team chose to skew young with college players, but six have NHL experience, led by Nick Shore (299 games) and Steven Kampfer (231). Former Red Wings veteran Justin Abdelkader was named as an alternate.\n\nGermany: Tobias Rieder played 478 NHL games and winger Tom Kuhnhackl won Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017.\n\nSwitzerland: Defensemen Yannick Weber, Raphael Diaz and Mirco Mueller combined for 885 NHL games, led by Weber's 499. Reto Berra was an NHL backup goalie.\n\nLatvia: Forward Kaspars Daugavins has the most NHL experience with 91 games.\n\nSlovakia: Defenseman Martin Marincin and forward Tomas Jurco combined for 448 NHL games.\n\nChina: The team consists of the KHL's Beijing-based Kunlun Red Star. Forward Brandon Yip has the most NHL experience at 174 games.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/06/18/stanley-cup-finals-avalanche-blow-out-lightning-game-2/7674094001/", "title": "Stanley Cup Finals: Avalanche blow out Lightning for 2-0 series lead", "text": "DENVER – The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning are well-schooled in the art of erasing deficits.\n\nThey came within 11 minutes of elimination by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round. They spotted two games to the New York Rangers to open the Eastern Conference final. Even in a Game 1 Stanley Cup Final loss to the Colorado Avalanche, they staggered in the face of a first-period barrage, but quickly pulled even before falling in overtime.\n\nThey will need another comeback – the most daunting one yet against their most talented opponent yet – if they are to become the first franchise in nearly 40 years to three-peat.\n\nSuch is the case after Colorado steamrolled to a 7-0 victory Saturday night at Ball Arena, putting the Lightning on the ropes in the opening minutes, on the mat by the middle of the second period and powering to a 2-0 lead in the series.\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up now to get sports headlines delivered daily\n\n“We’ve shown a propensity to push back for years. Tonight we didn’t,” Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said. “If this becomes a common theme in the series, it will probably be a short one, but I never doubt the guys in the room. Does it suck losing a game like that? For sure. We’re not used to it. It doesn’t really happen to us. Is it going to happen at times? Yeah, it is. You just hope it doesn’t happen in the Stanley Cup Final.\n\n“We’ve been able to circle the wagons and respond. Disappointed in the way the game went tonight, no question, but I’m not questioning our team. They’re ballers.”\n\nCooper certainly thought Saturday night would be a circle-the-wagons moment, saying less than two hours before the puck dropped that he was confident his team would play “a heck of a lot better” over the first 10 minutes than it did Wednesday night in this building, when the Lightning fell behind 2-0 quickly and trailed 3-1 after the first period.\n\nInstead, veteran defenseman Ryan McDonagh took a roughing penalty 61 seconds into the game and the Avalanche converted near the end of the power play when Valeri Nichushkin dove in front of the net and cashed in a pass from Game 1’s overtime hero Andre Burakovsky that went right through three on-looking Tampa defenders.\n\n“It was all downhill from there,” Cooper said.\n\nIndeed, Colorado dominated in every facet, opening up a 23-12 shots advantage through two periods, holding the Lightning to a fistful of real scoring opportunities and playing like the thoroughly superior group across the board.\n\n“I thought it was exceptional,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought our guys played hard right from the drop of the puck. Highly committed on the defensive side of things, dangerous offensively, tenacious on pucks, relentless puck pursuit and that was throughout our entire lineup.”\n\nNichushkin added another goal and an assist, while Burakovsky tallied a goal himself and another helper before leaving the game with an injury after just 7:51 of total ice time and 1:22 after the first period. Star defenseman Cale Makar added a shorthanded goal and a power-play goal in the third period for good measure.\n\nThe Avalanche again proved up to the task of beating Tampa Bay’s excellent goaltender, Andrei Vasilevskiy, who got little in the way of help from his defense as Colorado dominated offensive zone time and peppered shots toward the net at will.\n\nEven after a blowout loss in front of a frothing crowd in a city longing to return to the top of the hockey world, though, it is dangerous to count out the two-time defending champions.\n\n“We’re not expecting that (margin of victory) to happen anymore,” Colorado forward Darren Helm said. “We’ve got to keep our foot on the gas. It’s going to be a lot tougher going into Tampa.”\n\nToronto could practically smell a first-round victory when, leading a first-round series 3-2, it poured in three consecutive second-period goals and carried a 3-2 lead into the third period of a potential put-away game. Instead Nikita Kucherov sent the game to overtime and Brayden Point delivered in overtime before Tampa forged a 2-1, Game 7 win.\n\nPerhaps the Rangers also thought they had Tampa right where they wanted them, scoring nine goals in a pair of opening wins before watching Vasilevskiy find his form and surrender just five more over a powerful, four-game response from the Lightning.\n\n“We’re in the playoffs and does it feel different? We lost one of the games 6-2 to the Rangers, we lost one 7-0 (tonight),\" Cooper said. \"They’re two completely different teams and two completely different series. The common factor is we’re down 0-2 to both of them. We’ve written one story, now we just have to write another. For me, it’s regardless of whether you win 7-0 or 4-3 in overtime, you still lose the game.”\n\nWhether Colorado finishes the job and raises the Cup for the first time since 2001 remains to be seen, but this hole certainly feels deeper than the past ones for Tampa.\n\nThe Avalanche, after all, have speed and skill across the roster. They have premier players like Makar and Nathan MacKinnon, certainly, but this series has been about the likes of Nichushkin and Burakovsky, who have been too much for Tampa’s defense to handle.\n\n“That’s been the story of our team pretty much all year,” Helm said of the lineup-wide contributions.\n\nIt’s been about Helm himself, who has racked up 22 hits through two games, won 5-of-7 faceoffs on Saturday and scored a goal on a breakaway.\n\n“He’s playing to win,” Bednar said simply.\n\nIt’s been about goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who outside of one 48-second blip on Wednesday night, has turned in rock solid work in his return from injury.\n\nIt has not yet been about Nazem Kadri, the talented center without whom the Avs have built a 2-0 lead but who could return to action at some point in the series depending on how his surgically repaired thumb holds up to more intense on-ice work.\n\nRegardless of who’s been in the lineup and who’s done the scoring over the past six-plus weeks, Colorado’s playoff performance at this point is undeniably dominant. The Avalanche are now 14-2 in the postseason overall and ride a seven-game winning streak to the Gulf Coast. Perhaps even more impressive: They have not yet lost away from Denver in the postseason. They staked their claim as the Western Conference’s best team in the regular season and have hardly showed signs of wavering in the playoffs.\n\n“As you go along in the playoffs, even previous series, we’re still adapting and learning as a group,” Makar said. “For most of the guys, this is a new experience for them. So you learn from your mistakes, the things you give up in prior games, and then move forward. We learned from last game and wanted to keep that momentum, and we did our best to do that.”\n\nReminded of the experience discrepancy between the back-to-back champs and his team before Game 1, Bednar responded, “Obviously Tampa, third straight trip and they’ve been one of the top teams in the league for the better part of a decade, lots of experience, know how to win, we get it. …\n\n“They may have more experience, but we’re here to try to prove that we’re the best team in the league. That’s where our mindset is at.”\n\nThey’ve dominated the series’ first periods. On the other bench is a talented side that’s been tough to kill.\n\nIf there is drama left in this series, it will likely have to begin Monday night in Tampa.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/04/21/nhl-standings-schedule-preview-playoff-award-races/7360762001/", "title": "NHL playoff races: Golden Knights goalie Robin Lehner to have ...", "text": "The Vegas Golden Knights had denied an ESPN report last week that goaltender Robin Lehner would have season-ending surgery and he was the backup Sunday night.\n\nMonday, though, the team announced that Lehner would have shoulder surgery and be out for the team's remaining games and the playoffs, if Vegas makes it.\n\n\"Robin has done his best to battle through this injury he sustained February 9, and we were hopeful that rest and rehab would allow him to complete the season,\" the team said in a statement. \"He initially rehabbed and was able to return to play March 1. At times rest and rehab were effective, but ultimately Robin, in consultation with team medical staff, determined that this is the best course of action.\"\n\nThat will leave the Golden Knights' playoff bid in the hands of rookie goalie Logan Thompson, who has played well this season. The team recalled Jiri Patera.\n\nCoach Peter DeBoer gave Thompson the start Sunday \"based on performance,\" and the decision looked good. But the San Jose Sharks scored twice late in the third period and won in a shootout, complicating Vegas' path to the playoffs.\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up now for daily updates sent to your inbox\n\n\"He shouldn't take anything hard,\" DeBoer said of Thompson. \"I think he was really good tonight. I'm not sure any of those goals he could do a lot with.\"\n\nDeBoer believes Thompson will bounce back.\n\n\"He's 25. He's won the best goaltender in the American (Hockey) League,\" DeBoer said. \"He's been in situations like this where you lose and you have to bounce back the next night. I'm not worried about him. We've got a good room. I don't think there's one guy in that room that's pinning this on him.\"\n\nThe Golden Knights made it to the Stanley Cup Final their first season in 2017-18 and reached the playoffs every year since. They have a long shot to make it by clinching third in the Pacific Division (six points back), but their more likely path is a wild-card berth (three points back).\n\nThe NHL regular season, for all intents and purposes, ends on April 29, with a Seattle Kraken-Winnipeg Jets makeup game on May 1 having no impact in the playoff race.\n\nHere is some of what is still up in the air:\n\nWho gets the West's final spots?\n\nThe Golden Knights' point for their overtime loss kept the Los Angeles Kings (96 points and third in the Pacific) from clinching a playoff spot. The Kings still have a chance to finish second in the division and get home-ice advantage against the Edmonton Oilers.\n\nThe Nashville Predators also missed a chance to clinch, but picked up a point in an overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild to move into sole possession of the first wild-card spot.\n\nThe Golden Knights (90 points) and Dallas Stars (93) are battling for a spot, and the Vancouver Canucks (87) are still mathematically alive. If the Stars beat the Golden Knights in regulation on Tuesday night in Dallas, they'll make the playoffs.\n\nWho will win the Metropolitan Division title?\n\nThe Carolina Hurricanes lead the New York Rangers by four points after Sunday's win against the New York Islanders. Carolina has the edge in regulation wins and has two games left. But the Hurricanes, already without goalie Frederik Andersen, lost Antti Raanta to a lower-body injury on Sunday. Sportsnet reported that Raanta merely had a cramping issue and is expected to dress for the next game. The Rangers, who have three games left, must win Tuesday's home game vs. the Hurricanes to have a chance.\n\nWho gets home-ice advantage between the Wild and Blues?\n\nThat will be important because both teams are playing extremely well and could use an edge in their first-round series. Both won again Sunday to remain tied in points, with Minnesota's Kevin Fiala extending his point streak to 10 games and St. Louis' Robert Thomas extending his point streak to 17 games. The Wild wrap up the season with a three-game homestand. The Blues, who lead in regulation wins, finish against Colorado and Vegas.\n\nWho wins first overall?\n\nThe Colorado Avalanche have lost four in a row after their nine-game winning streak ended last week. The Florida Panthers' 13-game winning streak ended Sunday, but they have a four-point lead and should wrap up the Presidents' Trophy soon.\n\nWho avoids a first-round matchup against Florida?\n\nThe Panthers have wrapped up the Eastern Conference title and will face the second wild-card team. The Lightning took a big step toward making sure it won't be them by beating the Panthers on Sunday. The Lightning have 106 points, the Bruins have 103, the Penguins 101 and the Capitals 100.\n\nThe Capitals lost Alex Ovechkin to an upper-body injury Sunday when he crashed into the boards. He's day-to-day. The Penguins and Bruins, meanwhile, got key players back Saturday. Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin scored twice in his return from a four-game suspension and had an assist on Sunday. Boston's David Pastrnak had a goal and assist after an eight-game injury absence and Hampus Lindholm played more than 24 minutes after missing the previous seven games. Both were rested on Sunday.\n\nThe Lightning, Bruins and Capitals have three games left and the Penguins have two. The Bruins have the most regulation wins and the Capitals have the fewest regulation-overtime wins, the second tiebreaker.\n\nWho gets last overall?\n\nThe last-place team has an 18.5% to win the May 10 draft lottery and take Kingston (Ontario) center Shane Wright first overall. The slumping Coyotes' point from an overtime loss to the Blues leaves them and the slumping Canadiens tied at 51 points. The Coyotes have three games left and the Canadiens have two. Montreal has fewer regulation wins.\n\nWho will win MVP?\n\nThis will be tight. Edmonton's Connor McDavid won last year when he dominated the shortened season and teammate Leon Draisaitl won in 2020 by winning the scoring title while McDavid was hurt. Both are having strong seasons and could split the vote. Florida's Jonathan Huberdeau has a shot to win the scoring title and the Presidents' Trophy. Toronto's Auston Matthews, the NHL's goal leader at 58, is back from a minor injury and will get first-place votes if he hits 60 goals. Johnny Gaudreau has topped 100 points and helped Calgary go from missing the playoffs to Pacific Division champion. There even has been talk of support for Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin, who leads the league in goals-saved above expected, according to moneypuck.com, and fits the Hart Trophy's definition of most valuable to his team.\n\nWho will win the Norris Trophy?\n\nIt's between Nashville's Roman Josi and Colorado's Cale Makar, who have set franchise records for points in a season by a defenseman. Josi leads in points (91-85) and Makar leads in goals (27-21), including six game-winners. The two will will face each other on Thursday. Josi won the award in 2020.\n\nWho will win the Vezina Trophy?\n\nShesterkin seems to have the goaltending award wrapped up.\n\nWho will win the Calder Trophy?\n\nToronto's Michael Bunting, 26, has the rookie points lead, but he left Saturday's game with an injury. Anaheim's Trevor Zegras has shown plenty of creativity and is four points back with two games left. Detroit's Moritz Seider, who just turned 21, is displaying plenty of maturity for a young defenseman. That could send votes his way.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/06/26/stanley-cup-finals-avalanche-beat-lightning-game-6/7742629001/", "title": "Stanley Cup Final: Avalanche beat Lightning to win championship", "text": "The Colorado Avalanche are Stanley Cup champions for the first time since 2001, thanks to a resiliency that had eluded them in recent years.\n\nThe Avalanche tied an NHL record with their 10th come-from-behind victory of the playoffs to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 6 Sunday night and end the two-time champions' reign.\n\nColorado star Nathan MacKinnon had his best game of the series with a goal and an assist in the second period to help the Avalanche clinch the franchise's third Stanley Cup with a 16-4 playoff record.\n\n“It’s a relief. It’s a 20-pound weight lifted off our shoulders, and it means so much to bring this championship back to the city of Denver,” captain Gabriel Landeskog told NHL Network during the on-ice celebration at Tampa's Amalie Arena.\n\nThe Lightning, who were trying to send the series back to Denver for Game 7, got off to a good start when captain Steven Stamkos scored at 3:48 of the first period after a Colorado turnover.\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up now to get daily headlines sent to your inbox\n\nBut MacKinnon tied it up at 1:54 of the second period on a one-timer during a delayed penalty. The Lightning argued that they touched the puck after the penalty, which should have resulted in the play being called dead, but the referees disagreed.\n\nArtturi Lehkonen beat Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy at 12:28 to give the Avalanche their first regulation lead since Game 3. It ended up being his fourth game-winning goal and second consecutive series clincher.\n\nGoaltender Darcy Kuemper, who was acquired in the offseason after Philipp Grubauer left in free agency, made that lead stand up with a strong save against Nikita Kucherov in the third period. He finished with 22 saves.\n\nThe Avalanche have steadily improved since finishing last overall in 2016-17 and had finished second, first and third overall the past three regular seasons.\n\nColorado got knocked out in the second round the last three postseasons, last year being particularly difficult because the Avalanche lost in six games to the Vegas Golden Knights after taking a 2-0 series lead.\n\n\"They had a tough end to last year,\" general manager Joe Sakic told NHL Network. \"It stung. This group, right from Day 1 in training camp, they're preparing, they're doing everything they could to make this happen.\"\n\nSakic, the Avalanche's captain during the franchise's 1996 and 2001 championships, spent the 2022 trade deadline adding grit on the blue line and improving the penalty killing. Defenseman Josh Manson helped with both, and forwards Lehkonen, Nico Sturm and Andrew Cogliano kill penalties.\n\nThe moves also helped give the Avalanche the depth to overcome a season-ending injury to defenseman Sam Girard and missed games by Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky and Cogliano. They swept the Nashville Predators in the first round and the Edmonton Oilers in the conference finals, and beat the St. Louis Blues in six games in the second round.\n\nCale Makar wins Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP\n\nNorris Trophy winner Cale Makar was voted the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP after recording 29 points.\n\nMakar (23 years, 239 days) became the youngest defenseman in 52 years to win the Conn Smythe Trophy and third overall to do so at age 23 or younger, following Bobby Orr with the 1970 Boston Bruins (22 years, 51 days) and Serge Savard with the 1969 Montreal Canadiens (23 years, 102 days).\n\nLightning fall short of three-peat bid\n\nThe Lightning had to remake their depth in the offseason because of salary cap woes but got past the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers and New York Rangers to reach the Final for the third year in a row. They won only Games 3 and 5 to fall short of the NHL's first three-peat since the 1980s, but they won 11 consecutive series.\n\n\"We just ran out of gas,\" Lightning coach Jon Cooper told reporters.\n\nCooper brought the entire coaching to the podium as he had after the previous championships.\n\n\"It's tough because it's so raw,\" he said. \"We haven't been through this feeling in three years. ... I will always remember this team for what they endured, what they went through to get to this point. You have to marvel at them.\"\n\nThe Lightning never had home-ice advantage in the playoffs and had to deal with injuries, including having star Brayden Point for only two games since Game 7 of the first round. Cooper said other players played through injuries.\n\n\"What they went through was mind-boggling,\" he said. \"We would have had half our minor-league team playing if it was the regular season. .... The heart of champions.\"\n\nAround the rinks\n\nDefenseman Erik Johnson, who has been with the Avalanche since 2011, was the second person to be handed the Stanley Cup after Landeskog first lifted it. He has dealt with injuries in recent years. \"Last year, I thought I might have to retire, and here I am Stanley Cup champion with some of my best friends in the world,\" he told ESPN. \"I'm so grateful. I can't believe it.\" ... NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly handled the postgame presentations because commissioner Gary Bettman has tested positive for COVID-19.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/05/02/nhl-playoffs-questions-alex-ovechkin-nazem-kadri/7305823001/", "title": "NHL playoffs 2022: One question for each team on road to Stanley ...", "text": "The Stanley Cup playoffs start Monday and the biggest question is whether the Tampa Bay Lightning can become the first team since the 1980s New York Islanders to win three Stanley Cups in a row.\n\nAt times, it looked like the answer might be no. They had a 2-6 slide in March and lost four in a row in April. Nikita Kucherov had one goal in 15 games and Steven Stamkos had an eight-game goal drought. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy wasn't as dominant.\n\nNow, they appear to be heading in the right direction, winning seven of their final nine games, routing first-round opponent Toronto and ending the Florida Panthers' 13-game winning streak. Kucherov scored 23 points in that stretch, including an eight-game goal streak, and Stamkos scored 26 points to top 100 points for the first time.\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up now for daily updates sent to your inbox\n\nNHL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE:Dates, times, television and results\n\nWith trade deadline acquisitions to rebuild their third line, the Lightning remain a danger in the playoffs.\n\nHere is one question for the other 15 playoff teams:\n\nColorado Avalanche\n\nCan Nazem Kadri have an incident-free playoffs?\n\nHe has been suspended in the first round in three of the last four playoffs, including eight games last season for a check against Blues defenseman Justin Faulk. The Maple Leafs traded him after his second suspension. Kadri is an unrestricted free agent and has a career high in assists and points. A suspension-free, productive postseason could lead to an even bigger payday. Expect him to play with an edge but not cross it. He has missed a few practices because of an illness and is a game-time decision.\n\nCalgary Flames\n\nIs this Johnny Gaudreau's last season in Calgary?\n\nThe Flames and Gaudreau's camp have said little publicly, but general manager Brad Treliving told Hockey Night in Canada After Hours in April that he would \"move heaven and earth\" to bring back the unrestricted free agent, who recorded a career-best 115 points this season. Gaudreau is from the Philadelphia area, but the Flyers are rebuilding. Calgary will give him a better chance at a Cup. The Flames also have to re-sign restricted free agents Matthew Tkachuk, Andrew Mangiapane and Oliver Kylington.\n\nMinnesota Wild\n\nHow will they split their goaltending?\n\nThe Wild can't go wrong with newcomer Marc-Andre Fleury or Cam Talbot. But they didn't acquire Fleury, a three-time Stanley Cup champion, to be a backup. He started four of five games down the stretch. Last year, Fleury started 16 of 19 playoff games for the Vegas Golden Knights, but he's 37, so a more even split could happen. Coach Dean Evason isn't announcing his Game 1 starter. \"We're excited about the opportunity to have both guys available if we need it, and we probably will,\" he said.\n\nSt. Louis Blues\n\nIs this team better than the 2019 champions?\n\nYes, that team had one 70-point scorer and three 50-point scorers. This one has four and eight, respectively. Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou and Ivan Barbashev have bigger roles. Offseason acquisitions Pavel Buchnevich and Brandon Saad are thriving. Defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester are gone, but Torey Krug, Faulk and Nick Leddy are playing well. The big difference is 2019 goalie Jordan Binnington has been up and down this season, but Ville Husso has been solid. Husso will get the Game 1 start.\n\nEdmonton Oilers\n\nCan they make up for last season's playoff disaster?\n\nConnor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were shut out in the first two games of the Winnipeg Jets' eventual first-round sweep. The Oilers have added Zach Hyman (27 goals) and Evander Kane (22 goals in 43 games), meaning the team doesn't have to put its superstars on the same line. The coaching change helped. Jay Woodcroft is 26-9-3 since replacing Dave Tippett. The last three Finals have featured a team that made a midseason coaching change.\n\nLos Angeles Kings\n\nCan they send Dustin Brown out a winner?\n\nBrown, an 18-year veteran, will retire after the playoffs. Will the Kings win another Stanley Cup? Probably not, even though there's a good mix of youngsters and veterans. But Brown will retire a winner. He had an impressive career that includes leading the Kings in career regular-season games and serving as captain from 2008-09 to 2015-16, including the team's two Cup wins. His number will be retired eventually.\n\nNashville Predators\n\nHas Juuse Saros played too many games?\n\nSaros played 67 games this season, picking up 38 wins. But he recorded 13 sub.-900 games in his last 29 games. He didn't play the last two regular-season games because he limped off the ice in the third period on April 26. Predators coach John Hynes told reporters on Monday that Saros would miss the first two games. David Rittich will start Game 1.\n\nDallas Stars\n\nDo the Stars have another surprise run in them?\n\nThe Stars reached the Final in the 2020 bubble and they're facing the Flames again in the first round. But another run seems unlikely this time. They're essentially a one-line team (a very impressive line) and Calgary is much better this year. Goalie Jake Oettinger might be able to steal a game or two, but a first-round exit is likely.\n\nEASTERN CONFERENCE\n\nFlorida Panthers\n\nWill Claude Giroux win his first Stanley Cup?\n\nThe former Flyers captain made a solid choice on where to go when waiving his no-trade clause, picking up 23 points in 18 games. The Panthers have been aggressive in remaking their forward lines since the 2021 trade deadline. With injured defenseman Aaron Ekblad expected back, they're one of the top contenders.\n\nCarolina Hurricanes\n\nWhat's their goalie situation?\n\nFrederik Andersen and Antti Raanta won the Jennings Trophy for fewest team goals allowed, but Andersen is injured and won't play in Game 1. Raanta started and won Thursday after leaving early with \"a little tweak.\" Pyotr Kochetkov has three wins in three games. Raanta got the Game 1 start.\n\nToronto Maple Leafs\n\nCan they finally get past the first round?\n\nThey haven't done that since 2004 and have to face the Lightning, who routed them 8-1. Though the Maple Leafs were unable to upgrade their goaltending at the trade deadline, they added defensemen Mark Giordano and Ilya Lyubushkin. Plus, Auston Matthews scored 60 goals. He had three goals and seven points in three games against the Lightning.\n\nNew York Rangers\n\nDo they have enough playoff experience?\n\nNew York has a lot of younger players, but it brought in playoff veterans. Barclay Goodrow won two Cups. Coach Gerard Gallant went to the 2018 Final with Vegas, and Ryan Reaves was on that team. Justin Braun went to the 2016 Final and Andrew Copp went to a conference final. They join Chris Kreider, the last Ranger left from the 2014 Final team.\n\nBoston Bruins\n\nWill the power play get back on track?\n\nThe Bruins had no power-play goals in 12 games before scoring three in their final two games. Forward David Pastrnak and defenseman Hampus Lindholm were injured for a big chunk of that time, so their return should help. Hurting their cause: The Hurricanes have the top penalty kill in the league.\n\nPittsburgh Penguins\n\nIs this the last of the Big Three?\n\nSidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang won the Stanley Cup in 2009, 2016 and 2017. Malkin and Letang are unrestricted free agents this summer. It's possible one won't be back, especially with the Penguins also needing to re-sign Bryan Rust. The Penguins, meanwhile, will enter the playoffs without No. 1 goalie Tristan Jarry for at least a couple games, coach Mike Sullivan said.\n\nWashington Capitals\n\nHow effective will Alex Ovechkin be?\n\nHe missed the final three games with an upper-body injury after tripping and slamming into the boards. He has been practicing and has never missed a playoff game. Asked Sunday whether he would play in Game 1, he said, \"We'll see.\" But he added that he could have played last week had it been the playoffs. Coach Peter Laviolette said Monday that everything \"is moving in the right direction\" for Ovechkin. Tuesday, Laviolette said that the team captain would play. The team went 1-4 without him in the lineup this season.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/05/31/nhl-playoffs-picks-avalanche-oilers-lightning-rangers/9991357002/", "title": "NHL playoffs picks: Here is who experts predict will make Cup Final", "text": "The Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers waited 20 years and 16 years, respectively, to reach the conference finals.\n\nAnd now, the matchup could be one for the ages.\n\nThe key will be the play of two former No. 1 overall draft picks: Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon (2013) and Edmonton's Connor McDavid (2015), McDavid has 26 points in 12 games and MacKinnon had a spectacular end-to-end rush to cap off a hat trick.\n\nEdmonton's Leon Draisaitl is tied with McDavid in points while linemate Evander Kane leads the playoffs with 12 goals. Colorado defenseman Cale Makar is dangerous on the rush and Nazem Kadri had a big hat trick during trying circumstances.\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up now for daily updates sent to your inbox\n\nTOP 25 NHL FREE AGENTS:An early look at players who could test the market\n\nThe Tampa Bay Lightning, bidding for a third consecutive Stanley Cup, will face the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference final. The focus in this series will be on the goalies. New York's Igor Shesterkin is the expected Vezina Trophy winner and Andrei Vasilevskiy is money in the playoffs.\n\nUSA TODAY Sports' NHL staffers make their predictions for the conference finals:\n\nColorado Avalanche vs. Edmonton Oilers\n\nJimmy Hascup: Avalanche in six. Nathan MacKinnon vs. Connor McDavid is a matchup that has hockey fans salivating. While McDavid has somehow reached another level in these playoffs, it won't be enough against the Avalanche, who are a well-rounded team with offensive firepower of its own. I don't really trust either goalie, so this could be a high-scoring series, one that the Avs are battle-tested for after a tougher-than-expected series against the Blues.\n\nMike Brehm: Avalanche in six. Connor McDavid has been impressive on both ends of the ice. But he'll be facing a defense that's deep even with the loss of Sam Girard. If the Avalanche can keep McDavid from dominating — he had four assists in three regular-season games — Colorado has the offensive depth to advance.\n\nJace Evans: Avalanche in five: Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are having the best offensive postseasons we’ve seen in some time. But the Avs have plenty of stars, too, and more crucially, have better depth and some all-world defensemen.\n\nNew York Rangers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning\n\nHascup: Rangers in six. New York has defied expectations through the first two rounds, so why not now? Sure, the Lightning are the favorites and they've proven they can beat teams in a variety of ways, but the Rangers' time was going to come eventually. Their top players have played better as the playoffs have progressed, the young ones are standing out and Igor Shesterkin is at the top of his game. Tampa is the more rested team this series, but the core group has still played a lot of hockey over the past two seasons, so the \"fatigue\" factor might not be as big of an issue against a Rangers team that has played back-to-back seven-game series.\n\nBrehm: Lightning in six. Outside one game, the Rangers didn't face a No. 1 goalie in the playoffs. Now, they face Andrei Vasilevskiy, last year's Conn Smythe winner. He had a 0.75 goals-against average and a .981 save percentage in a sweep of the No. 1 overall Florida Panthers. If the Rangers continue to be outshot and force Igor Shesterkin to save them, that could spell trouble against the playoff-tested Lightning.\n\nEvans: Lightning in six. The Rangers have showed incredible resiliency these playoffs, but their seven-game grind against the Hurricanes provided critical rest for the two-time defending champs.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/31"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_7", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/politics/roe-v-wade-polling/index.html", "title": "Majorities disapprove of Roe v. Wade reversal and Democrats are ...", "text": "(CNN) Multiple polls conducted since the Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade find that broad majorities of the public disapprove and suggest that in the immediate aftermath of the ruling, the decision could be more motivational for Democrats than Republicans.\n\nIn a new Monmouth University survey released on Tuesday, 60% of US adults disapprove of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, with just 37% approving. There's also a significant intensity gap: 53% of Americans strongly disapprove of the ruling, including 84% of Democrats, compared with 29% who strongly approve, including 58% of Republicans.\n\nThat's similar to the finding of two other polls conducted after the ruling: an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey (56% of US adults oppose the court's decision, 40% support it) and a CBS News/YouGov survey (59% of US adults disapprove, 41% approve).\n\nIn the CBS/YouGov survey, 52% overall call the decision a step backward for America, compared with 31% who see it as a step forward. In that poll, 51% also say it will make the lives of most American women worse, compared with 18% who say it will make their lives better.\n\nDemocrats are more apt to call it a step backward (77%) than Republicans are to say it's a step forward (64%), and while three-quarters of Democrats say it will make life for American women worse (76%), only 33% of Republicans see the ruling as making life better for American women.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Ariel Edwards-Levy"], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/politics/supreme-court-approval-rating-drop-roe-leak/index.html", "title": "Supreme Court: New poll shows 54% of Americans disapprove of ...", "text": "Washington (CNN) A majority of Americans -- 54% -- now say they disapprove of the job the Supreme Court is doing following the leak of the draft opinion showing the justices are poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a new poll released Wednesday\n\nThe Marquette Law School poll findings represent a dramatic change from how Americans viewed the court in March, the last time the survey was conducted. Then, 54% of respondents said they approved of the nine justices and 45% said they disapproved. Now, only 44% approve.\n\nTaken a week after the nation learned of a draft opinion authored by conservative Justice Samuel Alito that showed the high court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, the survey underscores the deep opposition to the possible move. Days after the leak, a CNN poll conducted by SSRS showed that Americans remain broadly opposed to overturning the Roe decision, with 66% saying it should not be completely struck down.\n\nThe new Marquette Law School poll showed that among Democrats, approval of the Supreme Court following the leak also took a notable hit since March, with just 26% of Democrats approving of the court this month as compared to 49% two months ago. Republicans, meanwhile, gave the court a 68% approval rating this month, up from the 64% they gave it in March.\n\nThe Supreme Court's approval rating has been on the decline recently. Last summer, a Gallup poll showed Americans giving the court a 49% approval rating -- and 44% disapproval rating -- that stood in stark contrast to where public opinion on the court was in 2020, when 58% of Americans told Gallup they approved of the court. That new figure represented the first sub-50% rating the court has received since 2017.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Devan Cole"], "publish_date": "2022/05/25"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/06/politics/cnn-poll-abortion-midterms-roe-v-wade/index.html", "title": "CNN poll: The Supreme Court's draft opinion on Roe v. Wade hasn't ...", "text": "(CNN) Americans remain broadly opposed to overturning the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS , following the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would strike down the landmark ruling.\n\nSixty-six percent say Roe v. Wade should not be completely struck down, and 59% would support Congress passing legislation to establish a nationwide right to abortion, including 81% of Democrats, 65% of independents and 30% of Republicans, the survey finds.\n\nBut comparing the results of the new poll to one conducted immediately before the revelation of the draft opinion, the impact on the political landscape heading into the 2022 midterms appears fairly muted.\n\nThe share of registered voters who say they are extremely or very enthusiastic about voting this fall rose 6 points between the first survey and the second, but that increase is about even across party lines. Among Democrats, 43% now say they are extremely or very enthusiastic, up 7 points. Among Republicans, it's 56%, up 9 points. And voters who say overturning Roe would make them \"happy\" are nearly twice as enthusiastic about voting this fall as those who say such a ruling would leave them \"angry\" (38% extremely enthusiastic among those happy, 20% among those angry).\n\nThe share of Americans who would be angry in the wake of such a ruling (36%) sharply outweighs that who would be happy (17%), and some of the poll's findings suggest the issue could become a motivating factor for Roe supporters should the draft opinion become the final one. Younger adults are particularly apt to say they would feel angry if Roe were overturned (47% among those younger than 45, compared with 26% among older adults). But younger voters remain far less enthusiastic about casting a ballot this fall -- just 9% of them are extremely enthusiastic about voting this fall vs. 31% of older voters.\n\nMore broadly, 37% of Americans strongly support Congress establishing a nationwide right to abortion , more than the 28% who strongly oppose such an action. Half (51%) say that if Roe falls, they want their state to become a safe haven for women seeking abortion, compared with 20% who say the procedure should be banned completely in their state. And the share of Americans who say their views on abortion align more with Democrats than Republicans rose 7 points between the two polls (44% with Democrats, 32% with Republicans in the later poll vs. 37% Democrats, 31% Republicans in the earlier one).\n\nAbortion not the only factor for most voters\n\nRepublicans hold a narrow edge over Democrats on the generic ballot test, 49% to 42% among registered voters, a slight improvement for Republicans compared with the poll conducted immediately before the ruling. On the economy -- the issue most likely to be a driving factor for voters this fall -- nearly half of adults (46%) in the latest poll say the Republican Party's positions are more aligned with their own, compared with 31% for the Democratic Party. About three-quarters say that which party controls Congress makes a real difference -- a figure that did not shift between the two polls -- with more Republicans saying so than Democrats (88% vs. 78%).\n\nThose findings suggest the overall picture for the midterm elections is little changed after this week's news , at least in the short term. Only about half of the country say they have heard a great deal or a good amount about the draft Supreme Court opinion thus far (49%), with 51% saying they've heard just some or nothing at all about it.\n\nThe poll conducted after the draft ruling became public also finds a small increase since January in the share of Americans who say they would only vote for a candidate who shares their views on abortion; that view increased more among Republicans (from 15% in January to 26% now) than among Democrats (24% in January to 29% now). On this measure, though, the ideological divide tells a different story, with liberals' commitment to a candidate who shares their views on abortion rising 12 points; among conservatives, it's up 6 points.\n\nShould Roe fall, most now say they would like their own state to set abortion laws that are more permissive toward abortion (58%) than restrictive (42%). Those percentages are similar to the results of a CNN poll conducted in January, though about half (52%) think abortions would become at least somewhat harder to get where they live if Roe were overturned. There is a larger share in the new poll compared with January, though, who say that if Roe is struck down, they do not think that abortion would become harder to get where they live (25% now vs. 14% in January). That shift is driven mostly by men: 35% say so now vs. 19% in January. Among women, 16% say so now vs. 10% in January.\n\nFurther threats to privacy\n\nIn considering the impact that a ruling like the draft opinion might have on other laws resting on privacy rights, Americans are more likely to see a couple's right to marry regardless of their gender as under threat (38% see it as threatened, 35% as secure) than they are to say the same of a woman's right to use contraception (23% threatened, 63% secure) or a couple's right to marry regardless of race or ethnicity (19% threatened, 66% secure). Democrats see more of a threat across the board, including 57% who say same-sex marriage is threatened vs. 21% among Republicans. Overall, nearly two-thirds (63%) say the Supreme Court ought to consider public opinion in making its decisions.\n\nThere are particularly sharp divisions by age over abortion, and the strong backing for abortion rights among younger adults suggests an opening Democrats could use to boost their standing with this group, whose support of President Joe Biden has waned. Among those younger than 45, 75% oppose overturning Roe and 68% support Congress establishing a nationwide abortion right, compared with 58% opposed to overturning Roe and 51% in favor of congressional action to codify abortion rights among those older than 45. And 30% of younger people say they would only vote for a candidate who shares their views on the issue vs. 23% among older people.\n\nIn the earlier poll, perceptions of each party's alignment with the mainstream are about equal. Roughly half of the public, 52%, say they see the views and policies of the Democratic Party as generally mainstream rather than too extreme, with 54% saying the same of the Republican Party. Partisans are generally comfortable with their own party: 90% of Republicans see the GOP as mainstream, and an identical 90% of Democrats consider their party to be mainstream. Just 13% of Americans view both parties as too extreme.\n\nWhile Republicans are better aligned with Americans' views on the economy and Democrats on abortion, the two polls show that several other issues are more closely divided. Americans are split on which party shares more of their views on voting rights and election integrity (41% say Democrats, 38% Republicans), helping the middle class (35% Democrats, 32% Republicans), education (35% Democrats, 34% Republicans) and the United States' role in world affairs (35% say Republicans, 30% Democrats). The GOP has a significant lead on immigration (42% to 34%) and crime and policing (43% to 28%), while Democrats do on women's rights (45% to 29%). Other than abortion, Americans' party preferences changed little on the issues that were tested in both surveys.\n\nThe two CNN polls were conducted by SSRS online and by phone, with both samples drawn from a probability-based panel. One survey was conducted from April 28-May 1 among a random national sample of 1,007 adults. Results for the full sample of that poll have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. The second was conducted from May 3-5 among a random national sample of 800 adults. It has an error margin of plus or minus 4.5 points.\n\nThe headline of this story has been updated.", "authors": ["Jennifer Agiesta", "Ariel Edwards-Levy"], "publish_date": "2022/05/06"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/21/politics/cnn-poll-abortion-roe-v-wade/index.html", "title": "CNN Poll: As Supreme Court ruling on Roe looms, most Americans ...", "text": "(CNN) Most Americans oppose overturning the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade precedent, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS, with a majority saying that if the decision was vacated, they'd want to see their own state move toward more permissive abortion laws.\n\nJust 30% of Americans say they'd like to see the Supreme Court completely overturn its Roe vs. Wade decision, with 69% opposed -- a finding that's largely consistent both with other recent polling and with historical trends. In a set of three surveys taken last autumn by different pollsters, support for overturning Roe vs. Wade stood between 20% and 31%, depending on the precise framing of the question. And in CNN's polling dating back to 1989, the share of the public in favor of completely overturning Roe has never risen above 36%.\n\nFifty-nine percent of Americans say that if Roe vs. Wade were overturned, they'd like their state to set laws that are more permissive than restrictive toward abortion, a preference that stands in opposition to the prediction most make that abortions would likely be restricted or banned in the areas where they live. Another 40% say they'd like their state to set more restrictive laws.\n\nSaturday marks the 49th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision, which established the constitutional right to an abortion, at least in the first three months of pregnancy. Six in 10 Americans, including 68% of women, say they personally know someone who's had an abortion.\n\nThe precedent set by the decision might be overturned by the Court's upcoming decision in a case revolving around a Mississippi abortion law. If so, access to abortion could be banned or restricted in many Republican-led states across the country.\n\nBut the poll finds few in favor of that outcome should the precedent fall. Just 20% of Americans would like to see their state ban abortion completely if Roe is overturned and 20% would like to see their state restrict, but not ban, abortions. On the other side, 52% of the public said in the CNN poll that they would like to see their state become a \"safe haven\" for women who want abortions but can't get them where they live, with another 7% favoring more permissive laws but not wanting their state to become a \"safe haven.\"\n\nExpectations break the other way, though. Nearly one-quarter of Americans, 23%, say they think it's likely that abortions would be completely banned in their area if Roe were overturned, with 32% predicting that abortions would become harder to get, and 14% that there wouldn't be a change in the availability of abortions. Another 30% aren't sure how their area might be affected.\n\nThe current opposition to overturning the Court's decision on Roe includes majorities across gender, racial, generational and educational lines. The bigger divides are partisan and ideological: 86% of Democrats and 89% of liberals say they don't want to see Roe overturned, compared with 44% of Republicans and 33% of conservatives. Partisanship seems more closely connected to views on Roe than gender: Similar shares of Democratic women (87%) and Democratic men (85%) oppose overturning Roe. By comparison, 47% of Republican women and 43% of Republican men are opposed.\n\nThe possibility of the Roe vs. Wade precedent ending evokes more strongly negative than positive feelings, signaling a possible intensity gap on the issue. Around one-third of Americans, 35%, say they'd be angry if Roe were completely overturned, with another 25% saying they'd be dissatisfied. By comparison, just 12% would be satisfied, and 14% happy. Another 14% say they wouldn't care either way.\n\nRoughly half of Democrats, including 58% of Democrats younger than the age of 45, say they'd be angry. By contrast, 29% of Republicans say they'd be happy with the outcome.\n\nRelatively few Americans say they're planning to base electoral decisions solely around abortion. Twenty percent of Americans say they would only vote for candidates who share their views on abortion, down from 30% in 2019. Another 59% currently say they'd consider it as one of many important factors, and 21% say that they don't see it as a major issue. The number of Americans who say they're using the issue as a litmus test is relatively low among both those who support overturning Roe (25%) and those who don't want to see it overturned (18%).\n\nAmericans' opinions on the legality of abortion aren't identical to their feelings about how common abortions should be. Most Americans say, 56% to 44%, that they think it would be a good thing to reduce the number of abortions performed in the US. A 90% majority who favor overturning Roe say this would be a good thing, as do 41% of those who don't want Roe overturned. But both Republicans and Democrats older than 45 are more likely than younger people in their respective parties to say it'd be a good thing to reduce the number of abortions performed.\n\nThe CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS January 13-18 among a random national sample of 1,000 adults surveyed online after being recruited using probability-based methods. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.", "authors": ["Ariel Edwards-Levy"], "publish_date": "2022/01/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/13/politics/abortion-right-polling-roe-v-wade/index.html", "title": "A majority of Americans back abortion rights, but the support is ...", "text": "(CNN) Where do Americans stand on abortion rights? It's a simple and important question, especially in light of the recent leak of a draft US Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade , but one that is far from easy to answer.\n\nIssue polling in general is tricky, and the issue of abortion rights is particularly hard to poll. While it does seem that more Americans want the procedure to be legal than not, people on all sides of the issue can find something they like in the polling on abortion.\n\nA few months ago, Lydia Saad at Gallup did a great roundup of how Americans responded to the different ways questions about the legality of abortion have been asked. She counted nearly 20 ways and found anywhere from massive support for abortion rights (north of 80% for abortions to save the life of the mother) to massive opposition (only about 10% were in favor of legal third-trimester abortions).\n\nBut when it came to the questions that most mirror our current abortion debate, support usually nominally outruns opposition.\n\nOn whether Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, should be completely overturned, CNN's most recent poll conducted by SSRS showed that 66% did not want it to be overturned. This closely matches a recent CBS News/YouGov poll , which indicated that 64% of Americans want to keep Roe v. Wade as is.\n\nRoe v. Wade, among other things, gave women the unimpeded constitutional right to an abortion in the first trimester. Perhaps not surprisingly, somewhere around 60% of Americans are in favor of keeping first-trimester abortions legal.\n\nIt depends on the question\n\nFrom there, support for abortion rights declines.\n\nWhen asked whether they want abortion to be always legal, mostly legal, mostly illegal or always illegal, a split public emerges. An AP-NORC poll from last year that 23% thought abortion should always be legal, 33% said it should mostly be legal, 30% said mostly illegal and 13% believed it should always be illegal. (The results line up with the long-term average percentages on this question.)\n\nWhat these findings tell is that few Americans want abortion to always be legal and even fewer want it to be always illegal. Instead, the abortion debate comes down to coalitions.\n\nIn this case, the coalition who want abortion to be at least mostly legal (56%) outruns the coalition that wants it illegal at least most of the time (43%).\n\nAn even different question, but one that should be familiar to followers of the abortion debate, is whether people label themselves \"pro-choice\" (normally framed as pro-abortion rights) or \"pro-life\" (normally framed as anti-abortion).\n\nHere, Gallup has consistently found a near even split. Last year, it was 49% pro-choice to 47% pro-life, a result well within the margin of error.\n\nIn terms of specific time frames, support for abortion rights drops after the first trimester. A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that slightly more Americans (48%) were in favor an abortion ban after 15 weeks than not (43%), if there were exceptions for the life of the mother. This is in line with previous AP-NORC polling showing that only 34% think abortion in the second trimester should be always or usually legal.\n\nWhen you see these different results, you get to understand why surveys on Americans' opinions of abortion often raise more questions than they answer.\n\nWhere the voters are\n\nThat said, the ballot box does offer some clues about the questions we should focus on to understand where American voters are.\n\nColorado, Louisiana, Since 2018, there have been five ballot measures ( Alabama Oregon and West Virginia ) that sought to limit abortion rights. Not all of them had the same wording, though the results were basically what you'd expect, given the politics of each state.\n\nAlabama, Louisiana and West Virginia voted in favor of limiting rights, while Colorado and Oregon went in the other direction.\n\nMore interestingly, the results of those ballot measures matched up very well with the percentage of people in those states who think abortion should be always or mostly legal.\n\nUsing data compiled by the New York Times' Nate Cohn on this question, I calculated that the absolute average difference was just 4 points between the margin on the ballot measure result and the margin in polling between \"always or usually legal\" and \"always or usually illegal.\" The median difference was a mere 2 points.\n\nThe only real outlier was West Virginia, where a surprisingly low 52% of voters cast a ballot against a constitutional right to an abortion. Polling in this very red state has generally indicated more opposition to abortion rights.\n\nRemember, more Americans believe abortion should usually or always be legal than not, so on this key question, it's fair to say the pro-abortion rights coalition is bigger than the anti-abortion one.\n\nOf course, this isn't the case in every state. Although the polling is close, there are about 15 states where more residents than not think abortion should be always or mostly illegal.\n\nAnd if Roe v. Wade does get overturned, it'll ultimately be this state-level polling that matters most.", "authors": ["Analysis Harry Enten"], "publish_date": "2022/05/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/05/25/supreme-court-approval-declines-abortion-opinion-leak/9909935002/", "title": "Supreme Court approval tanks after abortion opinion leak, poll shows", "text": "About 44% of Americans approve of the job the Supreme Court is doing, according to the new poll.\n\nThat number is down 10 percentage points from March, when the poll was last conducted.\n\nSupport for the court among Republicans is up slightly.\n\nWASHINGTON – Public approval of the Supreme Court tumbled sharply after a leaked draft opinion in a blockbuster abortion case indicated that the conservative wing of the court is considering overturning Roe v. Wade, according to a poll Wednesday.\n\nAbout 44% of Americans approve of the way the nation's highest court is handling its job, down 10 points from March, the Marquette Law School poll showed.\n\nAssociate Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion, leaked to Politico earlier this month and later confirmed by the court, was the driving factor in the shift. The unprecedented leak set off protests across the nation, was applauded by anti-abortion advocates and reshuffled the political landscape heading into this November's midterm election.\n\nThe survey was conducted from May 9 to May 19.\n\n\"It is hard to escape the conclusion that the leaked draft opinion overturning Roe is at the center of this decline,\" said Charles Franklin, the poll's director.\n\nApproval of the court rose about 4 percentage points among Republicans, who are more likely to embrace anti-abortion positions. But that wasn't enough to offset a huge, 23-point drop among Democrats. Among independents, approval dropped 6 points.\n\nDocket:High court juggles major controversies besides abortion\n\nTrust:Thomas laments leak of draft abortion opinion. 'Kind of an infidelity'\n\nCrossover:How a lawsuit over pig farms could muddy debate over abortion\n\nWith lifetime appointments for its members, the nine-justice Supreme Court was designed by the framers to be the one branch of government that doesn't respond to political pressure. At the same time, both liberal and conservative justices have discussed the importance of the court retaining its credibility as an impartial institution as Washington becomes increasingly partisan.\n\nThat has been easier said than done as Republican-nominated justices have split with those nominated by Democratic presidents in cases dealing with COVID-19 vaccination requirements, election laws that some view as discriminatory and the death penalty. Six of the nine current justices were nominated by GOP presidents.\n\nLeak:Speculation swirls as Supreme Court launches probe into leaked draft opinion\n\nRights:Could rights to same-sex marriage, contraception be next?\n\nJackson:Most Americans see politics over substance in confirmation process\n\nIn its most divisive case in years, the court must decide whether to uphold Mississippi's ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The law contravenes Roe in 1973 and a subsequent ruling in 1992, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Those decisions allowed people to obtain an abortion until about 24 weeks of pregnancy.\n\n\"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,\" Alito wrote in the leaked opinion. \"We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.\"\n\nThe court confirmed the authenticity of the draft but stressed the decision was not final. A majority of the court appeared to leaning Mississippi's way at argument in December.\n\nMarquette interviewed 1,004 adults nationwide. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.\n\nApproval of the court fell to 49% in September, down from 60% two months earlier, in the wake of a decision allowing Texas to ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/25"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/19/politics/abortion-laws-red-states-republicans/index.html", "title": "Why the Republican offensive on abortion is escalating - CNNPolitics", "text": "(CNN) When three red states finalized severe restrictions on abortion over consecutive days last week, they highlighted the GOP's rising militancy on the issue -- and the political and legal calculations underpinning it.\n\nSeparate actions last week in Oklahoma, Florida and Kentucky made clear the red state drive to retrench, or eliminate, access to abortion is escalating as the Republican-appointed Supreme Court majority nears a decision, expected in late June, in which it is widely anticipated to overturn Roe v. Wade , the landmark 1973 decision that established a nationwide right to abortion.\n\nThe abortion restrictions these states approved last week all denied exceptions for victims of rape or incest -- a provision that was once a common feature of conservative anti-abortion proposals but has been jettisoned almost completely in the wave of new restrictions approved since 2021. The Oklahoma legislation banned nearly all abortions from the moment of conception and imposed severe penalties on doctors who perform them, including up to 10 years in jail. The Kentucky bill , continuing an offensive already underway in several other red states, prohibited state residents from obtaining medication abortion through the mail, as the federal Food and Drug Administration authorized late last year.\n\nWe are seeing this pattern because the Supreme Court's conservative majority has signaled that it is ready to reverse Roe. Now, we are getting a sense of what red states really want to do when Roe is gone. That is why we are seeing bans from fertilization -- as in Oklahoma -- and laws that focus on abortion pills, which will be crucial in determining whether bans will be effective.\n\nTaken together, the sweeping bills finalized last week show how the sympathetic signals from the Republican-appointed Supreme Court majority are changing the strategy of red states. In earlier legislative sessions, Republican-controlled states generally had either passed abortion restrictions designed to provide a test case the Supreme Court could use to overturn Roe or had approved bills crafted narrowly enough that they hoped they could survive legal challenges while Roe remained the law, says Mary Ziegler, a Florida State University law professor who studies the history of abortion law.\n\nBut after former President Donald Trump's appointments of Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett established a clear conservative majority on the court -- and particularly since that majority signaled during last year's hearing on a challenge to Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban that it is inclined to retrench or entirely scrap Roe -- the red states are removing the veils to more clearly indicate where they will take the law if the court allows them.\n\n\"We are seeing this pattern because the Supreme Court's conservative majority has signaled that it is ready to reverse Roe,\" Ziegler told me in an email. \"Now, we are getting a sense of what red states really want to do when Roe is gone. That is why we are seeing bans from fertilization -- as in Oklahoma -- and laws that focus on abortion pills, which will be crucial in determining whether bans will be effective.\"\n\nAll of this is coming even as a January CNN survey conducted by SSRS found that more than two-thirds of Americans oppose the court overturning Roe v. Wade. Abortion restrictions routinely draw broader support in red states, but even in them, a 2018 state-level analysis by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute shared with CNN found that in most cases, a majority of residents do not want to completely ban abortion -- despite the fact that several states have passed \"trigger\" bans to do so if the Supreme Court allows it.\n\nAgainst that backdrop, the severe abortion restrictions rapidly proliferating in red states represent a bet from the Republicans controlling them that they can satisfy the demands of their most ardent base supporters without facing any consequences among more centrist voters in their coalition who are uneasy, or outright opposed, to the new limits. Across the red states, Republicans are placing a similar wager on the broad wave of other bills they have approved in rapid-fire succession since 2020 to limit transgender rights , censor classroom discussion of race , gender and sexual orientation and ban certain books\n\nIf that bet pays off, and red state Republicans suffer no midterm defections over this surge of socially conservative legislation -- an outcome that may be the most likely possibility amid the extensive public discontent over President Joe Biden's performance -- pressure inside the party to lurch policy further to the right will only intensify, not only on abortion, but also on the broad range of cultural issues energizing conservative activists.\n\nA rising tide of legislation\n\nThese hardline bills continue the clear pattern of the past two years. Elizabeth Nash, who tracks state policy for the Guttmacher Institute, a think tank supporting reproductive rights, says that since 2021, 12 Republican-controlled states have passed laws restricting or banning abortion. Of those, she says, only the new limits approved in Idaho, South Carolina and Wyoming preserve some exemptions for victims of rape and incest.\n\nIt is critical that Democrats take this radicalization we are witnessing and make it into a kitchen table issue. That has to be part of the discourse with the American people this year in order to make this into a competitive election, because it is the single most important thing happening in our politics. Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN\n\nMore states may follow before this legislative season ends. Republican-controlled legislatures in Ohio and Louisiana may advance new abortion bans, with further action under discussion but less likely in Alabama, Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee, Nash says. Separately, Missouri , Tennessee and Ohio may bar residents from obtaining medication abortion solely through the mail. Oklahoma could also supplement the ban Stitt signed last week with several additional measures, including a bill authorizing Texas-style private lawsuits (which are also under discussion, if less imminently, in Ohio and Louisiana).\n\nRed states are also discussing ways to extend the reach of their restrictions beyond their borders. A Republican state legislator in Missouri has proposed to authorize lawsuits against people in other states who help a state resident obtain an abortion. After Citibank indicated it would pay expenses for Texas employees who traveled out of state to obtain abortions , a Republican Texas state legislator last month threatened to introduce legislation barring companies that did so from local government contracts.\n\nThis increasingly confrontational posture toward abortion in red states tracks with the GOP's trajectory on other social issues. Republican-controlled states have also moved toward more militant positions on LGBTQ issues, not only banning transgender women and girls from school sports, but also initiating child abuse investigations against parents (Texas) and criminal penalties against medical professionals (Alabama) who provide gender-affirming treatment for transgender minors. A broad red-state push to limit how race and gender are discussed in public school classrooms has spilled over to new measures to restrict how teachers talk about sexual identity and orientation (such as the Florida legislation critics call the \"don't say gay\" bill, which DeSantis recently signed into law), and proposals to make it easier to ban books they don't approve of not only in school libraries, but also in public ones.\n\nDemocrats struggling to respond\n\nOn every front, ideas that once might have been considered on the fringe inside the GOP have moved rapidly into law -- and, in most instances, inspired copy-cat proposals in other states. Democrats have struggled to respond to this offensive, both at the state and national level. In Washington, the House of Representatives has passed legislation that would codify a national right to abortion and undo many states' moves against transgender youth, but Republican-led filibusters have blocked those proposals in the Senate (along with the House-passed bill that would override the voting restrictions many of these same red states have approved). And though state Democrats have voted almost en masse against these policies, as well as the voting restrictions, the party has been divided over how much to stress its opposition to them in the midterm elections -- frustrating some party strategists in the process.\n\n\"It is critical that Democrats take this radicalization we are witnessing and make it into a kitchen table issue,\" says Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN, a Democratic research and advocacy group. \"That has to be part of the discourse with the American people this year in order to make this into a competitive election, because it is the single most important thing happening in our politics.\"\n\nOf all the socially conservative causes Republicans are advancing in the red states, abortion is probably the issue Democrats feel most comfortable contesting. As CNN recently reported, with the Supreme Court decision approaching, a wide array of Democratic candidates are stressing their commitment to preserving abortion rights.\n\n\"I do think they are overplaying their hand electorally, because November could be the first election we've had in decades when Roe is not the law of the land, and I think the backlash will be very swift and severe,\" says Christina Polizzi, press secretary for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'White supremacist law': How restrictive abortion legislation targets Black and brown women Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'White supremacist law': How restrictive abortion legislation targets Black and brown women 04:31\n\nPolls have consistently found that a solid majority of Americans oppose overturning Roe -- with that resistance extending well into the Republican coalition. In the January CNN survey , not only did 69% of all adults oppose ending the constitutional right to abortion, so did 43% of Republican men and a striking 47% of Republican women, according to detailed results provided by the CNN polling team. In a follow-up question, nearly three-fifths of all adults said that if the Supreme Court did overturn Roe, they wanted their states to make their abortion laws more permissive, while only 40% wanted them more restrictive. About one-third of both Republican men and women joined the majority who preferred that state laws become more permissive.\n\nSupport for abortion restrictions, not surprisingly, is greater in red-leaning states, whose populations typically include more of the White evangelical Christians who compose the core of the social conservative movement. When the Public Religion Research Institute tabulated state-by-state abortion attitudes in a massive 2018 poll, it found that majorities in Mississippi, Idaho and Arkansas -- states that have imposed some of the latest restrictions -- said it should be illegal in all or most cases, according to results provided by the institute's research director, Natalie Jackson. But clear majorities said it should be legal in all or most cases in Florida and Arizona, where Republicans have passed new restrictions, and slight pluralities echoed that position in Georgia, Texas and Oklahoma -- three other states where Republican officials have voted to limit access.\n\nMore recent surveys have also found unease with the restrictions. Nearly 3 in 5 Florida voters opposed the state's 15-week abortion ban in a University of North Florida poll earlier this year. (Half of those polled were told that the bill offered no exceptions for rape and incest -- and only 51% of even Republican voters who were given that information backed the ban.)\n\nIn Texas, a University of Texas/Texas Tribune survey has found state residents split almost exactly in half over the fetal heartbeat abortion ban but a clear majority opposed to the separate \"trigger\" bill the legislature approved to ban all abortions if the Supreme Court allows it . Other UT polls have found that fewer than about 1 in 8 Texas residents want to ban abortion without those exceptions for rape, incest and the woman's health, and a solid majority oppose the legislation authorizing private lawsuits against those involved in providing abortions. That opposition encompassed a significant portion of Republicans: two-fifths of Republican women and about one-third of Republican men said they opposed the absolute \"trigger\" ban and about one-third of Republicans opposed the private lawsuit bill.\n\nVoters' reactions may be crucial\n\nThe future of the anti-abortion drive in red states -- and the broader movement to roll back civil rights and liberties there -- will likely pivot on how the Republican voters uneasy with these proposals respond to them. These polls show that in theory the sharp right turn on abortion and other social issues from red-state Republicans could fracture the electoral coalition that now allows them to dominate these states.\n\nBut in practice, many observers believe, Democrats face significant obstacles to peeling away many Republican-leaning voters unhappy over these issues, in the near term at least.\n\n\"That 40% of Republican women may oppose banning abortion,\" says James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, \"but in a campaign situation\" Republicans can overcome that hesitance by shifting those voters' focus toward other issues where they disagree with Democrats.\n\nEven if the Supreme Court overturns Roe, he says, the GOP's odds of holding those voters are magnified by a midterm environment in which ordinarily Republican-leaning voters have so many objections to the performance of Biden and other Democrats, from inflation to immigration. \"The environment shapes what you can get leverage on and what people will respond to, and it's a very noisy environment right now,\" Henson says.\n\nRed state Republicans broadly share that confidence. As Matt Mackowiak, an Austin-based GOP strategist, told me earlier this year, \"I do not expect to see a suburban revolt due to the legislature's priorities.\" Rather than losing suburban support over the right's turn on abortion and other social issues, he predicted the Republican vote share will rise \"due to parental anger at school and Covid overreach.\" Republican Govs. Greg Abbott in Texas and DeSantis in Florida, who have pushed some of the most aggressive social conservative agendas, are considered strong favorites for reelection in November, and Tennessee GOP Gov. Bill Lee, who has matched them step for step, does not even have a serious Democratic opponent.\n\nTresa Undem, a Democratic pollster who focuses on issues relating to gender equality and politics, agrees that few Republican women who support abortion rights are likely to defect from the party coalition if the court overturns Roe. Her extensive surveys have found that the vast majority of them still share the broader unease with cultural change in American society that has energized the GOP coalition in the Trump era. \"Republican women don't vote on\" abortion, she says.\n\nBut Undem thinks the situation could be very different among women who identify as independents. That's especially likely, she thinks, if the Supreme Court's ruling so unambiguously rescinds Roe that it generates sustained media coverage.\n\n\"I think if it's outright overturned, and this breaks through, people learn about, it will definitely affect independent women,\" she says. \"I keep going back in my mind to Texas. I was stunned; we did a focus group of independent women and they said things I have never heard. At least half the women said something like this: 'I have never even really cared who the governor was of Texas, but my skin crawls thinking about the issue of (the private lawsuits Texas authorized against abortion providers).' It's the signal of all that other power and control that they think politicians have over their lives.\"\n\nThe January CNN survey underscores that possibility: Fully three-fourths of women who identified as independents said they opposed overturning Roe. Yet with so many other challenges at this tumultuous moment in American life shaping voters' attitudes, it's far from clear that those concerns will translate into votes against the Republicans advancing those laws. Even many voters opposed to the abortion restrictions, Undem acknowledges, may calculate, \"I don't think I am going to need an abortion, but I am filling up my (gas) tank right now.\"\n\nDani Thayer, left, and Marina Lanae, both of Tulsa, Oklahoma, protest at the state Capitol, Wednesday, April 13, 2022, in Oklahoma City.\n\nThe safest prediction may be that if Republican governors and state legislatures run well this November in the states moving so sharply to the right on abortion and other cultural issues, they will be emboldened to continue pushing the frontier of such legislation.\n\nThere are no signs the current round of targets represents the outer boundary of ambition for the social conservative movement or the red-state Republican officials responding to it. During the recent confirmation hearings for incoming Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson , three Republican senators suggested the court had erred in previous decisions that prevented states from barring the sale of contraceptives or blocking interracial and same-sex marriages. The total abortion bans, prohibition on mail distribution of medication abortion, discussion of extending private lawsuits across state lines and punishment of companies that help employees obtain abortions outside states that are prohibiting them signal where red states may move next on that front.", "authors": ["Analysis Ronald Brownstein", "Mary Ziegler", "Florida State University Law Professor", "Simon Rosenberg", "President Of Ndn"], "publish_date": "2022/04/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/26/politics/scotus-unpopular-roe-v-wade/index.html", "title": "A historically unpopular Supreme Court made a historically ...", "text": "I covered the political impact in part in a prior column . But the court's actions in this case may do something more than just affect the elections this year.\n\nThe Supreme Court's own reputation is at stake , and the decision to get rid of Roe v. Wade and to upset the status quo comes at a very sensitive time for the justices in a different court: the one of public opinion.\n\nAnd that's where we'll start our look at the news of the week through numbers.\n\nThe Supreme Court is historically unpopular\n\nThe Supreme Court is not elected by the voters. A lot of people agree, though, that it's important that the court maintains its legitimacy in the eyes of the public. After all, the court relies on others to enforce its own rulings.\n\nThe high court's legitimacy in the public's mind was already at very low levels, and that was before the overturning of Roe -- something most Americans didn't want\n\nForty-one percent of voters approved of the job the Supreme Court was doing, according to a May Quinnipiac University poll . The majority (52%) disapproved. That was the highest disapproval rating recorded by Quinnipiac since it started asking about the court's approval back in 2004.\n\nThe court's standing is a reversal from where things were two years ago when 52% of voters approved and 37% disapproved in Quinnipiac polling.\n\nQuinnipiac isn't the only pollster to show a major degradation in the court's standing. The percentage of Americans (25%) who have great or quite a lot of confidence in the court is at the lowest level ever recorded by Gallup since 1973.\n\nThe slide can primarily be attributed to Democrats. Today, 78% of Democrats disapprove of the job the court is doing, according to Quinnipiac . In 2020 , just 43% did. Republican disapproval of the court has declined from 38% two years ago to 28% now.\n\nThe reason the public and Democrats have turned against the Supreme Court is pretty clear: It's been seen as increasingly political and issuing decisions that aren't popular.\n\nThe aforementioned Quinnipiac poll showed that a mere 34% of voters believed the court is mainly motivated by the law. Most (62%) felt that the Supreme Court is mainly motivated by politics. Four years ago, the split was far more even, with 50% believing the court was mainly motivated by politics and 42% saying it was mainly motivated by the law.\n\nAgain, this trend is driven by Democrats. Eighty-six percent of them told Quinnipiac the court is mainly motivated by politics. That's up from 60% in 2018 . Republicans who said the same had barely changed, from 46% in 2018 to 42% now.\n\nIt would be one thing if the court was seen as activist and making popular rulings. It's not. Both the Gallup and Quinnipiac polls were taken after word leaked in May that the court was on the precipice of overturning Roe.\n\nAmericans agreed with the 1973 Roe ruling. A May NBC News poll found that 63% of them didn't want Roe overturned. Indeed, every poll I know of has shown a clear majority of Americans in favor of Roe.\n\nThis has pretty much always been the case, going back to 1973, when 52% favored the decision in a poll by Louis Harris & Associates\n\nIndeed, I'm not sure I can recall another controversial and consequential Supreme Court decision that was this unpopular.\n\nPolls found a split public when the court mostly upheld the Affordable Care Act in 2012.\n\nA majority of Americans (54%) were in favor of the court stopping the hand recount in Florida that effectively ended the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, according to a CBS News poll at the time.\n\nA majority (55%) also approved of the court's decision to desegregate public schools in 1954's Brown v. Board of Education.\n\nOne could argue that what the Supreme Court has done in overturning Roe is unprecedented from a public opinion point of view.\n\nWhat effect it will ultimately have, however, is yet to be determined.\n\nRecord midterm turnout looks possible\n\nOne potential impact of the Supreme Court's latest ruling is that it could make people more likely to turn out to vote -- in a cycle that is already seeing really high turnout.\n\nIn other words, we could be looking at a second consecutive midterm with record turnout.\n\nThrough Tuesday, turnout in primaries is up 13% in the states that have voted so far compared with this point in 2018. (This does not include states where statewide turnout by party was unavailable for either 2018 or 2022.)\n\nThe 2018 turnout, itself, was up from both 2014 and 2010. In fact, 2018 had the highest midterm turnout -- as a percentage of the voting-eligible population -- in more than a century.\n\nThe high primary turnout shouldn't be surprising given what we saw in Virginia last year or in the polling so far this cycle. The competitive 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election had the highest turnout for an off-year election in the commonwealth since at least the mid-1990s.\n\nFurther, more voters are extremely enthusiastic about voting this year than in either 2010 or 2014, according to CNN/SSRS polling . And that extreme enthusiasm matches how voters felt at this point in 2018.\n\nUnder a slightly different metric, ABC News/Washington Post polling has found more voters saying at this point in the midterm cycle that they're certain to vote in November than at similar points in the 2010, 2014 or 2018 cycles.\n\nI should point out that under all these turnout metrics, Republicans have been doing better than Democrats. Turnout is up 28% in Republican primaries from 2018, while it is down 2% in Democratic primaries. Republicans are more enthusiastic and certain to turn out than Democrats, according to the polls.\n\nThe fall of Roe could alter that dynamic, at least a little bit. A majority of Democrats (55%) said in a May Kaiser Family Foundation poll that they would be more motivated to turn out in the midterms if Roe were overturned. Only 23% of Republicans said the same.\n\nPut another way, the overturning of Roe means we might not only be looking at record Republican turnout come November. Democrats may end up not being too far behind.\n\nFor your brief encounters: School ends in the nation's largest city\n\nMany students, from kindergarten to 12th grade, have been on summer break for a while now. That is not the case in New York City, where the final day of school is Monday\n\nFor most elementary school students, 2015 Gallup polling suggests there will be a bit of sadness. The majority of them feel engaged by school. The opposite is true of high school students, who feel mostly bored.\n\nAn editorial note: This writer always felt ecstatic at the end of school, no matter the grade. He hated school and never, ever, wishes to go back.\n\nLeftover polls\n\nAmerica's influence: A new : A new Pew Research Center poll finds that 47% of Americans think the country's influence in the world is waning, while 19% think it is getting stronger. A majority (66%) think China's influence is getting stronger.", "authors": ["Analysis Harry Enten"], "publish_date": "2022/06/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/10/21/poll-most-americans-give-trump-low-marks-supreme-court-picks/4037391002/", "title": "Poll: Most Americans give Trump low marks on Supreme Court picks", "text": "Craig Gilbert and Richard Wolf\n\nA majority of Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court and doubt he would pick the “right kind of person” to fill the next opening on the high court, according to a new and wide-ranging national survey about the court by the Marquette University Law School.\n\nBut if a vacancy occurs during the 2020 election year and Trump nominates someone to fill it, the public overwhelmingly believes the Senate should hold confirmation hearings.\n\nIn fact, a lopsided majority (73%) said it was “the wrong thing to do” when Senate Republicans refused during the 2016 election to fill a court vacancy in the final year of Democrat Barack Obama’s presidency.\n\nThe national survey released Monday offers a sweeping snapshot of public perceptions of the court, its individual justices, its role, major rulings it has handed down and issues it could soon decide.\n\nBy a large margin, Americans trust the Supreme Court more than either of the other two branches of government (Congress and the presidency), according to the nationwide poll of 1,423 adults taken Sept. 3 to 13.\n\nAnd most oppose the idea of adding seats on the court, an idea embraced by some on the left who feel Republicans have bent the rules to maintain a conservative majority on the court.\n\nBut one idea for reforming the court that does have broad approval (72%) is having justices serve fixed terms instead of lifetime appointments, an idea that is strongly favored by Republicans, Democrats and independents alike in the survey.\n\nCompared to the other branches, the high court is well regarded: 80% of those surveyed have at least some confidence in the institution and almost 40% have a lot of confidence. The court rates much higher than Congress and the presidency in this regard. In fact, 57% said they trust the Supreme Court the most of the three branches, compared to 21% who chose the presidency and 22% who chose Congress.\n\nThe court is not perceived as highly partisan or extreme. Notably, its chief justice, John Roberts, is the least polarizing member of the court when it comes to the difference between how Democrats and Republicans view individual justices; Brett Kavanaugh, appointed by Republican Trump, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, appointed by Democrat Bill Clinton, are the most polarizing along partisan lines.\n\nAbout half of those surveyed perceive the court as moderate. Almost 40% perceive it as conservative and a bit over 10% perceive it as liberal. But only one in 10 perceives it as “extremely” conservative or “extremely” liberal. Most think the court follows “mainly the law” rather than “mainly politics” in reaching its decisions.\n\nThe poll also found that, while Democrats and Republicans are sharply divided over key rulings the court has handed down, these partisan differences don’t extend to the public’s view of all cases.\n\nFor example, of seven major rulings the survey asked about, the most popular was one that is widely embraced by conservatives: the finding in “DC v. Heller” that the Second Amendment confers an individual right to bear arms. It was viewed favorably by two-thirds of those polled.\n\nBut the next most popular ruling (viewed favorably by 56%) was one embraced more widely on the left than the right: the ruling establishing a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry.\n\nIn the same vein, the court’s most unpopular decisions include some decried by liberals (the “Citizens United” ruling allowing corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts to support or oppose political candidates) and some decried by conservatives (allowing race to be considered in college admissions).\n\nLooking ahead to issues that are now before the court, the poll found:\n\nAbout six in 10 adults were opposed to overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal in all 50 states. The court agreed this month to hear a key Louisiana abortion case and others appear headed its way.\n\nAlmost the same number support a decision that would extend protections against employment discrimination on the basis of sex to sexual orientation, as well. The court has three cases before it that will test whether gay and transgender people are covered by existing employment protections.\n\nA little over half support making it constitutional to use public funds for religious school students.\n\nA little over half think a ban on semi-automatic weapons would not violate the Constitution (even though support for the right to bear arms is broad).\n\nA little over half (52%) would oppose the court striking down Obamacare, with 37% favoring such as ruling.\n\nMore than half (53%) would oppose a decision that allows the administration to end the DACA program that permits young people brought to the United States illegally to avoid deportation\n\nIn addition to being the least polarizing branch of the government, the court is also the least well-known.\n\nWhile almost six in 10 Americans could offer an opinion of Kavanaugh and Ginsburg, only 16% could offer one about the court’s most anonymous justice, Stephen Breyer.\n\nAbout half of those polled knew enough to rate at least three members of the court. Only about a third knew enough to rate a majority of the court’s nine members.\n\nRoberts ranked right in the middle, at fifth, in name recognition, after Ginsburg, Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor. Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Roberts had the most positive ratings, while Kavanaugh — who was at the center of a hugely divisive confirmation fight last year — was the only justice who was viewed negatively by more people than viewed him positively.\n\nAsked about Trump’s handling of court appointments, 43% approved and 57% disapproved. That was lower than his approval rating on the economy among all adults (48%) and slightly higher than his rating on handling immigration (42%).\n\nAsked how much confidence they have that Trump will select the right kind of person if there is another opening on the court, 45% said at least “some” confidence while 55% said very little or none at all.\n\nThere were big gaps between Democrats and Republicans over Trump’s handling of the court, not surprisingly, as there were over broader questions about the court’s decision-making. Most Republicans think the court should base its rulings on the original meaning of the Constitution rather than viewing it as a document whose meaning has evolved over time. Democrats follow the opposite pattern, and the partisan gap is huge on this question. Most Democrats think it’s more important that a decision lead to a fair outcome rather than that it “follows the law even if seemingly unfair.” Republicans are the opposite.\n\nThere are huge partisan differences among U.S. adults over revisiting Roe v. Wade, over how the court should handle Obamacare and over whether the court should decide that a business owner’s free speech rights or religious beliefs can justify refusing service to gay customers.\n\nBut Democrats and Republicans are closer to agreement over key aspects of the confirmation process that has spurred so many bitter partisan fights in Washington.\n\nMajorities of Republicans, independents and Democrats all say it was “the wrong thing to do” when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, refused to take up Democrat Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland during the 2016 election year — including 59% of Republicans, 70% of independents and 87% of Democrats.\n\nLikewise, Americans of all political stripes think that the Senate should hold confirmation hearings if there is an opening in the 2020 election year and Trump nominates someone to fill it — including 75% of Republicans, 76% of independents and 62% of Democrats. Questions about the health of the 86-year-old Ginsburg, one of the court’s four more liberal justices, have fueled speculation about that scenario.\n\nFour out of five adults said that if a nominee to the court is “qualified and has no ethical problems,” then senators are not justified in opposing confirmation just because those senators are from a different political party.\n\nAnd majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents all say it’s not justified for senators to oppose a qualified nominee with no ethical problems simply because of how they think that member of the court would decide cases.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/10/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/11/16/abortion-poll-supreme-court-uphold-roe/8637025002/", "title": "Over half of Americans in new poll say Supreme Court should ...", "text": "WASHINGTON – Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the Supreme Court should uphold its decision in the historic Roe v. Wade case that ruled abortion access was a constitutional right, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.\n\nThe poll, conducted Nov. 7-10, found 60% of Americans believe Roe should be upheld, versus 27% who believe the high court should overturn that landmark decision.\n\nThree-fourths of Americans, 75%, further said that a person's decision to get an abortion should be between them and their doctors; only 20% said the state should regulate the procedure.\n\nThe poll also found only a slight majority of Republicans support overturning Roe outright; 45% of Republicans said they want the ruling overturned versus 42% who said the court should keep the ruling in place. A majority of Democrats in the poll, at 82%, and independents, at 58%, said the court should keep Roe in place.\n\nWomen, at 64%, were more likely to support upholding Roe than men, at 56%, though a person's political affiliation was more likely to predict their support for upholding the decision than their gender.\n\nFuture of Roe:As Supreme Court hears Texas abortion cases, questions linger about vitality of Roe v. Wade\n\nThe poll's findings come as the Supreme Court hears contentious cases from Texas and Mississippi that attempt to either circumnavigate or outright call on the court to overturn its past ruling. The court heard arguments in the Texas case on Nov. 1 and will take up the Mississippi case on Dec. 1.\n\nThe Post-ABC poll found that 65% of the public said the court should strike down the Texas law, while 29% of respondents said the law should be upheld.\n\nThe Texas law adopts a novel legal mechanism that makes abortion after six weeks of pregnancy illegal, but bars the state from enforcing the law. Rather, it deputizes individual people to sue anyone suspected of having or abetting an abortion, with the possibility of earning $10,000 in state court.\n\nIn 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that a woman has a constitutional right to an abortion, and reaffirmed that decision in 1992's Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In Casey, however, the court allowed states to place some constraints on abortion if they find the fetus is viable, a metric that varies in law.\n\nTexas abortion law:Abortion at the Supreme Court: A road map to the cases pending over Texas' six-week ban\n\nSince those rulings, the court has taken a rightward turn as more conservative justices have been appointed to the bench. Republican lawmakers now hope the court's 6-3 conservative majority will reconsider the core constitutional question in Roe when ruling on one of the cases before it.\n\nMississippi's law is viewed by legal analysts as a direct challenge to Roe. That law bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a period before the viability standard established by the court, which is generally found to be around 22 to 24 weeks.\n\nThe poll surveyed 1,001 adults nationally through cellphone and landline calls. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points\n\nFollow Matthew Brown online @mrbrownsir.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/16"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_8", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/26/us/florida-heaviest-python-captured-scn-trnd/index.html", "title": "Florida conservationists capture 215 pound python, the heaviest ...", "text": "(CNN) She's massive, invasive and covered in scales: A record breaking 215-pound, 18-foot-long Burmese python has been captured in Florida.\n\nThe python is the heaviest ever captured in the state, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida announced on Wednesday.\n\nThe huge reptile was captured by the conservancy as part of its invasive Burmese python research program.\n\nBiologists found the female by tracking a male \"scout snake\" named Dionysus with a radio transmitter. Males are attracted to the largest females, according to the conservancy. So by following a breeding male like Dionysus, they can find and remove large breeding females and their eggs.\n\nIan Bartoszek, a project manager for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, biologist Ian Easterling and intern Kyle Findley caught and euthanized the huge female python before hauling her back to their field truck last December.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Zoe Sottile"], "publish_date": "2022/06/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2021/09/10/prehistoric-native-american-arrowhead-artifact-found-alligator-mississippi/8271061002/", "title": "Prehistoric Native American artifact found in gator's stomach", "text": "JACKSON, Miss. – What does a 750-pound alligator eat? Well, just about anything it wants, but items found in this particular Mississippi alligator's stomach defy odds and date back thousands of years.\n\nShane Smith, owner of Red Antler Processing in Yazoo City, Mississippi, said he was examining contents of a 13-foot, 5-inch alligator that weighed 750 pounds and discovered two unusual objects. One he couldn't identify, but the other was clearly a broken stone arrowhead.\n\nThe find was so unexpected, he almost didn't let the news out.\n\n\"At first, I thought 'I'm not posting this on Facebook,' because no one will believe it,\" Smith said.\n\nThen, he had second thoughts.\n\n\"This is too cool not to post of Facebook,\" he said. \"This has probably never happened before. We gotta post this.\"\n\nAlligators in Mississippi:5 things you may not know about the South's apex predator\n\nDog tags in an alligator's stomach\n\nThe story first began to unfold in April when a wild game processor in South Carolina reported opening the stomach of an alligator and finding unusual items. Smith read it and was skeptical.\n\n\"The curiosity struck me when I saw a post online about someone finding dog tags in an alligator's stomach,\" Smith said.\n\nTo satisfy that curiosity, Smith decided to examine contents of the larger alligators he processed. The first was a 13-foot, 2-inch, 787-pound gator taken by Ty Powell of Columbia, Mississippi.\n\n\"We found a bullet in it, and it had not been fired from a gun,\" Smith said. \"I don't know how it got in there.\"\n\nThe second alligator he opened, which was harvested at Eagle Lake, located 15 miles northwest of Vicksburg on the Mississippi and Louisiana border, contained many of the things the first did, including bones, hair, feathers and stones. Then, something else caught his eye.\n\nA find like no other\n\n\"Everybody was standing around like I was opening a Christmas present,\" Smith said. \"We kind of put it all in a bin.\n\n\"I looked over and saw a rock with a different tint to it. It was the arrowhead.\"\n\nSmith said he was dumbfounded.\n\n\"It was just disbelief,\" Smith said. \"There's just no way he had an arrowhead. Your first thought is it ate (a Native American) or (a Native American) shot it in the stomach.\"\n\nSmith knew that wasn't the case, though.\n\n\"My best hypothesis is wherever he scooped up those other rocks, he got that (Native American) point,\" Smith said. \"We joked about it and said I'm probably the only person on Earth to pull an arrowhead out of an alligator's stomach.\"\n\nPoint dates back thousands of years\n\nJames Starnes, director of Surface Geology and Surface Mapping for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, examined a photograph of the point. He estimated it was made about 5000-6000 BC.\n\n'That is the latter part of the Early Archaic and early part of the Middle Archaic (periods),\" Starnes said. \"How the base is made is real tell-tale in estimating the time period.\"\n\nStarnes also noted the object is not an arrowhead. It's a point used on an early weapon that launches a spear using a second piece of wood with a cup on one end which acts as a lever to increase velocity.\n\n\"That's an atlatl dart point,\" Starnes said. \"People think all heads are arrowheads, but those (arrowheads) would be the little bitty points.\"\n\nAs bizarre as the find was, it was about to get even stranger. Smith found a heavy, tear-shaped object roughly 1½ inches in length. Both he and the hunter who was permitted to harvested the alligator thought it was something more modern — a lead weight used for fishing.\n\n\"It's heavy like lead,\" Hamilton said. \"It looks like it's got two holes in it, but they don't go through it.\n\n\"It's got a little hole and a bigger hole on top. I guess it goes in and comes back out.\"\n\nWhat's a plummet, and why would an alligator eat it?\n\nStarnes said it's known as a plummet and dates back to the Late Archaic Period, or about 1700 BC.\n\nThe weight is accounted for because it's made of hematite, an iron oxide traded between early groups and shines when polished. Starnes said what purpose plummets served is unknown.\n\n\"The plummets, we really have no idea what they were used for,\" Starnes said. \"These things had some significance, but we have no idea. We can only guess.\"\n\nSo, how did these ancient objects get into the alligator's belly? Ricky Flynt, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks Alligator Program coordinator, explained very hard objects, typically stones, aid the reptiles in digestion.\n\n\"Alligators, like other animals such as birds and other reptiles, are known for ingesting grit and rocks to help with digestion,\" Flynt said. \"We know alligators and crocodiles do that.\"\n\nHowever, alligators differ from fowl such as chickens and ducks. Those animals have gizzards and the grit and sand is stored there to help grind seeds and grains they consume. Alligators don't have gizzards and the stones go into the stomach.\n\n\"Sticks, wood; things they can't digest get into their stomachs,\" Flynt said. \"I found a piece of cypress in an alligator's stomach that was 15 inches long.\"\n\nFollow Clarion Ledger Outdoors on Facebook and @BrianBroom on Twitter.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/10/18/burmese-python-invasive-non-native-species-exotic-tegu-lionfish-wildlife-conservation-commission/1669644002/", "title": "Anacondas, mongoose on list of animals Florida looks to ban", "text": "The state is targeting several non-native species in hopes of controlling the animals before they become the next Burmese python, the next foreign critter, to invade and eviscerate the Sunshine State.\n\nPythons, iguanas, a plethora of freshwater fish and even monstrous lizards like the Argentine black and white tegu have established themselves in Florida over the past few decades. Most of them are here to stay.\n\nNow animals like flying fox squirrels, mongoose, three types of anacondas, Java sparrows and a handful of others are being singled out by wildlife managers before the animals can take hold and cause damage.\n\n\"These animals are considered a high-risk to Florida and are already listed by the (federal government) as injurious, meaning that they are considered potentially invasive at the national level,\" said Michelle Kerr, with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in an email. \"The species being considered are those that have been found to pose a risk to the environment, human health and safety, or the economy of the state of Florida.\"\n\nInvasive species in Florida:How everyone, from spearfishermen to scientists, is fighting back\n\nMore:Burmese and Indian pythons crossbred, invaded South Florida, study suggests\n\nFrom parasitic and walking catfish to piranhas and sea snakes, nearly 600 non-native species have been introduced here, and about 20 percent of those have taken hold and now call Florida home.\n\n\"Florida is considered a big hot spot for invasive species establishment,\" said Kristen Sommers with the FWC, at a recent meeting. \"Over 60,000 observations, not including lionfish, have been recorded. We believe most of the observations are single individuals that have escaped or been released. Despite that, of the over 500 species (that have been introduced), more than 150 species at least are considered to be reproducing.\"\n\nLionfish are a venomous saltwater fish that are found mostly on offshore reefs. More than 500,000 have been caught and removed from the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, according to FWC records.\n\nIguanas are known for burrowing holes in canals, which often causes the sea wall or structure to collapse.\n\nPythons are known for eating just about anything, from small rare rodents to adult deer and alligators.\n\nFWC commissioners will vote on whether to add this latest group of animals later this year.\n\nIf approved, the measure would only allow permitted owners to keep and transport pets like mongoose and yellow anacondas.\n\nMore:Are cane toads harmful to humans, pets? Your questions answered\n\nMore:Florida researchers bash in heads of overpopulating iguanas\n\nInvasive animals have advantages in that they don't have natural predators living here, and some animals are better able to adapt to changing conditions in the Everglades than native ones.\n\nIt is illegal to release any animal that is not native to Florida, although not all species are able to establish breeding populations or damage local plants and wildlife.\n\nPermitted ownership of most of these animals is allowed, although the permit holder must go through an education and facilities inspection process.\n\nBurmese pythons are the most notorious of the prohibited species because they can grow to 20 feet and eat everything.\n\n\"We’re not going to get them out,\" said FWC Commissioner Joshua Kellam at September's commission meeting. \"They’re going to be there, and they’re going to continue to multiply, and we’re going to be throwing money at trying to keep as much of a handle on it as we can, but it’s gotten out of control.\"\n\nKellam said penalties, which are mostly misdemeanor offenses, should be stiffer to further discourage unlicensed owners from breeding and selling prohibited animals.\n\nNon-native animals feed on and compete with native wildlife for breeding and feeding grounds.\n\nMore:Red tide levels are low, but growing season is just beginning\n\nMore:Environmental experts say Southwest Florida's algae blooms may not ease until winter\n\nMore:Third species of algae, fueled by decomposing fish, is found blooming in Southwest Florida waters\n\nFighting them is difficult and expensive: State and federal agencies spend about $8 million a year to control and combat non-native species.\n\nAbout $500,000 of that money is spent controlling the tegu, a relatively smart and social lizard that's also a popular pet.\n\nSome pet shop owners and breeders say they think the state is going too far with its latest list, that some of the animals don't belong in the same group as Burmese pythons — even if they're giant snakes.\n\n\"The word anaconda scares a lot of people,\" said Michael Cole, owner of Ballroom Pythons South in Haines City. \"They’ve been imported to this country since the mid-60s, and to my knowledge we’ve had six captures of those animals in the wild in our country. That’s a long time for this animal to be in the country and a very small number of captures.\"\n\nConnect with this reporter: Chad Gillis on Twitter.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/10/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/08/03/fact-check-game-wardens-did-not-shoot-28-foot-alligator-florida/5495102002/", "title": "Fact check: Game wardens did not shoot a 28-foot alligator in Florida", "text": "The claim: An alligator killed in Florida measured over 28 feet in length\n\nAs if murder hornets and megabats weren't enough to haunt people's dreams, claims of a massive, 28-foot alligator said to have been shot while creeping in the backyard of a Florida family's residence have added to the nightmares.\n\nThe post on the massive alligator, circulating widely on Facebook, shows a photograph of a large gator suspended by its neck from the loader of a piece of construction equipment. A game warden identified as Joe Goff, said to be 6 feet 5 inches tall, is walking near the gator in the photo, providing a sense of scale that shows the alligator is of significant size.\n\nThe Facebook post quotes what is said to be a radio traffic exchange between a helicopter pilot and game wardens at Lake Thomas, Florida, as they tracked a giant gator with a full-sized deer in its mouth.\n\nAfter the alligator was killed, the post claims, it measured in at 28 feet, 1 inch. A Florida couple had supposedly claimed they could hear the gator \"bellowing in the night\" but had believed the stories of a giant reptile to be exaggerated. The gator was shot in their backyard.\n\nTale likely exaggerates a 2005 incident in Texas with a much smaller gator\n\nSocial media posts making claims about oversized alligators have circulated for years. In 2005, Snopes published a fact-check saying the photo in question was real, but the information about the alligator's length had been exaggerated. It also didn't take place in Florida.\n\nBut parts of the scenario in the story involving the couple who owned the backyard where the alligator was shot were taken nearly word-for-word from an article published April 16, 2005, in The Facts, a newspaper in Brazoria County, Texas.\n\nAccording to the article, the West Columbia couple, whose names are identical to those in the Facebook post, had dismissed their neighbors' stories as an exaggeration but had also heard the gator making noise in the night. The game warden, also named Joe Goff, was among those who shot the alligator because it was too large to capture.\n\nThe alligator measured in at 13 feet 1 inch, which is large for an alligator but less than half the size the Facebook post claims.\n\nThe online news article reviewed by USA TODAY did not include an image. An email to The Facts to confirm the image was not immediately returned.\n\nLongest alligator recorded in Florida was just over 14 feet\n\nWhile alligators can reach large sizes, a 28-foot gator is more likely to show up in a monster movie than real life.\n\nAccording to National Geographic, the American alligator can measure 10 to 15 feet and weigh as much as 1,000 pounds.\n\nThere have been various tales of large alligators killed in the U.S. throughout history, including a claim by naturalist Edward McIlhenny who said he killed a 19-foot-2 alligator in 1890, when he was 17 years old. The facts of that incident are in dispute, however, partly because McIlhenny measured the alligator using his shotgun barrel and has been described as a known \"yarn-spinner.\"\n\nSafari Club International recently recognized the largest American alligator was a 15-foot, 9-inch, gator killed in 2014 by a hunter in Alabama.\n\nIf the alligator in the photograph were truly 28 feet long, it would be twice the size of the longest alligator recorded by biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which measured 14 feet, 3½ inches.\n\nMelody Kilborn, public information director for the FWC's southwest region, said staff were not aware of the rumors about a 28-foot alligator roaming in Florida, but that alligators rarely exceed 14 feet.\n\nAccording to data from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, only four alligators, all of them male, have measured more than 14 feet since the records began in 1977, according to the data.\n\nFact check:'Megabats' exist, and they're, well, mega\n\nOur ruling: False\n\nThe Facebook post appears to have exaggerated and misinterpreted a largely true account of an alligator being shot. Portions of the narrative of this Facebook post come directly from a news article written about an alligator in Texas, not Florida, that measured less than half the length described in the post.\n\nThere is no credible record of an American alligator measuring anywhere near 28 feet in Florida, or any other state.\n\nFor these reasons, we rate this post as FALSE.\n\nOur fact-check sources:\n\nIan Richardson covers the Iowa Statehouse for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at irichardson@registermedia.com, at 515-284-8254, or on Twitter at @DMRIanR.\n\nThank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.\n\nOur fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/08/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/07/19/sharks-gators-florida-coast/804529002/", "title": "Sharks vs. gators: It's a bloodbath when they fight each other", "text": "Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this report misstated the name of the journal in which James Nifong's research appeared.\n\nMELBOURNE, Fla. — At NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the cradle of man's most sophisticated technological feats, something beastly, reptilian, primal in nature lurks motionless among the salt marsh and mangrove swamps.\n\nNearby, another primitive creature glides through the shallows, its pointed tail propelling the ocean's apex predator toward a brutal Darwinian dance in which the most powerful jaw, quickest strike and the thickest skin often wins this war: shark versus gator.\n\nThe two seldom meet. When they do, their dance is no waltz in the national park. It can get ugly — and bloody — real quick at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, a 140,000 acre overlay of the Kennedy Space Center.\n\nWhen these strangers dance, both see red, in tooth and claw.\n\nMore:Florida scientists discover deepwater shark species 'Genie's Dogfish'\n\nMore:Florida deputy kills fearless alligator who chased teen up tree\n\nAmerica's space portal is where king of the sea and the boss of the swamp sometimes meet and chomp it out.\n\nHere, gators usually win. But do sharks ever one-up and gobble down a gator?\n\n\"I'm sure they would,\" said Eric Reyier, a fisheries biologist at Kennedy Space Center's Ecological Program and Integrated Mission Support Services. \"Both alligators and sharks eat whatever they can.\"\n\nAt times, that's each other.\n\nShark-gator run-ins are relatively rare, say researchers. Alligators tend to hang out in semi-salty swamps at Merritt Island refuge, while sharks prefer the coastal waters where we swim.\n\n\"These interactions are very hard to capture,\" said Russell Lowers, a wildlife biologist with Integrated Mission Support Services.\n\nBut these researchers do capture them, in photos, historical records, and by pumping gator guts to find evidence the top-dog reptile makes mince meat of sharks. It's not easy to find. Gator guts are so acidic, all but teeth and scales are gone within days.\n\nThey have found evidence that gators eat nurse sharks, lemon sharks, bonnetheads and rays, a cousin species to sharks.\n\n\"It seems to be not very frequent but it's happening,\" said James Nifong, research biologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg, Mississippi. \"We don't really know the frequency of this. There's not a lot of people pumping alligator stomachs and looking at something like this.\"\n\nNurse and bonnethead sharks that live mostly sedentary lives among the space center's shallows are sitting ducks for voracious, alert alligators. \"The shark just bumps into them, and there you go,\" Nifong said.\n\nA stingray glides by — forget about it. Nifong finds stingray barbs lodged in gator necks.\n\nBut who remains swimming is not always so cut and dry when larger sharks enter the fray. Nifong and Lowers documented recent and historical accounts of shark-gator clashes, publishing their findings in the journal Southeastern Naturalist.\n\n\"And with no clear winners,\" Reyier notes. \"That would have been a sight to see for sure.\"\n\nThey dug up an October 1887 edition of a sports magazine called the Fish Gazette, which describes a brutal alligator-shark brawl when gale force winds and rain made fresh and salt water worlds collide. According to the write-up, a Florida correspondent of the New York Sun gives \"a curious account\" of the combat between hundreds of the two prehistoric predators at Jupiter Inlet. Heavy eastern gales brought shoals of black bass from freshwater to Jupiter's coastal waters.\n\n\"Solid acres of salt-water fishes piled into the bight of the inlet, and fought for the sea-water that oozed through the sand at high tide. The alligators of the Everglades got wind of what was going on. They came down the Allokehatchie and Lakeworth Creek in scores, and attacked the fish dammed in the bight.\n\n\"The slaughter was astonishing,\" the account continued, with waters that turned to blood, carpeted with dead fish and an estimated 500 alligators swarming the scene.\n\n\"The beach was black with their mailed bodies. At night their muttered thunder fairly shook the foundation of the lighthouse.\"\n\nThen one day a north wind arose, backing up water in the inlet. When waters rose further from wind and rains, fresh water burst through the sandy barrier, \"and the pent up waters were roaring and rising to the sea. The army of alligators was caught in the flood and carried outside. A terrific fight ensued. The neap-tide had brought hundreds of enormous sharks to the coast.\"\n\nThe sharks, sensing the blood-laden fresh water, made for the inlet. \"Frantic after their enforced fasting during the storm they attacked the alligators.\"\n\nThe noise of the combat eclipsed the ocean's roar.\n\nThe article cites an eyewitness, the son of a Judge Paine, of Fort Capron, who said he saw sharks and alligators \"rise on the crest of the waves and fight like dogs.\"\n\nThe losers floated in belly-up, rolling ashore in the waves.\n\nFor days carcasses drifted ashore: headless, tail-less gators, sharks nearly bitten in half.\n\nThe Gulf Stream swept the dead ashore to beaches as far north as Cape Malabar, more than 80 miles away. Clouds of vultures swarmed the shores. \"Mr. Paine fancies that the sharks were two active for the alligators, but others say that the percentages of bodies on the beach indicated that the weight of the metal was in favor of the iron-clad reptiles.\"\n\nAnother account they found in The Palatka Daily News in May 1884 describes a roughly 10-foot-long shark and seven-foot-long gator near Pilot Cove, Florida. It didn't go so well for the gator: After multiple tries, the shark finally landed the moral bite to the gator's thoracic region, severing the gator in two parts, one of which the shark promptly wolfed down.\n\nAn 1888 account Nifong and Lowers found by unknown authors describes a larger-than-life war between several gators and sharks in the Indian River Lagoon near Titusville. One gator was a 15-footer — probably an exaggeration, Nifong and Lowers conclude.\n\nThe sharks bit off gators' forelimbs and parts of their tails. Several sharks and gators died.\n\nSome seem tall tales, spectacular accounts more akin to the 1800s version of \"fake news?\"\n\n\"You have to take some of it with a grain of salt,\" Nifong said. But, he says, \"Just given that we found multiple records of it in multiple occasions,\" lends some credibility to the accounts.\n\n\"I think in any situation it comes to the size differential between the individual alligator and shark,\" Nifong said. \"Larger individual will always have the advantage.\"\n\nThere isn't enough data yet to prove which predator consumes the other more often, he says.\n\nBut at the Kennedy Space Center, gators reign supreme.\n\n\"At KSC there are fewer large sharks as compared to alligators, at least in the Upper regions of the estuary,\" Nifong added, \"so simply based on numbers I would say there is a greater potential for alligators to consume more sharks then the reverse, but without proper investigation it's a best guess.\"\n\nBut which owns the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) at large?\n\nSorry sharks, you lose there too.\n\n\"On the sharks vs. gators, these days large sharks aren’t as frequent in the IRL system so yes alligators probably have the advantage,\" Reyier said. \"But alligators aren’t common in the lagoon anymore either except in a few places like KSC. So the chances of interaction are reduced compared to historically. These days gators vs. stingrays is much more common.\"\n\nGator-ray run-ins also are difficult to witness.\n\nBut why does NASA even care?\n\nKnowledge of which wildlife eat what at the space center helps refuge rangers figure out how best to manage federally protected species and their habitats there and gives them the knowledge base needed when seeking permits for new projects or activities at the space center that might impact wildlife.\n\n\"It's more about understanding about how those alligators are using that habitat,\" Nifong said.\n\nNASA wants to know where sharks go, too. Just offshore of where NASA and SpaceX blast off toward the stars, Reyier surgically inserts transmitters the size of pen caps underneath sharks' tough, white underbellies, sews the wounds shut and releases the apex predators\n\nThe \"pings\" the transmitters emit reveal where sharks roam.\n\nHe and fellow researchers have a new project using the Liquid Robotics Wave Glider, a solar robot that autonomously surveys offshore of Cape Canaveral. It seeks tagged sharks and other fish, underwater biological sounds and ocean conditions.\n\nThe Wave Glider has even survived shark attacks.\n\nSome gators don't survive them. But a shark gobbling down a gator isn't something most are likely to witness in their lifetime.\n\n\"You'd have to be real lucky to see that,\" Reyier said.\n\nFollow Jim Waymer on Twitter: @JWayEnviro", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/07/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/22/turtle-smuggling-florida-officials-crack-down-illegal-trade/4845180002/", "title": "Turtle smuggling; Florida officials crack down on illegal trade", "text": "Kimberly Miller\n\nPalm Beach Post\n\nWEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Florida wildlife officials are increasingly concerned the state’s turtles are being scooped up by smugglers feeding an international demand for the freshwater and terrestrial reptiles.\n\nTurtle launderers, who “wash” wild-caught animals through illegal trafficking rings like ill-gotten cash, have been targeted by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission since a 2009 rule banned the commercial harvest and sale of natural-born turtles.\n\nUndercover investigations have since retrieved thousands of stolen turtles worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.\n\nBut FWC commissioners were told Thursday to be prepared for an uptick in criminal activity that may require tighter oversight as some coveted species become “literally worth more than gold.”\n\n“International prices will continue to go up,” said Col. Curtis Brown, FWC’s director of law enforcement. “We have one of the most densely populated areas in the world for turtle diversity, which makes us a target for illegal trafficking.”\n\nSmuggling:Passenger tried to sneak package of tiny dead birds into US airport\n\nFlorida has 23 land and freshwater turtle species. The most sought after include box turtles, diamondback terrapins, mud and musk turtles, softshell turtles and snapping turtles.\n\nWhile fleshy softshell and snapping turtles are sold as food in Asian markets, box turtles and other varieties are popular pets that can fetch a Florida poacher up to $300 each. In Asia, the same turtle can sell for as much as $10,000 at glitzy auctions held near Shanghai, Brown said.\n\nBetween 2016 through 2019, about 6.5 million live turtles were exported from the U.S., including 521,700 from Florida.\n\n“It’s a status symbol to have these in your home,” said Chris Lechowicz, wildlife and habitat program director at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. “Turtles are synonymous with long life. They are a big part of the traditions there (Asia).”\n\nDespite 49 licensed Florida turtle farms and an unknown number of turtle breeders in Asia, Lechowicz said they can’t keep up with demand.\n\nIn the presentation to FWC commissioners, Brown noted a 2016 McKinsey & Company study that estimated 76% of China’s urban population will be considered middle class by 2022. That translates into bigger buying power that will “almost definitely” increase demand for turtles, Brown said.\n\nIt was 2005 when Florida noticed a significant increase in commercial turtle fishing. A rule passed four years later banned the sale of wild-caught turtles. Some species, such as the imperiled alligator snapping turtles and Suwannee cooters are illegal to take from the wild or possess. There are possession limits for other species such as box turtles and diamondback terrapins.\n\nLechowicz said the commercial turtle market began to grow in the late ’90s, but that land and freshwater turtles don’t always garner the same attention as their sea-faring cousins.\n\n“Although sea turtles are threatened worldwide there are many other turtle species that are more at risk of extinction in the next century,” he said.\n\nThe 4-inch, federally threatened bog turtle native to areas from New York to Virginia can cost as much as $13,000, Brown said.\n\n“There are people who have whole rooms full of turtles. They collect them like postage stamps,” said George Heinrich, executive director of the Florida Turtle Conservation Trust.\n\nPart of the concern about taking box turtles from the wild is they don’t reach sexual maturity until about 10 years old and then lay only four to six eggs per year in two hatching seasons. Box turtles can live to 80 years old and the survivability of the species depends on the adults breeding in the wild for many years.\n\nIn Operation Donatello, an undercover operation announced in October, FWC documented more than 4,000 turtles taken illegally and sold over a six-month period, including box turtles, Eastern box turtles, striped mud turtles, Florida mud turtles and chicken turtles.\n\nTwo men were arrested as part of the operation with turtles valued at $200,000 on the black market.\n\nBrown said the poachers used FWC’s own research to find areas with the highest turtle densities. They first targeted Edgmont Key south of St. Petersburg but reconsidered after a 2016 fire burned 80 acres of the island, killing some box turtles.\n\nThe traffickers then descended on Sanibel Island.\n\nHundreds of turtles were found during the August 2019 bust. Lechowicz brought 275 back to the island.\n\nTurtle farmers who spoke at the FWC commission meeting said more restrictions on turtle sales would only increase the black market demand.\n\nRetired turtle farmer Jim Watt of Jupiter said prohibitions on snapping turtles “drew an X on that turtle’s back.”\n\n“You had out in the Everglades, in front of God and everyone, farmers, hunters, drug addicts, kids – everyone was catching snappers,” Watt said.\n\nFWC Executive Director Eric Sutton said that there are no plans for turtle restrictions or rule changes but that he wanted to give commissioners an idea of what the situation is and what they may be facing in the future.\n\n“There are so many threats to our turtles, including development, that are working in synergy to have a negative impact on the population,” Heinrich said. “Illegal black market sales is one we can do something about.”\n\nFollow Kimberly Miller on Twitter: @KMillerWeather", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/02/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2019/09/04/cat-burglar-prison-bats-uss-arizona-memorial-news-around-states/40069125/", "title": "News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: Two new books have been published to coincide with the state’s bicentennial celebration. The Montgomery-based NewSouth Books has joined with Alabama Heritage magazine to produce “Alabama from Territory to Statehood.” The book covers the state’s early period, before its admission into the United States on Dec. 14, 1819. Secretary of State John Merrill co-authored another book called “Alabama: The Bicentennial” that’s being sold by the Alabama Department of Archives and History. It recognizes the contributions of more than 400 notable Alabamians. The state is highlighting nearly three years’ worth of events as its marks the 200th anniversary of its admission into the United States. Hundreds of teachers have gotten new materials and training for state history lessons.\n\nAlaska\n\nAnchorage: Officials have extended the state’s wildfire season through Sept. 30. KTUU-TV reports the Department of Natural Resources announced the season will be extended due to continued warm, dry conditions. Alaska’s statutory wildfire season normally begins April 1 and ends Aug. 31. The season’s official extension under state law means small- and large-scale burn permits will be required for open debris burning or the use of burn barrels through Sept. 30. The announcement marks the first extension since legislation in 2006 shifted the five-month season to begin and end one month earlier. Officials say 682 fires have burned more than 3,906 square miles this season.\n\nArizona\n\nFlagstaff: In the two years since the Grand Canyon approved a plan to reduce the number of bison roaming in the national park, the herd has only grown in size. No one is sure exactly how many of the massive animals call far northern Arizona home because they’re hard to count amid the Ponderosa pine trees, but it’s in the hundreds. Left unchecked, the herd could reach 1,500 in several years, severely damaging the landscape and water resources, the park says. The reduction plan has been hampered by weather and disagreements over how to kill some of the bison if shipping them off isn’t enough. The Grand Canyon tried to round up some animals last year, but wintry weather set in. The park is taking a second run this month. The Grand Canyon bison are descendants of those introduced to the area in the early 1900s as part of a ranching operation to crossbreed them with cattle.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has announced that Chancellor Andrew Rogerson is resigning his post after three years at the helm. According to a university statement, Rogerson’s resignation took effect Sunday, and he is assuming a faculty position before retiring next year. University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt credited Rogerson with improving fundraising efforts and campus grounds while strengthening ties to the Little Rock community. UALR has faced challenges that include a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall. System leaders earlier this year chose not to increase tuition at UALR but did vote to boost fees by about 3%. Last fall there were 10,525 students enrolled at UALR, down from more than 13,000 students several years ago.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSacramento: Gov. Gavin Newsom has reached a deal with apartment owners and developers on legislation that would cap how rapidly rents can rise as the state grapples with a housing crisis. The deal would cap annual rent increases at 5% plus inflation, with a 10% maximum increase. That’s lower than the 7% threshold lawmakers had previously negotiated amid strong resistance from the real estate and development industries. It marks a victory for renters who say they are being priced out as rents rise, though many renters and social justice groups likely want an even stricter proposal. Democratic Assemblyman David Chiu of San Francisco, the bill’s author, had made numerous concessions to the real estate and development industries to even get the bill to the state Senate. The new deal changes the exemption for newer properties from those built within the past 10 years to within the past 15.\n\nColorado\n\nBroomfield: City officials are suspending their search for investors to help build a toll road after a soil test found elevated levels of plutonium in the highway’s planned path. The road would cross a buffer zone on the east side of a former nuclear weapons plant northwest of Denver. KUSA-TV reports the Broomfield City Council says it’s halting efforts to find a private partner for the project. The Rocky Flats plant made plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads from 1952 to 1989. Later, the manufacturing site underwent a $7 billion cleanup. State officials announced in August that a soil test found plutonium levels five times higher than the cleanup standard, but a second test found much lower levels. Officials were seeking more information on the results.\n\nConnecticut\n\nEast Granby: The nation’s oldest prison will be the backdrop for a day devoted to the importance of conserving bats. The underground tunnels at the former Old New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine in East Granby are the winter home of several state-endangered bat species. On Saturday, the public can catch a glimpse of endangered bats in the “bat cave.” Other family-friendly activities are planned as well. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and Department of Economic and Community Development are planning Bat Appreciation Day to highlight the site’s importance to conserving the bat population. Bats at the historic site are considered “cave bats,” in part because they hibernate underground in caves and mines. Connecticut purchased the copper mine in 1773 and operated it as a prison for more than 50 years.\n\nDelaware\n\nMilton: The streets of this small town are usually flooded each October by an undead horde, but it seems there won’t be any dead men walking this year. Milton Zombie Fest organizer and theater director Fred Munzert says the town approved new guidelines that essentially take the street festival off the street and raise the event’s financial burden. The theater’s board decided this month to cancel the event. Munzert says the town council and mayor barred the event’s stage and vendors from the street and halved its number of approved food trucks. He says it costs about $20,000 to throw the family-friendly festival, which organizers said was going to be free to attendees this year. Mayor Ted Kanakos didn’t respond to requests for comment.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: The D.C. Council has lost its second voting representative on the regional transit authority board. News outlets report Corbett Price announced Friday that he was resigning effective immediately. Price told Mayor Muriel E. Bowser that he was resigning as a district representative for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority board over a family matter and upcoming surgery. He was appointed in 2015 and approved for a second term this year. Several council members unsuccessfully tried to oust Price in July after he lied about an independent ethics probe that found councilman Jack Evans guilty of not disclosing a conflict of interest.\n\nFlorida\n\nNaples: Deputies have a cat burglar in custody. Literally, a cat. Collier County sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call Saturday about a suspected burglary in progress. A homeowner heard knocking on a sliding door along with meowing. The caller thought the cat sounds were a ruse to try to get him or her to open the door. When deputies arrived, they found the culprit was a small cat named Bones. They posted a photo on Facebook of the cat in back of a patrol car poking its head through a barred window. The department said Bones was taking to a county animal shelter for “fur-ther questioning.” Collier County Domestic Animal Services, which has the cat in custody, said in a social media post that it was in the process of contacting Bones’ owner.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Residents near Fort McPherson say they’re frustrated about what they view as a lack of progress in redeveloping the massive military base. The Atlanta City Council last month approved spending an additional $1.3 million to help keep the Fort Mac Local Redevelopment Authority going. WABE Radio reports that one part of the base – the former forces command building – will be the new home for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Atlanta offices. Board members say they’re still negotiating with developer Stephen Macauley. He had a plan to develop the remaining 144 acres of the site, but the project has stalled.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: The USS Arizona Memorial has welcomed large crowds to its reopening after 15 months of repairs. Hawaii News Now reports the memorial received thousands of sightseers Sunday for the first time since its closure by the National Park Service in May 2018. Pearl Harbor National Memorial Acting Superintendent Steve Mietz says workers “had to rebuild the system from scratch” to allow safe access. Exceptionally high tides in 2017 are believed to have dislodged concrete blocks sunk into Pearl Harbor’s sediment and connected by chains to the dock. The repair project cost more than $2.1 million. U.S. Rep. Ed Case says he worked with Hawaii’s congressional leaders to speed the project. Officials say visitor traffic to the national park decreased by about 30% after the memorial’s closure.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: Two years ago, an Ada County jury awarded an Idaho State Police investigator $1.5 million in a whistleblower lawsuit he filed against the agency. Brandon Eller thought the case was over, but the judge reduced the award to $1 million, and Eller and ISP appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court. The Idaho Statesman reports the case finally resolved last week, with the state paying Eller $1.29 million in damages, lost wages and legal fees. Eller, a crash investigator, filed the whistleblower lawsuit in 2015, claiming ISP retaliated against him because he testified against another officer in a court hearing. The Idaho Supreme Court ruled that the district judge erred in reducing the jury’s award and sent the case back to court, but both sides settled the case for $1.29 million.\n\nIllinois\n\nHighland Park: Officials are pushing for approval from regulators to add thousands of cubic yards of sand along a Lake Michigan beach that is eroding north of the city thanks in part to rising water levels that continue to threaten shorelines of the Great Lakes. The Chicago Tribune reports the Park District of Highland Park hopes to get the green light from the state’s Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin the $190,000 project at Rosewood Beach. Officials say erosion threatens the stability of the boardwalk for a beach that four years ago reopened after a $12 million renovation project. They say the erosion is the result of waves carrying the sand offshore and rising lake levels that have put some of the beachfront under water.\n\nIndiana\n\nBunker Hill: A dilapidated air traffic control tower is moving toward demolition at Grissom Air Reserve Base nearly three decades after it was mothballed. The structure built in 1942 was the base’s first air traffic control tower prior to its retirement around 1991. State officials recently determined it has historic significance, but debris falling from the decaying structure is creating aircraft hazards at the base’s airstrip near Bunker Hill, about 60 miles north of Indianapolis. Jim Tidd, the Miami County Economic Development Authority’s executive director, tells the Kokomo Tribune crews have been forced to quickly clean up fallen debris before it’s sucked into the engines of military or civilian aircraft. Tidd says county officials will seek state grant funding to pay for the demolition.\n\nIowa\n\nAmes: The city has been awarded a $1.66 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant to put more electric buses into the city’s public transportation fleet. The city recently announced CyRide will use the money to replace several diesel buses that have exceeded their useful life. The public transportation entity will also buy battery chargers/dispensers and complete facility modifications to support the technology. Interim Transit Director Barbara Neal says the grant is good news for Ames. She says supporting public transportation is “a great way to reduce your own carbon footprint, while moving to electric buses will help CyRide reduce its emissions.” The Transportation Department’s Federal Transit Administration Low- or No-Emission Grant program has funded over $300 million in new buses, infrastructure and training since its establishment.\n\nKansas\n\nMcPherson: McPherson College and McPherson Hospital are partners in a new health initiative to improve rural health care. The two organizations announced last week that they will combine academic programs and community outreach. As part of the project, McPherson College will offer a new health science degree beginning in the fall of 2020. The McPherson Sentinel reports health science students will gain hands-on training with internships, field experiences and observation at McPherson Hospital. McPherson Hospital CEO Terri Gehring says one goal of the project is to persuade some of the health science students to stay and work in McPherson after graduation. She says the hospital competes with several nearby organizations to recruit and retain employees.\n\nKentucky\n\nLouisville: Kentucky State Fair officials say attendance was down this year, but revenue was up. WLKY-TV reports no statistics about pricing changes were given, but attendance figures released last week show a drop of more than 25,000. This year’s fair ran from Aug. 15 to 25 and drew 589,170 people. Last year, attendance was 614,470. Temperatures well into the 90s may have played a role. Another factor could have been a change in policy for minors attending the fair. A disturbance involving fireworks led the fair to require minors attending at night to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Additionally, a teenager was arrested during the fair’s first weekend and accused of firing a shot into the air at the fair. Officials say next year’s fair will start Aug. 20.\n\nLouisiana\n\nBaton Rouge: The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will close the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge this week to hold its annual controlled alligator harvest. State officials say the refuge will close Wednesday through Sept. 11 until noon each day to harvest the reptiles. After noon each day, the public will be allowed to enter the refuge and use its recreational areas until official sunset. The delayed openings will be in effect each day or until alligator trappers have used their tags for this controlled harvest. The refuge spans 26 miles of coastal Louisiana in Cameron and Vermilion parishes, provides recreational fishing opportunities for crabs, shrimp, redfish, speckled trout, black drum, largemouth bass and other species. Rockefeller attracts over 100,000 visitors annually.\n\nMaine\n\nSouth Portland: Rapper DMX has helped a local family with its back-to-school purchases. The rapper was in Maine to perform at Rock Row when he crossed paths with Nikki Cutchens and daughter Grace at the Maine Mall. Cutchens told WABI-TV she was in line Saturday when DMX offered to pay. It was unclear how much the purchase was. DMX said he was blessed to have 15 children and wanted her family to be blessed, as well. She said she’s grateful for the act of kindness. Grace Firley and her sister both got a pair of shoes. In her words, “I have DMX’s shoes.”\n\nMaryland\n\nAnnapolis: A ban on plastic foam containers aimed at businesses that sell food has taken effect in the capital. The Capital Gazette reports the ban on the material commonly referred to as Styrofoam began Sunday in Annapolis. The Maryland General Assembly and Anne Arundel County Council have passed similar rules that will go into effect next year. Lawmakers say the polystyrene in the containers is difficult to recycle and breaks down into small pieces that can invade the water supply. Annapolis city spokeswoman Mitchelle Stephenson says restaurants and vendors have been alerted twice this year to switch to paper, cardboard or another biodegradable material. Businesses found in violation of the law are fined $100 for the first offense and $200 for subsequent offenses.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin says he’s kicking off voter registration drives, now that there are just six months to go until the presidential primaries. The Democrat said Tuesday was the six-month mark, so he was holding a voter registration drive at Boston’s South Station during peak commuting hours. With most leases beginning Sept. 1, Galvin said he hopes to catch people who moved recently and need to register at their new address so they can vote March 3. The last day for Massachusetts residents to register to vote, update their address or change their party for the primaries is Feb. 12. Galvin’s office will be holding registration drives throughout the state. Voters can also register online.\n\nMichigan\n\nLansing: The state Department of Corrections is examining how its mail policy is applied after officers at one prison prevented inmates from reading some stories published by the Lansing State Journal. Workers at the Ionia Correctional Facility blocked inmate access to five stories this year concerning criminal proceedings against a probation officer, prisoners’ parole and re-sentencing hearings, and a lawsuit filed by state prisoners. The Journal reports the Michigan Press Association has questioned why most of the blocked stories were considered unfit for prisoners’ eyes. Department spokesman Chris Gautz says the mail policy is designed to keep prisons safe and MDOC workers’ lives private. The policy also bars mail that promotes violence or racism or that contains nude images. Gautz says Corrections will review inconsistencies brought to its attention.\n\nMinnesota\n\nMinneapolis: A 10-year-old girl is using the profits from selling lemonade to help buy protective vests for police dogs. Josie Larson, of Monticello, set up the lemonade stand when she found out that the K-9s needed the bulletproof equipment. She set a goal of raising $1,000 and wound up taking in more than $1,600. On Friday, Josie presented the Wright County Sheriff’s Office with a check for $1,500. She used the rest of the money to buy treats and toys for the dogs. Josie tells WCCO-TV that it’s important to keep the sK-9s and the officers safe.\n\nMississippi\n\nGautier: Soon after alligator season opened at noon Friday with favorable conditions, two hunters caught a giant that could break a state record. Derrick Saucier of Pascagoula and Jarrod Davis of Hurley were making passes of Mary Walker Bayou in Gautier when they spotted the large gator. Saucier said it was minutes before noon, and he felt like a kid on Christmas Eve waiting for the season to start. A few minutes later, the pair had hooked the 13-foot, 6-inch alligator and then spent 90 minutes battling it. They struggled to get the animal into their boat and had to tow it to the shallow water of a nearby boat launch. The alligator’s measurements indicate it could near the state record for heaviest male alligator taken in public waters.\n\nMissouri\n\nKansas City: The Kansas City Zoo is planning a $10 million renovation of its elephant exhibit. The project announced last week will include easier access to the pool for the elephants, as well as adding shade and softer ground for the animals to walk on. Zoo Director Randy Wisthoff says the renovations will also improve visitors’ views of the elephants, with additional seating and handicapped-accessible renovations. The zoo is still waiting to announce final plans for a $75 million saltwater aquarium. KCUR reports the delay is caused mostly by a $7 million contribution from Kansas City. The city council directed City Manager Troy Schulte to try to find the money, but a city spokesman said that no funds have been identified to fulfill the request.\n\nMontana\n\nMissoula: The state health department is proposing new rules for licensing private residential treatment programs for troubled teens now that the agency has oversight of such programs. The Missoulian reports the proposed rules include licensing requirements, unannounced inspections, and protocols for reporting abuse and neglect. The rules say programs may not punish residents through seclusion, physical discipline, withholding food or water, or denying family visits. The state Department of Public Health and Human Services removed 27 children from a private treatment program in July following reports of abuse. Public comment on the proposed rules will be taken at a hearing Sept. 12 at the DPHHS auditorium in Helena. Written comment is also being accepted.\n\nNebraska\n\nLincoln: The state’s public utilities agency says it has been awarded nearly $2 million in federal grant money to revamp the state’s 50-year-old 911 system. The $1.99 million grant from the U.S. Transportation Department and U.S. Commerce Department will go toward implementing a new system called Next Generation 911. The new system will use GPS data to help locate those who call 911 from a cellphone. It will also give Nebraska 911 centers the ability to receive digital information to include, text, pictures and video. Earlier this year, state officials said 4 in 5 calls placed to 911 are made on cellphones. The Nebraska Public Service Commission applied for and will administer the grant. The state will have until March 31, 2022, to apply the federal funds.\n\nNevada\n\nLas Vegas: Rapper Fetty Wap was arrested over the weekend on suspicion of assaulting three employees at a Vegas Strip hotel-casino, police said. The 28-year-old artist, whose real name is Willie Maxwell, was arrested early Sunday on three counts of battery after an incident at the Mirage, according to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police. Charging documents have not yet been filed. An email seeking comment from Daniel Kim, who has previously represented Maxwell, was not immediately returned. TMZ first reported that Maxwell punched three people during a fight with a parking valet. A message seeking additional details from police was not immediately returned. MGM Resorts, which owns the Mirage, declined to comment Tuesday.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: The odds don’t look good for Democratic lawmakers hoping to override more than 50 vetoes issued by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. It takes a two-thirds majority to override a veto, and only three of the 53 vetoed bills originally passed the House by that margin. One of them – abolishing the death penalty – already has become law after lawmakers overrode the veto in May. Another of the three bills would allow towns and cities to double the maximum surcharge on motor vehicle registration fees to $10. The last would allow medical marijuana patients to get prescriptions even if they haven’t had the same doctor or provider for three months. The House meets Sept. 18-19. The Senate meets Sept. 19.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nSouth Plainfield: Authorities canceled a Labor Day parade that the governor was supposed to attend Monday because “destructive devices” were found near the parade route. Thomas Kaiser, 55, of South Plainfield, was charged with two counts of possession of a destructive device for an unlawful purpose, with additional charges expected, Middlesex County prosecutors and local police said. Authorities said a suspicious package containing a destructive device was left at Donovan’s Reef bar in Sea Bright. That prompted an investigation Sunday that led to Kaiser’s home, and other devices were found near the residence, authorities said. The home is located near the start of the South Plainfield Labor Day parade. Gov. Phil Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy had planned to march in the 62nd annual event.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nCarlsbad: Officials say a major part of a multimillion-dollar effort to rebuild a ventilation system at the U.S. government’s only underground nuclear waste repository is expected to be done by next year. The U.S. Department of Energy recently awarded a contract for the construction of a utility shaft essential to the project. The shaft was designed with a 26-foot diameter, extending 2,275 feet underground. The rebuilt system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad is intended to add air to the underground and allow the placement of mining and other waste material to occur simultaneously. The ventilation overhaul was prompted by a radiation release in 2014 that contaminated parts of the repository and forced its closure for nearly three years.\n\nNew York\n\nTupper Lake: Turns out residents of this village are hog wild for calling their future semi-pro baseball team the “River Pigs,” after all. The team had been rooting around for a new nickname after some objections from people in the Adirondacks community of Tupper Lake. But the Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports that “River Pigs” got about 70% of the vote in public balloting Saturday. Other options included River Drivers, Axemen, Tupper Timbers and Rowdy Bucks. Village Trustee Ron LaScala says what’s important now is for Tupper Lake to rejoice in its new Empire League team. It’s due to arrive next summer. The name reflects the region’s logging history. River pigs were skilled loggers who broke up logjams on rivers.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: A portion of the state’s Medicaid population won’t shift to managed care coverage this fall due to the extended state budget stalemate, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday. Managed care was supposed to go online for Medicaid enrollees in 27 northern counties Nov. 1, with the rest of the state phased in Feb. 1. But without funds to cover the transition and final changes needed to set rates for health care entities providing coverage, the first batch of counties can’t move forward that quickly, DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen said. Managed care services are now scheduled to begin in all 100 counties Feb. 1. Cohen suggested the updated rollout schedule could be revisited again if a budget isn’t worked out by mid-November.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: Hiring managers across the state are looking for ways to solve a workforce shortage. The Bismarck Tribune reports that Job Service North Dakota, which tracks employment data, estimates the state currently has 14,000 job openings. A decade ago, North Dakota had 8,000. State officials say the real number is closer to 30,000, given that some employers only advertise with one job posting when looking to hire multiple people for that role. A survey of employers last year found that 28% of openings go unfilled longer than three months. Arik Spencer, president and CEO of the Greater North Dakota Chamber, says the shortage is bad for the state’s economy, and it’s going to take a “long-term, more surgical approach” to fix.\n\nOhio\n\nToledo: The Toledo Zoo plans to change its giraffe herd after a series of deaths. Four of the zoo’s Masai giraffes have died since 2016, including two in the past two months. Its curator of mammals, Michael Frushour, tells The Blade newspaper the zoo is talking about switching to reticulated giraffes. He says it’s believed that subspecies isn’t as prone to some of the health issues seen with Masai giraffes. An 8-year-old male giraffe, Trevor, collapsed Aug. 24 while on exhibit and died within minutes. His female offspring, Binti, had to be euthanized in June. Lab results showed both had severe anemia, adding to the suspicion of a genetic issue. The zoo says Trevor died of a condition called peracute giraffe mortality syndrome. Binti’s cause of death remains unknown.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: Two of the top leaders at the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety who were named last month as defendants in a civil rights lawsuit have stepped down from their positions at the agency. A spokeswoman for Gov. Kevin Stitt says DPS Commissioner Rusty Rhoades and Oklahoma Highway Patrol Chief Michael Harrell announced their resignations Monday. Stitt has appointed John Scully, the director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control, as the new DPS commissioner, effective immediately. The move comes just a few weeks after Rhoades and Harrell were named in a civil rights lawsuit filed by a former patrol captain who alleged the two were involved in a cheating and corruption scandal at the agency.\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: A floating tourist attraction is set to close after more than 50 years in business. The Oregonian/Oregon Live reports that Undersea Gardens in Newport is scheduled to end operations Sunday. Owner Mariner Square announced the closure of the attraction in Newport’s Historic Bayfront on social media Sunday. Undersea Gardens will be open for free public tours through next Sunday, while its dive shows ended Monday. The gift shop will remain open until Oct. 11. Mariner Square says it is renovating its other two attractions, The Wax Works and Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Undersea Gardens opened in 1966 as a floating “people-quarium” allowing visitors inside the attraction to look out and view sea life in Yaquina Bay, 115 miles southwest of Portland.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nGouldsboro: A family says the thief that stole a delivery package of dog food from their porch turned out to be a hungry young bear. Eighteen-year-old Aidan Newman tells WNEP-TV he was just arriving home to pack up for college when he saw the black bear in his family’s yard. He went inside to tell his family, and that’s when they looked out the window and saw the bear come onto the porch and drag the box into the woods. Newman thinks the bear, which seemed about 2 years old, may have been casing place since the boxes from pet retailer Chewy were dropped off earlier that day. The ordeal was caught on the family’s surveillance video. Chewy saw the footage and is replacing the order. Newman says from now on, his family plans to take in the deliveries from Chewy more quickly so the bear doesn’t make it a habit.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: The city has reactivated its school zone speed camera program just in time for the new academic year. Fifteen cameras were activated Tuesday within a quarter-mile of several schools in an effort to keep drivers from speeding. Police say the cameras are operational on school days from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Drivers caught going 11 mph or more over the speed limit face a $50 ticket. Police say the cameras are meant to protect children. The cameras can be relocated to address problem areas. The cameras were the source of controversy in 2018 when more than 12,000 speeding tickets were handed out in a little over a month, prompting a legal challenge brought by people who said the program was in violation of state law that required warning signs.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nSpartanburg: A man who founded one of the nation’s biggest conversion therapy ministries has something to say: He’s gay. The Post and Courier reports Hope for Wholeness founder McKrae Game came out of the closet this summer, nearly two years after he was fired from the faith-based conversion therapy program. He’s now trying to come to terms with the harm he inflicted when he was advocating for religious efforts to change a person’s sexuality. The 51-year-old also is trying to find his place in a community he’s assailed for at least 20 years. Game is one of several former movement leaders who have left the pulpits of heterosexuality, come out as LGBTQ, and condemned conversion therapy as a dangerous and misleading practice.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nCuster: The U.S. Forest Service has purchased an additional 350 acres for the Black Hills National Forest for preservation of wildlife habitat and protection of at-risk watersheds and impaired streams. The Rapid City Journal reports the Forest Service announced the purchase Wednesday from the Trust for Public Land. The land was owned by the Myrle G. Case Trust, care of Wells Fargo Bank. It was bought with money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Black Hills National Forest has about 1.2 million acres. In addition to preserving wildlife habitat and protecting watersheds and streams, officials say the land will also be used to provide more recreational opportunities for the public.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: A Catholic school removed the Harry Potter books from its library after the school’s priest decided they could cause a reader to conjure evil spirits. In an email, the Rev. Dan Reehil of Nashville’s St. Edward Catholic School said he consulted exorcists in the U.S. and Rome who recommended removing the books. Reehil wrote, “The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text.” Catholic Diocese of Nashville superintendent Rebecca Hammel said Reehil has the final say at his school. Hammel said she thinks the books by J.K. Rowling are still on the shelves of other libraries in the diocese.\n\nTexas\n\nAustin: The state is teaming with Bumble to crack down on people who send unsolicited nude images on dating apps and elsewhere in cyberspace. The state’s new law banning so-called cyber flashing comes after the Austin-based dating app company lobbied for action. The law is set to take effect Saturday. It makes electronic transmission of sexually explicit material a Class C misdemeanor with a fine of up to $500 if the person who received it hasn’t given consent. State Rep. Morgan Meyer says app users complained to Bumble about people sending unwanted images, and Bumble “realized there was no recourse.” Bumble Chief of Staff Caroline Ellis Roche says the company plans to take the legislation to the federal level and other states.\n\nUtah\n\nSt. George: School officials say more than 1,000 homeless students enrolled in Washington County schools last year, and the district is struggling to support the growing population. KUER-FM reported that the state Board of Education says the county has the seventh-highest homeless student population of any state district. Officials say wages have not kept up with inflation from a 139,000-person population increase, and the county is expected to triple in size by 2065. District officials say they are provided $60,000 of state and district funding for fee waivers, food and transportation for homeless students. Officials say that doesn’t include thousands of dollars in donated supplies or new community resources, but it’s still not enough. Officials say a majority of them are temporarily living in unstable situations with people they know.\n\nVermont\n\nPutney: A general store that dates to the 1790s is getting a new owner. The Brattleboro Reformer reports the Putney Historical Society is set to close the sale of Putney General Store on Wednesday, and the incoming owners, Mike and Kim Cosco, are slated to take over the business the next day. The building will continue to be owned by the historical society. The store has been managed for more than two years by the historical society’s Betsy McIsaac and Lyssa Papazian since shortly after the death of the previous owner, but they’ve been looking for someone to buy the store. McIsaac says the Coscos learned the store was for sale from an online ad. The store was first built in 1796.\n\nVirginia\n\nFairfax: A $50 million gift made earlier this year to the state’s largest public university was given specifically to “promote the conservative principles of governance,” newly released documents show, raising concerns from critics that it compromises academic freedom at the school. Documents obtained by the group UnKoch My Campus under the Freedom of Information Act and made public last week show that the estate of Allison and Dorothy Rouse specified its bequest to George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School be used “as an endowment to fund a chair or chairs that will promote the conservative principles of governance, statesmanship, high morals, civil and religious freedom and the study of the United States Constitution.” University officials say there was nothing improper about specifying conservative governance as a principle to be promoted.\n\nWashington\n\nSeattle: A cannabis company has offered to collect and properly dispose of any waste from other marijuana stores. KING-TV reports Canna Culture Shop began the pot waste program last week to help reduce the impact marijuana waste has on the environment. Owner Maryam Mirnateghi says the program is meant to keep cannabis packaging from ending up on the street or in waterways. Mirnateghi says the industry is expected to produce more than 1 billion pieces of cannabis packaging annually starting in 2020. She says the program incentivizes customers by giving points to use on new purchases for each item of trash brought into the Seattle store. Mirnateghi says anyone can bring in any cannabis trash from anywhere.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: A large solar project that will help power a parking building at Yeager Airport is nearing completion. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports construction should be concluded on the 1,800-module project by Wednesday. Then it will take a couple of weeks to wire up. An opening ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 18. The $4 million project is 90% funded by the Federal Aviation Administration and 10% by the state. Yeager Airport Director Terry Sayre says a second array is being planned for the other parking building and the rental car and maintenance structures. Sayre says they eventually want to power the whole airport with off-grid sources. Yeager Airport receives royalties from two gas wells on airport property. It is entitled to a volume of free gas from them once a pipe can be connected.\n\nWisconsin\n\nBlack River Falls: Rains that inundated the state this spring after a wet fall and winter forced farmers to plant their crops historically late, leading to uneven growth stages. Plant pathologist Damon Smith from the University of Wisconsin-Madison says that has made it difficult for farmers to decide when to apply fungicide to crops because it’s based on specific plant growth stages. But an app is helping farmers make better decisions about when to do so, Wisconsin Public Radio reports. Smith says farmers are looking for closely tailored recommendations about what to do. So Smith says one of his programs has developed smartphone apps to help. One, called Sporecaster, lets farmers input data like location and plant growth to help predict the best time to treat for white mold in soybeans.\n\nWyoming\n\nCheyenne: Some lawmakers are getting behind a proposal to try to boost the state’s struggling coal industry with a marketing program. The Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee voted Friday to support a bill that would put $1 million toward the effort. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports the bill could be considered during the 2020 legislative session. Gov. Mark Gordon policy adviser Renny MacKay says that besides promoting low-sulfur Powder River Basin coal, the program would help Wyoming officials make sure their positions are heard in decisions affecting the coal industry. MacKay says one example could be discussions about possibly closing an Indiana power plant that uses Wyoming coal. MacKay says the plant’s closure could cost Wyoming $10 million in revenue a year.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/09/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2019/07/22/titanic-auction-legos-mighty-mississippi-news-around-states/39794949/", "title": "50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nBirmingham: The state’s busiest airport is partnering with a company that can identify passengers through eye scans and fingerprints. Al.com reports that Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport recently added kiosks offering the technology for a fee. CLEAR offers a $15 per month membership, paid annually, with various discounts for family members. After the biometric identification, passengers move to the front of physical security screening. The company says its technology is available at more than 60 airports, stadiums and other locations.\n\nCorrections & clarifications: In a previous version of this story, it erroneously stated what CLEAR members do in the security line. CLEAR is not involved with physical security. The article also incorrectly stated the number and types of locations where CLEAR is available. The program is available at more than 60 airports, stadiums and other locations.\n\nAlaska\n\nKodiak: Alaska has become the only state without an arts council following a loss of funding through state budget cuts. The Kodiak Daily Mirror reports that the closure of the Alaska State Council on the Arts last week means a $2.8 million loss of arts funding in the state. Although only $700,000 is state funding, another $2.1 million consists of federal funds through matching grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and private foundation support. Officials say those funds will no longer be available without the state council as a connecting vehicle. Officials say Alaska residents’ federal taxes will still help pay for the arts in other states through the NEA, but those funds will not contribute to the arts in their own communities.\n\nArizona\n\nTucson: A program that prioritizes drug treatment over jail time is credited with keeping people out of jail and saving taxpayers some money. The Arizona Daily Star reports more than 500 people struggling with opioid addiction were sent to a grant-funded Pima County “deflection” program in the past year. Based on jail booking costs, taxpayers saved $178,000 in the fiscal year that ended June 30. The effort began a year ago as a six-month pilot program in two divisions of the Tucson Police Department. Officers could recommend a suspect caught with 2 grams of opioids or less for treatment instead of arrest. Authorities say the program proved successful with nearly 120 people getting “deflected.” The county has since received $1.4 million in federal funds to expand the program.\n\nArkansas\n\nFayetteville: Northwest Arkansas cities are figuring out how to handle the arrival of electric scooters, and the process will be evolving, officials say. A state law set to take effect Wednesday authorizes electric scooters vendors to set up shop in any Arkansas city. The scooters are battery-powered, have two wheels and a T-shaped handlebar and a floorboard. Riders pay to unlock them through a mobile app. The law says riders must be at least 16, and scooters have a maximum speed of 15 mph. The law allows municipalities to establish reasonable regulations for the safe operation and presence of the scooters on public property, but not ban them from the public right of way. Fayetteville’s City Council first took up a draft of an ordinance to regulate the devices July 2. Scooter companies will have to apply for a permit, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSanta Rosa: The Sonoma County Fair has eliminated the pig scramble from Farmers Day because of rising public concern and protests over animal welfare. In the long-running event at the fair, youngsters chased and tried to capture piglets weighing 40 to 60 pounds. Officials say this year’s event Aug. 4 will instead include elementary school children carrying watermelons slicked with vegetable oil around an obstacle course in a timed race. The board president says the decision reflects a “heightened awareness” toward calls for humane treatment of farm animals at the fair 55 miles north of San Francisco.\n\nColorado\n\nLoveland: State wildlife officials are telling people near the Rocky Mountain foothills to keep an eye on their children and pets after a series of mountain lion sightings. Donna Kendrick says she and a neighbor saw a mountain lion recently in their backyards in west Loveland. Kendrick told the Loveland Reporter-Herald on Friday the big cat saw her and “vanished like a ninja.” Kendrick called the Colorado Parks and Wildlife department, where spokesman Jason Clay says wildlife managers are aware of the sighting. Clay says Loveland-area residents reported mountain lions twice previously this year. People have reported mountain lions six times this year in nearby Masonville.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: State Insurance Commissioner Andrew N. Mais is urging homeowners to review their insurance policies before the upcoming tropical storm season. Peak hurricane season in Connecticut begins in mid-August and runs through late October. Mais says policyholders should discuss with an agent or insurance company if they have appropriate and adequate coverage. Although homeowners, condo and renters insurance cover many types of storm damage, he notes that damage from flooding is excluded. Separate policies can be purchased from the federal National Flood Insurance Program or a private insurer. He says now is the time to buy those policies, considering there’s a 30-day waiting period before the policy takes effect.\n\nDelaware\n\nWilmington:From 2006 through 2012, nearly 300million painkillers were shipped into Delaware according to a Drug Enforcement Administration database published this week by The Washington Post. If those 276,177,276 pills were distributed equally, that would be 286 for every Delawarean. The data set, known as ARCOS, tracks the journey of every prescription painkiller in the United States, starting with the manufacturer that produced it all the way to the pharmacy that purchased it. In 2006, 29 million prescription painkillers landed in Delaware communities. In 2011, the year with the highest volume, that number was nearly 48 million — a 68% increase. In 2012, the most recent year of data available, the number was 41 million. More than half of the pills — nearly 150 million — arrived in New Castle County. Sussex County had the highest per capita rate in the state at 361 pills per person. Kent County saw the greatest increase in pills delivered between 2006 and 2012, going from 4.5 million to 7.1 million respectively — a 57% increase.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: Developer Adrian Washington, CEO and founder of Neighborhood Development Company, has apologized for padlocking Little Jewels Daycare and Nooks Barbershop citing environmental concerns last week, WUSA-TV reports. To make amends, Washington has offered the barbershop and daycare spots in a new building paying the same rent. “We did the right thing (where) there was a clear health emergency, but we did it in the wrong way. We didn’t communicate well, we came in suddenly and people rightly felt disrespected,” Washington says. He adds it served as a valuable learning lesson even for a developer who has been in the business for more than two decades.\n\nFlorida\n\nSt. Augustine: An alligator that eluded capture for days in a Chicago lagoon is settling in its new home. The St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park said in a Facebook post Friday that it welcomed the reptile known as Chance the Snapper with a banner, pizza and the band Chicago’s greatest hits. The park that now houses Chance recommended the Florida trapper Chicago officials flew in to capture the gator. The 4-foot, 18-pound American alligator became an instant sensation from the day he was spotted in the Humboldt Park lagoon and photos popped up online. Investigators don’t know why the animal was in the lagoon, but experts say it wouldn’t have survived the winter. Park director John Brueggen says Chance will stay alone for 90 days to make sure he is illness-free, and then join other gators.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Georgia Power intends to rely more on solar power than in past years to deliver energy to homes and businesses. It will also close a coal-fired power plant in the northwest part of the state. WABE-FM reports that it’s part of the company’s long-range energy plan, which was recently approved by the Georgia Public Service Commission. Under the plan, Georgia Power will close its coal-fired power plant near Rome. Also part of the plan: the company says it will add more wood burning to its energy mix. Georgia Power has proposed an increase in rates by about 7 %. Hearings on that matter are scheduled to begin later this year.\n\nHawaii\n\nWailuki: The governing authority for Maui’s water utility plans to study the feasibility of buying and maintaining an irrigation system that diverts stream water from east Maui and delivers it other parts of the island. The county Board of Water Supply voted Thursday to establish a subcommittee to study the issue, The Maui News reported. Alexander & Baldwin developed the East Maui Irrigation system a century ago to supply water to its sugar cane fields in central Maui. The company last year sold the cane fields to Mahi Pono, which is growing a variety of crops on the land. The system, which is today owned by A&B and Mahi Pono, has also supplied 35,000 residents in Upcountry with water. These water users have been in limbo after a bill that would have authorized the state to extend A&B’s water permits failed at the state Legislature in May. A&B’s diversion permit expires in December. The bill’s failure raises questions about the permit’s renewal and the delivery of water to end users after that date.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: In February, Idaho Fish and Game drastically cut the number of moose tags because of population declines across the state. In 2019-2020, there will be only 634 moose tags available each year, a 22% decrease from 2017-2018, which also saw an 8% reduction compared to 2015-2016. The Panhandle region of Idaho saw a 45% reduction in moose tags, the largest in the state, and the elimination of antlerless tags. Wildlife biologists do not have clear answers for the drop in moose population, but the likely suspect is a combination of habitat loss, ticks and predators. Idaho Fish and Game does not know exact moose population numbers but estimates there are 10,000 to 12,000 in the state. To estimate populations, Idaho Fish and Game relies on harvest information.\n\nIllinois\n\nSpringfield: Thousands of people have visited the governor’s mansion since it reopened last year after renovations that cost $15 million. The State Journal-Register reports that the governor’s office says more than 29,000 people have toured the mansion. Former Gov. Bruce Rauner spearheaded the renovations because maintenance had been neglected. Recent former governors rarely used the mansion before the renovations. But Rauner lived there and now Gov. J.B. Pritzker has moved in. The mansion offers exhibits highlighting the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago and life during the Civil War. An “Art of Illinois” project also showcases 80 pieces of fine and decorative art. The mansion has hosted free weekly concerts this summer. The mansion is open daily from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for guided tours.\n\nIndiana\n\nBurns Harbor: The Navy is planning to commission its new USS Indianapolis combat vessel at a northwestern Indiana port this fall. The ceremony marking the ship’s entry into the Navy’s active fleet is set for Oct. 26 at Burns Harbor along Lake Michigan. It is the fourth military vessel carrying the Indianapolis name. The second USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine in July 1945 while returning from a Pacific island where it delivered key components for the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Only 317 of its nearly 1,200 crewmen survived the sinking and days in shark-infested waters. The ship was built at a Marinette, Wisconsin, shipyard and will be based near Jacksonville, Florida. It is a Freedom-class littoral ship designed to be highly maneuverable for missions such as mine-clearing and anti-submarine warfare.\n\nIowa\n\nCoralville: Iowa State University is dropping claims of wrongdoing against a former employee and paying her $225,000 to resolve a legal dispute over its popular outdoor sculptures made from Legos. As part of the settlement, Iowa State has also taken several steps to restore the reputation of Teresa McLaughlin. Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen has written her a glowing letter of recommendation calling her an honest, innovative employee. The school also will dedicate a bench for McLaughlin in Reiman Gardens, the campus landmark that McLaughlin spent most of her career building as its director. Those steps will resolve a contentious three-year legal dispute that derailed Nature Connects, the traveling Lego art program conceived by McLaughlin. McLaughlin had accused the university of failing to pay her commissions. The university accused her of working to market competing exhibits.\n\nKansas\n\nGarden City: A local zoo says two of four red panda cubs born last week have died. Officials with the Lee Richardson Zoo say one of the male cubs died of injuries “of an unknown origin” shortly after he was born. Another female cub died while being cared for by her mother. The cubs were among quadruplets born last Wednesday to Ember, a 9-year-old red panda. The zoo says only 1% of red panda litters are quadruplets. Ember and the cubs are expected to be on public display in late September or early October. Until then, footage of mom and cubs will be available on the zoo’s social media accounts.\n\nKentucky\n\nNewport:The city’s plans to install a SkyWheel at the Newport on the Levee can move forward, the city announced Monday. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved the permit for construction of SkyWheel, the observation wheel planned for the riverfront, according to the city. Construction on the 230-foot tall SkyWheel will start as soon as possible. It will feature 30 climate-controlled gondolas and will be built at Newport on the Levee, right next to the Newport Aquarium, by Koch Development of St. Louis.\n\nLouisiana\n\nNew Orleans: The Mississippi River is finally low enough again to let the Army Corps of Engineers begin closing a huge spillway after a record-breaking run diverting water into Lake Ponchartrain. The corps says Monday in a news release that about 10 of the 168 open bays in the Bonnet Carré spillway would be closed by day’s end. Spokesman Matt Roe says full closing is expected to take about a week, with daily checks to make sure the river remains low enough to avoid stressing the city’s levees. The spillway was created to limit the river’s rush past New Orleans, keeping it below 1.25 million cubic feet per second – an amount that would fill the Empire State Building in 30 seconds. The spillway was opened May 10 for the second time this year.\n\nMaine\n\nStonington: A group of Maine lobstermen that has the backing of the state’s Congressional delegation is pushing back at a plan to protect endangered whales with new fishing regulations. A federal team has called for the removal of half the vertical trap lines from the Gulf of Maine to reduce risk to North Atlantic right whales. Lobstermen from the Maine coast gathered with three members of the delegation and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills in Stonington on Sunday to make the case the new rules would put an unfair burden on a key state industry. Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree, who attended the rally, says right whales need help, but the government’s “one-size-fits-all risk reduction” approach might not be the best way. The whales number about 400 and have experienced high mortality recently.\n\nMaryland\n\nBaltimore: Several hundred people gathered outside Johns Hopkins Hospital to protest the hospital’s practice of suing patients over unpaid medical bills. The Baltimore Sun reports the Saturday demonstration also promoted the efforts of Hopkins nurses to join the National Nurses United union. The Sun reported in May that Hopkins has filed thousands of lawsuits since 2009 against patients with outstanding bills. It reported a large portion of those lawsuits targeted residents of low-income areas. Hopkins emailed a statement to employees Saturday saying it supports its nurses right to unionize, but the union released false information about Hopkins’ debt collection practices. Spokeswoman Kim Hoppe says the court is only called on when patients stop responding and all points of contact are exhausted. She says patients can apply for medical or financial hardship.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: Lawmakers are weighing a ban on the practice of declawing cats. Supporters of the measure say declawing is cruel and painful. They say cats rely on their paws and claws to groom themselves and to help protect and defend their bodies. The practice involves amputating a cat’s toes to the first knuckle. A bill that would prohibit declawing is scheduled for a public hearing at the Statehouse on Monday before the Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure. Lawmakers in New York last month voted to approve a bill banning the declawing of cats. The bill was sent to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Declawing a cat is already illegal in much of Europe and in several Canadian provinces, as well as in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Denver.\n\nMichigan\n\nArcadia:An exclusive golf course no longer encourages players to hit balls into Lake Michigan after a diver found hundreds in the water. A description on the Arcadia Bluffs website of the 12th hole overlooking the lake had said, “Go ahead and do it, everyone does,” in reference to hitting a ball into the water before striking a tee shot. The Detroit Free Press says Arcadia Bluffs removed that reference last week after inquiries from the newspaper. Golf course president William Shriver says he doesn’t want to encourage the practice. Experts say golf balls are made of plastic and rubber and aren’t good for the Great Lakes. A beverage cart employee says she was fired for discouraging players from hitting balls into the lake. Arcadia Bluffs declined to comment.\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Cloud:About 400 butterflies filled the sky on Sunday afternoon to celebrate lost loved ones at the eighth annual butterfly release event organized by Quiet Oaks Hospice. More than a thousand people were in attendance to listen to music, send off a butterfly, sip on root beer floats and enjoy a summer breeze by the river. In previous years, the event organizer would read off the names of those who were being celebrated during the butterfly release. But this year, attendees were invited to speak the name of the person they were celebrating and take a moment of silence to reflect.\n\nMississippi\n\nColumbus: A group petitioning to legalize medical marijuana in the state says it needs about 28,700 more signatures to put the initiative on the November 2020 ballot. Jamie Grantham is communications director for Medical Marijuana 2020. She says organizers have gathered more than 86,000 signatures. That’s about two-thirds of what’s needed. The Commercial Dispatch reports Grantham spoke to a civic club Tuesday in Columbus. She says the state Department of Health would regulate every facet of the program, including overseeing treatment centers where products would be sold. She says only Mississippi licensed physicians could prescribe marijuana products to people with “debilitating medical conditions.” State Public Safety Commissioner Marshall Fisher says he opposes easing marijuana laws because of concerns the drug could be abused. He was a longtime narcotics agent.\n\nMissouri\n\nKansas City: Lobbyist spending in Missouri has dropped by 94% since voters approved a $5 cap on lawmaker gifts last year. A KCUR analysis of state data concludes that lobbyists spent less than $17,000 on lawmakers in this year’s legislative session compared with last year’s spending of about $300,000. Peverill Squire, a University of Missouri political science professor, says financial gifts don’t buy votes, but they can buy lawmakers’ effort and time. Squire says most of the spending is on larger events that all lawmakers can attend, which adheres to the cap rule. Kelly Gillespie, a lobbyist who heads Missouri Biotech Association, says the new rules limit educational possibilities. Gillespie’s group funded a program last year to teach lawmakers about drug discovery and health care affordability. That is no longer an option.\n\nMontana\n\nMissoula: Glacier National Park officials are teed off over a report that tourists were hitting golf balls off Going-to-the-Sun Road during a traffic delay. NBC Montana posted a video Thursday taken by a tourist during a road construction delay that shows two men teeing off with golf clubs on the side of the steep mountain road. On Friday, Glacier spokeswoman Lauren Alley told the Missoulian the incident is under investigation. She says throwing or hurling things over Going-to-the-Sun Road has the potential to hurt or kill people or wildlife. She says anyone who spots such activity should try to record the person’s license plate number or remember their face if it can be done safely. Alley says law enforcement calls at Glacier are up 40% over last year.\n\nNebraska\n\nOmaha: Two king penguin chicks that hatched in March are now on display at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. The first chick hatched March 14 and now weighs 26 pounds. The second hatched March 16 and weighs 32 pounds. Their genders are not yet known. The chicks will remain in a segregated “chick pen” in the Antarctic penguin habitat until they molt their nonwaterproof down feathers. It also allows the chicks to get acclimated to the habitat and the other penguins. The chicks were raised by adult males – not typical for this species. Generally, an adult female shares that responsibility. The Zoo’s Aquarium Birds staff only intervened during select feeding times to get the chicks used to accepting food by hand. The zoo has 24 king penguins: 13 males, nine females and the chicks.\n\nNevada\n\nFernley: The second-largest commercial land sale in state history is expected to bring thousands of new jobs to a northern Nevada industrial park covering nearly 7 square miles about 30 miles east of Reno. A California-based real estate firm, Mark IV Capital, outlined details of the $45 million purchase along Interstate 80. The Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada estimates more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs will be created as a result of the potential development at what will be called the Victory Logistics District. Mark IV Capital cited location and infrastructure as reasons for its decision to acquire the property. In addition to easy railway access, it sits at a crossroad near I-80 and U.S. Highways 50 and 395.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nLoudon: The state Department of Transportation will be implementing a traffic control plan for fans attending Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 Race in Loudon. The race starts at 3 p.m., with maximum traffic congestion occurring in the late afternoon and early evening. There will be ramp closures and other changes affecting Route 106, Interstate 93 and Interstate 393. In some areas, extra temporary lanes will be created.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nNewark: Passengers traveling between New Jersey and New York have experienced rail delays of five hours or more about 17 times per year in recent years. That’s the conclusion of a review conducted on behalf of New Jersey Transit and Amtrak. The study’s findings were released Monday by the overseers of a multibillion-dollar project to build a second Hudson River rail tunnel and a new rail bridge over New Jersey’s Hackensack River. The study covered 2014 through 2018 and says the delays cost commuters almost 2,000 hours in extra transit time. They were mostly caused by mechanical problems and an aging infrastructure. The $13.7 billion tunnel project has been stalled by disputes between New York and New Jersey and the federal government over how the cost will be divided up.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nAlbuquerque: In what’s expected to be a long, contentious process, a few dozen people gathered recently for the first public meeting hosted by Public Service Co. of New Mexico on the planned shutdown of its coal-fired power plant. The utility says it wants feedback on four proposed options for replacing the power that will be lost when the San Juan Generating Station closes in 2022. The proposals are outlined in a filing made earlier this month with the Public Regulation Commission. Regulators will review the options in public hearings over the next nine to 15 months. The Albuquerque Journal reports PNM also will hold meetings in August with organizations that want to test potential changes in the different scenarios using modeling tools to determine costs and feasibility.\n\nNew York\n\nAlexandria Bay: The St. Lawrence River has been named the best bass fishery in the nation. It’s a first for the river, which borders Canada to the north and was ranked in the top 10 twice in the past four years by Bassmaster Magazine. The average weight of the entire 149-team field during a June tournament was 20.3 pounds, topped by the winning team from Sam Houston State University, which averaged 24.4 pounds a day. The Big Bass Award for that event was a 6-pound, 7-ouncer. Bassmaster Magazine editor James Hall says in some years there was internal debate over No. 1, but not this year. New York’s Lake Erie out of Buffalo was 10th.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nAsheville: Housing prices in Buncombe County have never been higher, outpacing even that of prices in Asheville city limits for the first time in nearly six years, data compiled by area real estate agencies show. The county's median sale price for the year's second quarter was $319,500, up more than 10% from the same time in 2018 and its highest figure on record, according to Mosiac Community Lifestyle Realty. The rise is being driven by more homes selling for more than $300,000 and fewer selling below $300,000 compared to the same time in 2018, Mosaic said. Buncombe had 732 home sales during the quarter, a roughly 8% boost from the previous year's totals. The same time period yielded 453 home sales in Asheville, also a record number for a quarter, says Mosiac.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: The state Game and Fish Department says its workers have just completed one of the largest fish stocking efforts in the history of the agency. Crews have stocked 140 lakes across the state with more than 11 million walleye fingerlings from the Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery. Fisheries production leader Jerry Wiegel says the Garrison Dam hatchery had to step up this year because of fish production that couldn’t be used at the Valley City National Fish Hatchery. Its source of water is Lake Ashtabula, where zebra mussels were recently discovered. Walleye already produced at Valley City here used only to stock Lake Ashtabula. Some were also sent to other states for use in lakes where zebra mussels exist.\n\nOhio\n\nRossford: Amazon says it will open two new distribution centers in Ohio. The company announced Monday that the two sites in Akron and near Toledo will bring a combined 2,500 full-time jobs. The new facility in Akron will be built on the site of a former shopping mall. The one in Rossford near Toledo is going up at the intersection of Interstate 75 and the Ohio Turnpike. Each of the two distribution centers will cover more than 700,000 square feet. Both centers will employ workers to pack and ship small items. Amazon has five other distribution centers in the state. They employ a total of roughly 8,500 workers.\n\nOklahoma\n\nChickasha: One of the last remaining Democrats from a rural district in the state Legislature says he won’t seek re-election in 2020. Rep. David Perryman announced Monday that he won’t seek a fifth-consecutive term for House District 56. The southwest Oklahoma district includes the towns of Anadarko, Chickasha, Fort Cobb, Minco and Pocasset. A minority floor leader, Perryman says it’s a “frustrating time” to be a Democrat from rural Oklahoma and that he’s disappointed with the lack of bipartisanship in the Legislature. Republicans have a 77-24 advantage over Democrats in the House. Perryman says that when he completes his term in November 2020, he plans to resume his full-time law practice in Chickasha.\n\nOregon\n\nSalem:The state’s iconic Douglas firs are declining as the state’s summers have grown hotter and drier. Drought also is killing grand fir and might be contributing to declines in Western red cedar and bigleaf maple. Oregon has experienced drought each summer since 2012, peaking in 2015. Although rainfall and snowpack have been close to average the past two years, temperatures in many areas still were above normal. Climate change is expected to increase drought in Oregon. Oregon Department of Forestry scientists conduct statewide aerial and ground tree surveys across 30 million acres each year, recording the number of dead and dying trees from all causes, including drought, storms, disease and insect damage. In 2018, about 680,000 acres contained damaged or dead trees attributed to all causes. That’s fewer than at the peak of the drought but still higher than historic levels.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nWilkinsburg: Pogopalooza, known as the World Championships of Pogo, bounced into the city last weekend. Extreme pogo stick athletes from around the world came to town to show off their huge tricks and flips to compete for world titles in such categories as High Jump and Best Trick. The events on Saturday and Sunday weren’t just for the grown-ups. Pogo users under the age of 15 entered a “bounce off” competition and those who bounced the longest got a free pogo stick. Visitors tried their hand at pogo-sticking in a free jump area that had pogo sticks of all sizes. In addition to the main competitions, the pogo athletes attempted to break three Guinness World Records over the weekend.\n\nRhode Island\n\nNewport: A Titanic survivor’s walking stick with an electric light she used to signal for help from a lifeboat has sold for $62,500 at an auction of maritime items. Guernsey’s auction house held the auction in Newport on Friday and Saturday. Guernsey’s President Arlan Ettinger says the top bid on Ella White’s cane was $50,000, plus the surcharge added by the auction house. The preauction estimate had been $300,000 to $500,000. The walking stick was consigned to Guernsey’s by the Williams family in Milford, Connecticut. Ettinger says some family members contested the sale. The issue was resolved before the auction, but the dispute might have made potential bidders nervous. Ettinger says the winning bidder said he was there on behalf of a friend in the United Kingdom.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nOrangeburg: A family owned plant in Orangeburg County that makes machines for textile mills is closing after nearly 50 years. Mayer Industries Inc. CEO George Fischer says the company is consolidating its work making braiding machines at plants in Germany. Fischer told The Times and Democrat of Orangeburg that its 59 employees were told of the closing two years ago and the company has been working to help anyone find a new job. Fischer says Mayer Industries did a similar consolidation of its knitting machine business nearly 20 years ago. Mayer Industries built the Orangeburg plant in 1970 and created a course at the nearby technical college to teach workers metric measurements they would need to make machines for the European market.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nRapid City: A National Guard unit has been welcomed home after a nearly year-long deployment to the Middle East. A ceremony was held Sunday afternoon for the 26 members of the 935th Aviation Support Battalion at the Army Aviation Support Facility in Rapid City. KOTA-TV says community members showed their appreciation with prayer and applause. Gov. Krisit Noem told the guard members their dedication did not go unnoticed because of their exemplary work. The Rapid City-based unit provided aviation maintenance and repair support for the Army.\n\nTennessee\n\nMemphis: The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office says six corrections officer have resigned after an internal investigation into accusations of inappropriate conduct. The Commercial Appeal reports that the identities of the deputies were not provided. A social media post from the sheriff’s office says the investigations focused on inappropriate relationships with inmates at the Shelby County Jail. The deputies were suspended with pay in mid-June while an investigation was conducted. One of the deputies resigned in June after being charged with a personal conduct violation and consorting with persons of bad or criminal reputation, which are administrative charges. Sheriff’s Office Captain Anthony Buckner says in a video release that the investigation was halted because the deputies left the department and the office’s General Investigation Bureau did not find sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges.\n\nTexas\n\nDeer Park: The cleanup of millions of gallons of waste and polluted water is far from over four months after a large fire burned for days at a Houston-area petrochemical storage site. The Houston Chronicle reports that Intercontinental Terminals Company, the facility’s owner, must abide by a 31-page management plan that underscores how waste is sampled and identified, stored and discarded. The March 17 fire at the company’s Deer Park site, located southeast of Houston, triggered air quality warnings. More than 21 million gallons of potentially hazardous waste and contaminated water have since been collected from the tank farm and Houston Ship Channel. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office filed water pollution charges in April against Intercontinental Terminals Company, alleging the fire caused chemicals to flow into a nearby waterway.\n\nUtah\n\nAlpine: Police in northern Utah were surprised to learn the suspect in a reported burglary was a wild turkey. Dave Ventrano with Lone Peak police says they received a call on Saturday from a resident who heard a window break in the house next door. The family that lives there was out of town. Officers searched the house and found a dead turkey lying in a pile of broken glass underneath a window on the first floor of the home. Ventrano said the turkey died after flying through the window. He said there are a lot of wild turkeys in Alpine. Police gave the turkey carcass to a resident who owns a local barbecue restaurant.\n\nVermont\n\nStowe:The once-endangered common loon is making a comeback in Vermont, but not without the help of humans across the state who build islands for the birds. Eric Hanson, a loon biologist with the state Center for Ecostudies has been leading the group's efforts to manage loon populations in the state. On July 15, Hanson, volunteers from the conservation group Friends of Waterbury Reservoir and Park Ranger Chad Ummel met at the northern part of Waterbury Reservoir to grab some canoes and kayaks and paddled out to build a nesting raft for the two loons that call the artificial lake home. The raft the crew put together on the reservoir was made from a base of cedar logs. Hanson sawed notches on the logs so they fit together like Lincoln Logs.\n\nVirginia\n\nRichmond:The state Department of Health has issued a warning to residents that there has been an increase in respiratory illnesses across the state. The health department received increased reports of respiratory, or breathing, illnesses across the Commonwealth greater than observed in previous summers. Most of the reports have occurred among older adults and those with chronic medical conditions in assisted living and long-term care facilities, the VDH said. The reports involve different regions of the state and different diseases, including pertussis (whooping cough), influenza, haemophilus influenzae infection, Legionnaire’s disease and pneumonia caused by rhinovirus or human metapneumovirus.\n\nWashington\n\nBremerton:The Kitsap Pride in the Park 2019 event emphasized unity: among law enforcement, churches, elected officials and community members. The Bremerton Police Department, City Council members and Mayor Greg Wheeler were among the hundreds of community members in attendance at Evergreen Park on Saturday. The Police Department took to the main stage following Wheeler's address to announce its “Safe Place” program. The program, operated by Officer and LGBTQ liaison Mitchell Chapman, will allow the department to offer a safe haven at the station for victims of hate crimes while police resolve the issue. Chapman says he will be working closely with local businesses and social services to train them on the protocols to serve as safe spaces.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nVivian: Crews have begun clearing the scene of a train derailment, where up to 20 cars went off the rails, some of which had carried hazardous materials at one point. No one was injured. The Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports Kimball Fire Chief Jimmy Gianato says the hazardous material train cars were empty during the Saturday crash, but will still be continually monitored becauese of possibility of a leak. After the Norfolk Southern train cars derailed near Vivian, some toppled onto their side. Others fell into the neighboring creek. The newspaper reports one was labeled “Carbon Dioxide Refrigerated Liquid.” Crews with Norfolk Southern, Emergency Railroad Services and Cranemasters worked to clear the scene Sunday.\n\nWisconsin\n\nAppleton:In the midst of a sweltering heatwave that scorched more than half of the U.S., there was some good news for Appleton residents: It apparently has been worse. A Seattle news station reported Friday that Appleton is home to the hottest \"feels like\" day in U.S. history, when the temperature hit a high point of 101 degrees with a dew point of 90 degrees on July 13, 1995. That combination produced a heat index — or made it feel like — 148 degrees that day, KOMO News reported. Friday wasn't quite that hot — Appleton saw a high temperature of 90 degrees and dew points ranged from the low-to-mid 70s, says Scott Berschback, a meteorologist out of the National Weather Service office in Green Bay. Berschback couldn't confirm Friday's peak heat index, nor could he confirm the purported record.\n\nWyoming\n\nRock Springs: Two residents are trying to end the use of a gas chamber for euthanasia at an animal shelter. The Humane Society of the U.S. says Wyoming is one of just four states where shelters still use gas chambers rather than lethal injection to euthanize animals; the others are Missouri, Ohio and Utah. Animal welfare advocates say gas chambers are cruel because death often doesn’t happen quickly. The Rock Springs Rocket-Miner reports Madhu Anderson and Eve Waggoner have been protesting the use of gas at the Rock Springs animal shelter. Anderson says lethal injection is more humane and not difficult to implement. Rock Springs Police Chief Dwane Pacheco says the shelter only euthanizes feral cats and aggressive dogs and has one of Wyoming’s few free spay-and-neuter programs.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/07/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/environment/2017/04/08/eco-warriors-conservancy-southwest-florida-use-brains-brawn-fight-python-menace/100044228/", "title": "Eco-warriors use brains, brawn to fight python menace", "text": "Eric Staats\n\neric.staats@naplesnews.com; 239-263-4780\n\nJaimie Kittle rides in the back seat of a Ford F150 bumping along the top of a levee in East Naples. She asks the driver to stop. She thinks she might see something dark and shiny, catching the morning sun.\n\nShe hops out and peers into the tall grass.\n\n\"Python!\" she shouts.\n\nAnd the fight is on.\n\n***\n\nKittle, 23, is part of a team of eco-warriors at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. Using brains and brawn, the team targets pythons, a nonnative invasive species threatening to upend the Southwest Florida ecosystem.\n\nThe stakes are high. Pythons are apex predators that scientists say have the capacity to decimate native populations. The snakes, which can grow longer than 20 feet, eat raccoons, rabbits, wading birds, even deer. One study blamed pythons for a 90 percent decline in small mammals in Everglades National Park.\n\nState and federal agencies recruit snake hunters — from machete-wielding thrill-seekers from the Miami suburbs to Irula tribesman from India — for headline-grabbing forays into the wilds of South Florida, awarding bounties for the biggest and best catches.\n\nThe Conservancy project, funded by private donors and the Naples Zoo, does it differently. Its team tracks radio-tagged snakes and then follows them to other snakes, hopefully egg-laden females.\n\nThe goal of the eco-warriors is to break the breeding cycle.\n\nSince 2013, the team that includes wildlife biologists Ian Bartoszek, 40, and Ian Easterling, 25, has captured more than 250 snakes in a 25-square-mile area along the urban edge of East Naples, roughly southeast of U.S. 41 and Collier Boulevard. That's more than three tons of python and, more importantly, more than 3,000 python eggs.\n\nTeam leader Bartoszek, the driver of the snake team F150 truck, said unwanted pets released along a rural stretch of U.S. 41 East in the late 1990s could be the source of Collier County's python problem.\n\nThe first python hatchling, a sign of a breeding population, was found in 2008, run over on the highway about a mile from the entrance to Collier-Seminole State Park.\n\nCrews at Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve began pulling giant snakes out of the reserve in 2012, a year before the Conservancy tagged its first snakes.\n\nThat could mean the eco-warriors still have time to fight back\n\n\"Can we make a dent?\" said Bartoszek, the Conservancy's science coordinator. \"I don't know, but we're going to try.\"\n\nRelated stories:\n\n***\n\nIn the same split second of Kittle's python alert, Bartoszek and Easterling burst out of the pickup's front seat and bound down the side of the levee with her.\n\nA 15-foot python with a fat body and a fist-sized head is waiting for them. Before the snake even knows what's happening, the team dives on top of it.\n\n\"You have three seconds,\" Bartoszek said. \"Literally, one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand, and it's gone.\"\n\nThe first thing to do when wrangling a giant python is to grip it just behind the head with both hands. The next thing is to hold on.\n\n***\n\nEvery two weeks, Bartoszek and his team hire a Cessna 172 Skyhawk and a pilot to gather aerial intelligence on their tagged pythons from 1,000 feet up, listening for beeps from the tags implanted under the snakes' skins.\n\nAntennas, one labeled FWD RT and one labeled FWD LT, are bolted onto each of the wings before takeoff. Bartoszek takes a tangle of wires, a radio receiver and a GPS unit into the cockpit.\n\nHe calls out the nickname of each snake as he hears its beep. There's Elvis, under the right wing. Argo is along the treeline in the distance. \"Johnny, where's Johnny?\" Bartoszek said. The plane banks and circles back to get closer to record each snake's location.\n\nOn the ground the next day, the snake team will use the coordinates to track the pythons from the pickup, a modified 4x4 with a winch and steel bumpers for heavy-duty field work. Easterling will hold an antenna out the truck's open window, listening for the telltale beeps again.\n\nBy keeping track of the snakes' movements, the team hopes to crack the code of python behavior and learn secrets that might help control their spread.\n\nFlying southeast from the Naples Municipal Airport, it's easy to appreciate the challenge of pinpointing pythons, a notoriously cryptic creature. Forests of mangroves and marshes stretch to the horizon, interrupted by a growing number of cul-de-sacs under construction in new neighborhoods.\n\n\"That's the python zone,\" Bartoszek said.\n\nA network of canals, imperceptible on the ground, is as good as an interstate highway for pythons to spread unchecked into every corner of Collier County. The Conservancy strategy is to hold a defensive line along the county's urban edge.\n\nUnlike in the vast Everglades, where tracking a python might lead to isolated tree islands that are hard to get to, Southwest Florida pythons often are found within reach of the pickup and a sometimes treacherous hike through difficult terrain and back.\n\n\"We go where these animals go, and they know no boundaries,\" Bartoszek said.\n\n***\n\nThe python hisses and writhes, trying to shake the surprise attack by the snake team.\n\n\"Hold on, hold on, she's doing the twist,\" Bartoszek says, trying to calm the adrenaline-fueled team. \"Let's take our time.\"\n\nShedding skin makes it difficult to keep a good grip on the snake as it wraps itself around whatever it can find: Easterling's leg, Bartoszek's arm, a big clump of grass.\n\n\"You don't mess around with an animal like this. This is a loaded weapon,\" Bartoszek says.\n\n***\n\nThis year, the team considered another captured snake named Jaeger an MVP, a Most Valuable Python, having led Conservancy trackers to three breeding females.\n\nOne epic extraction required a 1 1/2 mile slog through dense mangroves and sawgrass. Bartoszek blazed the trail, and Easterling followed behind carrying a 100-pound python in a pack on his back.\n\nJaeger is among 35 pythons, including 20 still in the field, that the Conservancy has tagged and turned into snitch snakes against their mates.\n\nResearchers were tracking the project's first radio-tagged python, Elvis, when they found the snake they would later recruit for the tagging project and nicknamed the General. The two male snakes were in the same spot, and there's only one reason for that: a female snake they nicknamed Valentina.\n\nElvis would later play a crucial role in one of the team's crowning discoveries. Last year, they were tracking another tagged male, Kirkland, when they started hearing Elvis' beeps, too. They were in a gopher tortoise burrow — and they had company.\n\nBy the time researchers sorted through the twisted pile of snakes, they counted four more males and a single female, 200 pounds of pythons in one spot.\n\nThe team has high hopes their latest radio-tagged recruit, Fredo, will live up to his namesake, betraying the family as the doomed youngest Corleone brother did in \"The Godfather.\"\n\nThey walked in on Fredo earlier this breeding season with a female the team had been tracking.\n\n\"That's a good sign that Fredo has the right stuff,\" Bartoszek said.\n\n***\n\nFinally, the python tires enough that the snake team can carry it to the top of the levee.\n\n\"Let her chill, just keep your guard up,\" Bartoszek says.\n\nOut of breath, the team lowers the exhausted python into a plastic tub in the bed of the pickup and closes the lid.\n\nBartoszek locks the lid — just in case — before driving the python back to the Conservancy science lab.\n\n***\n\nOne of Jaeger's conquests laid belly up on the necropsy table as Easterling pulled on a pair of blue surgical gloves. He picked up an Exacto knife and pushed the blade into the hefty female's leathery underside.\n\nA day earlier it was still frozen and coiled up, propped up on its edge in the lab's stainless steel sink to thaw.\n\nEasterling sliced the python from head to tip of tail. First, the skin peeled back, then a layer of glistening fat, to reveal internal organs and a load of 46 developing eggs. Easterling counted them off out loud, while Kittle logged the data.\n\nLast, they squeezed a sample of the python's gut contents into a tiny collection bag, labeled with an identification code to be sent off to Christina Romagosa.\n\nRomagosa and her team at the University of Florida will wash the sample using a sieve to collect tiny fragments of bones, teeth, hair and feathers. DNA analysis does not do a very good job of identifying undigested python food, so researchers put the samples under a microscope to identify them based on color and shape.\n\n\"It's super neat,\" said Romagosa, a research assistant professor at UF's department of wildlife ecology and conservation, who also handles gut samples from pythons captured in Everglades National Park. \"It's like a Christmas present. You never know what you're going to get.\"\n\nTurns out the pythons in Southwest Florida eat better than their east coast counterparts, which don't have much of a diet — other than cotton rats. Mammal populations still are large in the pythons' range in Collier, judging from the variety of samples found under the UF microscopes.\n\nRodents account for about 25 percent of the Collier pythons' diet. Rabbits account for another 30 percent. Opossums, raccoons, foxes, even the occasional deer and an armadillo have been found. No endangered species, and no alligators, Romagosa said.\n\n\"Matter of time, I imagine,\" she said.\n\n***\n\nThe captured python lies nearly motionless on the science lab's cold floor. Its 129 pounds puts the team over the 2,000-pound mark for captured pythons this year.\n\nLater, the snake will be anesthesized and then injected with chemicals that will humanely kill it. It will be cut open and added to the Conservancy's tally of arrested python reproduction.\n\nAnd then, like most of the euthanized pythons, the carcass will be taken to Rookery Bay, carried off by vultures and returned to the ecosystem where it didn't belong in the first place.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/04/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2021/09/21/acadia-boom-robot-servers-larry-bird-news-around-states/118876540/", "title": "Acadia boom, robot servers: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: Gov. Kay Ivey is calling lawmakers into special session this month to vote on a prison construction plan that would use part of the state’s coronavirus relief funds to jump-start the building of three new lockups. In a letter to lawmakers announcing the special session, Ivey painted the construction project as a partial solution to the state’s long-standing prison woes, which have included a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit over violence and a separate federal court order to improve mental health treatment behind bars. “Failure to timely resolve these issues outlined in federal lawsuits could result in detrimental consequences for our state,” Ivey wrote to lawmakers. “Achieving an Alabama solution to these problems – rather than a federal court-ordered solution – is paramount.” While proponents said the construction would be a partial solution, one lawmaker said it would put “old problems in new buildings” unless the state made additional reforms. “Just building prisons without engaging in some sort of comprehensive criminal justice reform is the definition of kicking the can down the road,” said Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa. On the use of federal pandemic funds on the project, England said there are “obviously better uses of the money.” Ivey said the special session would begin Sept. 27.\n\nAlaska\n\nAnchorage: Dozens of Afghan refugees will be resettled in the state over the next six months, according to a resettlement organization. Between 50 and 100 refugees will come to Alaska starting in September, Catholic Social Services Refugee Assistance and Immigration Services said in a statement. Resettlement will continue through March. Catholic Social Services Alaska CEO Lisa Aquino told the Associated Press it wasn’t known when the first refugees would arrive in Alaska, but the organization will be ready for them. The refugees were described as being in vulnerable populations, such as children, women and the elderly. Many worked for the U.S. government or the military in Afghanistan in positions like translators. Thousands of Afghanis were evacuated after American forces left Afghanistan last month. They were first sent to military bases in the Lower 48 for screening and preparing to be sent to destinations around the U.S. The refugees, including individuals and families, will work with program staff in several areas like employment and English-language skills after arriving in Anchorage. Aquino said it wasn’t known how many would settle in other parts of the state, but it’s expected a majority would remain in Anchorage.\n\nArizona\n\nTucson: As the state’s biggest hospitals fill up with COVID-19 patients – most unvaccinated – physicians in some smaller, more rural communities say their patients who need specialty care are paying the ultimate price. The inability to find a bed has left smaller facilities such as Santa Cruz Valley Regional Hospital in Green Valley frustrated. A Tucson gastroenterologist drove to Green Valley last week to operate on a patient who couldn’t be transferred anywhere in the state to get the surgery. The hospital has filed a complaint with the Arizona Department of Health Services about the inability to transfer, the Arizona Daily Star reports. The patient lived “only because this doctor was nice enough, was human enough to save his life,” said Stephen Harris, the hospital’s CEO. In Cochise County, Dr. Cristian Laguillo, a senior physician with Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee, said he has never felt this helpless trying to assist patients – even while serving a tour in Afghanistan as a combat medic. A surge line was created in April 2020 by the state Department of Health Services to facilitate transfers of COVID-19 patients across the state. But it’s meant to be used to track down beds for COVID-19 patients. Laguillo said he thinks the state surge line has to change to be for all patients in critical need, not just virus patients.\n\nArkansas\n\nLonoke: A former sheriff’s deputy charged with manslaughter for fatally shooting a white teenager whose death has drawn the attention of civil rights activists was released Monday on $15,000 bond. Michael Davis, a former sergeant with the Lonoke County sheriff’s office, is set to appear again in court Nov. 15, Little Rock television station KTHV reports. Davis was charged Friday with felony manslaughter in the death of 17-year-old Hunter Brittain. Davis, who is also white, shot Brittain during a June 23 traffic stop. Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley fired Davis in July, saying the former deputy did not turn on his body camera until after the shooting. Investigators have said Brittain was holding a container at the time of the shooting, and they did not find any firearms in or around the teen’s truck. Davis’ attorney has said the former deputy plans to plead not guilty. Brittain was eulogized by the Rev. Al Sharpton and two attorneys who represented George Floyd’s family. They said the teen’s death highlighted the need for interracial support for changes in policing. Brittain’s family and friends have regularly demonstrated outside the Lonoke County sheriff’s office, demanding more details on the shooting.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSacramento: Gov. Gavin Newsom has approved two measures to slice through local zoning ordinances as the most populous state struggles with soaring home prices, an affordable housing shortage and stubborn homelessness. He signed the most prominent legislation despite nearly 250 cities objecting that it will, by design, undermine local planning and control. The outcome marks the latest battle between what’s come to be thought of as “NIMBY vs. YIMBY.” While most agree there is an affordable housing shortage, proposed construction often runs into “not in my backyard” opposition. “The housing affordability crisis is undermining the California Dream for families across the state, and threatens our long-term growth and prosperity,” Newsom said in announcing his approval Thursday. He also announced the state will put $1.75 billion into what his administration is calling a new California Housing Accelerator, which he said will speed building 6,500 affordable multifamily units that had been stalled for lack of tax-exempt bonds and low-income housing tax credits. It’s part of $22 billion that the state plans to spend to spur new housing and ease homelessness along with the new laws. The bill by Senate leader Toni Atkins would require cities to approve up to four housing units on what was a single-family lot.\n\nColorado\n\nDenver: A state panel has recommended that a mountain peak west of Denver be renamed in honor of a Native American woman who acted as a translator for tribes and white settlers in the 19th century. Thursday’s recommendation comes amid national efforts to address a history of colonialism and oppression against Native Americans and other people of color after last summer’s protests calling for racial justice reform. It is the first of several name changes being considered by the state panel. The Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board recommended changing the name of Squaw Mountain, located in Clear Creek County about 30 miles miles west of Denver, to Mestaa’ehehe Mountain, which is pronounced “mess-taw-hay.” The name honors an influential Cheyenne translator known as Owl Woman who facilitated relations between white settlers and Native American tribes in the early 1800s, The Colorado Sun reports. The word “squaw,” derived from the Algonquin language, may once have simply meant “woman.” But over generations, the word morphed into a misogynist and racist term to disparage Indigenous women, according to experts.\n\nConnecticut\n\nNew London: One restaurant is taking an unorthodox approach to addressing staff shortages: robot servers to serve meals. The operator of the New London location of the Shaking Crab told The Day the ocean-themed restaurant will use regular waiters and waitresses to explain the menu and take orders, but the robots will deliver the meals to the tables. Gulshan Soni told the newspaper the robots can be summoned with a bell. The innovation is partly for showmanship and to draw in customers with something unique, he said, and partly to address staffing shortages being experienced across the industry. The four robots cost between $6,000 and $22,000, Soni said. The restaurant is scheduled to open to the public in early October. The Shaking Crab has more than two dozen locations in the northeastern U.S. and China, according to its website.\n\nDelaware\n\nWilmington: In uplifting news for environmentalists, Delawareans can no longer release balloons into the sky, thanks to a law Gov. John Carney signed Friday. The bill that lawmakers passed in June makes it illegal to intentionally release balloons in the First State. Releasing up to four balloons is considered littering and can mean a fine of $25 or more. Releasing five or more balloons brings a fine of $250 and up to eight hours of community service for the first offense. Maryland and Virginia passed similar laws earlier this year. While Carney has dedicated much of his tenure to a litter-reduction campaign, the bill isn’t just intended to prevent residents from suffering the sight of latex balloon remnants scattered across the state. The new law is also meant to protect wildlife, according to environmentalists. “Balloons have long polluted shorelines of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, adding to the plastic pollution that threatens both marine life and the roughly 225,000 jobs in the three states that depend on a clean coast,” Oceana field campaigns manager Caroline Wood said in a statement. Delawareans can still throw water balloons as long as they pick up the trash after they pop. People planning celebrations or mourning events can visit preventballoonlitter.org to find other ideas in lieu of balloon releases.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: After showing signs of coughing, sneezing and a lack of appetite, nine big cats at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo tested positive for the coronavirus. The Smithsonian said Friday that six African lions, a Sumatran tiger and two Amur tigers exhibited symptoms and tested presumptive positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. The final results are expected in the coming days, the Smithsonian said on its website. “All lions and tigers are being treated with anti-inflammatories and anti-nausea medication to address discomfort and decreased appetite,” the zoo said on its website. “In addition, all are being treated with antibiotics for presumptive secondary bacterial pneumonia. They remain under close observation.” Due to the social distance between visitors and animals, the public is at no risk for the coronavirus. The zoo confirmed no other animals were exhibiting symptoms as of Friday. Zookeepers conducted an investigation of all staff and animals, and the source of the outbreak wasn’t found, according to the website. The first round of the COVID-19 vaccine made for zoo animals by Zoetis has been authorized for use by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The National Zoo has said it will disburse the first round of vaccines among “susceptible species” in the coming months.\n\nFlorida\n\nOcala: A woman floating on a paddleboard in the Silver River used her paddle to push away a large alligator that swam directly toward her in a frightful, up-close encounter captured in startling videos and photographs. The alligator came within inches of Vicki Baker, 60, of Ocala. She estimated the reptile to be nearly as long as her 10-foot paddleboard. It hissed loudly at her. She said at one point it opened its mouth, revealing large teeth and its powerful jaw as it floated on the surface. “What are you doing? Get away from me! Get away from me!” she yelled at the alligator as it swam inches from her paddleboard. “No! Oh, my God, I had to push him away with my paddle!” Nearby, off camera in the video, an employee at Silver Springs State Park can be heard on a speaker advising her: “Ma’am, I’m going to suggest backing up considering you just made him pretty mad.” Baker said she remains puzzled over the encounter. She said she presumed someone else on the water had been feeding the alligator, desensitizing it to humans and helping it associate paddlers on the river with food. “I was afraid,” she said. “I’ve seen them my whole life and have never been afraid.” The encounter happened near Silver Springs, where deep springs feed the Silver River, and the water is so stunningly clear that tourists board glass-bottom boats.\n\nGeorgia\n\nMarietta: The Cobb County district attorney’s office is offering warm, furry support to crime victims and staff. District Attorney Flynn Broady announced Friday that Rose, a 3-year-old black Labrador retriever, is joining the office. The victim witness unit has been working to bring Rose on board, according to a news release from the office. “The level of stress and anxiety that victims of domestic violence experience is drastically reduced with the introduction of assistance animals,” unit director Kimberly McCoy said. “It’s been a long process, but we are excited.” The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office partnered with the Pups with a Purpose program to donate the dog. Pups with a Purpose matches people held in the Forsyth County jail with volunteer citizen dog trainers and Forsyth County Animal Shelter dogs. Rose received specialized training from Rucker Dog Training to prepare her to help crime victims in court, the release said. “Child victims will have the opportunity to have Rose there to calm them down and assure them that they are in a safe place so they can tell their story and not feel afraid of what happens if they tell it,” Broady said.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: The state Board of Education has approved changing Central Middle School’s name to honor the Hawaiian princess who once owned the downtown Honolulu property. At a meeting Thursday, the board approved naming the campus Princess Ruth Ke’elikolani Middle School. School and community leaders have been trying since 2019 to rename the school. The princess’ home, Keoua Hale, once stood on the grounds of the current campus, and when she died in 1883, her property was bequeathed to Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, according to documents supporting the name change. After Pauahi’s death in 1885, the board of education purchased the property for what became Honolulu High School in 1895, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports. It later became Central Grammar School before it was changed briefly to Ke’elikolani School. It became Central Junior High School in 1928, then Central Intermediate School in 1932 and Central Middle School in 1997, the newspaper reports. “In the 1930s, because people couldn’t pronounce the name, they changed it back to Central,” said the school’s principal, Joseph Passantino, Hawaii News Now reports. “So the significance is huge, especially for the staff who’s dedicated over two years to give her that duty and honor.”\n\nIdaho\n\nCaldwell: The principal at a southwestern Idaho public charter school has died due to COVID-19, the school’s board said. The school board at Heritage Community Charter School in Caldwell announced the death of Javier Castaneda in a letter to parents. The school’s website links to a GoFundMe page created Friday that said Castaneda died unexpectedly Wednesday as a result of becoming ill with COVID-19. He is survived by his wife and seven children. The school board said in the letter first reported by KTVB-TV that the school will provide counseling resources and other support for children. The school has some restrictions in place due to COVID-19. It made face masks optional. The school said on its website that it focuses on a classical liberal arts education and uses a dual Spanish-language immersion program to provide a strong foreign language emphasis.\n\nIllinois\n\nSpringfield: All 18 of the state’s job centers offering services for people searching for work are accepting in-person appointments after shifting to remote operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Illinois Department of Employment Security announced. In-person appointments began Monday at five offices in Burbank, Chicago, Joliet and North Aurora. Other centers began accepting appointments in August and in early September. Officials encouraged people to use the agency’s website to apply for unemployment benefits, search for work and use other services. Appointments, have to be made at least 24 hours in advance by calling the agency’s hotline, at (217) 558-0401, and last 20 minutes. Anyone entering an office must wear a mask and should reschedule their appointment if they feel sick or have been exposed to COVID-19. Help will still be available over the phone as the job centers reopen for in-person services.\n\nIndiana\n\nTerre Haute: Organizers of a planned museum about basketball great Larry Bird are starting to assemble thousands of items ahead of its expected opening next year. The museum will be part of the new Terre Haute Convention Center, which remains under construction with an anticipated completion date of March 2022. It will include items donated by Bird and others from his career with the Boston Celtics, Indiana State University and the U.S. Olympic team. The site for work on cataloging the memorabilia is being modified for security and should be ready within weeks, the Tribune-Star reports. “As other items are collected, they can be housed in one location,” memorabilia consultant Shelly Keen said. “It’s just going to make things move a little more swiftly than what it was before.” Bird grew up in the southern Indiana town of French Lick. He created excitement during his days at Indiana State in Terre Haute when he led the school to the NCAA title game in 1979, although the Sycamores lost to Magic Johnson’s Michigan State team. When the Celtics won the 1984 NBA Championship, Bird dedicated the win to Terre Haute. He was the Indiana Pacers coach and a top team executive after his playing career.\n\nIowa\n\nWaterloo: The city’s first Black police chief is facing intense opposition from some current and former officers as he works with local leaders to reform the department, including the removal of its longtime insignia that resembles a Ku Klux Klan dragon. Joel Fitzgerald said his 16-month tenure in Waterloo, a city of 67,000 with a history of racial divisions, is a “case study” for what Black police chiefs face as they seek to build community trust and hold officers to higher standards. In an interview with the Associated Press, he said the attacks were driven by misinformation and racism toward him and his boss, the city’s first Black mayor. “I don’t think there’s been any police chief in America in a small- or medium-sized department that have endured this for the reasons I have endured it, and I think the reasons have to do with race,” said Fitzgerald, who previously served as the chief of larger departments in Fort Worth, Texas, and Allentown, Pennsylvania. “This is my fourth job being the first Black police chief. I’ve dealt with pushback in other places but never so overt. Never so nonfactual.” The backlash has intensified since last fall, when the City Council began pushing to remove the department’s emblem – a winged creature known as a griffin that had adorned patches on officers’ uniforms since the 1960s. After a messy process, the council voted 5-2 last week to order the department to remove the symbol from its uniforms by the end of September.\n\nKansas\n\nLansing: A nurse who texted a co-worker a picture of a dementia patient slumped over in a wheelchair and then suggested she was responsible and deserved thanks has pleaded guilty to intentionally administering the wrong medication. The Kansas City Star reports 37-year-old Jennifer Lynn Reavis, of Atchison, is free on bond as she awaits sentencing on charges of endangerment, unlawful administration of a controlled substance and battery. She pleaded guilty to the charges Friday in Leavenworth County District Court. In May 2019, administrators with Twin Oaks Rehab Center in Lansing contacted police after discovering a patient had been getting evening medications along with the anti-anxiety drug Ativan and Benadryl when she was not supposed to receive them. “Your (sic) welcome! I hope she is asleep most of the day tomorrow,” prosecutors said Reaves wrote to an oncoming night nurse in a text that included the photograph of the victim apparently sleeping in a wheelchair. “Hint hint.” The medication caused the patient to become lethargic and be hospitalized, prosecutors say. Reavis admitted to police giving the medicine to the woman, saying she tried to wander away from the nursing home.\n\nKentucky\n\nLouisville: On the first Saturday after a new “safety zone” law went into effect at the state’s only abortion clinic, some protesters ignored the 10-foot-wide restricted area at the entrance as they followed patients to the door, shouting and berating them. No police were present to enforce the zone meant to ensure safe access to EMW Women’s Surgical Center, where patients often must pass through shouting, jostling anti-abortion protesters waving graphic signs of fetuses. “Repent, murderer!” self-proclaimed sidewalk preacher Jesse Morrell shouted as he and others stepped inside the restricted area to follow a young woman to the door of the clinic. The city’s police department put out a statement Sunday saying it had more urgent priorities than trying to enforce the new city ordinance, which requires officers to witness a violation before they can issue a citation. Morrell, a regular protester outside EMW, said he doesn’t feel constrained by the restricted area. “The thing about these buffer zones is that if you don’t test them, they just get bigger,” he said. “Eventually the whole street will be a buffer zone if we don’t stand up for our rights.” The protests Saturday grew increasingly chaotic as more protesters arrived, swarming vehicles that pulled up to the curb to drop off patients, shouting and admonishing them as they exited.\n\nLouisiana\n\nBaton Rouge: A Louisiana-based research organization and a professor at the University of Southern Mississippi are joining forces in a research project aimed at restoring and protecting the Chandeleur Islands in the northern Gulf of Mexico. In a news release announcing the effort, USM noted that the islands provide habitat for gulf fish and wildlife and offer storm protection for coastal Louisiana. Led by Dr. Kelly Darnell, an assistant research professor at USM, the project is one of 20 awarded a combined $2.3 million to find ways of best managing natural resources in the Gulf, including marine mammals, shorebirds, barrier islands, seagrass and fisheries. The projects, slated to begin this month, are funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration RESTORE Science Program. The Water Institute of the Gulf, based in Baton Rouge, will be among those working with Darnell. Others include the University of Florida, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Gulf of Mexico Alliance. Darnell’s project, which relates to seagrass ecosystems along the Chandeleur Islands, was given $127,065. The project will provide usable data for restoration and long-term management of the islands.\n\nMaine\n\nBar Harbor: Acadia National Park is on track for a record year, as park officials see no signs of visitation slowing down this fall. The park’s busiest year on record was 2018, when there were 3.54 million visits. This year, the number could top 4 million, Kevin Schneider, park superintendent, told the Acadia Advisory Commission. Things have taken off since 2020, which was an off year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2.67 million visits Acadia recorded in 2020 amounted to the lowest annual count the park has had since 2014, the Bangor Daily News reports. But visitation picked up significantly last fall. Since October 2020, “every single month has been a record month” for visitation, according to Adam Gibson, a social scientist for Acadia. The past 11 months have had on average 22% more visitors than the same period from the year before, he said. The park had roughly 800,000 visits last month, and Acadia has welcomed an estimated 2.75 million visitors so far in 2021. The volume of people in the park has resulted in more rescues, said Therese Picard, the park’s chief ranger. The park typically handles two dozen rescues through August of each year, she said, but there have been 50 rescues so far this year. Most of the rescues involve leg injuries of some sort.\n\nMaryland\n\nAnnapolis: BP has inked a 15-year agreement with Annapolis-based CleanBay Renewables to turn poultry litter into natural gas. The partnership involves mixing poultry litter with water in a closed system known as an anaerobic digester. One of the end products is biogas, which includes methane. The biogas can be processed into renewable natural gas and used to fuel vehicles. “We have a portfolio of projects and a corporate strategy to develop 30 (facilities) across the U.S.,” said Thomas Spangler, CleanBay Renewables’ executive chairman. Among the first locations slated to receive such a facility is Westover, in Somerset County, with a groundbreaking scheduled for early in the first quarter of 2022. That is expected to be fully operational by mid-2024. Usually, such facilities employ 26 full-time employees over three shifts a day running 24 hours a day, all year. Completing a two-year construction period could also create an additional 250 jobs. According to Spangler, the initial process behind green-lighting projects started with reaching out to Somerset Economic Development Commission and county planning and zoning officials. At the state level, the company approached the Maryland Department of Commerce, state workforce agencies, and area community colleges and universities.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nPlymouth: A museum dedicated to the English colony of Plymouth and local Indigenous tribes is opening a new exhibit to mark the 400th anniversary of Thanksgiving. The Plimoth Patuxet Museums said the exhibit, entitled “We Gather Together: Thanksgiving, Gratitude, and the Making of an American Holiday,” will open Saturday. The exhibit will explore the relationship between Native Americans and English colonists to “better understand the events that led to the first Thanksgiving,” said the museum, which features a replica colonial village and reenactors in Plymouth. It will feature rarely seen artifacts from the museum’s collection, as well as art from across the centuries tracing how the New England tradition grew and emerged as a national holiday in the 19th century, the museum said. “Patuxet/Plymouth is the place where ancient traditions of gratitude in both Indigenous and European cultures merged,” the museum said in a statement. “ ‘We Gather Together’ will explore the ancient and deeply human expression of gratitude that is the bedrock of this national holiday.” The Pokanoket tribe and their sachem Massasoit shared in three days of feasting and entertainment with English colonists in the autumn of 1621, helping to inspire the holiday of gathering and giving thanks, according to the museum.\n\nMichigan\n\nYpsilanti: A “Black Lives Matter” street mural painted this summer in southeastern Michigan has been defaced by vandals who covered part of it with white paint. The weekend attack in Ypsilanti left the 260-foot mural’s words “Black Lives” drenched in white paint, while the word “Matter” was untouched. Trische Duckworth, executive director of the community organization Survivors Speak, was joined Sunday by city officials and others who expressed outrage over the vandalism in the city about 35 miles southwest of Detroit. “It was an ugly display of hatred,” Duckworth said. She said that no matter who defaced the mural, the act shows that racism and white supremacy “are not a thing of the past. It’s alive and active.” City manager Frances McMullan said law enforcement is investigating the vandalism. She said in a statement that the city was “sickened by this horrible act of destruction” but that the mural would be restored. The vandals left behind the painted name of a group identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist hate group. The Ypsilanti City Council approved the mural at the entrance of a city park in February. Volunteers painted the mural and a second one in June using donated paint. Duckworth said the council is expected to discuss the defaced mural this week.\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Paul: Agriculture officials in the state say they are seeing an increase in inquiries about mental health. “We are seeing a lot of despair right now, a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety,” said Meg Moynihan, who works for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture with a focus on the human side of farming. Moynihan recently put an ad on Facebook with a link to mental health help. The response caught her attention: nearly 2,500 clicks in 18 days, Minnesota Public Radio reports. “So they’re not just looking at, ‘Oh, there’s the phone number in the ad I could call,’ but they’re clicking through for more information,” Moynihan said. “And I’m hoping that’s some people who want that kind of help and support for themselves. But I’m also hoping it’s for people who might be concerned about somebody they know.” Commissioner of Agriculture Thom Petersen recently surveyed conditions in northwestern Minnesota, where the drought is taking its biggest toll on the state. “I thought I was in Arizona,” he said. “I just looked at this bare church with no grass and the graves, you know, looked like a ghost town. And I kept going, and the pastures were the worst I’ve ever seen in my life.” Peterson said he also met an 80-year-old farmer who’d just sold off all his sheep who said the situation was the worst he’s seen in his lifetime.\n\nMississippi\n\nClarksdale: The Mississippi Writers Trail has unveiled a marker for Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer Richard Ford. The marker for Ford, a Jackson native, was placed recently at the Clarksdale Carnegie Public Library. Ford won acclaim with his first two novels, “A Piece of My Heart” and “The Ultimate Good Luck.” “Our library here in little Clarksdale, Mississippi, is just so pleased to pay tribute and to honor one of the most well-known greatest writers of all times, a native Mississippian, a novelist, a short story writer, and a Pulitzer Prize Winner,” Mary Caradine, interim director of the Carnegie Public Library of Clarksdale and Coahoma County, said in a press release. “Mr. Ford’s achievements are known far and wide.” Ford’s novel “The Sportsman” was named one of TIME Magazine’s Top 100 novels published since the magazine’s inception. Ford wrote “The Sportswriter” while living in rural Coahoma County, and he used the book’s protagonist in future novels, including “Independence Day,” for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1996. “Richard Ford is a true international author and cultural essayist who brings a rich view of the Southern experience to his readers,” Visit Mississippi Director Craig Ray said.\n\nMissouri\n\nKansas City: A federal investigation is underway after arson damaged a historic church that now serves a congregation predominantly made up of people from South Sudan. John Ham of the Kansas City office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told the Kansas City Star that authorities have determined the blaze was intentionally set, making it a federal crime. The fire was discovered about 9:15 a.m. Saturday at the building known as Harlem Baptist Church on the city’s north side. Arriving firefighters discovered the front of the building and an area of stairs going to the basement were fully engulfed in flames and determined that’s where the fire started. One firefighter had to be rescued after the stairway collapsed but was not injured. The church suffered heavy fire damage to the front and smoke and water damage elsewhere. The church, founded in 1907 as the Harlem Tabernacle Church, is the last remaining original building of a non-incorporated community known as Harlem. It now serves as a gathering place for the United Christian Fellowship. Pastor Gabriel Riak said the congregation has Black and white members, including Sudanese and Americans. He said he was grateful no one was in the building, KMBC reports. Members plan to restore the church, which sustained about $90,000 in damage, he said.\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: Health officials are begging residents to wear masks indoors and get vaccinated against COVID-19 as hospitals face increasing strain in the absence of any statewide health mandates. Officials in Bozeman and Missoula lamented their inability to implement public health restrictions to limit the spread of the coronavirus after the Legislature passed several laws earlier this year curtailing the power of local health officers to implement rules such as mask requirements and limits on gathering sizes. “Now is the time when we would have mandates in place,” said D’Shane Barnett, Missoula County health officer. “Unfortunately, we have anti-health state legislators who went out of their way to make that not possible.” Lori Christensen, public health officer for Gallatin County, said the legislative changes have “complicated the scene” in terms of immediate action she can take. She said she trying to navigate “the complexity of the law,” but a mask mandate is not on the horizon. In Missoula, officials have requested 24 National Guard soldiers to assist the county in addressing its COVID-19 surge at health care facilities and in The Sleepy Inn, a facility used to quarantine unhoused people who are diagnosed with the virus or identified as close contacts. Bozeman Health has also put in a request for National Guard assistance.\n\nNebraska\n\nLincoln: The state is one of the few in the nation that haven’t legalized cannabis use in some form, but the industry has already launched a lobbying group to help influence the rules that will regulate the industry. John Cartier, president of the Nebraska Cannabis Association, said the organization expects some form of marijuana legalization to be approved in the state in coming years, so it makes sense to be prepared, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. “It is not unreasonable to predict that some form of legalization will happen before this decade is done, and with several ballot initiatives planned for 2022, it could come as early as January 2023,” he said. Two ballot initiatives working in tandem to legalize medical marijuana were filed with the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office, and a petition to legalize all uses of marijuana remains on file. Both are seeking to put the question of legalization before voters next year.\n\nNevada\n\nLas Vegas: A death row inmate convicted in the 1980 robbery-killing of a man for $2 is no longer eligible for capital punishment and must be resentenced, the Nevada Supreme Court said. The justices ruled Thursday that a New York court’s recent erasure of Samuel Howard’s lone conviction for a violent crime took the death penalty off the table for his Nevada murder conviction, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Howard, 73, has been on death row for nearly 40 years after being sentenced in the fatal 1980 shooting of Las Vegas dentist George Monahan during a robbery. According to the Nevada high court, the vacating of Howard’s New York conviction eliminated the one remaining aggravating circumstance making him eligible for a possible death sentence. Under a new penalty hearing for Howard, a jury would decide between on whether his sentence of life in prison would come with or without the possibility of parole. The last person executed by Nevada was Daryl Mack, in 2006 for the 1988 murder of Betty Jane May, of Reno.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nLebanon: Dartmouth-Hitchcock is starting a dermatology clinic to meet the unique skin care needs of people with Down syndrome. The clinic is opening Tuesday in Manchester. There are many associated skin conditions with Down syndrome, including dry skin, excessive dandruff, rashes around the mouth, acne in the groin and armpits, patchy hair loss, vitiligo, and toenail and foot fungus, Dartmouth-Hitchcock said in a news release. Down syndrome is also linked with other medical conditions such as congenital heart disease, celiac disease, chronic ear infections and thyroid disease. The clinic will consider how treatment plans will affect other medical conditions common with Down syndrome. “Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been my dream to have a dermatology clinic specifically for people with Down syndrome – to really take our time to educate and empower. We are excited to get started,” dermatologist Jillian Rork said in a news release.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nJersey City: An officer safely caught a 1-month-old baby dropped off a second-floor balcony over the weekend, police said. The Hudson County prosecutor’s office said Officer Eduardo Matute was among those called to the Jersey City residence Saturday morning after reports that a man was threatening the baby. He and several officers were positioned below the second-floor balcony as the child was dangled over the balcony railing. Officials said the man dropped the infant after a lengthy standoff, and Matute caught the child. City spokesperson Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said the child was taken to the hospital as a precaution. Mayor Steve Fulop later posted a photo on social media of the officer holding the child, who was wrapped in a white blanket. “Thankfully the baby wasn’t harmed physically,” Fulop said. Wallace-Scalcione said the man who dropped the baby was immediately arrested, and charges are pending. “Kudos to the (Jersey City Police Department) and all the officers involved for their heroics and for bringing a safe conclusion to this dangerous situation,” Prosecutor Esther Suarez said in a Twitter post.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nAlbuquerque: Amid debate over the state’s system of releasing felony defendants, University of New Mexico research indicates that just under 5% of Albuquerque-area defendants awaiting trial commit violent crimes while free from jail. Findings from the university’s Institute for Social Research’s analysis of more than 10,000 felony cases in Bernalillo County also included that less than 1% of people on pretrial release were arrested for a first-degree felony while on pretrial release, the Albuquerque Journal reports. A senior state courts official said the research indicates that the vast majority of defendants don’t commit new crimes pending trial, but the top prosecutor for Bernalillo County and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said its still troubling that some defendants commit crimes while free. Administrative Office of the Courts Director Artie Pepin said the research “validates the pretrial justice improvements underway in New Mexico.” District Attorney Raul Torrez said through spokeswoman Laura Rodriguez that the few violent crimes committed by people on pretrial release are “an unacceptable price for our community to pay.” Lujan Grisham spokesman Tripp Stelnicki said it “can still be utterly devastating to a family or a community” when 5% of felony defendants commit a violent crime.\n\nNew York\n\nAlbany: The state is taking steps to address a mounting shortage of school bus drivers. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday announced several short-term and long-term initiatives, including opening up new testing sites for commercial driver’s license applicants, expediting the testing and permitting process, and conducting outreach to law enforcement, firefighters, military and other organizations that already have trained drivers. A study by the New York Association for Pupil Transportation two years ago found that 8 in 10 school transportation directors considered driver shortages a major concern, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem. A lack of drivers can lead to delayed departures and arrivals and the cancellation of field trips and other extracurricular activities. “Our schools and public health officials have moved mountains to ensure our children receive an in-person education this year, and we are leaving no stone unturned to make sure schools have adequate bus service to bring students to school and back,” Hochul said in a statement. The state is reaching out to more than half a million existing commercial driver’s license holders in the state, including those who are currently unemployed, Hochul said.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nMonroe: Union County’s school board voted Monday to modify the district’s quarantine protocols to comply with state law and let the county health department lead contact tracing efforts. The move comes after the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services threatened to sue the district for overhauling contact tracing procedures and allowing most of its 7,000 quarantined students back into the classroom so long as they are not symptomatic or known to be infected with the coronavirus. “UCPS will recognize quarantines in accordance with state law of students and staff who are considered close contacts with a COVID-19-positive case,” said Kathy Heintel, a member of the board. Because it is one of a handful of districts not compelling students or staff to wear masks and does not have an online learning option, some Union County parents say the quarantines have amounted to 14 days of near-total learning loss. Roughly one-sixth of the district’s 39,000 enrolled pupils were stuck at home the week before the district substantially changed its COVID-19 protocols. Fewer than 1,700 kids were quarantined last week after the changes, a 77% weekly drop.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: Regulators say the state has officially lost its status as the nation’s second-biggest oil producer. North Dakota produced just over 1 million barrels of oil per day in July, the most recent month for which data is available from the state Oil and Gas Division. The July production marks a 56,000-barrel-per-day or 5% drop from June, the Bismarck Tribune reports. Texas continues to lead the nation in oil production. The Permian Basin spans parts of New Mexico and Texas, and it’s arguably the biggest competition for North Dakota’s Bakken oil patch. The southern oil-producing region is closer to major refineries and export terminals, and it attracts significant drilling and investment within the oil and gas industry. North Dakota ranked second, behind Texas, in oil production for nine years. It lost that status to New Mexico in July. The two states had been neck and neck for several months. New Mexico had 82 rigs drilling Friday, far more than the 27 operating in North Dakota. Aside from bragging rights, a state’s position holds other implications. Rankings can affect an oil company’s ability to find investors to fund a project in a state, North Dakota regulators have said. North Dakota had surpassed Alaska to take second place in oil production in 2012.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: The State Medical Board of Ohio has renewed the medical license of a doctor who drew nationwide attention and derision for claiming COVID-19 vaccines were magnetizing recipients and had a connection to 5G wireless towers. Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, a state-licensed doctor of osteopathic medicine, first received her license in 1984, and it had been set to expire Oct. 1, on its regular two-year basis. Tenpenny spoke to the Ohio House Health Committee in June about her false vaccine claims. She is among the 12 most prolific disseminators of COVID-19 misinformation on social media, according to research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate. An anti-vaccine activist since the 2000s, Tenpenny has called vaccines a “method of mass destruction” and “depopulation”; charges $623 for her “boot camp” to train people how to convince others to refrain from vaccination; and sells her book “Saying No to Vaccines” for $578 on Amazon. State law allows the medical board, with the votes of at least six of its 12 members, to refuse renewal of any physician for “making a false, fraudulent, deceptive, or misleading statement” in relation to the practice of medicine.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: The state on Monday scheduled its first executions since it put lethal injections on hold six years ago following a series of mishaps. Included on the list of seven executions is Julius Jones, whose case has drawn national attention. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals scheduled Jones to die Nov. 18 by lethal injection for the 1999 slaying of Edmond businessman Paul Howell, who was shot in front of his family during a carjacking. The court set the date despite a Sept. 13 recommendation by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that Jones’ death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment without parole. The recommendation has received no decision by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who must make the final decision. Jones’ case was featured in 2018 on the ABC television documentary series “The Last Defense.” That drew the attention of reality television star Kim Kardashian West and numerous professional athletes with ties to Oklahoma, who appealed for clemency. Jones, 41, has consistently maintained that he is innocent of the killing. Oklahoma once had one of the busiest death chambers in the nation, but executions were put on hold following a botched lethal injection in 2014 that left an inmate writhing on the gurney and drug mix-ups in 2015.\n\nOregon\n\nDallas: The Oregon Medical Board has revoked the license of a doctor west of Salem for refusing to follow COVID-19 guidelines in his office, spreading misinformation about masks and overprescribing opioids. According to medical board documents, the board also fined Steven Arthur LaTulippe $10,000 on Sept. 2, The Oregonian/OregonLive reports. LaTulippe sued the medical board in January after his license was suspended for placing patients in danger by disregarding COVID-19 mandates and asking patients to remove their masks. LaTulippe’s family practice, South View Medical Arts in Dallas, did not properly screen patients and relied on the receptionist’s ability to visually gauge whether visitors were sick, according to the medical board documents. At least 95% of patients did not use masks at the clinic between March and December 2020, LaTulippe told medical board officials. LaTulippe made bogus claims to patients that masks were ineffective against COVID-19 and could cause carbon dioxide poisoning, according to the medical board. LaTulippe also made anti-mask comments during a pro-Trump rally in Salem on Nov. 7, 2020. The Multnomah County Republican Party posted footage of his comments to YouTube, which removed the video for violating its community guidelines.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nPhiladelphia: Supporters of a plan to open supervised injection sites to try to reduce overdose deaths urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to review a court decision that bans the practice. The test case centers on a nonprofit group’s Safehouse project in Philadelphia, though officials in other states are watching closely as they debate similar programs. Nationally, more than 93,000 people died last year from drug overdoses, a sharp spike from just a year earlier. A divided U.S. appeals court had rejected the Safehouse plan in January, although Philadelphia’s Democratic mayor and top prosecutor endorse it. The city itself lost 1,200 people to overdoses last year. The nonprofit group’s plan to open a site was thwarted when former U.S. Attorney William McSwain, a Trump appointee now running for governor, argued that it violated a 1980s-era drug law aimed at “crackhouses.” The district judge rejected McSwain’s argument, but the appeals court agreed with him in a 2-1 decision that nonetheless called the goal of harm reduction “admirable.” Safehouse last month asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review that decision. The amicus brief filed Friday said Congress never intended the crackhouse statute to encompass harm reduction efforts offered by medical personnel.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: The state is offering $4 million in grants to help communities build and expand recreation facilities. Democratic Gov. Dan McKee and the Department of Environmental Management announced Friday that the outdoor recreation matching grants would be available to local municipalities and Native American tribes seeking to acquire, develop or renovate outdoor recreational facilities in their communities. Grant applications are due by Dec. 17. The money is provided through a clean water and green bond approved by voters. McKee said the state’s network of bikeways, open spaces and other recreational assets help attract people and businesses to Rhode Island. “Access to green space and clean, functional recreation facilities improves health, promotes stronger social ties, and enhances neighborhood satisfaction and pride,” McKee said in a statement. Applicants can apply for smaller recreation development grants or larger acquisition grants, capped at $400,000.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nLexington: A school board will consider asking the Legislature to drop what amounts to a ban on school mask mandates to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The State newspaper reports the Lexington County School District 1 board surveyed parents recently and found more than two-thirds supported a mask mandate. A similar percentage of district employees also backed a mandate. At its Tuesday board meeting, Lexington 1 board will consider asking lawmakers to repeal a part of the state budget that effectively bans school mask mandates by denying districts the funds to enforce them. “For months, we have heard from a small and vocal group of parents and staff on both sides of the mask debate,” school board chair Anne Marie Green said in an email to parents. “We wanted to know how our entire community truly felt about masking.” Green told The State she isn’t sure if the board would adopt a mask mandate immediately “because our numbers are going in the right direction.” However, she said the local school board is better positioned to respond to sudden changes than the Legislature, which won’t hold a regular session until early next year. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control reported 2,357 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 17 coronavirus-related deaths Monday, according to the paper.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: Musicals scheduled in the state’s two largest cities have been postponed or scrapped due to the pandemic. A show that was set to run this past weekend at the Orpheum Theater in Sioux Falls was postponed to Sept.29-30 after two cast members tested positive for the coronavirus. The production of “Lost in Vegas,” held by local theater company Lights Up, held its opening run last weekend in front of about 200 people each day. After one cast member had tested positive for the virus this past week, the show went on Thursday after officials blocked the first two rows and warned the 150 people in the audience about the results, director Brent Grosvenor said. “We did the right thing. We talked to the cast. The cast made an informed decision still to perform,” Grosvenor said. “We had understudies replacing sick actors, and that’s how the real world works.” After another cast member tested positive for the virus Friday, theater officials called off the rest of the weekend shows. In Rapid City, the Black Hills Community Theatre announced Friday that it had canceled all planned performances of “Matilda” following the increased spread of COVID-19 infections in the region. Theater officials told the Rapid City Journal many younger participants in the show are not yet eligible for vaccinations.\n\nTennessee\n\nMemphis: State officials say donors have added 144 acres to a state park known for being the first east of the Mississippi River to be open to African Americans. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation said the expansion of T.O. Fuller State Park is the result of a donation by philanthropists Hugh and Margaret Jones Fraser and the Carrington Jones family of Memphis. Nonprofits groups The Land Trust for Tennessee and Wolf River Conservancy helped with the acquisition. The park, opened in 1938, was also only the second state park nationwide that was open to African Americans. In 1942 the park was named after Thomas O. Fuller, a prominent African American educator, pastor, politician, civic leader and author. The park includes 8 miles of trails, four shelters, 35 picnic tables, basketball courts, an interpretive center, and diverse landscapes with more than 200 plant species.\n\nTexas\n\nSan Antonio: A doctor who said he performed an abortion in defiance of a new state law has all but dared supporters of the near-total ban on the procedure to try making an early example of him by filing a lawsuit – the only way the restrictions can be enforced. The state’s largest anti-abortion group said Monday that it’s looking into the matter after Dr. Alan Braid in a weekend Washington Post opinion column became the first Texas abortion provider to publicly reveal he violated the law that took effect Sept. 1. The law prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, which is usually around six weeks and before many women even know they are pregnant. Prosecutors cannot take criminal action against Braid, because the law explicitly forbids that. The only way the ban can be enforced is through lawsuits brought by private citizens, who are entitled to claim at least $10,000 in damages if successful. Legal experts say Braid’s admission is likely to set up another test of whether the law can stand after the Supreme Court allowed it to take effect. Braid wrote that on Sept. 6 he provided an abortion to a woman who was still in her first trimester but beyond the state’s new limit. “I fully understood that there could be legal consequences – but I wanted to make sure that Texas didn’t get away with its bid to prevent this blatantly unconstitutional law from being tested,” he wrote.\n\nUtah\n\nSalt Lake City: The state’s newest license plate option features an outline of Utah and five hands of different colors holding it into place. The words “many stories, one Utah” are printed underneath, the Deseret News reports. Gov. Spencer Cox said he hopes someone will see it and think about what it represents. “I hope and believe because of the incredible artwork that it will inspire conversations,” Cox said. The new license plate unveiled at the state Capitol on Thursday honors the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. While there are no direct links to his image or likeness – as a result of legal reasons from the King estate – the design itself is inspired by him and his work as a civil rights activist before he was assassinated in 1968. Utah’s work toward an MLK-themed license plate dates back to 2012, according to Simba Maponga, chairman of the state’s Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Commission. A 2020 bill led by Rep. Sandra Hollins, D-Salt Lake City, and Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, then paved the way for a license plate to recognize King’s work and life, with money from the plates going toward scholarships for “underrepresented or underserved” students. The winning design was submitted by Eleanor Smith, a former Timpview High School and current BYU student.\n\nVermont\n\nSt. Albans: The city’s hospital is seeking approval to build a $7.5 million expansion of its emergency department. The Northwestern Medical Center has been considering an upgrade to its emergency department, which was built around 1989, since before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, said Jonathan Billings, the hospital’s vice president of community relations. COVID-19 has clearly exacerbated the need, Billing’s told the St. Albans Messenger earlier this month. The emergency room currently has curtained treatment bays to separate patients. “If you have someone with active COVID-19, you can’t put them in a curtained treatment bay,” he said. The expansion would eliminate such use by updating those areas to increase patient privacy and safety and to better limit the spread of infectious airborne diseases, such as the coronavirus, through additional air quality-controlled rooms, Billings told the newspaper. The expansion would add six emergency department treatment stations, bringing the total to 20. About 2,400 square feet would be added, and 6,800 square feet of existing space would be renovated.\n\nVirginia\n\nNorfolk: A Republican candidate for the House of Delegates has apologized after tweeting a derogatory comment about the appearance of House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn that some Democrats said was an antisemitic attack. The Washington Post reports that Hahns Copeland, who is running to represent the Norfolk-based 89th District, on Friday tweeted a response to a tweet by House Democrats that featured a video of Filler-Corn, who is Jewish, talking about a child care subsidy program. “I was surprised to see a pair of eyes and a mouth with that NOSE,” Copeland tweeted. He apologized in another tweet late Friday, calling the earlier tweet “immature and impulsive.” “It was never intended to be anti-Semitic or reference her ethnicity or religion,” Copeland’s tweet said. He conceded his earlier tweet was “inappropriate and insensitive.” Democrats said it was an antisemitic attack on Filler-Corn. The speaker’s staff said Friday that she had not heard directly from Copeland. “These types of hateful comments are unfortunately far too common today, and they are too often invoked instead of solutions to the real issues Virginians face,” Filler-Corn said in a statement. “I hope this candidate and his supporters choose to do what is right and acknowledge that words from those in office or seeking it have an impact.”\n\nWashington\n\nSpokane: This has been a record-breaking year of drought in much of Eastern Washington, state officials say. In April, a huge volume of snow in the Cascade Range measured in at 132% of normal statewide, raising hopes of an abundant water year, the state Department of Ecology said in a blog post last week. But now 16 Washington counties, including 13 in Eastern Washington, are drier than they’ve ever been since record-keeping began in 1895, the blog said. According to the National Weather Service, from March to August the state saw just 6.90 inches of precipitation. Normal during that time is 13.03 inches. To end the current drought in the lower Columbia River area, Ecology Drought Coordinator Jeff Marti said the state would need 11 inches of rain by next April. The odds of that kind of rebound are low. “The question is, will we have a full recovery before next spring?” Marti said. “The odds for significant improvement of conditions are pretty good for Western Washington. But I’m less optimistic about the east side. Based on historic climatology, the odds for significantly ameliorating current conditions is about 1 in 5 across Eastern Washington. For a full recovery in Eastern Washington, the odds are about 1 in 20,” Marti said.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: A grassroots group is using newspaper advertisements to further push Sen. Joe Manchin to support issues it considers important to low-income West Virginians. The Poor People’s Campaign took out the full-page ads Sunday in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel and The Journal of Martinsburg. The group has repeatedly pressed the influential moderate Democratic senator in an effort that includes conducting a rally at the state Capitol in Charleston last month. Manchin has opposed a $15 federal minimum wage and an elections bill that he said he couldn’t support because it lacked bipartisan support. Senate Democrats unveiled a pared-back elections bill last week. The Poor People’s Campaign also had a news conference scheduled Monday to urge Manchin to help change Senate filibuster rules that have blocked passage of legislation. Scheduled participants include state organizers as well as the group’s national co-chairs. Manchin long has defended the filibuster as many of his Senate colleagues have shifted on the issue.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: The retired conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice leading a Republican-ordered investigation into the 2020 presidential election released a video Monday threatening to subpoena election officials who don’t comply and saying the intent was not to overturn President Joe Biden’s relatively narrow victory in the battleground state. The unusual 6-minute video from Michael Gableman comes after election clerks were confused by an email his office sent last week that was flagged in at multiple counties as junk or a possible security risk and was not broadly forwarded to municipal clerks as he wanted. Gableman said Monday that if the state’s 1,900-plus municipal and county election officials did not cooperate with his investigation, he would “compel” them to comply. Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has said he would sign subpoenas requested by Gableman as part of the investigation. Vos hired Gableman at a cost of nearly $680,000 in taxpayer money to conduct the investigation. Vos declined to sign subpoenas sought by Rep. Janel Bandtjen, chair of the Assembly elections committee, seeking ballots, voting machines and other data in Milwaukee and Brown counties. Gableman said local clerks who run elections in Wisconsin will be required to prove that voting was done legally.\n\nWyoming\n\nCasper: The city is considering offering employees a $250 incentive for getting fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. City workers could also get $100 for dependents or spouses who get their inoculations, as well as $50 for booster shots, and the employees themselves would be eligible retroactively if they’ve already gotten their shots, according to the paper. The proposal is set to be considered at a City Council meeting Tuesday.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/21"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_9", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/politics/joe-biden-nato-day-2/index.html", "title": "NATO formally invites Finland and Sweden to join alliance ...", "text": "Madrid (CNN) NATO formalized its invitation to Sweden and Finland to join its alliance Wednesday, a historic expansion of the defense bloc that directly undercuts Russian President Vladimir Putin's aims as his war in Ukraine grinds ahead.\n\nThe group collectively decided to approve countries' applications to join after Turkey dropped its objections Tuesday, paving the way for NATO's most consequential enlargement in decades.\n\n\"The accession of Finland and Sweden will make them safer, NATO stronger, and the Euro-Atlantic area more secure. The security of Finland and Sweden is of direct importance to the Alliance, including during the accession process,\" the statement said.\n\nThe decision will now go to the 30 member states' parliaments and legislatures for final ratification. NATO's leaders said they expected the process to move quickly, allowing for an unprecedentedly swift accession and a show of unity against Putin.\n\nThe leaders entered Wednesday's talks propelled by a diplomatic victory after Turkey dropped its objections to the two nations joining NATO, setting the stage for the two longtime neutral countries to enter the defensive bloc. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called the formal invitation from the alliance to Sweden and Finland to join the defense bloc a \"historic decision.\"\n\n\"The agreement concluded last night by Turkey, Finland and Sweden paved the way for this decision,\" the secretary general said in a news conference.\n\nHe recounted how two rounds of talks were held by senior officials in Brussels under his auspices in the advance of Monday's consequential meeting between Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Turkey agreed on Tuesday to drop its objections to their membership bids, removing a major hurdle to them joining NATO.\n\nThe expansion vote, paired with substantial new commitments bolstering NATO's force posture in Europe, combined to make this week's summit in Madrid one of the most productive in recent memory. The alliance endorsed a new \"Strategic Concept\" document that outlines the NATO's goals for the next decade. The document, last updated in 2010, lays out the security challenges facing the defensive alliance while outlining a course of actions.\n\nFor the first time, the document outlined the China \"challenge,\" saying that the country's \"ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values.\" This was the first time the Strategic Concept document mentioned China; the 2010 version made no mention of Beijing. It also states that climate change is \"a defining challenge of our time.\"\n\nThe document identifies Russia as the \"most significant and direct threat to allies' security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area\" and addresses NATO's support for an independent Ukraine. In the 2010 version of the document, Russia was referred to as a \"Euro-Atlantic partner.\"\n\nThe outcome is exactly what Putin was hoping to fend off when he invaded Ukraine more than four months ago.\n\n\"I said Putin's looking for the Finlandization of Europe. He's going to get the NATOization of Europe. And that is exactly what he didn't want, but exactly what needs to be done to guarantee security for Europe. And I think it's necessary,\" US President Joe Biden said when he arrived at the summit site in Madrid.\n\nBiden announces strengthening of NATO forces\n\nBiden and fellow NATO leaders assembled in the Spanish capital to unveil a significant strengthening of forces along the alliance's eastern flank as Russia's war in Ukraine shows no signs of slowing.\n\nSpeaking alongside Stoltenberg, Biden listed new troop movements, equipment shipments and military installations meant to demonstrate the importance of security in the face of Moscow's aggression.\n\n\"The United States and our allies, we are going to step up -- we are stepping up. We're proving that NATO is more needed now than it ever has been and is as important as it ever has been,\" Biden said.\n\nHe said the US would establish a permanent headquarters for the Fifth Army Corps in Poland, maintain an extra rotational brigade of 3,000 troops in Romania, enhance rotational deployments to the Baltic states, send two more F-35 fighter jet squadrons to the United Kingdom and station additional air defense and other capabilities in Germany and Italy.\n\n\"Together with our allies, we are going to make sure that NATO is ready to meet threats from all directions -- across every domain, land, air and the sea,\" Biden said.\n\nThe United States did not convey to Russia its plans to bolster its force posture in Europe ahead of time.\n\n\"There has been no communication with Moscow about these changes nor is there a requirement to do that,\" John Kirby, the NSC coordinator for strategic communications, said after Biden announced the series of measures.\n\nA second official told reporters the announcements did not violate any agreements between Russia and NATO, which stipulate parameters for positioning troops in Europe.\n\n\"The decision to permanently forward station the Five Corps headquarters forward command post does not, you know, is consistent with that commitment and our understanding of the NATO Russia founding act,\" said Celeste Wallander, United States assistant secretary of defense for international affairs.\n\nZelensky asks what Ukraine has to do to join NATO\n\nYet even if Putin's aims have backfired and the conflict grinds on, momentum is favoring Russia at the moment. That has left Biden and fellow western leaders this week searching for ways to alter the trajectory of the war.\n\nDespite enthusiasm at the summit for NATO's two newest members, another leader -- Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky -- voiced frustration that his country's NATO ambitions have been ignored, despite coming under siege by Russia.\n\nAddressing the NATO summit in Madrid virtually, Zelensky asked rhetorically, \"Has Ukraine not paid enough\" to join the alliance and review its open door policy.\n\n\"Is our contribution to the defense of both Europe and the whole civilization still insufficient?\" he asked. \"What else is needed then?\"\n\nUkraine has sought unsuccessfully to join NATO for years, hampered by concerns over provoking Russia and other issues related to its governance practices.\n\nSpeaking after Zelensky's address, Stoltenberg said the alliance welcomed the speech.\n\n\"Ukraine can count on us for as long as it takes,\" Stoltenberg stressed to journalists. He commended Zelensky's \"leadership and courage\" and called the Ukrainian leader \"an inspiration to us all.\"\n\nAlliance turns the pressure up on Russia but wary of effects back home\n\nAlready this week, the US and European nations have slapped new rounds of sanctions on Moscow, banned new imports of its gold and agreed to limit the price of its oil. New rounds of security assistance, including a US-provided missile defense system, have been added to the queue of artillery and ammunition flowing in Ukraine.\n\nWhether any of that is enough to fundamentally alter the way the war is going remains to be seen. Zelensky told leaders attending the G7 summit in Germany he wanted their help staging a major initiative to win the war by the end of the year. In an interview with CNN's Jim Sciutto on \"Newsroom\" Wednesday, Kirby pushed back on the idea that the US would lean on Zelensky to give up territory to Russia in order to end the war.\n\n\"This victory has got to be decided by President Zelensky, and he gets to decide what that looks like for his country. Our job is to make sure he can continue to defend himself,\" Kirby said.\n\nLeaders worry the growing cost of the war, seen in rising gas and food prices, could lead to diminished support for Ukraine in the months ahead. A few have warned that fatigue is setting in, adding to the growing concerns that the alliance could fracture.\n\n\"When we agreed we were going to respond, we acknowledged there was going to be some costs to our people, our imposition of sanctions on Russia. But our people have stood together. They've stood up and they've stood strong,\" Biden said Tuesday when he was meeting with King Felipe VI at the Royal Palace in Madrid.\n\nIt was during that meeting Biden received word Turkey was dropping its objections to Finland and Sweden's applications to join NATO, ending a months-long standoff with NATO's most challenging member.\n\nIn order to get the deal struck before the summit, Biden dangled the prospect of a formal bilateral meeting with Erdoğan in a phone call on Tuesday morning. The leaders met Wednesday to discuss the myriad issues that have caused the relationship between Washington and Ankara to sour over the past several years.\n\n\"I want to particularly thank you for what you did, putting together the situation with regard to Finland and Sweden, and all the incredible work you're going to try to get the grain ... out of Ukraine,\" Biden told Erdogan.\n\nBiden also met jointly with Japan's Prime Minister and South Korea's President to focus on the threat from North Korea. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Yoon Suk Yeol are invited guests of the NATO summit, but their countries' ties have deteriorated recently amid disputes over wartime histories, making the joint meeting with Biden a rarity.", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak", "Niamh Kennedy", "Sharon Braithwaite"], "publish_date": "2022/06/29"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/europe/nato-sweden-finland-summit-explainer-intl/index.html", "title": "Sweden and Finland are on the cusp of joining NATO. Here's why ...", "text": "(CNN) Sweden and Finland are set formally to end decades of neutrality and join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) , in a historic breakthrough for the alliance that deals a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin.\n\nThe last major hurdle to the two nations' entry to the bloc was removed when Turkey dropped its opposition on Tuesday.\n\nThat breakthrough came during a NATO summit in Madrid that has already become one of the most consequential meetings in the history of the military alliance.\n\nThe two countries are now expected to become full NATO members quickly, shoring up the bloc's eastern flank within months of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nHere's all you need to know about why the move happened, what comes next and why it matters.\n\nWhat are the latest developments?\n\nSweden and Finland both announced their intention to join NATO in May, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine caused a sudden shift in attitudes toward joining the bloc.\n\nThat announcement was welcomed by almost all of NATO's leaders -- but there was one significant obstacle. Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said he was not looking at both countries joining NATO \"positively,\" accusing them of housing Kurdish \"terrorist organizations.\"\n\nUnder NATO rules, just one member state can veto a new applicant's membership.\n\nHowever, a big diplomatic breakthrough between the three countries took place at the NATO summit in Madrid on Tuesday. Turkey signed a trilateral memorandum with Finland and Sweden, lifting its opposition and officially welcoming them to join the bloc.\n\n\"In NATO, we have always shown that whatever our differences, we can always sit down, find common ground and resolve any issues. NATO's open door policy has been an historic success,\" NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told journalists in Madrid.\n\nOn Wednesday, NATO formally invited Sweden and Finland to join, kickstarting a multistage process that will end with both countries holding full membership.\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday addressed the Madrid NATO summit, where a key diplomatic breakthrough has paved the way for Sweden and Finland to join.\n\nWhat happens next?\n\nStoltenberg said Wednesday that he expects Sweden and Finland to become members of the military alliance quickly.\n\nThe invitation sparks a seven-step accession process. Key moments along that path include talks between NATO and the candidate countries. The candidates must formally accept the obligations of membership, and then current member states sign an Accession Protocol, before individually ratifying it back home.\n\n\"We need a ratification process in 30 parliaments -- that always takes some time but I expect also that to go rather quickly because allies are ready to try to make that ratification process happen as quickly as possible,\" Stoltenberg explained Wednesday.\n\nAfter that, the candidate country is formally invited to accede to the Washington Treaty, the founding document of the alliance.\n\nNATO has an \"open door\" policy -- any country can be invited to join if it expresses an interest, as long as it is able and willing to uphold the principles of the bloc's founding treaty.\n\nThe ratification process usually takes about a year, from the signing of the Accession Protocol by existing members to the country joining the Washington Treaty.\n\nBut the war in Ukraine has added unprecedented urgency to Sweden and Finland's membership, and the timeline could be accelerated accordingly.\n\nHow have leaders reacted?\n\nUS President Joe Biden praised the breakthrough with Turkey, saying it sent a clear signal to Russia that NATO was united and growing.\n\nSweden and Finland's \"decision to move away from neutrality and the tradition of neutrality to join the NATO alliance is going to make us stronger and more secure and NATO stronger,\" Biden said. \"We are sending an unmistakable message in my view... that NATO is strong, united, and the steps we are taking during this summit are going to further augment our collective strength.\"\n\nBiden said the two Nordic countries' accession was a sign Putin's aims had backfired.\n\n\"Putin was looking for the Finlandization of Europe,\" he said, referring to the so-called Finlandization dynamic that saw Russia dominant over the foreign policy of its smaller neighbor for decades. \"He's going to get the NATOization of Europe, and that is exactly what he did not want, that's exactly what needs to be done to guarantee security for Europe. And I think it's necessary,\" Biden said.\n\nThe move was met with delight across the countries that make up NATO's eastern front, many of which have expressed concern that they could be next in Russia's crosshairs if it is successful in Ukraine.\n\nEstonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said the step was \"significant,\" and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda called it \"wonderful news.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED Related Video: Europe now at 1938 moment says fmr. NATO deputy commander Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Related Video: Europe now at 1938 moment says fmr. NATO deputy commander 17:04\n\nWhat does NATO membership entail?\n\nThe reason most countries join NATO is because of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which stipulates that all signatories consider an attack on one member an attack against all.\n\nArticle 5 has been a cornerstone of the alliance since it was founded in 1949 as a counterweight to the Soviet Union.\n\nThe point of the treaty, and Article 5 specifically, was to deter the Soviets from attacking liberal democracies that lacked military strength. Article 5 guarantees that the resources of the whole alliance -- including the massive US military -- can be used to protect any single member nation, such as smaller countries that would be defenseless without their allies. Iceland, for example, has no standing army.\n\nFormer Swedish leader Carl Bildt told CNN didn't foresee new big military bases being built in either country if they joined. He said joining the alliance would probably mean more joint military training and planning between Finland, Sweden and the 30 current members. Swedish and Finnish forces could also participate in other NATO operations around the globe, such as those in the Baltic states, where several bases have multinational troops.\n\n\"There's going to be preparations for contingencies as part of deterring any adventures that the Russians might be thinking of,\" Bildt said. \"The actual change is going to be fairly limited.\"\n\nWhy haven't Finland and Sweden already joined NATO?\n\nWhile other Nordic countries like Norway, Denmark and Iceland were original members of the alliance, Sweden and Finland did not join the pact for historic and geopolitical reasons.\n\nBoth Finland, which declared independence from Russia in 1917 after the Bolshevik revolution, and Sweden adopted neutral foreign policy stances during the Cold War, refusing to align with either the Soviet Union or the United States.\n\nSweden's policy of neutrality goes back to the early 1800s, when the country steadfastly stayed out of European conflicts. Its King Gustav XIV formally adopted that neutral status in 1834, according to NATO , and Sweden declared a policy of \"non-belligerency\" during World War II -- allowing Nazi troops to pass through its land into Finland, while also accepting Jewish refugees.\n\nSweden opted to maintain its neutral status after the war ended.\n\nFinland's neutrality has historically proved more difficult, as it shared a long border with an authoritarian superpower.\n\nA Finno-Soviet treaty known as the Agreement of Friendship, signed in 1948 and extended on occasion through the decades, prohibited Finland from joining any military alliance considered hostile to the USSR, or from allowing a Western attack through Finnish territory.\n\nTo keep the peace, Finns adopted an arrangement sometimes called Finlandization, in which leaders acceded to Soviet demands from time to time. The term was coined during the Cold War and has been applied to other countries in which a superpower exerts control over smaller neighboring states.\n\nBoth countries' balancing acts effectively ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Sweden and Finland joined the European Union together in 1995 and gradually aligned their defense policies with the West, while still avoiding joining NATO outright.\n\nFinnish infantry on skis fighting the Soviets during World War II. Following the war, Finland adopted a neutral stance that remained in place for decades.\n\nHow Russia's invasion changed everything\n\nSweden and Finland have been inching toward the West on security issues since joining the EU shortly after the end of the Cold War. But Russia's invasion of Ukraine dramatically accelerated that process, pushing them to pull the trigger on NATO membership.\n\nIf the Kremlin was willing to invade Ukraine -- a country with 44 million people, a GDP of about $155 billion, and armed forces of 200,000 active troops -- what would stop Putin from invading smaller countries like Finland or Sweden?\n\n\"Everything changed when Russia invaded Ukraine,\" Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in April. \"People's mindset in Finland, also in Sweden, changed and shifted very dramatically.\"\n\nSince the invasion of Ukraine in February, Finnish public support for joining NATO has leaped from around 30% to nearly 80% in some polls. The majority of Swedes also approve of their country joining the alliance, according to opinion polls there.\n\nHow has Russia reacted?\n\nRussia lambasted the May decision by Finland and Sweden to seek to join the alliance. Its Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said at the time that the move would be a \"mistake\" with \"far-reaching consequences,\" according to Russian state news agency TASS.\n\nThat followed similar threats from high-ranking Moscow officials. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after the announcement that \"NATO expansion does not make the world more stable and secure.\" He added that Russia's reaction would depend on \"how far and how close to our borders the military infrastructure will move.\"\n\nRussia currently shares about 755 miles of land border with five NATO members, according to the alliance. Finland's accession would mean that a nation with which Russia shares an 830-mile border would become formally militarily aligned with the United States.\n\nThe addition of Finland and Sweden would also benefit the alliance, which would frustrate Russia. Both are serious military powers, despite their small populations.\n\nBut Putin has so far been more muted in his rhetoric than some of his officials. Last month he said that \"Russia has no problems with these states,\" adding that the expansion of NATO \"does not pose a direct threat to Russia.\"\n\n\"But the expansion of military infrastructure into this territory will certainly cause our response,\" he added at the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Moscow. \"We will see what it will be based on the threats that will be created for us.\"\n\nWhy is Russia so opposed to NATO?\n\nPutin sees the alliance as a defense against Russia, despite the fact that it spent much of the post-Soviet era focusing on issues like terrorism and peacekeeping.\n\nBefore Putin invaded Ukraine, he made clear his belief that NATO had edged too close to Russia and should be stripped back to its borders of the 1990s, before some countries that either neighbor Russia or were ex-Soviet states joined the military alliance.\n\nUkraine's desire to join NATO , and its status as a NATO partner -- seen as a step on the way to eventual full membership -- was one of the numerous grievances Putin cited in an attempt to justify the invasion.\n\nIronically, his invasion has given the alliance new purpose -- and increased its strength.\n\nCorrection: This story has been updated to correct the GDP of Ukraine, which was $155.5 billion in 2020, according to the World Bank.", "authors": ["Rob Picheta", "Joshua Berlinger"], "publish_date": "2022/06/29"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/politics/joe-biden-g7-nato/index.html", "title": "Turkey drops objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO ...", "text": "Madrid (CNN) Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said on Tuesday that Turkey has agreed to support Finland and Sweden's NATO membership bids, removing a major hurdle to the two countries joining the alliance.\n\nNiinistö said in a statement that a joint memorandum on the matter was signed by Turkey, Finland and Sweden on Tuesday in Madrid ahead of what is shaping up to be a critical summit.\n\nThe joint memorandum underscores the commitment of Finland, Sweden and Turkey \"to extend their full support against threats to each other's security,\" Niinistö said.\n\n\"The concrete steps of our accession to NATO will be agreed by the NATO allies during the next two days, but that decision is now imminent,\" he added.\n\nThe two nations formally applied to be part of the security alliance in May, propelled by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had said repeatedly Turkey wouldn't support the bids, accusing the two countries of harboring members of the separatist militant Kurdistan's Workers Party, also known as PKK, which Turkey views as a terrorist organization.\n\nNATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said he is \"confident\" that Finland and Sweden will be able to successfully join NATO after the signing of the trilateral memorandum of understanding.\n\n\"I'm pleased to announce that we now have an agreement that paves the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO. Turkey, Finland and Sweden have signed a memorandum that addresses Turkey's concerns, including around arms exports, and the fight against terrorism,\" Stoltenberg said, speaking to journalists in Madrid following the signing of the memorandum.\n\nOn Wednesday, allied leaders will then decide whether to invite Finland and Sweden to join NATO, he said, adding that after this decision a ratification process will need to take place in all NATO capitals.\n\nThe NATO chief said that following the signing of this trilateral memorandum however he was \"confident\" that Sweden and Finland becoming NATO members is \"something that will take place.\"\n\nUS President Joe Biden and Erdoğan spoke on the phone ahead of the summit and are expected to meet on Wednesday, said Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.\n\n\"We do expect at some point tomorrow, President Erdogan and President Biden have the chance to talk,\" Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One, but added that details of the meeting are still being worked out.\n\n\"There's not a fixed time or framework for the meeting, but they'll have a chance to spend some time together,\" he said, noting that they will discuss \"strategic issues\" between the two countries.\n\nAs recently as earlier on Tuesday, Erdoğan had told reporters that he had spoken with Biden over the phone before leaving for Madrid, and said Sweden and Finland's applications to join NATO will be top of mind, Erdoğan said.\n\n\"The PKK will be on our agenda in my bilateral meetings. We will explain our position to Sweden and Finland once again. The PKK should be prevented from acting in these countries,\" he said, adding, \"If they are to become a member of NATO, they have to address Turkey's security concerns. We do not want dry words, we want results.\"\n\nA critical summit\n\nBiden arrived in Spain on Tuesday for a NATO summit expected to significantly bolster the alliance's defense posture along its eastern edge, including ramping up troop levels and positioning heavy equipment, as Western leaders contemplate the next phase of the war in Ukraine.\n\nThe announcements expected over the course of the two-day summit would harden the collective's defenses as Russia's invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth month, including scaling up the number of troops on high alert to 300,000 -- a sevenfold increase. Not since the Cold War has NATO made such significant enhancements to its posture.\n\nThe announcements come amid mounting concerns that the West's resolve in confronting Russia could soon fracture amid rising energy prices and waning interest in the grinding conflict.\n\n\"The alliance is strengthening its posture, is dealing with the threats and strengthening our posture against the threats from the east, and challenges from the south. NATO is focused on all directions and domains land, air and sea,\" Biden said shortly after he arrived.\n\nSpeaking alongside the Spanish prime minister, Biden detailed plans to add two US destroyers based at the Rota Naval Station in Spain, bringing the total number of US destroyers based there to six.\n\n\"As I said before the war started, if Putin attacked Ukraine, the United States would enhance our force posture in Europe and respond to the reality of a new European security environment,\" he said.\n\n\"Together, the new commitments will constitute an impressive display of allied unity and resolve and NATO's 360-degree approach to our security,\" he continued.\n\nBiden and his fellow leaders are eager to change the momentum on the ground in Ukraine, where Russia continues to make gains in the East. At the same time, rising energy prices have put pressure on leaders to find a resolution to the conflict.\n\nOn Tuesday, his administration announced new sanctions on Moscow, including implementing a ban on new imports of Russian gold that was agreed to at the G7 summit.\n\nA missile strike Monday on a shopping mall in the in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk was a reminder of Russia's continued brutality.\n\n\"Russia's attack on civilians at a shopping mall is cruel. We stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people,\" Biden wrote on Twitter. \"As demonstrated at the G7 Summit, the US along with our allies and partners will continue to hold Russia accountable for such atrocities and support Ukraine's defense.\"\n\nBiden arrives to the NATO gathering after wrapping up final meetings with G7 leaders in Germany, where the Ukraine crisis dominated conversations among leaders. Agreements on sanctions and trying the limit the price of Russian oil were expected to come out of the gathering.\n\nBiden met Tuesday morning with Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom on the margins of the G7, which is taking place in Germany's Bavaria region. The group has played the most significant role in orchestrating the Western response to the war in Ukraine, though differences in opinion exist over how and when to engage Russian President Vladimir Putin in negotiations to end the war.\n\nNew announcements on food security\n\nG7 leaders are announcing up to $5 billion funding in global food security Tuesday in the latest effort to counter global effects from the war in Ukraine, more than half of which will come from the United States.\n\nAs part of Tuesday's announcement, the Biden administration is committing $2.76 billion \"to support efforts in over 47 countries and regional organizations,\" including $2 billion in direct humanitarian aid and $760 million \"for sustainable, near and medium-term food assistance to help enhance the resilience and productivity of food systems around the world, particularly in vulnerable regions,\" a senior administration official told reporters Tuesday.\n\nAccording to White House estimates, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent destruction of agriculture equipment and blockade of grain shipments will push up to 40 million people into poverty in 2022. The Biden administration has attempted a number of stopgap measures to move the grain and avert a \"catastrophic food shortage\" in parts of the world.\n\n\"Obviously, Putin's actions have been at the core, and the thing from which you can draw a direct line to all of the vulnerabilities that we're seeing around the world in terms of food security -- his actions have strangled food and agricultural production, using food as a weapon of war,\" the official said. \"This is just one piece of our efforts, and we're committed to do everything we can, both as the United States and the G7, to work with partners around the world to address.\"\n\nThe US's commitment will come from the second Ukraine supplemental assistance package lawmakers passed last month, and is expected to be allocated and delivered by the end of the fiscal year. According to the official, leaders also discussed \"a range of approaches\" to get Ukraine's grain to market and address global shortages, adding the issue was \"at the very top of the list of priorities the leaders have with respect to addressing the food security challenge.\"\n\nTuesday's announcement comes on the last day of the G7 Summit in Schloss Elmau, Germany, where leaders are also expected to condemn the harms caused by China's \"non-transparent market distorting industrial practices,\" in a communique wrapping the summit.\n\nCrucial NATO summit begins Tuesday\n\nThe President arrived in Madrid in the afternoon for a summit where leaders are expected to endorse a new \"Strategic Concept\" that outlines the defense alliance's goals for the next decade.\n\nThese priorities include \"building resilience against transnational threats including cyber and climate\" and \"deepening partnerships with democratic partners in Europe and Asia in order to strengthen the rules-based international order,\" the White House says.\n\nNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday the alliance would scale up the number of troops on high alert to 300,000, a sevenfold increase that reflects the grinding war in Ukraine.\n\nStoltenberg said Russia had walked away from any partnership with NATO, and the group was obligated to respond.\n\n\"They have chosen confrontation instead of dialogue. We regret that -- but of course, then we need to respond to that reality,\" he said.\n\nBiden described NATO as \"united and galvanized\" Tuesday but acknowledged the growing costs of the grinding war in Ukraine during a brief photo-op with Spanish King Felipe VI.\n\n\"We are ready to face threats of Russian aggression because frankly there's no choice,\" he said, calling Russia's invasion of Ukraine \"the most significant abuse of power since World War II.\"\n\n\"Some people thought it was not likely to happen again but it did. But we responded. We responded in unison,\" he said.\n\n\"When we agreed we were going to respond, we acknowledged there was going to be some costs to our people, our imposition of sanctions on Russia. But our people have stood together. They've stood up and they've stood strong,\" he said.\n\nThe President and first lady Jill Biden will then attend a dinner Tuesday evening for leaders attending the NATO summit, which will be hosted by King Felipe VI and Her Majesty Queen Letizia of Spain.\n\nChallenges at home and abroad\n\nThe summit comes as Russia's invasion of Ukraine stretches into its fifth month and as the US looks to keep allies united in its support for Ukraine and sustain the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.\n\nBut it also comes as leaders face the threat of a global recession and the Biden administration grapples with soaring inflation and high prices and interest rates at home. The mounting economic concerns have raised questions about whether the united Western response to the conflict in Ukraine can be sustained in the long term as the war grinds on.\n\nThe US assessment of the war increasingly envisions a long and punishing battle in eastern Ukraine that will result in high personnel losses on both sides. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told G7 leaders during a virtual meeting on Monday that he wants the war in Ukraine to end by the end of 2022, according to a source familiar with his remarks.\n\nThe US is also preparing to announce the purchase of an advanced medium-to-long range surface-to-air missile defense system that Ukraine's president requested. The announcement could come as soon as this week, and comes in addition to the several packages of military assistance the US has provided since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.\n\nThe US will also be unveiling other new sanctions, including on Russian defense companies and individuals. The leaders have agreed to ban imports of new Russian gold, which is the country's second largest export after energy.", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak", "Niamh Kennedy", "Sugam Pokharel", "Kate Sullivan", "Donald Judd"], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/14/europe/sweden-finland-nato-next-steps-intl/index.html", "title": "Finland and Sweden want to join NATO. Here's how it works and ...", "text": "(CNN) Finland and Sweden are poised to end decades of neutrality by joining NATO, a dramatic evolution in European security and geopolitics sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nThe two Nordic nations had long kept the military alliance at an arm's length, even while eying Russia to their east with caution.\n\nBut Moscow's assault on Ukraine has sparked renewed security concern across the region, and the leaders of each country have signaled their desire to join the bloc after more than 75 years of military non-alignment.\n\nHere's what you need to know about how the war in Ukraine caused the shift, and what comes next.\n\nWhat's happened so far?\n\nFinnish leaders announced their intentions to join NATO on Thursday , and formally presented that desire at a press conference on Sunday.\n\nSweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson followed suit on Monday, confirming her government had decided to begin the process of seeking NATO membership.\n\nFinland's move to seek to join the alliance requires a vote in parliament, but given the support of the ruling government, that hurdle is expected to be passed comfortably. In Sweden, the move was debated in parliament on Monday and there is broad support for joining NATO, but the government does not need parliamentary consent to move ahead.\n\n\"When we look at Russia, we see a very different kind of Russia today than we saw just a few months ago,\" Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Sunday. \"Everything has changed when Russia attacked Ukraine. And I personally think that we cannot trust anymore there will be a peaceful future next to Russia.\"\n\nJoining NATO is \"an act of peace [so] that there will never again be war in Finland in the future,\" Marin said.\n\nHer Swedish counterpart, Andersson, said Monday: \"To ensure the safety of Swedish people, the best way forward is to join NATO together with Finland.\"\n\nWhen asked when exactly the country will hand in the application, she said it could it happen either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday this week, adding that it needs to be done in coordination with Finland.\n\nThe announcements were met with support from leaders in almost all NATO nations. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters \"the United States would strongly support the NATO application by either Sweden or Finland should they choose to formally apply to the alliance. We will respect whatever decision they make.\"\n\nFinland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin and its President Sauli Niinistö announced their decision to join NATO on Sunday.\n\nWhat comes next?\n\nNATO has what it calls an \"open door policy\" on new members -- any European country can request to join, so long as they meet certain criteria and all existing members agree.\n\nA country does not technically \"apply\" to join; Article 10 of its founding treaty states that, once a nation has expressed interest, the existing member states \"may, by unanimous agreement, invite any other European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty ... to accede.\"\n\nNATO diplomats told Reuters that ratification of new members could take a year, as the legislatures of all 30 current members must approve new applicants.\n\nBoth Finland and Sweden already meet many of the requirements for membership, which include having a functioning democratic political system based on a market economy; treating minority populations fairly; committing to resolve conflicts peacefully; the ability and willingness to make a military contribution to NATO operations; and committing to democratic civil-military relations and institutions.\n\nThe process may not be without hurdles; Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he was not looking at both countries joining NATO \"positively,\" accusing them of housing Kurdish \"terrorist organizations.\"\n\nFinnish President Sauli Niinistö told CNN he was \"confused\" by those comments on Sunday, claiming Erdogan had been far more receptive to the idea in a telephone conversation between the two leaders a month ago.\n\n\"I think that what we need now is a very clear answer. I'm prepared to have a new discussion with President Erdogan about the problems he has raised,\" Niinistö said.\n\nBut NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attempted to allay concerns about Turkey's stance, saying Sunday the country \"has made it clear that their intention is not to block membership.\" Blinken also said Sunday he was \"very confident that we will reach consensus.\"\n\nIn the meantime, both countries will have to rely on its current allies and partners for security guarantees, rather than Article 5 -- the clause which states an attack against one NATO nation is an attack against all, and which triggers a collective response in that event.\n\nSweden and Finland have received assurances of support from the United States and Germany should they come under attack, while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed mutual security agreements with his Finnish and Swedish counterparts last week.\n\nWhat does NATO membership entail?\n\nThe reason most countries join NATO is because of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which stipulates that all signatories consider an attack on one an attack against all.\n\nArticle 5 has been a cornerstone of the alliance since NATO was founded in 1949 as a counterweight to the Soviet Union.\n\nThe point of the treaty, and Article 5 specifically, was to deter the Soviets from attacking liberal democracies that lacked military strength. Article 5 guarantees that the resources of the whole alliance -- including the massive US military -- can be used to protect any single member nation, such as smaller countries who would be defenseless without their allies. Iceland, for example, has no standing army.\n\nFormer Swedish leader Carl Bildt told CNN he doesn't see new big military bases being built in either country should they join NATO. He said that joining the alliance would likely mean more joint military training and planning between Finland, Sweden and NATO's 30 current members. Swedish and Finnish forces could also participate in other NATO operations around the globe, such as those in the Baltic states, where several bases have multinational troops.\n\n\"There's going to be preparations for contingencies as part of deterring any adventures that the Russians might be thinking of,\" Bildt said. \"The actual change is going to be fairly limited.\"\n\nWhy haven't Finland and Sweden already joined NATO?\n\nWhile other Nordic countries like Norway, Denmark and Iceland were original members of the alliance, Sweden and Finland did not join the pact for historic and geopolitical reasons.\n\nBoth Finland, which declared independence from Russia in 1917 after the Bolshevik revolution, and Sweden adopted neutral foreign policy stances during the Cold War, refusing to align with the Soviet Union or the United States.\n\nSweden's policy of neutrality goes back to the early 1800s, when the country steadfastly stayed out of European conflicts. Its King Gustav XIV formally adopted that neutral status in 1834, according to NATO , and Sweden declared a policy of \"non-belligerency\" during World War II -- allowing Nazi troops to pass through its land into Finland, while also accepting Jewish refugees.\n\nSweden opted to maintain its neutral status after the war ended.\n\nFinland's neutrality has historically proved more difficult, as it shared a massive border with an authoritarian superpower.\n\nA Finno-Soviet treaty known as the Agreement of Friendship, signed in 1948 and extended on occasion through the decades, prohibited Finland from joining any military alliance considered hostile to the USSR, or from allowing a Western attack through Finnish territory.\n\nTo keep the peace, Finns adopted a process some call \"Finlandization,\" in which leaders acceded to Soviet demands from time to time. The term was coined during the Cold War and has been applied to other countries in which a superpower exerts control over smaller neighboring states.\n\nJUST WATCHED Fmr. Finnish PM: 'Finlandization' not an answer for Ukraine Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Fmr. Finnish PM: 'Finlandization' not an answer for Ukraine 10:01\n\nBoth countries' balancing acts effectively ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Sweden and Finland joined the European Union together in 1995 and gradually aligned their defense policies with the West, while still avoiding joining NATO outright.\n\nEach country had different reasons for avoiding signing up for NATO pact in tandem with the EU.\n\nFor Finland, it was more geopolitical. The threat for Russia is more tangible thanks to the two countries' shared 830-mile border.\n\n\"Finland has been the exposed country, and we've been the protected country,\" Bildt told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in a joint interview alongside former Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb.\n\nWhile an independent nation, Sweden's geography puts it in the same \"strategic environment\" as its liberal democratic neighbors, Bildt said. Finland and Sweden have enjoyed a close partnership for decades, with Stockholm viewing its decision to refrain from joining NATO as a way to help keep the heat off Helsinki. Now, however, Sweden is likely to follow Finland's lead.\n\n\"We share the idea that close cooperation will benefit both of us,\" current Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said at a news conference last month alongside her Finnish counterpart Marin.\n\nHow Russia's invasion changed everything\n\nSweden and Finland have been inching towards the West on security issues since joining the EU in 1995, shortly after the end of the Cold War. But Russia's invasion of Ukraine dramatically accelerated that process, pushing Sweden and Finland to pull the trigger on NATO membership.\n\nIf the Kremlin was willing to invade Ukraine -- a country with 44 million people, a GDP of about $516 million, and an armed forces of 200,000 active troops -- what would stop Putin from invading smaller countries like Finland in Sweden?\n\n\"Everything changed when Russia invaded Ukraine,\" Finnish premier Marin said in April. \"People's mindset in Finland, also in Sweden changed and shifted very dramatically.\"\n\nSince the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, public support for joining NATO in Finland has leaped from around 30% to nearly 80% in some polls. The majority of Swedes also approve of their country joining the alliance, according to opinion polls there.\n\n\"Our NATO membership was decided on the 24th of February, at 5 o'clock in the morning, when Putin and Russia attacked Ukraine\" former Finnish leader Stubb told CNN. \"Finland and Sweden would not have joined without this attack.\"\n\nOfficials in both Sweden and Finland have also expressed frustration that, in the lead-up to the war in Ukraine , Russia attempted to demand security guarantees from NATO that the alliance stop expanding eastward. Such a concession, however, would have effectively given Russia the power to dictate the foreign policies of its neighbors by taking away their ability to choose their own allies and partners.\n\nRussia, Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist told CNN, wants \"real influence in the security choices in Europe.\"\n\n\"They want an influence over the countries in the neighborhood. And that is totally unacceptable for Sweden.\"\n\nAll NATO members must agree to adopt a new nation.\n\nHow has Russia reacted?\n\nRussia lambasted the decision by Finland and Sweden. Its deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Monday that the move would be a \"mistake\" with \"far-reaching consequences,\" according to state news agency TASS.\n\nThat followed similar threats from high-ranking Moscow officials. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that \"NATO expansion does not make the world more stable and secure\" after the announcement. He added that Russia's reaction would depend on \"how far and how close to our borders the military infrastructure will move.\"\n\nRussia currently shares about 755 miles of land border with five NATO members, according to the alliance. Finland's accession would mean that a nation with which Russia shares an 830-mile border would become formally militarily aligned with the United States.\n\nThe addition of Finland and Sweden would also benefit the alliance, which would frustrate Russia. Both are serious military powers, despite their small populations.\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that \"Russia has no problems with these states,\" adding that the expansion of NATO \"does not pose a direct threat to Russia.\"\n\n\"But the expansion of military infrastructure into this territory will certainly cause our response,\" he added at the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Moscow. \"We will see what it will be based on the threats that will be created for us.\"\n\nHowever, Bildt and Stubb, the former Swedish and Finnish premiers, believe that so far, Russia's response has been relatively muted.\n\n\"The Kremlin sees Finnish and Swedish NATO membership as a Nordic solution, and in that sense, not a radical threat,\" said Stubb. \"We're not too worried.\"\n\nStubb and Bildt said they believe Moscow ultimately sees the two countries as reliable neighbors, despite their decision to join a Washington-backed alliance.\n\n\"The fact that Finland and Sweden are part of the West doesn't come as a surprise,\" said Bildt.\n\nWhy does Russia loathe NATO?\n\nPutin sees the alliance as a bulwark aimed at Russia, despite the fact that it had spent much of the post-Soviet years focusing on issues like terrorism and peacekeeping.\n\nBefore Putin invaded Ukraine, he made clear his belief that NATO had edged too close to Russia and should be stripped back to its borders of the 1990s, before some countries that either neighbor Russia or were ex-Soviet states joined the military alliance.\n\nUkraine's desire to join NATO , and its status as a NATO partner -- seen as a step on the way to eventual full membership -- was one of the numerous grievances Putin cited in an attempt to justify his country's invasion of its neighbor.\n\nThe irony is that the war in Ukraine has, effectively, given NATO a new purpose.\n\n\"Article 5 is back in the game, and people understand that we need NATO because of a potential Russian threat,\" Stubb said in an interview with CNN before the invasion.\n\nThis story has been corrected to reflect that Sweden's government does not need parliament's consent to pursue membership in NATO.", "authors": ["Joshua Berlinger"], "publish_date": "2022/05/14"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/politics/turkey-finland-sweden-joe-biden-nato/index.html", "title": "Inside Biden's successful six-month bid to expand NATO - CNNPolitics", "text": "Madrid (CNN) President Joe Biden was meeting royalty in Spain on Tuesday when word arrived that an audacious plan he had hatched six months earlier was in the final stages of completion.\n\nThe leaders of Finland and Sweden were meeting across town in a conference room with the leader of Turkey, who for weeks had thrown up roadblocks to their accession to NATO . The group had reached a breakthrough. But they wanted a gut check to ensure Biden approved.\n\nLeaving his meeting with King Felipe VI at the Royal Palace, Biden was briefed on the agreement struck by Finland's President Sauli Niinistö and Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey. And he gave the sign-off.\n\nIn the six-and-a-half months since Biden placed his first phone call to Niinistö suggesting he join NATO, the security situation in Europe has been altered drastically. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has thrown out long-standing assumptions about the security of nations along its borders. And countries that had for decades upheld a strict neutrality policy are suddenly reconsidering their stance.\n\n\"Their decision to move away from neutrality, and the tradition of neutrality, to join the NATO alliance is going to make us stronger and more secure, and NATO stronger,\" Biden said at the start of the NATO summit in Madrid on Wednesday. \"We are sending an unmistakable message in my view ... that NATO is strong, united and the steps we are taking during this summit are going to further augment our collective strength.\"\n\nBiden said the two Scandinavian countries' expected accession was a sign that Putin's aims of containing NATO's spread eastward had backfired.\n\n\"I said Putin was looking for the 'Finlandization' of Europe. He's going to get the 'NATOization' of Europe, and that is exactly what he did not want, that's exactly what needs to be done to guarantee security for Europe. And I think it's necessary,\" he said.\n\nThe efforts to bring Finland and Sweden into NATO were both the work of months of steady diplomacy and, over the past days, an intensive flurry of phone calls and meetings between top officials.\n\nThe process was described by senior US and European officials. On Wednesday, NATO formally extended invitations to Finland and Sweden to join the alliance.\n\nHeading into this week's summit, few of those officials believed the issues blocking the two Scandinavian countries' accession would be resolved by the time leaders departed Madrid. Instead, they had resigned themselves to making progress on an issue they believed could extend months longer.\n\nInstead, a marathon set of meetings, a strategically timed phone call from Biden to Erdoğan and a last-minute sign off resulted in the path being cleared for NATO's newest members. In the end, Biden dangled the prospect of a formal meeting with Erdoğan on the margins of this week's summit as he pushed to get the plan over the finish line.\n\nAfter Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it is clear why Finland and Sweden would consider abandoning their longtime security postures to join NATO. But in December, before Russian tanks began rolling into Ukraine, the prospect was more far-fetched.\n\nStill, on December 13, Biden placed a phone call to Niinistö to raise the idea. Russian President Vladimir Putin had been massing troops and equipment along Ukraine's borders. And it was clear to him the security situation in Europe was about to change dramatically.\n\nIn March, after the invasion began, Biden invited Niinistö to the White House for talks. Sitting in the Oval Office and hashing out details of the proposal, the two men picked up the phone and called Andersson in Sweden -- where it was after dark -- to fill her in.\n\nIn May, the two countries formally submitted their applications to join the NATO alliance. The next day, they were in the White House Rose Garden with Biden marking a historic milestone.\n\n\"After 200 years of military non-alignment, Sweden has chosen a new path,\" Andersson said.\n\n\"Finland has made its decision after a rapid but a very thorough process,\" Niinistö added.\n\nClouding the Rose Garden celebrations, however, was firm resistance from Turkey at adding new members to the alliance. Long NATO's most challenging member, Erdoğan accused the nations of harboring members of the separatist militant Kurdistan's Workers Party, also known as PKK, which Turkey views as a terrorist organization.\n\nHe also wanted the countries to get rid of an embargo on arms sales to Turkey that was put into place after Turkey's military intervention in northern Syria in 2019.\n\nThe three countries continued talking. But in a conscious decision, Biden tried to keep his distance and avoid putting the United States in the middle. Instead, Biden \"chose his moments selectively to try to help put a thumb on the scale to get this across the finish line,\" according to a senior administration official.\n\n\"The Americans do not want to put themselves in the middle of this because the price then goes up,\" a European official said. \"If the American (President) somehow indicate that this is that problem, (Erdoğan will) have a whole load of other things he wants to ask for.\"\n\nStill, talks continued among the different parties. National security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with their Turkish counterparts. Finland and Sweden maintained their own talks with Turkey. And the talks slogged on.\n\nAs the Madrid summit approached, US and European officials grew increasingly frustrated at Turkey's resistance, which some believed was being drawn out on purpose to extract concessions. Officials who once privately said they hoped the Madrid summit would act as a welcoming party for the alliance's two newest members came to believe the prospect was unlikely.\n\n\"I am not sitting here today suggesting that all issues will be resolved by Madrid,\" Sullivan said on Monday -- a day ahead of Biden's arrival in Madrid.\n\nBut as the summit neared, signs of progress emerged. And on Tuesday morning, Biden received a request from Niinistö and Andersson: The time was right for him to place a call to Erdoğan.\n\nSpeaking from the Bavarian Alps, where he was attending the G7 summit, Biden encouraged the until-then recalcitrant Turkish leader to \"seize the moment and get this done in Madrid,\" the administration official said. And he told him if the deal could be struck before the summit began, it would set the stage for a formal bilateral meeting between the two men in Spain.\n\n\"It is Turkey's standard operating procedure not to give concessions till the last possible moment. And that last possible moment is usually defined as a bilateral with the US president,\" the European official said.\n\nThe strategy proved effective. By the early evening, Niinistö, Andersson and Erdoğan were announcing that Turkey's objections had been dropped and Finland and Sweden's applications to join NATO would go ahead. And Biden will meet formally with Erdoğan on Wednesday.\n\nTurkey said it \"got what it wanted\" in the agreement, including cooperation on \"extradition of terrorist criminals.\" The senior US administration official said there were \"a bunch of moving parts\" and not a \"single word or phrase\" that proved the final sticking point.\n\nErdoğan's long-standing grievances toward the United States, including Washington's refusal to sell Turkey F-16 fighter jets and his demand the US extradite a cleric he accuses of cultivating a coup attempt, remain unresolved -- and are likely to arise in his meeting with Biden.\n\nWhatever the dispute once was, however, leaders framed the outcome as a triumph. And more than four months into the Russian war in Ukraine, NATO is poised to welcome two new members.\n\n\"Congratulations to Finland, Sweden, and Turkey on signing a trilateral memorandum -- a crucial step towards a NATO invite to Finland and Sweden, which will strengthen our Alliance and bolster our collective security -- and a great way to begin the Summit,\" Biden wrote on Twitter.\n\nThe image was from their May meeting as they walked into the Rose Garden.\n\nCLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to clarify how Biden learned of the deal between Finland, Sweden and Turkey.", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak"], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/10/europe/finland-nato-putin-analysis-intl-cmd/index.html", "title": "Analysis: Finland is on the verge of asking to join NATO. Here's why ...", "text": "(CNN) Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has backfired on a number of fronts. But one of the most disastrous consequences of all for the Russian President is the increasingly likely prospect of Finland joining NATO.\n\nThe Nordic nation is expected to announce its interest in NATO membership as soon as this week after its Foreign Affairs Committee drafts a response to the government's security report -- which includes the option of joining the alliance. After that, the Finnish parliament will hold an extraordinary debate on whether to approve the security report recommendations.\n\nAt this point it is very likely NATO would invite the country to talk about accession to the alliance.\n\nIt is broadly believed this would happen very quickly, as Finland already meets most of the criteria and it's highly unlikely any NATO members would object.\n\nMultiple recent opinion polls have shown that at least 60% of Finns are now in favor of NATO membership, a huge jump from a previous high of around 30% in past years.\n\nIf this plays out as expected, this country of under 6 million people will have redrawn the European security map in a way that was previously inconceivable and may have tremendous consequences for Russia.\n\nNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg talks speaks during a joint press with Sweden and Finland's Foreign ministers after their meeting at the Nato headquarters in Brussels on January 24, 2022.\n\nBefore Putin invaded Ukraine, he made clear his belief that NATO had edged too close to Russia and should be stripped back to its borders of the 1990s, before some countries that either neighbor Russia or were ex-Soviet states joined the military alliance.\n\nRussia currently shares about 755 miles of land border with five NATO members, according to the alliance. Finland's accession would mean that a nation with which Russia shares an 800-mile border would become formally militarily aligned with the United States.\n\nNot only would this be bad news for the Kremlin, but the addition of Finland would be quite a boon for NATO. Despite its relatively small population, Finland is a serious military power that has been unofficially aligned with the West for decades. Its military has for decades used equipment purchased from the United States that is compatible with NATO allies, meaning it could easily join NATO missions should it choose to do so.\n\n'Survival' ideology\n\nMany believe the only reason Finland hadn't joined the alliance prior to the Ukraine crisis was simple pragmatism.\n\n\"Finnish security has always been based on two concepts: first geography and history; second idealism and realism,\" Alexander Stubb, a former Prime Minister of Finland, told CNN.\n\n\"In an ideal world we want to cooperate with Russia, which we cannot escape being our geographical neighbor. But we also know from history that the greatest realistic threat to our national security is Russia. Over time, the reality that Russia is willing to create greater chaos in our region has become even clearer, so joining NATO becomes the pragmatic option,\" he said.\n\nHistorically, Finland has navigated these competing realities by simultaneously indulging Russia's security concerns, however irrational they may be, while also maintaining high defense spending and a standing military that is compatible with Western allies.\n\n\"It's always been bonkers, the idea that a Western country would invade Russia, but we have tried to minimize those concerns by boosting trade and cooperating in other areas,\" said Charly Salonius-Pasternak, a leading researcher in global security at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.\n\nHe adds, however, that on top of policies like conscription -- all Finnish men are liable to be called up for military service -- and high defense spending, Finnish politicians have consistently sold to the public the idea that Finland's idealistic way of life must be maintained at all costs.\n\nSwedish Army armoured vehicles and tanks participate in a military exercise called \"Cold Response 2022\", gathering around 30,000 troops from NATO member countries as well as Finland and Sweden, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Setermoen in the Arctic Circle, Norway, March 25, 2022.\n\n\"Finland's default ideology has been one of survival. In the past 100 years we have become a strong, sovereign country with high standards of living. We have had to sacrifice land in order to maintain peace,\" Salonius-Pasternak said. \"It is therefore vitally important that our way of life survives, whether that is by pragmatic diplomacy or taking a harder stance against our greatest threat.\"\n\nThere is no doubt that Finland joining NATO would be a major blow to Putin. Not only would it mean those extra 800 miles of shared border with the alliance, but symbolically it would go further in uniting the anti-Putin coalition that has emerged since the invasion of Ukraine. Countries that were once neutral are now providing funding and arms to Ukraine and Putin is an international pariah with fewer allies by the day.\n\nIt would also expand NATO's influence in northern Europe all the way up to the Arctic, an area that is becoming increasingly important geopolitically due to its natural resources, strategic location and numerous territorial claims -- including by Russia, Finland and the US.\n\nSweden, which neighbors Finland to the west, is also considering joining the alliance -- and Finland's accession would make it all the more likely, as the two countries have been on a similar journey since the start of the Ukraine crisis.\n\nRussian response\n\nOf course, there are concerns over how Russia might react to Finland expressing its desire to join NATO.\n\nMartti Kari, who previously served as Finland's assistant chief of defense intelligence, told CNN that Russia is already starting a misinformation campaign against it. \"The main theme is that Finland is a Nazi country, because we fought against [the] Soviet Union in the Second World War alongside of Nazi Germany,\" he said.\n\nHe predicts that Russia could violate Finland's airspace and disrupt its activities at sea, including shipping, as well as upping its intelligence operations against the country.\n\nHåkon Lunde Saxi, an associate professor at the Norwegian Defence University College, thinks that any move toward Finnish NATO membership would \"probably result in a Russian military build-up along NATO's new border with Russia, which would in itself not be beneficial for Finnish or European security.\"\n\nFinland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin addresses a press conference in Berlin on March 16, 2022.\n\nHowever, he believes that the benefits would by far outweigh the \"possible negative consequences of a somewhat larger Russian military footprint along Finland's border.\"\n\nAnd despite concerns over what would happen in the interim period, where Finland would not be protected by NATO membership but would be in negotiations, multiple officials have told CNN that they expect members of the alliance, notably the UK and US, to guarantee Finnish security through this process.\n\nOf course, nothing is certain until Finland makes the first move of declaring its intention. But with public approval, political support and Russia providing every reason for another of its neighbors to join its hated rival, there's little doubt that Putin's gambit to decrease NATO'S influence in Europe has backfired, spectacularly.", "authors": ["Analysis Luke Mcgee"], "publish_date": "2022/05/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/06/29/justice-stephen-breyer-retirement-nato-and-r-kelly-its-wednesdays-news/7753244001/", "title": "Justice Stephen Breyer, NATO and R. Kelly. It's Wednesday's news.", "text": "The Jan. 6 committee seeks testimony from more Trump administration witnesses. Finland and Sweden have received invitations to join NATO. And a Supreme Court justice announces he will be stepping down tomorrow.\n\n👋 Hi! Julius here, tagging in for Laura today. Let's get into Wednesday's news.\n\nBut first, a giant Cheez-It! 🧀 Taco Bell is testing menu items featuring an oversize Cheez-It.\n\nThe Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.\n\nWhat's next after stunning Jan. 6 testimony?\n\nFollowing shocking testimony Tuesday from ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack are calling for more Trump administration witnesses to testify. Hutchinson painted a picture of a president prone to outrage as Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election failed. Here's where the investigation stands in the wake of Tuesday's bombshells:\n\nFormer Trump aides deny seeking pardons: Spokesman Ben Williamson said former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows \"never sought a pardon and never planned to.\" Rudy Giuliani also denied seeking a pardon for actions around the insurrection, tweeting: \"I specifically told President Trump I did not want or need a pardon.\"\n\nSpokesman Ben Williamson said former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows \"never sought a pardon and never planned to.\" Rudy Giuliani also denied seeking a pardon for actions around the insurrection, tweeting: \"I specifically told President Trump I did not want or need a pardon.\" Virginia “Ginni” Thomas might not testify: Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told the Daily Caller on June 16 that she was eager to testify. But her lawyer responded Tuesday to the committee’s request with a letter questioning why her testimony was needed at all.\n\nThomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told the Daily Caller on June 16 that she was eager to testify. But her lawyer responded Tuesday to the committee’s request with a letter questioning why her testimony was needed at all. Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone asked to testify: Hutchinson in her testimony described Cipollone warning against allowing Trump to visit the Capitol with the mob of his supporters because he could be charged with “every crime imaginable.\"\n\nHutchinson in her testimony described Cipollone warning against allowing Trump to visit the Capitol with the mob of his supporters because he could be charged with “every crime imaginable.\" Historical perspective: Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said there has never been credible testimony in front of Congress \"this shocking\" against a U.S. president.\n\nFinland, Sweden are on the cusp of joining NATO\n\nNATO leaders have formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the alliance. The two historically neutral countries seek to join the alliance amid concerns about their own security following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Their membership would redraw the map, potentially placing NATO troops on the Finnish-Russian border. Final approval could still be months away because the legislative bodies of all 30 NATO countries must vote to accept the new members.\n\nWhat everyone's talking about\n\nThe Short List is free, but several stories we link to are subscriber-only. Consider supporting our journalism and become a USA TODAY digital subscriber today.\n\nBreyer says his retirement from Supreme Court effective Thursday\n\nAssociate Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement from the Supreme Court will be effective Thursday, after the court issues its final set of rulings for this term, the court announced. In January, Breyer informed President Joe Biden that he would step down at the end of the term if his replacement was confirmed by the Senate. D.C. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed in April, and she will now be sworn in as the first Black woman to serve on the nation's highest court. Breyer's retirement comes after nearly 28 years on the court.\n\nIdentifying the 53 people found dead in San Antonio will be difficult\n\nExperts say identifying the bodies of the 53 people found dead in an abandoned semitruck in San Antonio may be a long, complicated and costly process, not only because multiple countries are involved, but because families of migrants seeking relocation to the United States may be fearful of coming forward. As of Tuesday evening, Bexar County spokesman Tom Peine said there were 34 “potential IDs” among the victims — made up of 39 males and 12 females, including some of whom are likely teenagers. Meanwhile, a specialized team of death investigators has been helping with the case, using whatever identification or documents may have been found on the victims or at the scene to help.\n\nReal quick\n\n🌤 What's the weather up to in your neck of the woods? Check your local forecast here.\n\nR. Kelly sentenced to 30 years in prison after sex trafficking guilty verdict\n\nA New York federal judge has sentenced musician R. Kelly to 30 years in prison after he was found guilty last year of nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering. Through tears and anger, R. Kelly’s accusers told a court Wednesday that he preyed on them and misled his fans as the star listened with downcast eyes. In September, a jury of seven men and five women found the 55-year-old guilty after just two days of deliberations.\n\nA break from the news", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/29/ukraine-russia-invasion-live-updates/7764265001/", "title": "Ukraine live updates: NATO invites Sweden, Finland to alliance", "text": "On the same day NATO formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the security alliance, President Joe Biden said the U.S. will increase its military presence in eastern Europe amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nUpon arriving at the NATO summit in Madrid on Wednesday, Biden announced the U.S. would establish its first permanent headquarters in Poland, maintain an additional rotational brigade in Romania and boost its rotational deployments in the Baltic region.\n\nThe troops in Poland would represent the first permanent U.S. forces on NATO’s eastern flank. The alliance plans to build up stocks of equipment and ammunition in the east and increase almost eightfold the size of its overall rapid-reaction force, from 40,000 to 300,000 troops, by next year.\n\nWith opposition from Turkey out of the way, NATO also intends to expand to 32 nations by welcoming previously nonaligned Sweden and Finland, which have grown wary of Russian aggression. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the war had brought “the biggest overhaul of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War.”\n\nUSA TODAY ON TELEGRAM:Join our Russia-Ukraine war channel to receive updates straight to your phone\n\nLatest developments\n\n►In the first day of the NATO summit, allies approved a new Strategic Concept for the Alliance, describing how it will address threats and challenges to security moving forward. The document includes a statement that defines Russia as the “most significant and direct threat” to allies’ security.\n\n►The government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which remained in power thanks to the 2015 intervention of Russian forces amid a civil war, said it will recognize the “independence and sovereignty” of Ukraine’s separatists eastern republics in the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.\n\n►Egypt will receive a $500 million loan from the World Bank to help finance wheat purchases aimed at providing subsidized food for the country's poor households as prices skyrocket because of the war in Ukraine, the bank said.\n\n►A cyberattack temporarily knocked out public and private websites in Norway in the past 24 hours, Norwegian authorities said, pointing to a criminal pro-Russian group as the likely culprit.\n\nRussian missile attack on mall may have been an accident, UK says\n\nThe airstrike that killed 18 people and injured dozens of others Monday in an Ukrainian shopping mall may indeed have been an accident, as Russian authorities have claimed, but their commanders don't hesitate to put civilians at risk in pursuit of military gains.\n\nThat's according to the latest intelligence assessment from the British Ministry of Defense, which points out Russia's bombing inaccuracy has resulted in mass casualties before in this war.\n\n\"Russian planners highly likely remain willing to accept a high level of collateral damage when they perceive military necessity in striking a target,'' said the assessment, deeming it a \"realistic possibility'' the Russians were aiming for an infrastructure target nearby when their missile blasted the Kremenchuk shopping center.\n\nThe attack drew international condemnation, with French President Emmanuel Macron calling it a \"new war crime.'' Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the U.N. to establish an international tribunal to investigate.\n\nREPO task force has confiscated $30 billion from oligarchs\n\nThe REPO task force is living up to its acronym.\n\nThe multinational committee in charge of confiscating the wealth of Russian elites allied with President Vladimir Putin has blocked and frozen $30 billion in property and funds of sanctioned oligarchs during its first 100 days, the Treasury Department said.\n\nThat doesn't include the yachts, other vessels and luxury real estate that have been impounded or the $300 billion in Russian Central Bank funds that have been frozen, the department said.\n\n“We continue to increase Russia’s cost of its war,” Treasury said of the REPO task force, whose acronym stands for Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs. The European Commission has set up its own Freeze and Seize Task Force to work in conjunction with the REPO group.\n\nLikely NATO expansion a major blow for Putin\n\nNATO's expansion to 32 nations, which got closer to reality when Sweden and Finland were invited to join Wednesday, represents a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who for years railed about the security alliance getting close to his country's doorstep.\n\nPutin cited Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO as one of the reasons for launching his \"special operation.'' Instead of splintering the bloc as he hoped, Putin is watching NATO unify in opposition to Russian aggression and grow as a result. Sweden and Finland, nonaligned for decades, were prompted to seek stronger protection once the war began.\n\n“It’s a defeat for him. It’s a kick in the gut,” said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank that specializes in foreign policy and international relations.\n\nThe membership offer to the two Nordic countries became fait accompli Tuesday when Turkey withdrew its opposition after negotiating an agreement addressing concerns about Kurdish rebel groups that Turkey considers terrorists. NATO admission requires a unanimous vote from member states.\n\nAt a meeting with leaders of countries around the Caspian Sea, Putin rejected the notion his plans had backfired, saying, “For us, the membership of Finland and Sweden is nothing like the membership of Ukraine. They understand this perfectly well.”\n\n-- Francesca Chambers and Michael Collins\n\nPutin still aims to claim most of Ukraine, US intelligence chief says\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin has not changed his goals in Ukraine even though they don't seem realistic, the top U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday.\n\nAvril Haines, the Director of National Intelligence, foresees a long, “grinding struggle” in which Russia retains the parts of the eastern Donbas region it already controls and consolidates its hold over the south by the fall but likely doesn't get beyond that.\n\nSpeaking at an event in Washington, Haines said Putin “has effectively the same political goals that he had previously, which is to say that he wants to take most of Ukraine” and push it away from NATO.\n\n“We perceive a disconnect between Putin’s near-term military objectives in this area and his military’s capacity, a kind of mismatch between his ambitions and what the military is able to accomplish,” she said.\n\nRussia continues to make incremental advances in Lysychansk, the last city in Luhansk province it doesn't command. The invading forces and their separatist allies control 95% of Luhansk and about half of Donetsk, which make up the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas.\n\nUkraine conducts biggest prisoner exchange with Russia since war began\n\nThe Ukrainian government announced its largest prisoner exchange of the war, with 144 soldiers returning home, according to a post on the country's defense ministry's Telegram account.\n\nOf those, 95 were involved in defending the Azovstal steel plant in the devastated southern city of Mariupol, captured by Russia weeks ago. Denis Pushilin, leader of the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic, said both sides released the same number of soldiers.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/29/nato-summit-biden-russia-china-turkey/7753685001/", "title": "Biden to NATO: US will establish permanent troop presence in Poland", "text": "MADRID – President Joe Biden pledged Wednesday to boost the U.S. military presence in eastern Europe, including establishing a permanent presence in Poland, as he gathered Wednesday with other NATO leaders at a summit intended to show resolve against Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.\n\n\"In a moment when Putin has shattered peace in Europe and attacked the very, very tenets of rule-based order, the United States and our allies, we're going to step up. We're stepping up,\" Biden said at the NATO summit in Madrid.\n\nBiden said the U.S. would also enhance its rotational deployments in the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.\n\n'A kick in the gut':Finland's, Sweden's drive to join NATO a defeat for Putin, a win for the West\n\nTwo heavyweights:New phase of Russia war on Ukraine is slog of two sides slugging it out\n\nThe U.S. is also sending two additional F-35 squadrons to the U.K., stationing two more destroyers in Spain and will improve defense capabilities in Germany and Italy.\n\nWorking with military allies, Biden said the U.S. would help ensure that NATO nations are \"ready to meet threats from all directions, across every domain.\"\n\nNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this week the organization would put 300,000 troops on high alert, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. More than 40,000 troops are currently under NATO command.\n\nThe U.S. has deployed or extended the deployment of more than 20,000 additional forces to Europe since the start of Putin's war against Ukraine in February, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said.\n\nThat brings the number of American service members on the continent to more 100,000, Kirby said.\n\nThe latest\n\nNATO expansion : NATO leaders have formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the alliance. The invitation comes just hours after Turkey dropped its objections to the Nordic nations’ membership. Final approval could still be months away because the legislative bodies of all 30 NATO countries must vote to accept their membership.\n\n: NATO leaders have formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the alliance. The invitation comes just hours after Turkey dropped its objections to the Nordic nations’ membership. Final approval could still be months away because the legislative bodies of all 30 NATO countries must vote to accept their membership. Where's Biden: He's participating in closed-door sessions with other heads of state and government of NATO nations and bilateral meetings with U.S. allies.\n\nHe's participating in closed-door sessions with other heads of state and government of NATO nations and bilateral meetings with U.S. allies. What to watch: Biden's meeting with the Turkish president. The leaders spoke by phone Monday ahead of a face-to-face conversation at the NATO summit.\n\nBiden's meeting with the Turkish president. The leaders spoke by phone Monday ahead of a face-to-face conversation at the NATO summit. What will Biden offer? Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, suggested the U.S. may sell Turkey upgraded F-16 fighter jets.\n\nCeleste Wallander, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, suggested the U.S. may sell Turkey upgraded F-16 fighter jets. Challenging China: Biden also held hold a joint meeting with Japan's Fumio Kishida and South Korea's Yoon Seok-youl at the summit site. Neither countries are NATO nations, yet they are participating in the summit for the first time.\n\nBiden also held hold a joint meeting with Japan's Fumio Kishida and South Korea's Yoon Seok-youl at the summit site. Neither countries are NATO nations, yet they are participating in the summit for the first time. On the menu: Visiting leaders will have dinner with President Pedro Sánchez of Spain.\n\nWhat's about to happen\n\nNATO nations are building out their strategic concept, a document that will determine what issues the alliance focuses on over the next decade.\n\nWednesday was the first full day of the summit. Leaders will meet again on Thursday.\n\nWhat they are saying\n\nBiden said as he arrived at the NATO gathering site that it will be a \"history-making summit,\" where leaders will \"reaffirm the unity and determination to our alliance to defend every inch NATO territory.\"\n\nThe U.S. president said the alliance's Article Five commitment to protect NATO nations if they are attacked \"is sacrosanct.\"\n\n\"We mean when we say an attack against one is an attack against all,\" Biden said.\n\nBiden asserted that Finland's and Sweden's decision to move away from neutrality to join NATO will make the alliance stronger and more secure.\n\nPresident Pedro Sánchez of Spain told leaders at their first group session that entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO \"is a milestone\" that will make the alliance stronger.\n\n\"The world is looking at us. Let us show them our unity and our cohesion,\" he said.\n\nThe Department of Defense said the U.S. will \"permanently forward station\" the V Corps headquarters and field support battalion in Poland.\n\nWallander of DOD called it a \"significant decision\" and a recognition that the U.S. need to have a \"longer-term capability to sustain our presence, our training, our activities, and our support to the countries of the eastern flank.\n\nOther takeaways\n\nAustralia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea's decision to attend the summit for the first time is significant. It demonstrates NATO nations' growing concerns about the rising influence of China in the Indo-Pacific.\n\nBiden has sought to neutralize China in Russia's war against Ukraine. But will Indo-Pacific powers aligning themselves more closely with the West and NATO's strategic concept naming China as an area of concern change Xi Jinping's calculation change?\n\nHow the West handles Russian aggression in Ukraine will affect how Xi approaches Taiwan, the U.S. president has stressed. On a trip to Asia last month, Biden said China is \" flirting with danger\" and recommitted the U.S. to defending Taiwan, which is a democratically governed part of China, if Xi attempts to take control by force.\n\nWant to know more? Here's what you missed\n\nBiden is in Europe meeting with allies at a NATO summit. He aims to keep the military alliance united behind Ukraine and foot stomp a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan.\n\nNATO SUMMIT BEGINS:Biden, NATO allies convene in Spain to craft strategies dealing with Russia, China over next decade\n\nPUNCHING BACK AT PUTIN:'A kick in the gut': Finland's, Sweden's drive to join NATO a defeat for Putin, a win for the West\n\nUS considering sale of fighter jets to Turkey\n\nThe U.S. signaled its support on Wednesday for the sale of new F-16 fighter jets to Turkey ahead of a meeting in Madrid between Biden and the Turkish president.\n\n\"The United States supports Turkey’s modernization of its fighter fleet because that is a contribution to NATO security and therefore American security,\" the Department of Defense's Wallander said.\n\nTurkey had been blocking Sweden and Finland's application to join NATO but removed its opposition on the first day of the summit – hours after Biden spoke to Erdoğan by phone.\n\nAn official told reporters traveling with Biden in Madrid that the U.S. did not offer Turkey anything to drop its objections. The president did not respond to a question later in the day about the possible sale of F-16 jets.\n\nIn an interview at the NATO summit, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., noted that there were \"issues between Sweden, Finland and Turkey\" that were \"apparently\" resolved.\n\n\"But it took the other members like the United States to be at the table to talk about other issues on Turkey's mind to finally close the deal,\" Durbin said.\n\nDurbin said that if a deal was struck because the U.S. agreed to sell Turkey fighter jets he would support the sale.\n\n\"I think that the accession of Finland and Sweden changes the calculus of NATO protection. And Putin could not have imagined that NATO would be even stronger\n\nHe said of the potential fighter jet sale: \"If that's what it took to close the deal, then I certainly support it. I think that the accession of Finland and Sweden changes the calculus of the NATO protection, and Putin could not have imagined that NATO would be even stronger after his invasion.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/12/02/nato-montenegro-russia/76652118/", "title": "NATO invites Montenegro to join alliance", "text": "Kim Hjelmgaard\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nNATO formally invited the tiny Adriatic nation of Montenegro on Wednesday to become the 29th member of the military alliance in a move that could draw rebuke from Russia.\n\nJens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian head of NATO, described the invitation as a \"historic achievement.\"\n\nIt is the group's first expansion in six years. Montenegro's fellow Balkan countries Albania and Croatia were admitted in 2009.\n\n\"Our decision reflects the reforms implemented by Montenegro, and the commitment it has shown to our common values and to international security,\" NATO said.\n\nRussia has said that it opposes Montenegro joining NATO because it sees any expansion of the alliance into ex-Communist territory in eastern Europe as a threat to its interests and stability in the region.\n\nThe country is also a favored investment site for some Russians.\n\nDmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, told reporters in Moscow that Russia will be looking at possible retaliatory measures.\n\nAlthough Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, struck a more conciliatory tone, saying Russia would be \"listen to what out NATO counterparts have to say.\" He made the comments in reaction to Stoltenberg saying that he wants to revive the NATO-Russia Council that that has been suspended since Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region. The council is a forum for NATO members and Russia to discuss their political differences.\n\nUkraine also has ambitions to join NATO but that aspiration has been complicated by its ongoing conflict with Russia there despite a ceasefire agreement.\n\nMontenegro's accession process is expected to last about a year.\n\nIt has a small army of about 2,000 armed personnel, according to the Balkan Insight, a website for information and news about the region.\n\nIn a recent report released by Montenegro's defense ministry, the country with a population of about 621,000 also needs more young officers. The average age of an officer from Montenegro is 39 compared to 29 for most NATO countries.\n\nMontenegro Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic said the nation \"was entering the exclusive circle of states which are synonymous with the highest values of modern civilization.”\n\nNATO made the announcement about expanding the military alliance after a two-day meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels where members also said they were ready to do more to combat Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.\n\n“There are a number of things countries can do,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in Brussels, without unveiling any specific plans. He nevertheless urged the alliance to broaden cooperation to help in the fight against the extremist organization.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/12/02"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_10", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/26/sport/colorado-avalanche-stanley-cup-winner/index.html", "title": "Colorado Avalanche win first Stanley Cup title since 2001 - CNN", "text": "(CNN) The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 6 to win the team's first Stanley Cup since 2001 on Sunday night. It's the team's third Stanley Cup title overall.\n\nWith the score tied 1-1 a little over halfway through the second period, Avalanche winger Artturi Lehkonen scored the game-deciding goal.\n\nColorado Avalanche players celebrate after defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.\n\nThe Lightning won the last two Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021.\n\nAvalanche defenseman and 2021-2022 Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player throughout the playoffs after scoring 29 points in the postseason.\n\n\"I was trying not to look at the clock too much. Just trying to stay in the moment.\" Makar said after the game.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Jacob Lev"], "publish_date": "2022/06/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/06/26/stanley-cup-finals-avalanche-beat-lightning-game-6/7742629001/", "title": "Stanley Cup Final: Avalanche beat Lightning to win championship", "text": "The Colorado Avalanche are Stanley Cup champions for the first time since 2001, thanks to a resiliency that had eluded them in recent years.\n\nThe Avalanche tied an NHL record with their 10th come-from-behind victory of the playoffs to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 6 Sunday night and end the two-time champions' reign.\n\nColorado star Nathan MacKinnon had his best game of the series with a goal and an assist in the second period to help the Avalanche clinch the franchise's third Stanley Cup with a 16-4 playoff record.\n\n“It’s a relief. It’s a 20-pound weight lifted off our shoulders, and it means so much to bring this championship back to the city of Denver,” captain Gabriel Landeskog told NHL Network during the on-ice celebration at Tampa's Amalie Arena.\n\nThe Lightning, who were trying to send the series back to Denver for Game 7, got off to a good start when captain Steven Stamkos scored at 3:48 of the first period after a Colorado turnover.\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up now to get daily headlines sent to your inbox\n\nBut MacKinnon tied it up at 1:54 of the second period on a one-timer during a delayed penalty. The Lightning argued that they touched the puck after the penalty, which should have resulted in the play being called dead, but the referees disagreed.\n\nArtturi Lehkonen beat Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy at 12:28 to give the Avalanche their first regulation lead since Game 3. It ended up being his fourth game-winning goal and second consecutive series clincher.\n\nGoaltender Darcy Kuemper, who was acquired in the offseason after Philipp Grubauer left in free agency, made that lead stand up with a strong save against Nikita Kucherov in the third period. He finished with 22 saves.\n\nThe Avalanche have steadily improved since finishing last overall in 2016-17 and had finished second, first and third overall the past three regular seasons.\n\nColorado got knocked out in the second round the last three postseasons, last year being particularly difficult because the Avalanche lost in six games to the Vegas Golden Knights after taking a 2-0 series lead.\n\n\"They had a tough end to last year,\" general manager Joe Sakic told NHL Network. \"It stung. This group, right from Day 1 in training camp, they're preparing, they're doing everything they could to make this happen.\"\n\nSakic, the Avalanche's captain during the franchise's 1996 and 2001 championships, spent the 2022 trade deadline adding grit on the blue line and improving the penalty killing. Defenseman Josh Manson helped with both, and forwards Lehkonen, Nico Sturm and Andrew Cogliano kill penalties.\n\nThe moves also helped give the Avalanche the depth to overcome a season-ending injury to defenseman Sam Girard and missed games by Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky and Cogliano. They swept the Nashville Predators in the first round and the Edmonton Oilers in the conference finals, and beat the St. Louis Blues in six games in the second round.\n\nCale Makar wins Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP\n\nNorris Trophy winner Cale Makar was voted the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP after recording 29 points.\n\nMakar (23 years, 239 days) became the youngest defenseman in 52 years to win the Conn Smythe Trophy and third overall to do so at age 23 or younger, following Bobby Orr with the 1970 Boston Bruins (22 years, 51 days) and Serge Savard with the 1969 Montreal Canadiens (23 years, 102 days).\n\nLightning fall short of three-peat bid\n\nThe Lightning had to remake their depth in the offseason because of salary cap woes but got past the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers and New York Rangers to reach the Final for the third year in a row. They won only Games 3 and 5 to fall short of the NHL's first three-peat since the 1980s, but they won 11 consecutive series.\n\n\"We just ran out of gas,\" Lightning coach Jon Cooper told reporters.\n\nCooper brought the entire coaching to the podium as he had after the previous championships.\n\n\"It's tough because it's so raw,\" he said. \"We haven't been through this feeling in three years. ... I will always remember this team for what they endured, what they went through to get to this point. You have to marvel at them.\"\n\nThe Lightning never had home-ice advantage in the playoffs and had to deal with injuries, including having star Brayden Point for only two games since Game 7 of the first round. Cooper said other players played through injuries.\n\n\"What they went through was mind-boggling,\" he said. \"We would have had half our minor-league team playing if it was the regular season. .... The heart of champions.\"\n\nAround the rinks\n\nDefenseman Erik Johnson, who has been with the Avalanche since 2011, was the second person to be handed the Stanley Cup after Landeskog first lifted it. He has dealt with injuries in recent years. \"Last year, I thought I might have to retire, and here I am Stanley Cup champion with some of my best friends in the world,\" he told ESPN. \"I'm so grateful. I can't believe it.\" ... NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly handled the postgame presentations because commissioner Gary Bettman has tested positive for COVID-19.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/06/27/lightning-avalanche-busy-nhl-offseasons-news-rumors-stanley-cup/7728326001/", "title": "Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning ...", "text": "The Colorado Avalanche have won the Stanley Cup, and now general manager Joe Sakic has a busy summer ahead.\n\nHis additions through the years, particularly at this season's trade deadline, gave the Avalanche the depth they needed to break through the second round after three consecutive playoff disappointments, reach the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2001 and win their first championship since then. But he has a lot of players on expiring contracts.\n\nThe Tampa Bay Lightning, meanwhile, came up two games short of the NHL's three-peat since the 1980s and won't have as drastic a remake as last season.\n\nWhat awaits the two Stanley Cup finalists in the offseason:\n\nColorado Avalanche\n\nThe Avalanche have about $26 million in cap space available, but a lot of potential unrestricted free agents.\n\nThey lost No. 1 goalie Philipp Grubauer to free agency last offseason and goalie Darcy Kuemper's contract is up this summer. Backup Pavel Francouz has two years left at a $2 million cap hit.\n\n'I GUESS IT'S A NEW RECORD':Avalanche dent Stanley Cup minutes after being crowned champions\n\nFREE AGENCY:An early look at players who could test the market\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up now to get daily sports headlines in your inbox\n\nNazem Kadri, who scored the overtime goal in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final and recorded a second-round hat trick after receiving threats, is due a big raise from his $4 million salary after a career-best 87 points. So is Valeri Nichushkin ($2.8 million), who had a career-best 52 points and an impressive postseason.\n\nTrade deadline acquisitions Josh Manson, Andrew Cogliano and Nico Sturm are UFAs and Artturi Lehkonen (two series-clinching goals) is a restricted free agent. Other UFAs include Andre Burakovsky, Darren Helm and Jack Johnson.\n\nSakic can also begin negotiating an extension with star Nathan MacKinnon, who will be entering the final year of his contract.\n\nTampa Bay Lightning\n\nThe Lightning, who lost their entire third line and other depth players last season, are tight against the salary cap again, particularly with Brayden Point's eight-year, $76 million extension beginning.\n\nTheir top unrestricted free agent is Ondrej Palat, who has been with the team since 2012-13 and is a consistent playoff producer, including 11 goals this postseason. He has 12 career playoff game-winning goals and averaged $5.3 million in his most recent contract.\n\nTheir other UFAs are trade deadline acquisitions Nick Paul and Riley Nash, plus defenseman Jan Rutta, who scored in Game 5 of the Final. Brandon Hagel, another trade deadline acquisition, is signed for two more years at a reasonable $1.5 million cap hit.\n\nCaptain Steven Stamkos is signed for two more seasons and fellow core members Nikita Kucherov, Point, Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy are signed for longer.\n\n“Who says we’re done?\" Stamkos told reporters after Game 6. \"This core is here and we’ve battled and been through everything you can think of, and for the most part, we found a way to come out on top.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/06/11/nhl-playoffs-lightning-beat-rangers-head-stanley-cup-final/7598677001/", "title": "Tampa Bay Lightning reach third consecutive Stanley Cup Final with ...", "text": "The Tampa Bay Lightning are heading to the Stanley Cup Final for the third consecutive season and the reward is starting on the road again against the Western Conference’s top regular-season team.\n\nThe way the two-time defending champions beat the New York Rangers 2-1 in Game 6 will help them when they face the Colorado Avalanche in Game 1 on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET, ABC).\n\nCaptain Steven Stamkos scored two goals, the second just 21 seconds after the Rangers had tied the game in the third period.\n\n\"We don’t care how it gets done, it just needs to get done,\" he told reporters after the game. \"I’m very proud of this group. We’re going to the Finals again and have a chance to do something special.”\n\nStamkos opened the scoring in Saturday's goaltending battle when his wrist shot eluded a partially screened Igor Shesterkin at 10:43 of the second period.\n\nSTANLEY CUP FINAL:Schedule, TV info for the NHL's championship round\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up to get daily headlines sent to your inbox\n\nStamkos was in the penalty box when New York's Frank Vatrano tied the game on a power play at 13:07 of the third period.\n\nBut Stamkos scored on the next shift on a 2-on-1 break when the rebound of his shot went in off his leg.\n\n\"Obviously a little disappointed in myself for taking the penalty,\" he said. \"You see them score and you're in the box. It was weird. For some reason, I wasn't as rattled as I usually am in those situations. I was just confident in our group that we'd find a way, whether it was in regulation or in overtime. We deserved to win tonight.\"\n\nShesterkin complained but the goal survived a review.\n\n\"It's not the individuals,\" Stamkos said. \"It's great to score a couple goals in a huge game like this, but if I didn't score and we won, I'd be just as happy. ... We know that everyone in our room plays a huge part in our group success.\"\n\nShesterkin, a finalist for the Vezina and Hart trophies, made 28 saves as he fell short in his bid to improve to 6-0 in elimination games this postseason.\n\n\"I thought Igor was outstanding,\" Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. \"He gave us a chance to win every night and we got outchanced in a lot of the games, but he was outstanding. He was our best player all year long and did it again in this series.\"\n\nAndrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves and was aided by 17 blocked shots by defenders.\n\nThe fact that the Lightning were able to hold the Rangers to one goal in each of the last three games bodes well as they prepare to face the high-flying Avalanche.\n\n“There’s no secret that they have some electric players,” Stamkos said. “To be honest, they’re probably a team that we thought we’d play the last couple years. … Now they’ve broken through and they have just an unbelievable mix of veteran presence, star power, grinders, the goalie. A huge challenge for us.”\n\nThe Lightning are trying to become the first team to win three consecutive Stanley Cups since the New York Islanders won four in a row from 1980-83.\n\nThough the Lightning have lacked home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs, they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games, swept the No. 1 overall seed Florida Panthers and beat the Rangers in six. They rallied in the Eastern Conference final after losing the first two games, including 6-2 in Game 1 after a long layoff.\n\n“As the series progressed, we got better and better, and I think maybe tonight might have been our best game overall,” forward Alex Killorn said.\n\nLightning's Victor Hedman temporarily leaves game\n\nVictor Hedman was pulled out of the game in the second period when Alexis Lafrenière caught him in the head with a check. The defenseman, who is a Norris Trophy finalist for the fifth consecutive season, grabbed his head and broke his stick as he returned to the bench.\n\nHedman rubbed his jaw as he sat on the bench and had to go to the dressing room, presumably because of concussion protocol.\n\nBut he returned to action in the third period and played a regular shift.\n\nRangers' Kaapo Kakko a healthy scratch\n\nGallant had limited the use of the Kid Line during the team's loss in Game 5.\n\nIn Game 6, he sat out Kaapo Kakko and moved the other two members of the Kid Line to other lines. Lafrenière started alongside Mika Zibanejad and Vatrano and Filip Chytil was on a line with Chris Kreider and Barclay Goodrow, though the lines changed up later.\n\nKakko, the No. 2 overall pick in 2019, has five points in 19 playoff games. Forward Brayden Hunt made his third appearance of his postseason and first since the first round.\n\nNew York's Ryan Strome, who has been playing through an injury, left warmups briefly but dressed for the game. He didn't play in the third period.\n\nLightning center Brayden Point, who was injured in the first round, sat out again, though he is skating.\n\n\"I don't know about the probability of Game 1, but it's extremely probable that he will play in the series,\" coach Jon Cooper said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/avalanche/2022/06/27/avalanche-dent-stanley-cup-lightning-nhl-playoffs/7744035001/", "title": "Avalanche dent Stanley Cup minutes after beating Lightning in ...", "text": "That didn't take long.\n\nWith the Colorado Avalanche gathered on the ice Sunday night for their celebratory photo, the Stanley Cup took an early beating.\n\nIn the aftermath of the Avalanche beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 6 to win the Stanley Cup, right wing Nicolas Aube-Kubel skated toward the scrum of teammates for a team photo with the Cup in hand, only to lose his footing and slam the trophy on the ice as he fell, denting the base.\n\n\"I don’t even know if they had it five minutes and there’s a dent in the bottom already. Right in the middle of the team photo,\" The Hockey Hall of Fame’s Keeper of the Cup, Phil Pritchard, told Denver television station KDVR. \"I guess it’s a new record today. Five minutes into the presentation it’s happened. It’s the first time it’s ever happened on the ice.\"\n\nSTAY UP-TO-DATE: Subscribe to our Sports newsletter now!\n\nWHAT'S NEXT:Stanley Cup champion Avalanche, Lightning face busy summers\n\nThe Avalanche prevented the Lightning from completing a Stanley Cup three-peat.\n\nIt was the third Stanley Cup title in the franchise's history and first since 2001.\n\n“I guess we will have a little chat with them soon and we’ll go through the process of how we’re going to repair it,” said Pritchard, \"but the Stanley Cup tour will go on.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/06/15/avalanche-beat-lightning-in-ot-top-open-stanley-cup-final/50377305/", "title": "Avalanche beat Lightning in OT to open Stanley Cup Final", "text": "AP\n\nDENVER (AP) — Facing the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning put the Colorado Avalanche at a sizeable experience disadvantage going into the Stanley Cup Final.\n\nWhen the puck dropped, the Avalanche showed they could use their speed to offset Tampa Bay's players who have been here, done that. And it doesn't hurt to have a guy who also hoisted the Cup.\n\nAndre Burakovsky scored 1:23 into overtime to give Colorado a 4-3 victory in Game 1 on Wednesday night and put the Avs up in a series that's shaping up to be a classic. Burakovsky is one of only two Colorado players with Stanley Cup rings, and that came in handy.\n\n“I've been there, and I kind of know the situation,” said Burakovsky, who also scored two big goals in Game 7 of the East final against the Lightning in 2018 when he won it all with Washington. “I’ve been though it, and I kind of know what to expect and the pace and what’s at stake here.”\n\nThe pace? Furious. The stakes? Either Tampa Bay finishing off the first NHL three-peat in almost four decades or this Colorado core's first championship after years of playoff disappointments.\n\nThe Avalanche with a fast start how they can use their speed to knock even the most seasoned opponents back on their heels. Backstopped by Darcy Kuemper, the no-doubt after all choice to start in goal now that he's healthy, the penalty kill was aggressive in going a perfect 3 for 3 against the Lightning's potent power play.\n\n“We had a great forecheck and we were pretty good on clearing pucks when we had the chance,” forward Artturi Lehkonen said.\n\nAn early penalty kill built momentum for Colorado, which opened the scoring on captain Gabriel Landeskog’s goal 40 seconds after Josh Manson’s penalty expired. Manson — one of general manager Joe Sakic’s expensive trade deadline pickups — more than made up for a holding the stick minor with several big hits.\n\nLehkone, the Avalanche’s other deadline acquisition, also kept up his knack for scoring key goals. He had their third goal of the first period after Valeri Nichuskin scored the second as part of a dominant performance all over the ice.\n\n“Huge X-factor,” coach Jared Bednar said. “He’s been doing that type of thing for us for a couple years now.”\n\nTampa Bay’s latest additions also played a major role, with Nick Paul outracing Colorado defenseman Jack Johnson to a loose puck for a goal in the first that limited the damage and kept the defending champs in the game. Brandon Hagel, who has been banged up and was a question mark to play, got beaten to a loose puck by Landeskog, an uncharacteristic goal for reigning playoff MVP Andrei Vasilevskiy to give up by letting the initial shot sneak through under his left arm.\n\nOf course, the Lightning counterpunched.\n\nIn another example of what has made the Lightning the NHL's best team over the past three years, they turned the tide in the second period with goals by Ondrej Palat and Mikhail Sergachev 48 seconds apart.\n\n“We're playing a really good team and they’re not going to roll over and lay back,” Bednar said. “They're going to have push back.”\n\nSo did his Avalanche, clamping down with another big kill in the third period to finish what Landeskog called a “resilient win.”\n\nColorado outshot Tampa Bay 38-23, and there was no argument from the losing side about the result of the series opener between two evenly matched opponents.\n\n“There’s some positive signs for us in this game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “But the right team won the game, so give them credit for pulling it out.”\n\nThe arena was rocking from the start of warmups for the first Stanley Cup Final game in the city in 2001 — also the last year the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, with Sakic serving as captain. Fans chanted, “We want the Cup!” throughout the leadup and at times during the game, which was a showcase of the high-scoring hockey that has been the standard all season.\n\nTampa Bay's most prolific goal-scorer from each of the past two title runs was back, with center Brayden Point returning to play his first game since injuring his right leg a month ago.\n\nColorado has a series lead despite playing without forwards Nazem Kadri (right thumb) and Andrew Cogliano (right hand), who were injured last series in a sweep of Edmonton in the Western Conference final.\n\nThe Avalanche swept Nashville in the first round, as well, and dispatched rival St. Louis in six before taking out Connor McDavid and the Oilers. If anything, Game 1 against the Lightning showed this series won't be easy for either team.\n\n\"I don't think by a country mile we gave them our best game,\" Cooper said. “To beat a team like that, we need to have better in us.”\n\n___\n\nFollow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno\n\n___\n\nMore AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/06/15/avalanche-beat-lightning-stanley-cup-final-game-1-andre-burakovsky/7642026001/", "title": "Stanley Cup Game 1: Colorado Avalanche beat Tampa Bay ...", "text": "DENVER – The Stanley Cup Final see-saw lifted Colorado’s way in the first period Wednesday night and it swung back hard in favor of Tampa Bay in the second.\n\nThen, for more than a period and into overtime of Game 1, the board leveled out, a heavyweight leaning on each end.\n\nIn the end, though, it was precision more than brute force that determined the winner: A flick of the wrist from Avalanche winger Andre Burakovsky, off a one-touch pass from Valeri Nichushkin in transition after a neutral zone turnover, that sent the puck past Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and the game into franchise lore.\n\nThe opening salvo in this championship quest: Colorado 4, Tampa Bay 3 in overtime.\n\n“I saw (Colorado forward J.T.) Compher got the puck in the neutral zone and I was just trying to get out as quick as possible,” Burakovsky said of the final sequence. “I got back in and they made a great play to me. It was just for me to shoot it and lucky it went in.”\n\nThis city waited 21 years for the Stanley Cup Final to return and when the moment finally arrived, it did so in classic fashion. Burakovsky’s game-winner capped what was the 20th finals-opening game to require extra time, and the 95th finals overtime game overall.\n\nOn this night, an even first 60 minutes was the result of each team having a dominant stretch.\n\nThe Western Conference champion Avalanche, playing for the first time in nine days since capping a sweep of Edmonton in the Western Conference final on June 6, jumped out to an early 3-1 lead in front of a raucous home crowd.\n\nThe Tampa Bay Lighting, winners of not only the Eastern Conference but also the past two Stanley Cups, leveled the game in the second period with back-to-back goals in 48 seconds, including one at the end of a dazzling sequence from wingers Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat.\n\n“Going into the third period even, I think any guy on our team would have taken that going into Game 1,” Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram said. “We’ve got a chance to win and I thought we played a really good third, created some chances, and then we got it done in overtime.”\n\nOvertime came after the teams played even for the final 26:21 of regulation. Burakovsky finally broke the stalemate 1:23 into overtime.\n\nNo Cup celebrations in Russia this year: NHL says Stanley Cup will not be allowed in Russia this summer for player celebrations\n\nWho will win the Stanley Cup:Colorado Avalanche or Tampa Bay Lightning?\n\nSign up for our sports newsletter: All the sports news you need to know delivered right to you!\n\nColorado, wary of accumulating rust during its long wait in recent days, blasted out of the gate, riding a surge of energy from the 19,092 at Ball Arena to an early penalty kill, even strength goals from captain Gabriel Landeskog, Nichushkin and a five-on-three conversion by Artturi Lehkonen, which came at the end of a stretch of more than 70 consecutive seconds of offensive zone possession.\n\nThe power-play goal came shortly after Tampa Bay had pulled within 2-1 and reestablished Colorado’s control of the game through the opening 20 minutes.\n\n“I was pretty nervous all day and, coming out for warmups, the fans were amazing,” said Landeskog, who has been with the franchise since it drafted him No. 2 overall in 2011. “You’re trying to enjoy the moment as much as you can, but you’re human and the nerves are there. That’s OK, you’ve just got to deal with it and I thought, as a team, we did a good job of that tonight.”\n\nNobody makes it this far into the season without being capable of winning in multiple ways, but broadly speaking, the most tantalizing element of this matchup is Colorado’s high-flying offense against Vasilevskiy’s world-class work in net.\n\nEntering Game 1, Colorado had scored 65 goals in 14 postseason games, pacing the postseason field. The Lightning, behind Vasilevskiy, lost the first two games in the Eastern Conference final to the New York Rangers and then reeled off four straight wins while allowing just five goals total.\n\nColorado showed the speed and skill that has propelled its 13-2 postseason record so far, putting three pucks past Vasilevskiy on 15 first-period shots while largely keeping the pressure off of its own goalie, Darcy Kuemper, who returned to the lineup for the first time since Game 1 of the Western Conference final.\n\nPast the midpoint of the second period, though, the Lightning tied the game in a blink.\n\nVasilevskiy stopped a clean Nichushkin blast from the right circle and veteran defenseman Ryan McDonagh pushed the puck to the middle of the ice where Palat and Kucherov took over. Palat left the puck for Kucherov near the blue line and the forward put a sublime combination of moves on Colorado defenseman Devon Toews, working to his backhand and then flipping the puck back across Kuemper’s face, where Palat buried it to draw the Lightning within 3-2 with 7:09 remaining in the period.\n\nKucherov’s line has been formidable all year and all postseason. Palat’s goal was his ninth of these playoffs, while Kucherov added a 17th assist to his seven conversions.\n\nJust 48 seconds later, Tampa Bay defenseman Mikhail Sergachev snapped a wrist shot past Kuemper.\n\n“The goals we gave up and the chances we gave up, we made some big mistakes on,” Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said.\n\nBy that time, Vasilevskiy had settled in. He stopped Compher on a clean look in behind the defense. He moved laterally and handled traffic. After allowing the trio of early goals, he stopped the next 22 shots over the final 42:21 to close regulation.\n\nBoth goaltenders made plays down the stretch. Kuemper helped the Avalanche kill off a key penalty in the third period and all three short-handed sequences on the night.\n\n“Darcy’s been a rock on the PK all playoffs,” Byram said. “He made a couple of huge saves, which we need sometimes. Your goalie has to be your best penalty killer. He came up huge.”\n\nVasilevskiy helped the Lightning stave off a frantic final 1:24 of regulation down a man and then the opening 36 seconds of overtime, as well, before Burakovsky finally put the first game in the books for Colorado seconds later.\n\n“The right team won the game,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “Give them credit for pulling it out. We’ve got better in us, though. I don’t think by a country mile we played our best game.”\n\nThe Lightning have been here before. They lost their first-round opener to Toronto and the first two to the Rangers in the East finals. The two-time defending champs will have to play from behind again this year if they are to become the first team to win three straight titles since the New York Islanders won four in a row from 1980-83.\n\n“We’ve not made it this far over the past couple of years because we can’t execute,” Cooper said. “It just didn’t happen for us tonight, but we’re still right there. … We’ll be back here in a couple of days.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/06/14/avalanche-must-beat-two-time-champion-lightning-to-win-cup/50371831/", "title": "Avalanche must beat two-time champion Lightning to win Cup", "text": "AP\n\nDENVER (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon wouldn’t have it any other way.\n\nHe and the Colorado Avalanche have stubbed their toe many times in the playoffs over the past several years, never getting past the second round. Now that they’ve broken through to reach the Stanley Cup Final, naturally they need to beat the back -to- back defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning to win this core group’s first title.\n\nGame 1 is Wednesday night in Denver.\n\n\"I’m glad we’re playing Tampa,” MacKinnon said Tuesday. “There’s no Cinderella story or anything: Two of the best teams in the league going at it and really excited for this challenge. And it’s going to be very, very difficult, but I believe this group and we all believe in each other. Hopefully we get this done.”\n\nColorado is favored, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, but must beat an opponent that has won 11 consecutive playoff series. The Lightning have become the NHL’s gold standard for success in the salary cap era and would join the company of hockey dynasties if they become the first to three-peat since the New York Islanders lifted the Cup four times in a row from 1980-84.\n\nMacKinnon will try to follow the lead of fellow Cole Harbor, Nova Scotia, native Sidney Crosby, who won his first championship in 2009 when Pittsburgh beat defending champion Detroit in the final. The Lightning are the first team since Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers from 1983-85 to reach the final in three consecutive years.\n\n“They’ve been the best for a while now, and we have the opportunity to kind of knock them off the pedestal,” Colorado defenseman Cale Makar said. “We’re trying to start something special here, and they’re trying to continue something that will turn into a dynasty for them. You couldn’t write it up any better.”\n\nThis Cup showdown is one Lightning captain Steven Stamkos is surprised did not happen earlier. While he and his teammates have been making long playoff runs, the Avalanche were among the titans of the West and predicted to do the same.\n\nColorado instead lost in the first round in 2018 and the second each of the past three seasons. Much like Tampa Bay getting swept in the first round in 2019, those defeats have strengthened the Avalanche and prepared them for this challenge.\n\n“Certainly a lot of lessons have been learned over the last five, six years from myself, from our team going through some heartbreak in the playoffs,\" coach Jared Bednar said. “Even the last couple years I think has made us a stronger group, a more resilient group.”\n\nThe Lightning know all about showing resilience, in previous years and this postseason. They needed to overcome series deficits of 3-2 against Toronto in the first round and then 2-0 to the New York Rangers in the East final to avoid elimination. They even trailed in the third period of Game 7 at the Maple Leafs and came back to win.\n\n“That’s been a big theme of ours is putting our stamp on history, and you can’t do that without winning and being committed and doing all the things and not exhaling,” coach Jon Cooper said. “The guys have done a phenomenal job, especially in the Toronto series when we were down 3-2. When there are no tomorrows, they gave us two more months of tomorrows.”\n\nALMOST FULL STRENGTH\n\nThe Lightning finished their comeback against Toronto — and got through the next two rounds — without first-line center Brayden Point, who injured his right leg earlier in Game 7.\n\nIf Point returns for Game 1 as expected after skating well in practice, Tampa Bay would be at full strength against Colorado, which could be without injured forwards Nazem Kadri and Andrew Cogliano and ruled out defenseman Samuel Girard after breaking his sternum in the second round.\n\n“We still got to see,” Point said. “I don’t think anything is guaranteed, but it’s just fun to be out there with the team again and being part of it.\n\nCHAMPIONSHIP PEDIGREE\n\nTampa Bay's core of Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat and Alex Killorn is in the final for the fourth time since 2015. The Lightning reached at least the East final six times in that span.\n\nHaving been here before and experienced the thrill of winning, Stamkos said he and his teammates consciously talk about not wasting another opportunity to hoist the Cup.\n\n“Our group is too good to not give ourselves a chance to compete for the Stanley Cup, and we’ve shown that, especially this year,” he said. “We’ve been down a couple situations. We never panicked. We stick to what makes us successful, and I’m proud of that effort and here we are.”\n\nAVALANCHE EXPERIENCE\n\nColorado has two players who have won the Cup before: Andre Burakovsky with Washington in 2018 and Darren Helm with Detroit in 2008. There are more Cup rings in the front office with general manager Joe Sakic, who captained the Avalanche to the franchise's first championship in 1996 the year the team relocated from Quebec to Denver and also won it in 2001.\n\nThat was the organization's most recent championship, and now his team is trying to emulate Tampa Bay to bring the Cup back.\n\n“It’s a group that believes in each other, and we believe in them,” Sakic said. “You saw over the years with Tampa. Look at them now, they’re two-time Stanley Cup champions and looking for their third. And we’re looking to dethrone the champs.”\n\n___\n\nFollow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno\n\n___\n\nMore AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/06/06/nhl-playoffs-avalanche-sweep-oilers-reach-stanley-cup-final/7527361001/", "title": "NHL playoffs: Avalanche sweep Oilers, reach Stanley Cup Final", "text": "The Colorado Avalanche reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since their 2001 championship on Monday, shredding their reputation of a highly talented team that disappointed in the playoffs.\n\nThey staged a furious third-period comeback and won in overtime on a goal by trade deadline acquisition Artturi Lehkonen to sweep the Edmonton Oilers with a 6-5 victory in Game 4. Lehkonen, then with Montreal, also got the Canadiens into the Final last season with an overtime goal.\n\nThe Avalanche will face the winner of the Tampa Bay Lightning-New York Rangers series. The Rangers lead the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final 2-1 with Game 4 on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) in Tampa.\n\nColorado overcame deficits of 3-1 and 4-2 on goals by Devon Toews, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen to go ahead before Zack Kassian forced overtime. Cale Makar, who scored in the first period, had four assists, including on Lehkonen's winner.\n\nThough the Avalanche stars dominated in regulation of Game 4, it was moves made at the trade deadline that helped turn Colorado into Western Conference champions.\n\nGeneral manager Joe Sakic, the captain of the 2001 team, acquired defenseman Josh Manson to add grit on the blue line and brought in forwards Lehkonen, Nico Sturm and Andrew Cogliano to aid the penalty killing.\n\nLehkonen had two assists to go with his winner. Cogliano had a key block Monday night but appeared to hurt his hand on the play.\n\nThe newcomers joined stars MacKinnon, Makar, Landeskog and Rantanen to form a powerhouse that needed 14 games to get past the Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues and Oilers.\n\nAnd the depth helped them survive key injuries. Defenseman Sam Girard was hurt in the second round and No. 2 center Nazem Kadri missed Game 4 after being shoved into the boards in Game 3, which cost Oilers forward a one-game suspension.\n\nTSN reported that Kadri had thumb surgery and his status for the Cup Final is uncertain.\n\n\"Naz has been one of our best players all season, clutch guy,\" MacKinnon told TNT. \"Hoping he's doing well and we'll get him back next series.\"\n\nBRUINS:Coach Bruce Cassidy fired after first-round exit\n\nSPORTS NEWSLETTER:Sign up now to get top sports headlines delivered daily\n\nRangers hopeful two forwards can play in Game 4\n\nThe Rangers came out of Sunday's 3-2 loss in Game 3 with their center depth ailing, but head coach Gerard Gallant is hopeful that neither Barclay Goodrow nor Ryan Strome will miss any time.\n\nStrome's lower-body injury came on his first shift of the second period, as he was lightly shoved from behind by Lightning forward Ondrej Palat and appeared to awkwardly plant on his right leg. He came out for one more 36-second shift, but could not continue beyond that.\n\n\"He should be fine,\" Gallant said following Monday's optional practice at Amalie Arena. \"We'll see (Tuesday). ... But we fully expect him to play.\"\n\nGoodrow was hurt during the third period when he blocked a shot from Victor Hedman.\n\nDespite the obvious pain, the 29-year-old went to the locker room and was back on the ice for his next shift just 2:23 later.\n\n\"It hurt a little bit, but Barclay's a competitor,\" Gallant said. \"He comes back and plays. That's what he does.\"\n\nJets' Kyle Connor wins Lady Byng Trophy\n\nWinnipeg Jets forward Kyle Connor has won the Lady Byng Trophy, given to the NHL’s most gentlemanly player.\n\nThe league announced the honor Monday night before Game 4 of the Western Conference final.\n\nConnor tied for the second-fewest number of minor penalties during the regular season. He was penalized just twice in more than 1,700 minutes of ice time that included regular short-handed shifts and matchups against top offensive opponents.\n\nIt’s his first time winning the Lady Byng. Last year’s winner, Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin, was second in voting by the Professional Hockey Writer Association. Minnesota captain Jared Spurgeon was third.\n\nContributing: Vincent Z. Mercogliano, Northjersey.com; Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2022/06/26/colorado-avalanche-win-third-stanley-cup-title-beating-two-time-defending-champion-tampa-bay-lightni/50421685/", "title": "Colorado Avalanche win third Stanley Cup title, beating two-time ...", "text": "", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/26"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_11", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/08/entertainment/will-smith-academy-sanctions-decision/index.html", "title": "Will Smith barred from Academy events for 10 years, including the ...", "text": "(CNN) Will Smith will not be allowed to attend the Academy Awards for the next 10 years, as a result of his slapping comedian Chris Rock on stage during this year's Oscar ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced in a statement obtained by CNN.\n\n\"The Board has decided, for a period of 10 years from April 8, 2022, Mr. Smith shall not be permitted to attend any Academy events or programs, in person or virtually, including but not limited to the Academy Awards,\" Academy President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson said in a statement on Friday.\n\nThe decision was made during a Board of Governors meeting held earlier in the day in Los Angeles. The meeting, initially scheduled for April 18, was expedited after Smith announced his resignation from the Academy last week.\n\nSmith issued a quick, concise statement on his ban from the Oscars for the next decade.\n\n\"I accept and respect the Academy's decision,\" the actor said in a statement to CNN.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Chloe Melas", "Lisa Respers France"], "publish_date": "2022/04/08"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/world/twosday-february-22-wellness/index.html", "title": "Twosday: What to know about February 22, 2022 - CNN", "text": "(CNN) Good things come in twos. At least this Tuesday it does.\n\nThe date is February 22, 2022. When you write it, 2/22/22, it's a palindrome, meaning it reads the same forward and backward. It also falls on a Tuesday, which is now referred to as Twosday.\n\nIt's the most exceptional date in over a decade, according to palindrome enthusiast Aziz Inan. He's a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Portland in Oregon, and he has been studying palindrome dates for over 14 years.\n\nIt's a ubiquitous palindrome date because it's a palindrome when it's written in the United States format of month, day, year, and the format most other countries follow of day, month, year, Inan said.\n\n\"I feel that these dates have magical power in terms of getting people's attention, no matter what age,\" he said.", "authors": ["Megan Marples"], "publish_date": "2022/02/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/17/politics/space-force-boot-camp/index.html", "title": "Exclusive: Inside Space Force boot camp with recruits to US ...", "text": "(CNN) The US Space Force has hit a critical milestone: dedicated basic training for its early recruits.\n\nAs dawn breaks on Day 38 of basic training at Joint Base San Antonio, a bugle playing reveille blasts over the loudspeakers as a sergeant can be heard screaming, \"Are you prepared to join the world's greatest space force? Then hurry up! Let's go, let's go.\"\n\nIt looks -- and sounds -- like basic boot camp for soldiers, sailors, marines or airmen. But all 71 of the new recruits at this basic training are guardians , the name for members of the first new branch of the armed services in more than 70 years.\n\nUntil now, new guardians have trained alongside airmen in the Air Force's basic military training program. What makes this boot camp unique is it's the first ever guardian-only basic training, led entirely by Space Force instructors who are teaching a space-centric curriculum.\n\nMaster Sergeant Eric Mistrot, the Space Force's first Military Training Instructor, is quick to point out that, \"This is still the profession of arms. This is still the United States military. This is not space camp.\"\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Kristin Fisher"], "publish_date": "2022/06/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/30/politics/strategic-petroleum-reserve-release-oil-joe-biden/index.html", "title": "Biden announces historic oil reserve release and presses oil ...", "text": "(CNN) President Joe Biden on Thursday announced an unprecedented release of oil from US reserves and several steps his administration is taking to punish oil companies for not increasing production from unused leases on federal land.\n\nThe steps are an attempt to reduce gas prices while also putting an onus on oil companies to increase supply. The dramatic step, which Biden announced from the White House, confronts what has become a looming political problem months ahead of the midterm elections.\n\n\"Our prices are rising because of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's actions. There isn't enough supply. And the bottom line is if we want lower gas prices we need to have more oil supply right now,\" Biden said.\n\nThe President added: \"Your family budgets to fill a tank -- none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war.\"\n\nThe release would amount to 180 million barrels of oil. The President said it would act as a \"wartime bridge\" as US and global oil production ramps back up after the coronavirus pandemic. The decision was made in coordination with US allies overseas, including in Europe, though officials declined to say whether other countries were also releasing barrels from their reserves.\n\n\"Together, our combined efforts will supply well over a million barrels a day. Nations (are) coming together to deny Putin the ability to weaponize his energy resources against American families and families and democracies around the world,\" Biden said.\n\nThe US will restock barrels in the reserve when oil prices are lower, the President said, which could help further incentivize production going forward.\n\nStill, officials declined to say how quickly, or by how much, gas prices might come down as a result of the release. And they said they to address not focused on \"immediate short-term price movements\" in the oil market. Instead, they said their goal was addressing a lack of supply due to Russian oil coming off the market, adding that it would translate into providing relief for American consumers.\n\nThe President warned oil companies against exploiting the situation to increase profits.\n\n\"No American company should take advantage of a pandemic or Vladimir Putin's actions to enrich themselves at the expense of American families. Investing those profits in production and innovation, that's what they should do. Invest in your customers,\" Biden said.\n\nThe President said the second part of his plan to address the rising prices is to create American energy independence in the long term.\n\n\"Ultimately, we and the whole world need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels altogether. We need to choose long-term security over energy and climate vulnerability,\" Biden said.\n\nBiden earlier in the month announced a coordinated release of oil from the reserves in conjunction with other nations. He also released around 50 million barrels in November , which he said at the time was the largest release from the reserve in US history.\n\nNeither move had a significant effect on gas prices, which have continued to rise as global limits on Russian energy exports have caused prices to spike.\n\nThe United States consumes around 20 million barrels of oil per day, with global consumption hovering around 100 million barrels. Biden's planned releases would put more oil on the global market, potentially bringing down costs.\n\nThe President is also calling on Congress to \"make companies pay fees on wells from their leases that they haven't used in years and on acres of public lands that they are hoarding without producing,\" one official said. For months, the Biden administration has publicly pushed back on the idea that regulations are holding oil producers back from more domestic production, pointing to millions of acres worth of land with approved permits for oil and gas production.\n\n\"Companies that are producing from their leased acres and existing wells will not face higher fees,\" a fact sheet released by the White House reads, \"but companies that continue to sit on non-producing acres will have to choose whether to start producing or pay a fee for each idled well and unused acre.\"\n\nBiden also will issue a directive to invoke the Defense Production Act to spur domestic production of critical minerals needed to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles and long-term energy storage.\n\nThe move from the White House adds critical minerals such as lithium, nickel, graphite, cobalt and manganese to the list of items covered by the 1950 Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law allowing the President to use emergency authority to make large orders of a certain type of product or expand productive capacity and supply. It will allow the administration to support the production and processing of these critical minerals needed for a clean energy transition.\n\nThe Department of Defense will implement this authority, according to the White House, and will do so in consultation with tribal communities and using strong environmental, labor, and community standards.\n\nBiden tackles a major political problem\n\nTapping the reserve -- the stockpile of 600 million barrels of crude oil stored in underground salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas -- generally has only a limited effect on gas prices because of how much oil can be released at a time, but would act as a political sign that Biden is continuing to confront the problem.\n\nFollowing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the US price of regular gasoline spiked, hitting a record high of $4.33 a gallon earlier in March.\n\nYet the current cost increases began months ago, as demand for oil increased while the coronavirus pandemic waned. The White House has voiced frustration that oil companies have not returned their production to levels from before the pandemic, focusing instead on paying dividends for investors.\n\nThere has been an internal debate among administration officials at how harshly to go after oil and gas companies for not ramping up production. Biden has chided them in previous remarks, but some officials believe a full-throated campaign against the firms could backfire.\n\nRussia's invasion of Ukraine has provided Biden another foil. In remarks earlier this month, Biden sought to put the onus for the rising prices on the Russian President: \"Make no mistake: The current spike in gas prices is largely the fault of Vladimir Putin.\" He has repeated the phrase \"Putin's price hike\" since then.\n\nGovernors across the US have been attempting to curb gas prices at the state level.\n\nLast week, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom rolled out a $9 billion proposal to hand out $400 debit cards to drivers in the state to help soften the impact of the highest gas prices in the country. In Georgia, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp -- who is facing one of the toughest reelection races in the country -- signed a bill that will give $250 to $500 tax refunds to Georgians -- a move several of his rivals blasted as election-year politicking.\n\nAnd as Democratic Gov. Janet Mills faces a competitive reelection campaign in Maine, she has proposed some of the most generous relief to qualified taxpayers in her state -- in the form of $850 checks -- to cushion the blow of inflation and gas prices.\n\nThis story has been updated with background information.\n\nCORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve last year. It was 50 million barrels.", "authors": ["Kevin Liptak", "Kate Sullivan"], "publish_date": "2022/03/30"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/08/health/wordle-brain-games-wellness/index.html", "title": "Wordle and your brain: Does playing make you smarter? - CNN", "text": "(CNN) Wordle-bragging, arguably one of the newest forms of humble-bragging, has taken over social media. Solving the five-letter daily puzzle, and doing it in only three, two or even your first attempt (!) is a badge of pride for many.\n\nBut does being good at Wordle mean you're smarter than the average person, or even a fellow puzzler?\n\n\"No,\" said memory and learning researcher Aaron Seitz, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, who founded the university's Brain Game Center . \"You're just a person who does well at Wordle versusanother person who doesn't do as well on Wordle.\"\n\nIt's much like people who are really good at Scrabble, so good that they compete in international tournaments, said Penny Pexman, a professor of psychology at the University of Calgary, who has studied the brains of Scrabble players\n\n\"Scrabble players recognize words faster, especially in vertical orientation, but we didn't find that those advantages transferred to non-Scrabble-related tasks,\" Pexman said. \"As soon as you show them some other kind of visual pattern or symbol that's not a letter, they look just like non-experts.\"\n\nThe same applies to chess, she said. If chess pieces are not in their legal positions or if other information is presented on a chessboard, the player's ability to visually scan and understand the board is no better than average.\n\n\"With brain training, the benefits are mostly quite specific,\" Pexman said.\n\nThat's why it's unlikely that \"getting very, very good at Wordle\" would make your brain \"very good at anything else,\" said cognitive psychologist Jonathan King, senior scientific advisor to the director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Research at the National Institute on Aging, which funds brain-training research\n\nAnd if you're playing Wordle in the hopes it might keep your brain from aging, research so far isn't showing any significant widespread protection from vmost brain-training games, King added.\n\n\"That's a problem that we have with cognitive training in general,\" King said. \"It's hard to find training that translates to a long-term change in the brain that will hopefully protect you from cognitive impairment or decline or dementia.\"\n\nMaximizing Wordle's benefits\n\nMany people who enjoy doing Wordle, Scrabble, crossword or other types of puzzles are often high in what psychologists call a \"need for cognition,\" Pexman said.\n\n\"Some people just enjoy puzzles,\" she said. \"And we know that a need for cognition is different than intelligence. So it's not necessarily something you do because you're smart, it's something you do because that's what you enjoy.\"\n\nPlaying Wordle is unlike playing crossword puzzles, King said, because you don't need to know the meanings of words or even have a large vocabulary.\n\n\"It's all five-letter words. But that said, you do need to be able to do a lot with those five-letter words,\" King said. \"We usually think of something like this is a deductive-reasoning task, which would probably be associated with activity in the frontal and prefrontal lobes of the brain.\"\n\nThe visual working memory area of the brain, which is lodged in the prefrontal cortex region above the forehead, is definitely involved, Pexman said.\n\n\"It's like a mental sketch pad where you hold the visual information in mind and you manipulate it, which is a particular skill some people have a lot of capacity for and other people less so,\" Pexman said.\n\nIn addition to manipulating information in memory over a short period of time, \"your ability to have attentional focus is also very much involved,\" Seitz said.\n\nWhile Wordle may be exercising the specific brain \"muscles\" of visual memory and attention, applying strategies such as (SPOILER ALERT) the use of words with lots of vowels or a database of five-letter words may soon let that muscle atrophy, he said.\n\n\"As soon as you begin using strategies to solve the puzzle, you've taken the load off of your attention and memory processes which may lessen Wordle's potential benefits,\" Seitz said.\n\n\"My general advice is to pick a brain activity that provides a challenge,\" he added. \"Then when you start feeling like you're really good at it, pick another activity that gives you a new challenge. And so by kind of rotating across these different types of challenges, you get the variety that's going to exercise your brain in different ways.\"\n\nNot a Wordle fan?\n\nNot into word or puzzle games? That's OK, psychologists say. Research has identified many other activities that can provide just as much of a boost to the brain.\n\n\"If I was going to recommend one thing to people to ensure healthy brain aging, I would say exercise,\" Pexman said. \"All of the positive effects of healthy blood flow on cognition are very well established .\"\n\nDancing is an excellent choice, she added, because it not only engages cognitive spatial skills, but also adds social interaction, which research has also shown to be key to staying cognitively alert.\n\nResearch is beginning to show other activities work as well, Seitz added, such as learning to play a musical instrument, learning a second language or how to paint, cook and do photography.\n\n\"When people ask my advice about a strategy for a healthier brain I tell them that given what we know right now, learn a new thing every day,\" Seitz said.\n\n\"I always say that if you take one finger and lift weights with it every single day, you'll have a really strong finger. That applies to the brain as well, so challenge your brain in different ways.\"", "authors": ["Sandee Lamotte"], "publish_date": "2022/03/08"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/20/entertainment/johnny-depp-testimony-amber-heard-defamation-case/index.html", "title": "Johnny Depp testifies about his finger getting severed in defamation ...", "text": "(CNN) Actor Johnny Depp resumed his testimony in a Fairfax, Virginia court in his defamation case against his ex-wife Amber Heard on Wednesday.\n\nDepp discussed the changing nature of his relationship with Heard. He accused Heard of name calling and making demeaning comments about him at times in their relationship that would escalate to arguments.\n\n\"I was not allowed to be right, not allowed to have a voice,\" Depp said.\n\nAn argument between the former couple in 2015 ended with Depp seeking medical care for a severed finger after, he claims, Heard threw a bottle of vodka at him.\n\n\"She threw the large bottle and it made contact [with his hand] and shattered everywhere,\" Depp testifed. \"Then I looked down and realized that my tip of my finger had been severed.\"\n\n\"I don't know what I nervous breakdown feels like,\" Depp added. \"But that's probably the closest I had ever been.\"\n\nHeard has denied the claim.\n\n'I wanted to try to make it work'\n\nIn his roughly three-hour testimony on Tuesday, the Oscar-nominated star spoke in detail about Heard's allegations of domestic abuse, his history with substance abuse and his experiences growing up with an abusive mother.\n\n\"You slowly realize you're in a relationship with your mother, in a sense,\" Depp testified Wednesday about his dynamic with Heard, comparing the abuse he says he experienced by his mother to Heard's alleged abuse.\n\nDepp's attorney asked him why he stayed with Heard as their relationship deteriorated.\n\n\"I wanted to try to make it work,\" he said.\n\n\"Ms. Heard had spoken of suicide on a couple of occasions, so that also becomes a factor, that's something that lives in the back of your brain,\" Depp said.\n\nThe actor, known for his work in the \"Pirates of the Caribbean\" franchise, is suing Heard for $50 million over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she wrote about her experience with domestic abuse. She did not name Depp in the piece, but he claims it cost him lucrative film work.\n\nAsked on the stand Wednesday what he's lost in light of the allegations, Depp replied, \"Nothing less than everything.\"\n\n\"When the allegations were made, when the allegations were rapidly circling the globe, telling people that I was a drunken, cocaine-fueled menace who beat woman suddenly in my 50s, it's over,\" he said. \"You're done.\"\n\nDepp has maintained his innocence and testified that while he and Heard had arguments during their relationship, he has never \"struck a woman.\"\n\nIn his lengthy second day of testimony, Depp discussed his tattoos, telling the court Heard would make fun of some of them, which he equated to keeping a journal of his life.\n\nHe referenced a \"Winona forever\" tattoo, which Depp said he got for his former-girlfriend, actress Winona Ryder, but changed it to \"Wino forever\" after they broke up. He said Heard didn't like it.\n\n\"I took off the last two letters and had it say 'Wino forever,'\" Depp said, adding, \"I thought through pain comes humor. Humor has to come in there into the pain and that's how you play it out in the mind... so I changed it to 'Wino forever.'\"\n\nHe said that Heard wanted him to get a tattoo of her own name, which he eventually did.\n\n\"And ironically it wasn't long after that that everything started going sideways,\" Depp said.\n\n\"I was doing everything I could to bring a smile to her face as opposed to a frown and then the onslaught of whatever problems she was experiencing,\" he said. \"I would try to wake her up with laughter, singing stupid songs in her ear. I generally just tried to keep bringing her mood up. Sometimes it worked, many times it didn't. But I tried.\"\n\nDepp gave further details about his use of oxycodone during the time he was with Heard and symptoms of withdrawal he would experience when he went through detox.\n\nCross-examination by Heard's lawyer Ben Rottenborn began near the end of the day's session and will continue Thursday. Heard has yet to take the stand in the trial that is expected to last six weeks.\n\nA contentious split\n\nDepp and Amber met on the set of \"The Rum Diary\" in 2009, married in 2015 and went to a contentious split, with charges of bad behavior levied by both sides.\n\nThe couple settled their divorce in August 2016, releasing a joint statement which read in part, \"Our relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love.\"\n\nAmber Heard and Johnny Depp in 2015.\n\nHeard had been unsuccessful in her attempts to get the suit dismissed. She filed a $100 million defamation countersuit against Depp in 2020, which is ongoing.\n\nIn 2020, Depp lost a libel case in the UK against News Group Newspapers and Dan Wootton, executive editor of The Sun, over an article that claimed Depp was violent toward Heard during their relationship. The court ruled in the publisher's favor, determining the tabloid's claims were shown to be \"substantially true.\"", "authors": ["Marianne Garvey"], "publish_date": "2022/04/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/27/opinions/top-gun-maverick-tom-cruise-stewart/index.html", "title": "Opinion: Why it matters that 'Top Gun: Maverick' is so much better ...", "text": "Sara Stewart is a film and culture writer who lives in western Pennsylvania. The views expressed here are solely the author's own. View more opinion articles on CNN.\n\n\"Top Gun: Maverick\" may well be the box-office hit of the year, thanks to a perfect storm of circumstance. It's Memorial Day weekend; people are feeling a tiny bit more adventurous; everyone needs an escape from the horrors of the real world; and... Tom Cruise.\n\nCruise, one of our last bona fide Movie Stars , is the one who reportedly insisted that this movie, shot back in 2019, not be released on a streaming platform. And damn, was he right. This glorious blockbuster demands to be seen on the biggest possible screen, and hold on to your popcorn, because the for-real aerial stunts must be experienced in high definition to be believed. (The academic dean of the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics was seated behind me at our screening. His review: \"Fantastic!\")\n\nMore crucially, \"TGM\" pulls off the highly tricky maneuver of bringing back all the adrenaline and bravado that made the first \"Top Gun\" such an indelible 1980s milestone, while excising some of its more toxic elements and (at least mildly) updating its worldview. Its politics are just vague enough to inspire nearly everyone to leave the theater cheering. Who but Pete \"Maverick\" Mitchell could unite this deeply fractured country?\n\nAs much as the callow, high-flying original was a product of its era, the long-delayed \"Top Gun: Maverick\" manages to be the perfect sequel for now -- weighted with melancholy and mortality, but still striving for meaning and glory. It might just be the first movie since the beginning of the pandemic to really remind us of the sheer fun to be had in a communal theater experience.\n\nNow, I don't know how long it's been since you've seen 1986's \"Top Gun,\" but spoiler alert, it is quite dated: The late director Tony Scott's fighter-pilot saga embodies the red-white-and-blue macho ethos of the Reagan years, complete with a daredevil hero literally flipping off the Russians.\n\nHilariously, there is no such thing as subtext in Scott's film. The rogue protagonist is named Maverick. The guy who's cool under pressure is named Iceman (Val Kilmer). The goofy sidekick is Goose (Anthony Edwards). The boss who chews people out for violating protocol is Stinger (James Tolkan).\n\nIn a movie about a character with a deep disregard for authority, well, here's some subtle dialogue:\n\nIceman: \"I don't like you because you're dangerous.\"\n\nMaverick: \"That's right, Iceman. I am dangerous.\"\n\nLOL.\n\nThe original \"Top Gun\" also manages to be one of the most (unintentionally?) homoerotic films of the decade, thanks to its sun-drenched beach volleyball scene and male pilots who say things to each other like, \"This gives me a hard-on\" while watching videos of warplanes. But it's also rife with eye-rolling sexism, from the way the Top Gun recruits snicker at Kelly McGillis' Charlie when she debates security clearance with Maverick, to lines like Iceman's, \"The plaque for the alternates is down in the ladies room.\"\n\nIt's also the kind of movie where Maverick following a woman into the bathroom and suggesting they do it on the countertop is supposed to be seen as hot, not creepy. I can't speak for all womankind, but this is the kind of stuff that makes a gal feel like a movie really wasn't made with her in mind.\n\nUnder the director of Joseph Kosinski (\"Oblivion\"), Cruise's older, craggier Maverick appears to have done some growing and changing. He's still weighed down with sorrow over the death of his wingman, Goose, and he's feeling his wheelhouse of capability has narrowed. That ambition to teach that he teased at the end of the first movie didn't work out so well. He doesn't seem to have fared any better romantically; maybe the tactic of enlisting an entire bar to drunkenly sing along with the Righteous Brothers to woo a love interest didn't age all that well.\n\nWhat breaks \"TGM\" out of its sexist history is its embrace of a different kind of masculinity. The film is an exploration of what it is to be incredibly good at one thing -- yes, he's still dangerous in the air! -- while quite vulnerable in other areas. One of the film's many high points is a short, emotional scene between Cruise and Kilmer as the now-ailing Admiral Tom \"Iceman\" Kazansky; the onetime adversaries have forged a friendship in the intervening decades. Jennifer Connelly steps in as Pete's old-and-new love interest, bar owner Penny Benjamin, and if there's one actress who really radiates that she doesn't take any s**t, it's Connelly. Penny takes Pete sailing, only to discover that -- despite being a Navy man -- he has no idea which rope is which.\n\nThe film even uses his real name a lot of the time -- sometimes he's a Maverick, but a lot of the time he's just a Pete.\n\nBut don't get the wrong idea: There is no shortage of truly intoxicating action here. The new group of Top Gun recruits, for whom Maverick is brought in by Iceman to teach about a super-treacherous mission, are dewy and cocky in all the best ways. But they're not a-holes about it, with the possible exception of \"Hangman\" (Glen Powell, in the Iceman model).\n\nThey're also a more diverse group, with some non-White actors and one female pilot (Monica Barbaro) who's never depicted as belittled or harassed by her peers. Importantly, the film also goes to great lengths, which are pretty thrilling to watch, to show just how hard it is to fly missions like this: The crushing weight on your body as you climb straight upwards, the nerve-shredding adjacence to death.\n\n\"TGM\" is the latest project to mine our action-movie nostalgia while updating, or straight-up mocking, dusty old stereotypes. The Sandra Bullock movie \"The Lost City\" tweaked the \"Romancing the Stone\" formula with a charming performance from Channing Tatum as a beta-male hero. And Peacock's criminally underrated \"MacGruber\" series , spawned by the 2010 movie, stars Will Forte in a pitch-perfect parody of obnoxious, rule-flouting 1980s action stars. (The most hilarious sequence from the \"MacGruber\" movie draws heavily on the cringey, tongue-heavy sex scene from \"Top Gun.\")\n\nGet our free weekly newsletter Sign up for CNN Opinion's newsletter. Join us on Twitter and Facebook\n\nAt its core, of course, \"Top Gun: Maverick\" still goes hard on the American exceptionalism, on the idea that being smug and difficult and breaking the rules is just part of patriotic heroism. It's bellicose in a way that is not un-problematic: In what reality is it OK for the United States to just bomb another (unnamed) country's uranium stores, even if it is suggestively implied to be global pariah Russia? There are some legitimate diplomacy concerns to have around the film's major plot point. While Cruise has said that he never thought of the original film as propaganda, the original film reportedly inspired a spike in military enlistments. And, as Cruise has said in a recent interview about \"TGM,\" he and the rest of the cast and crew \"worked with the Navy and the Top Gun school to formulate how to shoot it practically.\" So, it's not not a pro-military movie.\n\nBut mostly, honestly, it's two hours of sheer, visceral fun on the big screen, which feels very retro. In the best possible way.", "authors": ["Opinion Sara Stewart"], "publish_date": "2022/05/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/15/entertainment/bradley-cooper-addiction/index.html", "title": "Bradley Cooper talks about being 'addicted to cocaine' in his 20s ...", "text": "(CNN) Bradley Cooper is opening up about his past drug and alcohol abuse and shared who helped him through some tough times.\n\nCooper said when he was feeling lost and dealing with addiction early in his career, it was fellow actor Will Arnett who helped him recover.\n\nDuring a conversation on Arnett's podcast \"Smartless,\" which he co-hosts with Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes, Cooper talked about sharing an apartment with Arnett years ago. He said he lacked confidence and would try to mimic Arnett's type of humor while socializing.\n\nIt didn't always go over well.\n\n\"Will was like, 'Hey man, do you remember we had dinner the other night? How do you think that went?'\" Cooper said. \"I remember being at the dinner thinking I was so funny, and I thought these two guys who were my heroes thought that I was so funny. I was like 'I thought it was great. I thought I was killing.' Will Arnett was like, 'You were a real a**hole, man. You were a real a**hole.'\"\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Marianne Garvey"], "publish_date": "2022/06/15"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/20/entertainment/megan-fox-engagement-ring/index.html", "title": "Megan Fox's engagement ring: Machine Gun Kelly designed it to ...", "text": "(CNN) According to Machine Gun Kelly, \"Love is pain!\"\n\nThat is what the rapper and actor told Vogue in a joint interview with his new fiancée, actress Megan Fox.\n\nKelly was explaining the \"thoroughbred Colombian emerald\" and diamond engagement ring he had designed for Fox with the emerald \"just carved into the teardrop, straight out of the mine.\"\n\n\"The concept is that the ring can come apart to make two rings. When it's together, it's held in place by a magnet.\" Kelly said. So you see how it snaps together? And then it forms an obscure heart. And you see this right here? The bands are actually thorns. So if she tries to take it off, it hurts...\"\n\nOuch.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Lisa Respers France"], "publish_date": "2022/01/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/28/entertainment/kim-kardashian-kanye-sex-tape/index.html", "title": "Kim Kardashian cries as Kanye West retrieves rest of sex tape | CNN", "text": "(CNN) We now have more insight into how Kanye West helped Kim Kardashian get the remaining footage of her infamous sex tape.\n\nOn the most recent episode of her family's new Hulu reality series \"The Kardashians,\" the mogul broke down in tears after West - who now goes by Ye - met up with her ex-boyfriend, singer and entrepreneur Ray J, to get the computer containing the hard drive which had the footage.\n\nThe 2007 tape, filmed when Kardashian and Ray J were dating at the time, gave rise to what would become her family's E! reality show, \"Keeping Up With the Kardashians.\"\n\nKardashian said West retrieved the footage not just for her, but also for the four young children they share.\n\n\"I want to shield them from as much as I can,\" she said. \"And if I had the power to or if Kanye has the power to, like that is just the most important thing to me. And I'm just so emotional because of it.\"\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Lisa Respers France"], "publish_date": "2022/04/28"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_12", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/politics/supreme-court-ketanji-brown-jackson/index.html", "title": "Ketanji Brown Jackson nominated as first Black woman to sit on ...", "text": "(CNN) President Joe Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court on Friday, setting in motion a historic confirmation process for the first Black woman to sit on the highest court in the nation.\n\n\"Today, as we watch freedom and liberty under attack abroad, I'm here to fulfill my responsibilities under the Constitution, to preserve freedom and liberty here in the United States of America,\" Biden said at the White House as he introduced Jackson.\n\n\"For too long, our government, our courts haven't looked like America,\" Biden said. \"I believe it's time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications, and that we inspire all young people to believe that they can one day serve their country at the highest level.\"\n\nSenate Democratic leaders hope to have a vote confirming Jackson to the court by mid-April.\n\nJackson, 51, curr ently sits on DC's federal appellate court and had been considered the front-runner for the vacancy since Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement.\n\n\"I must begin these very brief remarks by thanking God for delivering me to this point in my professional journey. My life has been blessed beyond measure and I do know that one can only come this far by faith,\" Jackson said.\n\n\"Among my many blessings, and indeed the very first, is the fact that I was born in this great country,\" she added. \"The United States of America is the greatest beacon of hope and democracy the world has ever known. I was also blessed from my early days to have had a supportive and loving family. My mother and father, who have been married for 54 years, are at their home in Florida right now and I know that they could not be more proud.\"\n\nThough historic, the choice of Jackson will not change the ideological makeup of the court. The court currently has six conservative justices and three liberal justices -- and the retiring Breyer comes from the liberal camp. The court is already poised to continue its turn toward the right with high-profile cases and rulings expected from the court in the coming months on abortion, gun control and religious liberty issues.\n\nBiden met with Jackson for her Supreme Court interview earlier this month, a senior administration official said, in a meeting that the White House managed to keep secret. Jackson received and accepted Biden's offer in a call Thursday night, a source familiar with the decision told CNN, yet was present for DC Circuit Court hearings Friday morning.\n\nThe White House considered delaying the announcement, given the Russian invasion in Ukraine, but believed it was critical to get the second phase of the confirmation process moving, the official said.\n\nChance to excite Democrats\n\nBiden's pick is a chance for him to fire up a Democratic base that is less excited to vote in this year's midterm elections than it has been over the past several election cycles. The selection gives Biden a chance to deliver on one of his top campaign promises, and he'll hope that the Black voters who were crucial to his election win will see this as a return on their investment.\n\nWhile Jackson was the leading contender, the official said the President gave \"considerable weight\" to other finalists, including Judge J. Michelle Childs and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger.\n\nFor more than a year, the President had familiarized himself with her work, reading many of her opinions and other writings, along with those of other contenders.\n\nBut Biden was also was impressed by her life story, including her rise from federal public defender to federal appellate judge -- and her upbringing as the daughter of two public school teachers and administrators.\n\n\"Her parents grew up with segregation, but never gave up hope that their children would enjoy the true promise of America,\" the President said Friday.\n\nJUST WATCHED Ketanji Brown Jackson has had \"Supreme Court stardust\" on her Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Ketanji Brown Jackson has had \"Supreme Court stardust\" on her 03:45\n\n\"Her opinions are always carefully reasoned, tethered to precedent and demonstrate respect for how the law impacts everyday people,\" Biden said. \"It doesn't mean she puts her thumb on the scale of justice one way or the other. But she understands the broader impacts of her decisions, whether it's cases addressing the rights of workers or government service. She cares about making sure that our democracy works for the American people. She listens. She looks people in the eye -- lawyers, defendants victims and families -- and she strives ensure that everyone understands why she made a decision, what the law is, and what it means to them. She strives to be fair, to get it right, to do justice. That's something all of us should remember. And it's something I've thought about throughout this process.\"\n\nNomination process\n\nEyes will now turn to the Senate, where Biden's Democratic Party holds the thinnest possible majority. The President will hope that Jackson can garner bipartisan support, but Democrats will need all their members in Washington to ensure her confirmation.\n\nUnlike for most major pieces of legislation, Democrats do not need Republican help to confirm a Supreme Court justice and can do it with their 50 votes and Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a deadlock. When Jackson was confirmed to the appellate bench, she had the support of three Republican senators. Harris, whom the White House said played an active role in the selection process, was working the phones Friday morning, calling senators as the news was reported.\n\nSenate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has indicated that he wants to push a nominee through the process quickly, using Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett's Senate proceedings as a model for Jackson's confirmation timeline. And Sen. Dick Durbin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN recently that he expects to have a hearing within a few weeks of the selection.\n\nThe goal of the leadership is to have the nominee confirmed by the April 11 recess.\n\nJackson is expected to have her courtesy meetings with senators next week, according to a person familiar with the plans. It's common for Supreme Court nominees to meet with the leadership on both sides, then members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.\n\nBiden first committed to nominating a Black female US Supreme Court justice when he was running for president in 2020. On a debate stage in South Carolina, Biden argued that his push to make \"sure there's a Black woman on the Supreme Court\" was rooted in an effort to \"get everyone represented.\"\n\nThough there are currently no Black women serving in the United States Senate in a position to vote for the nominee, Black female House members, all Democrats, applauded Biden for \"fulfilling his campaign promise.\"\n\nCongressional Black Caucus chair Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio said the nomination is \"something that I will remember forever.\" Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey said Jackson will \"bring a new, necessary perspective\" to the court and \"will also be an inspiration to Black women and girls everywhere.\" Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida said she \"never dreamed that, in my lifetime, I would see a Black woman nominated\" to the Supreme Court.\n\nPersonal history\n\nJackson was born in the nation's capital but grew up in the Miami area. She was a member of the debate team at Miami Palmetto Senior High School before earning both her undergraduate degree and law degree at Harvard.\n\nShe also previously clerked for Breyer and served as a federal public defender in Washington -- an experience that her backers say is fitting, given Biden's commitment to putting more public defenders on the federal bench. She was also a commissioner on the US Sentencing Commission and served on the federal district court in DC, as an appointee of President Barack Obama, before Biden elevated her to the DC Circuit last year.\n\nJackson thanked Breyer in her speech.\n\n\"Justice Breyer, in particular, not only gave me the greatest job that any young lawyer could ever hope to have, but he also exemplified every day, in every way, that a Supreme Court justice can perform at the highest level of skill and integrity, while also being guided by civility, grace, pragmatism and generosity of spirit,\" Jackson said. \"Justice Breyer, the members of the Senate will decide if I fill your seat, but please know that I could never fill your shoes.\"\n\nAt her 2021 confirmation hearing for the appellate court, she connected her family's professions -- her parents worked in public schools -- to her decision to work as a public defender.\n\n\"I come from a background of public service. My parents were in public service, my brother was a police officer and (was) in the military,\" she said at the time, \"and being in the public defenders' office felt very much like the opportunity to help with my skills and talents.\"\n\nFormer House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, is a relative by marriage and introduced her at the 2013 hearing for her district court nomination.\n\nRyan also congratulated Jackson Friday.\n\n\"Janna and I are incredibly happy for Ketanji and her entire family. Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji's intellect, for her character, and for her integrity, is unequivocal,\" Ryan said\n\nAt the White House Friday, Jackson noted that an uncle was previously given a life sentence on drug charges, an issue of which she hasn't previously spoken about publicly.\n\n\"You may have read that I have one uncle who got caught up in the drug trade and received a life sentence,\" Jackson said. \"That is true, but law enforcement also runs in my family. In addition to my brother, I had two uncles who served decades as police officers, one of whom became the police chief in my hometown of Miami, Florida.\"\n\nIn 2008, when Jackson was in private practice and well before she became a judge, Jackson referred her uncle's file to WilmerHale, a law firm that handles numerous clemency petitions, according to a spokesperson for the firm.\n\nThe firm submitted the petition on Brown's behalf on October 7, 2014, and Obama commuted his sentence on November 22, 2016. According to the firm, Jackson had \"no further involvement in the matter\" after making the referral. Jackson's chambers said she would decline comment on the issue.\n\n\"I am standing here today by the grace of God as testament to the love and support that I've received from my family,\" Jackson added Friday.\n\nRepublicans signal potential opposition\n\nAs a judge in DC -- where some of the most politically charged cases are filed -- Jackson's issued notable rulings touching on Congress' ability to investigate the White House. As a district court judge, she wrote a 2019 opinion siding with House lawmakers who sought the testimony of then-White House Counsel Don McGahn. Last year, she was on the unanimous circuit panel that ordered disclosure of certain Trump White House documents to the House January 6 committee.\n\nAs a judge, some other notable cases she has in her record are a 2018 case brought federal employee unions where she blocked parts of executive orders issued by Trump, and a case where she ruled against Trump policies that expand the categories of non-citizens who could be subject to expedited removal procedures without being able to appear before a judge.\n\nJackson penned more than 500 opinions in the eight years she spent on the district court.\n\nThough Biden has said that he'd pick a nominee with bipartisan appeal who is \"worthy of Justice Breyer's legacy of excellence and decency,\" his decision to name the first Black woman to the court is already facing Republican opposition. Several Senate Republicans have told CNN they disagreed with the President's decision to name a Black woman to the court rather than judging a nominee squarely on their credentials, even though Ronald Reagan and Trump both said they'd name a female justice to the Supreme Court when they were on the campaign trail.\n\nEven before Biden nominated Jackson, GOP senators and Senate candidates were already concluding that she'd be far left, throwing cold water on the names floated as being on Biden's potential short list and calling for a slow confirmation process. Still, Republicans are limited in their ability to block a Supreme Court nominee, and Jackson may win the support of some GOP senators.\n\nSens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine all voted for Jackson last summer when she was confirmed as a circuit court judge on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the second most important court in the country.\n\nCollins touted Jackson's \"impressive academic and legal credentials\" following the announcement. But Graham, who had expressed support for Childs, suggested Jackson does not have his approval, saying in a tweet that the choice of Jackson \"means the radical Left has won President Biden over yet again.\" Graham added that he expects a \"respectful but interesting hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.\"\n\nSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called for a \"rigorous, exhaustive\" review of Jackson in a statement.\n\n\"I also understand Judge Jackson was \"impressive academic and legal credentials the favored choice of far-left dark-money groups that have spent years attacking the legitimacy and structure of the Court itself,\" McConnell said.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional developments, reaction and background information.", "authors": ["Jake Tapper", "Ariane De Vogue", "Jeff Zeleny", "Betsy Klein", "Maegan Vazquez"], "publish_date": "2022/02/25"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/26/politics/shortlist-breyer-replacement-supreme-court/index.html", "title": "Biden said he will put a Black woman on the Supreme Court. Here's ...", "text": "(CNN) In what will be one of the most monumental endeavors of Joe Biden's presidency, the retirement of Stephen Breyer sets the stage for an immensely important decision by the President.\n\nBreyer's seat may be the only one that Biden fills on the Supreme Court , and it may not be one he fills at all -- if Republicans retake the Senate before the President's choice for a replacement is confirmed.\n\nBiden at the White House on Thursday confirmed the nominee will be the first Black woman on the high court.\n\n\"It's long overdue, in my opinion,\" the President said.\n\n\"Our process is going to be rigorous. I will select a nominee worthy of Justice Breyer's legacy of excellence and decency. While I've been studying candidates' backgrounds and writings, I've made no decision except one: the person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity. And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court,\" Biden said.\n\nA short list of potential nominees had been circulating Washington well before Breyer's retirement plans became public, and officials in the White House Counsel's office built files on various candidates in anticipation of a potential vacancy. Biden said he will make his choice by the end of February.\n\nThe White House is stacked with officials deeply familiar with the confirmation process, starting with Biden himself -- who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee -- as well as White House chief of staff Ron Klain, who has experience both at the White House counsel's office and working for the Senate Judiciary Committee.\n\nWith Democrats holding the narrowest of majorities in the upper chamber, Biden will have to choose someone who can safely get 50 votes in the Senate (Vice President Kamala Harris could provide the tie-breaking vote if the Senate is split on the nomination). In addition to the vote count, Biden also has to keep an eye on the calendar. Senate Republicans are likely to retake the chamber in this year's midterms and have already signaled they would block a Biden nominee to the Supreme Court. It typically takes two to three months for a president to see his nominee confirmed by the Senate once he or she is named. The most recent justice, however, was confirmed in just a month and a half, as Senate Republicans rushed to get Justice Amy Coney Barrett approved before the 2020 election.\n\nGiven the disappointments that have been recently dealt to the progressives under the Biden administration -- between the congressional demise of the President's Build Back Better proposal and his failure to find a way forward on voting rights legislation -- Biden's choice for the Supreme Court gives him the opportunity to reinvigorate the democratic base. If his nominee is confirmed, Biden will secure a much-needed victory for his administration.\n\nHere are potential nominees who have been on observers' short list.\n\nDC Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson\n\nKetanji Brown Jackson, nominee to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit, testifies during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing.\n\nBiden has already elevated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson once, appointing her last year to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which is considered the second-most powerful federal court in the country. Previously, the 51-year-old judge served on the federal district court in DC. Because of that appellate appointment, she's already been through a vetting process that included an interview with the President himself. Fittingly, she clerked for Breyer and holds degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law School. She also served as an assistant federal public defender, making her a prime example of the Biden's White House focus on appointing judges with backgrounds that are outside the typical prosecutor and Big Law box.\n\nAs a judge, Jackson has ruled on high profile cases including the Don McGahn congressional subpoena lawsuit (where, as a district court, she ordered the former Trump White House counsel to comply with the House's subpoena). As an appellate judge, she signed on to the recent opinion ordering the disclosure of Trump White House documents being sought by the House January 6 committee. The Supreme Court declined Trump's request that it reverse the decision in an order this month allowing the documents to be released.\n\nCalifornia Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger\n\nIn this Dec. 22, 2014, photo, Leondra Kruger addresses the Commission of Judicial Appointments during her confirmation hearing to the California Supreme Court in San Francisco.\n\nKruger, now 45, was the youngest person to be appointed to the California Supreme Court when then-Gov. Jerry Brown nominated her in 2014.\n\nKruger is intimately familiar with the Supreme Court having worked as a clerk for the late Justice John Paul Stevens and served as acting deputy solicitor general in the Obama administration. While in the Solicitor General's office, she argued 12 cases in front of the Supreme Court representing the government. At the Justice Department, she also earned the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service, the department's highest award for employee performance, in 2013 and 2014.\n\nAt the California Supreme Court, she has authored notable opinions on the 4th Amendment -- holding that law enforcement could not search a woman's purse without a warrant after she declined to provide a driver's license -- and upholding a California law that requires law enforcement to collect DNA samples as well as fingerprints from all persons arrested for or convicted of felony offenses.\n\nThough she is said to be well-liked among the alumni of the Solicitor General's office, she has not yet received the thorough vetting that other potential nominees have gone through.\n\nSouth Carolina US District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs\n\nJudge J. Michelle Childs, who was nominated by President Barack Obama to the U.S. District Court, listens during her nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 16, 2010.\n\nChilds , a judge on South Carolina's federal court, is said to have a major booster in House Majority Whip James Clyburn, a Biden ally who helped deliver South Carolina for the eventual nominee in the 2020 Democratic primary. Just last month, Biden nominated Childs to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and the nomination remains pending.\n\nA graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, Childs does not have the Ivy League pedigree shared by eight of the nine justices. Her cheerleaders have touted her public-school education and other elements of her background as an advantage for Democrats, according to a 2021 New York Times report, and as a way to fight back against claims that the party has become too elitist in its makeup.\n\nIn addition to a decade spent in private practice, the 55-year-old served as a state court trial judge on the South Carolina Circuit, as the deputy director of the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, and as a commissioner on the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission.\n\nOther names that have been floated\n\nSherrilyn Ifill, a civil rights attorney who recently announced plans to step down from her role as President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.\n\nSherrilyn Ifill, of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, speaks with reporters outside the White House on July 8, 2021.\n\nAnita Earls, a 61-year-old North Carolina Supreme Court associate justice whose age would likely hamper serious consideration from Democrats looking to seat a younger nominee on the high court.\n\nAnita Earls, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina\n\nDistrict Judge Wilhelmina \"Mimi\" Wright, a judge on Minnesota's federal district court whose consideration would likely please Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat who sits on the Judiciary Committee.\n\nWilhelmina Wright speaks to the media after her appointment by Gov. Mark Dayton to the Minnesota Supreme Court on August 20, 2012.\n\nCircuit Judge Eunice Lee, a former New York public defender whom Biden nominated to the Second Circuit on the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.\n\nEunice C. Lee testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for judicial nominees on June 9, 2021.\n\nCircuit Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, an alumna of Chicago's public defender's office whose appointment by Biden to the Seventh Circuit was cheered by Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin of Illinois.\n\nCandace Jackson-Akiwumi testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on pending judicial nominations on April 28, 2021.\n\nCircuit Judge Holly A. Thomas was confirmed last week to the Ninth Circuit after facing tough questions during her confirmation hearing from Republicans about her record as a civil rights advocate.\n\nThis undated photo provided by the US Courts for the Ninth Circuit shows Circuit Judge Holly A. Thomas.\n\nfirst Black judge on the federal circuit when the Senate Federal Circuit Court Judge Tiffany P. Cunningham, a former patent attorney in the US Patent and Trademark Office who became thefirst Black judge on the federal circuit when the Senate confirmed her last year.\n\nTiffany P. Cunningham testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Wednesday, May 26, 2021.\n\nArianna J. Freeman, a Philadelphia public defender who was nominated earlier this month to be a circuit judge, and if confirmed, would be the first woman of color and first Black woman to serve on the 3rd Circuit.\n\nArianna J. Freeman, a nominee for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.\n\nMelissa Murray, a New York University law professor who wrote the first casebook covering the field of reproductive rights and justice.\n\nProf. Melissa Murray of the New York University School of Law testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 7, 2018.\n\nNancy G. Abudu, a voting rights expert and the head of strategic litigation for the Southern Poverty Law Center who was nominated earlier this month to be a circuit judge for the 11th Circuit.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional reporting.", "authors": ["Ariane De Vogue", "Tierney Sneed"], "publish_date": "2022/01/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/02/25/biden-supreme-court-nominee-announcement-updates/6924953001/", "title": "Ketanji Brown Jackson officially nominated to Supreme Court: updates", "text": "WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden formally announced U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his choice for a seat on the Supreme Court at the White House on Friday, marking the first time in history a Black woman has been named to the nation's highest court.\n\nThe nomination, Biden's first, set off a frenzy of activity in the Senate, where Democrats have said they hope to use their thin majority to move to a final vote by early April. If confirmed, Jackson would replace Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced he intends to retire in June.\n\nDuring her remarks at the White House, Jackson had special praise for retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, for whom she once clerked.\n\n\"I could never fill your shoes,\" said Jackson as her husband and one of her two daughters looked on.\n\nThe high court:What is the Supreme Court? Everything you need to know about the SCOTUS and its justices\n\nThe process:Supreme Court confirmation: How the process for Ketanji Brown Jackson will unfold in the Senate\n\nShe said Breyer “exemplified every day in every way that a Supreme Court justice can perform at the highest level of skill and integrity, while also being guided by civility, grace, pragmatism, and generosity of spirit.”\n\nJackson, 51, serves on the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. A former Breyer clerk, she was confirmed by the Senate last year for the appeals court.\n\nFirst Black woman:Biden to nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court\n\nPioneers:For Black women judges like Jackson, blazing a trail has meant scrutiny\n\nJackson hopes to inspire just as she was inspired\n\nJudge Jackson said that if confirmed she hopes to inspire future generations.\n\nConcluding her remarks, Jackson said, “I can only hope that my life and career, my love of this country and the Constitution, and my commitment to upholding the rule of law and the sacred principles upon which this great nation was founded, will inspire future generations of Americans.”\n\n- Dylan Wells\n\nJackson references Judge Constance Baker Motley\n\nDuring her remarks Friday, Judge Jackson called attention to the first Black woman ever nominated to a federal court: Judge Constance Baker Motley.\n\nMotley, a civil rights icon, was nominated to the U.S. District court in New York by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966. She was a protégé of Thurgood Marshall before he became the first African American justice on the Supreme Court in 1967.\n\nMore:For Black women judges like Jackson, blazing a trail has meant scrutiny, assumptions\n\nJackson noted that she and Motley shared a birthday.\n\n\"We were born exactly 49 years to the day apart,\" Motley said. \"Today I proudly stand on Judge Motley shoulders, sharing not only her birthday, but also her steadfast and courageous commitment to equal justice under law.\"\n\n-- John Fritze\n\nJackson notes one of her qualifications: being 'a working mom'\n\nFirst Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff watched from seats in the White House’s Cross Hall alongside Jackson’s husband, Dr. Patrick Jackson, a Washington D.C. surgeon, and Leila Jackson, one of their two daughters.\n\nThere were no other guests. Nearly 20 White House staff members looked on from the back of the room and a side staircase as a throng of reporters stood facing Jackson.\n\nJackson’s remarks were delayed by a few seconds after Biden struggled to retrieve a stepstool for her to stand on.\n\n“See, presidents can’t do much,” Biden joked, then turned around and embraced his historic Supreme Court pick.\n\nBiden noted Jackson’s credentials as a “working mom,” and in her remarks Jackson sought to assure her children: “Please know that whatever titles I may hold or whatever job I may have, I will still be your mom. That will never change.”\n\nJackson thanks Biden - and God - for the nomination\n\nIn thanking Biden for the nomination, Jackson consistently referenced her religious faith.\n\n\"I must begin these very brief remarks by thanking God for delivering me to this point in my professional journey,\" Jackson said.\n\n\"My life has been blessed beyond measure,\" she added.\n\n- Joey Garrison and David Jackson\n\nJackson ‘truly humbled’ by nomination\n\nJudge Jackson, speaking for the first time since Biden nominated to her to the Supreme Court, said her life “has been blessed beyond measure.”\n\nJackson told the story of her values have been shaped by her family and she pointed to her faith as allowing her to reach this historic moment.\n\nJackson said she is “truly humbled by the extraordinary honor of this nomination.”\n\n-- John Fritze\n\nAG Garland - a former high court nominee - calls Jackson 'outstanding'\n\nU.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Supreme Court nominee himself, called Biden's choice \"outstanding.\"\n\n“I have known Judge Jackson since she served as a federal public defender. I also had the privilege to serve alongside Judge Jackson during her eight years as a district judge before she joined the D.C. Circuit,” he said. “I have witnessed firsthand her exceptional abilities as both a lawyer and a judge, her commitment to the rule of law and equal justice under law, and her generosity of spirit.\"\n\nGarland knows what it's like to be nominated to the high court, having been tapped in 2016 by President Obama to fill the seat left open by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Garland never got a hearing or a vote in the GOP-controlled Senate, which prevented him from serving on the Supreme Court.\n\n- Kevin Johnson\n\nBiden highlights Jackson’s clerkship for Justice Breyer\n\nJudge Ketanji Brown Jackson clerked for retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, whose seat she will fill if confirmed by the Senate.\n\n“Not only did she learn about being a judge from Justice Breyer himself, she saw the great rigor through which Justice Breyer approached his work,” Biden said.\n\nHe added, “she learned from his willingness to work with colleagues with different viewpoints, critical qualities in my view for any Supreme Court justice.”\n\n- Dylan Wells\n\nBiden consulted VP Harris, lawmakers on choice\n\nBiden said he consulted the advice of both Democratic and Republican members of Congress and thanked Vice President Kamala Harris for her help with the nomination process.\n\n“I've been fortunate to have the advice of Vice President Harris,” Biden said.\n\nBiden praised Harris as an “exceptional lawyer, former Attorney General of California, and a former member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.” The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on Jackson’s nomination before she proceeds to a full Senate vote.\n\nBiden lauded Jackson's credentials and said Jackson has a “pragmatic understanding that the law must work for the American people.”\n\n- David Jackson and Dylan Wells\n\nBiden formally introduces Judge Jackson as SCOTUS nominee\n\nPresident Joe Biden and U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson have entered the Cross Hall of the White House, where the president is formally introducing her as his historic nominee to the Supreme Court.\n\n“Today, as we watch freedom and liberty under attack abroad, I'm here to fulfill my responsibility under the Constitution to preserve freedom and liberty,\" Biden said.\n\nThe announcement comes on the two-year anniversary of Biden’s pledge to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court for the first time in its 233-year history.\n\n-- John Fritze\n\nBiden references Russian invasion of Ukraine\n\nIn introducing the new high nominee, Biden referred to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and drew a contrast to U.S. democracy.\n\n\"Today as we watch freedom and liberty under attack abroad, I'm here to fulfill my responsibilities under the Constitution to preserve freedom and liberty here in the United States of America,\" he said.\n\n- David Jackson\n\nBiden to introduce Jackson as SCOTUS nominee at 2 p.m.\n\nPresident Joe Biden will introduce Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his Supreme Court nominee in remarks at 2 p.m. EST from the White House’s Cross Hall.\n\nJackson, a 51-year-old federal appeals court judge in Washington, D.C. is also expected to speak.\n\nThe announcement comes during a challenging moment for the White House as Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Biden vowed to announce his nominee before the end of February, allowing him to tout Jackson’s credentials during Tuesday’s State of the Union address.\n\nJackson would make history as the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.\n\nThe White House called Jackson “an exceptionally qualified nominee as well as an historic nominee” and urged the Senate to “move forward with a fair and timely hearing and confirmation.”\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nManchin noncommittal about voting to confirm Jackson\n\nSen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., a critical swing vote on many issues in the evenly divided Senate, was noncommittal about voting to confirm Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson.\n\n“Just as I have done with previous Supreme Court nominees, I will evaluate Judge Jackson’s record, legal qualifications and judicial philosophy to serve on the highest court in the land,” Manchin said in a statement. “I look forward to meeting with Judge Jackson before determining whether to provide my consent.”\n\nA moderate Democrat, Manchin has bucked Biden on the president’s domestic spending agenda and passing a filibuster carve-out for voting rights. He has publicly praised another contender who Biden considered for the Supreme Court, federal judge Michelle Childs of South Carolina.\n\nStill, Manchin is widely expected to support Jackson’s confirmation, having voted for Jackson last year when Biden nominated her to the U.S. district court in Washington D.C.\n\nManchin has also expressed support for nominating a Black woman to the bench and has a record of supporting Supreme Court nominees of both parties. An exception was President Trump’s nomination of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, citing the rushed process ahead of the 2020 election.\n\n-- Joey Garrison\n\nBarack Obama: Ketanji Brown Jackson inspires young Black women\n\nFormer President Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, praised Jackson on Friday as a trailblazer who has \"already inspired young Black women like my daughters to set their sights higher.\"\n\n\"Her confirmation will help them believe they can be anything they want to be,\" Obama said.\n\nThe former president nominated two justices to the Supreme Court – both women – Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor in 2009 and Elena Kagan a year later. Sotomayor is the nation's first Latina to sit on the high court.\n\nObama also has a connection to Jackson: He nominated her to U.S. District court in 2009. Jackson was also reportedly on Obama's shortlist for the Supreme Court.\n\n“Like Justice Breyer, Judge Jackson understands that the law isn’t just about abstract theory,” Obama said. “It’s about people’s lives.”\n\n– John Fritze\n\nSen. Susan Collins praises Jackson’s experience, credentials\n\nSen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, praised Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as an “experienced federal judge with impressive academic and legal credentials” in a statement about Biden’s Supreme Court nominee.\n\n“I will conduct a through vetting of Judge Jackson’s nomination,” Collins said.\n\nCollins was one of three Republican senators who voted for Jackson’s confirmation last year as a D.C. federal circuit judge, along with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Graham criticized Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court Friday.\n\nCollins, a moderate Republican who won reelection in 2020, voted for both of President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominees, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nChuck Grassley, top Republican on Senate Judiciary, says 'I look forward' to meeting with Jackson\n\nSen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said “I look forward to meeting with Judge Jackson face to face on Capitol Hill in the coming days, and working with Senator (Dick) Durbin to finalize the committee’s initial questionnaire and records request, as is customary in this process.” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is the chair of the committee.\n\n“As I always have, I’ll make my determination based on the experience, qualifications, temperament and judicial philosophy of the nominee,” Grassley said, promising that Jackson will “receive the most thorough and rigorous vetting.”\n\nSen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, another member of the committee, said “Ultimately I will be looking to see whether Judge Jackson will uphold the rule of law and call balls and strikes, or if she will legislate from the bench in pursuit of a specific agenda.”\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nFormer GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan praises Jackson’s character, integrity\n\nAs Senate Republicans weigh their response to President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court, one influential former GOP leader – Paul Ryan -- is praising Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.\n\nJackson is related by marriage to Ryan, the former House speaker. Jackson's husband is the twin brother of Ryan's brother-in-law. The former Wisconsin lawmaker testified on Jackson's behalf when she was nominated to the federal district court in 2012.\n\n\"Janna and I are incredibly happy for Ketanji and her entire family,\" Ryan tweeted on Friday. \"Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji's intellect, for her character, and for her integrity, is unequivocal.\"\n\n– John Fritze\n\nMitch McConnell: Jackson is 'favored choice of far-left, dark-money groups'\n\nSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said “The Senate must conduct a rigorous, exhaustive review of Judge Jackson’s nomination as befits a lifetime appointment to our highest Court.”\n\nMcConnell noted that he voted against confirming Jackson to her current role when she faced a Senate vote last year. In the statement, McConnell framed Jackson as “the favored choice of far-left dark-money groups that have spent years attacking the legitimacy and structure of the Court itself.”\n\nMcConnell said he looks forward to meeting with Jackson in person, and “studying her record, legal views, and judicial philosophy.”\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nTop Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer: Jackson will get bipartisan support\n\nSenate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., predicted Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, will garner bipartisan support during her upcoming confirmation process in the Senate.\n\n“Jackson has been confirmed by the United States Senate on a bipartisan basis three times and I expect she will again earn bipartisan support in the Senate,” Schumer said.\n\n“As the first Black woman Supreme Court Justice in the Court’s 232-year-history, she will inspire countless future generations of young Americans,” he added.\n\nBefore Jackson faces a full Senate vote, she must first clear the Senate Judiciary Committee. Schumer promised a “prompt hearing,” after which he said he would “ask the Senate to move immediately to confirm her to the Supreme Court.”\n\n“Judge Jackson’s achievements are well known to the Senate Judiciary Committee as we approved her to the D.C. Circuit less than a year ago with bipartisan support,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the chair of the committee.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nLindsey Graham slams Jackson pick after pushing for different nominee\n\nSen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., slammed Biden's nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, saying it \"means the radical left has won President Biden over yet again.\"\n\nIn the past, Graham broke party ranks and voted for Supreme Court nominees of President Barack Obama, including Associate Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. But his reaction suggests he won’t support Jackson’s confirmation as Biden seeks bipartisan support in the Senate.\n\nGraham, who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, had lobbied publicly for U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs for the nomination, a candidate who was also supported by Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. Graham was one of three Republicans who voted for Jackson's confirmation to the D.C. Circuit last year.\n\n\"The attacks by the Left on Judge Childs from South Carolina apparently worked,\" Graham wrote on Twitter.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nPick named on vow's anniversary\n\nThere is a symmetry to the timing of Biden's announcement: Friday marked the two-year anniversary of his pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.\n\nBiden's campaign for the Democratic nomination was struggling in February 2020. Pete Buttigieg had narrowly captured the most delegates from the Iowa caucuses. Biden placed a disappointing fifth in New Hampshire. The future president announced his promise to choose an African American woman for the high court for the first time on the debate stage, four days before the South Carolina primary.\n\n\"Everyone – and no one's better than me and I'm no better than anyone else. The fact is, what we should be doing – we talked about the Supreme Court,\" Biden said in response to a question about the biggest misconception voters had about him. \"I'm looking forward to making sure there's a black woman on the Supreme Court, to make sure we in fact get every representation.\"\n\nThe promise received little attention at the time. But Democrats said it resonated with Black voters there and probably contributed to his win in the state – fueling his path to the nomination and the White House. It also helped secure a critical endorsement of South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in the House.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nAmericans support diversity on court\n\nBiden's announcement marks the first time a Black woman has ever been named to the Supreme Court. If Jackson is confirmed, it will also be the first time two African Americans serve on the high court together. And the first time four women will occupy the nation's highest bench at the same time.\n\nA new USA TODAY/Suffolk poll shows that Americans broadly favor diversity on the court but disagree about how significant a factor it should be for presidents.\n\nA third of Americans say diversity on the high court should be \"an important factor\" for presidents to consider when choosing nominees while another 11% say it should be the main factor, according to the poll of 1,000 likely voters, conducted Feb. 15-20. Twenty-nine percent said diversity should be \"just one of many factors\" considered.\n\nJust more than two in 10 Americans said diversity shouldn't be a factor at all.\n\nPoll:Majority of Americans say diversity should be a factor for Supreme Court\n\n– John Fritze\n\nTricky timing for Biden on SCOTUS\n\nIt was supposed to be a reset for the Biden administration, a historic celebration of the first Black woman ever to be nominated to the Supreme Court.\n\nBut Russian President Vladimir Putin had other plans.\n\nNormally a Supreme Court nominee offers a White House a news cycle of solidly positive news. But the developing situation in Ukraine is likely to distract attention from Biden’s pick, and some had speculated the president might even reschedule it.\n\nBut White House officials stressed for days that the president wasn’t going to move his timeline and he had already set a deadline: The end of February. Biden was interviewing candidates for the post even as the situation in Europe deteriorated.\n\nOne timing advantage Biden still has – and what may have driven the decision not to postpone: The State of the Union address on Tuesday. That high-profile address will give Biden a high-profile opportunity to tout his pick to two audiences: The nation, and the Senate, which now takes up the task of considering her confirmation.\n\n– John Fritze", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/03/21/ketanji-brown-jackson-supreme-court-confirmation-live/7051076001/", "title": "Ketanji Brown Jackson hearing recap: Making history, first Black ...", "text": "This story recounts Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's first day of confirmation hearings. For the most recent updates, click here.\n\nWASHINGTON – Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden's nominee to the Supreme Court, made history Monday as she faced senators on the first day of a marathon process to potentially be confirmed as the nation's first Black woman on the Supreme Court.\n\nAcross more than two centuries of American history, the Supreme Court has had 115 justices. Only five have been women. Just one has been a woman of color. Before Jackson, a Black woman had never been nominated to the high court.\n\nHer nomination is the latest barrier to fall at the highest levels of American government. More than a year ago, then-Sen. Kamala Harris made history as the first woman and first woman of color to be sworn in as vice president.\n\nIn an emotional opening statement, Sen. Cory Booker, the New Jersey Democrat and only Black member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he could barely contain his joy in seeing Jackson in the Capitol for her confirmation.\n\n“This is not a normal day for America,” Booker said, harkening to other historic firsts for the court. “We have never had this moment before.”\n\nSenators from both sides of the aisle celebrated the historic nature of Jackson's nomination on Monday, but they also started to draw their own battle lines before the real fireworks likely begin Tuesday and Wednesday.\n\nJackson will face questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee the rest of this week before members make a report on her confirmation to the full Senate.\n\nDemocrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee emphasized Jackson's role in the greater history of the Supreme Court, which has never had a Black woman as a justice.\n\n\"You, Judge Jackson, can be the first,\" Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said, noting that being first isn't always easy. \"Today is a proud day for America.\"\n\nThe news come to you:Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter here and say informed on everything politics\n\nGallery:Biden nominates U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court\n\nRead her prepared statement\n\n\"Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Grassley, and Distinguished Members of the Judiciary Committee: thank you for convening this hearing and for considering my nomination as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. I am humbled and honored to be here, and I am truly grateful for the generous introductions that my former judicial colleague, Judge Tom Griffith, and my close friend Professor Lisa Fairfax have so graciously provided.\n\nI am also very thankful for the confidence that President Biden has placed in me and for the kindness that he and the First Lady, and the Vice President and Second Gentleman, have extended to me and my family.\n\nIn her own words:Ketanji Brown Jackson's opening statement:\n\nDurbin dismisses idea that Jackson is soft on crime\n\nDemocratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dismissed GOP accusations that Judge Jackson is soft on crime.\n\n“Those of us who are on the committee can tell you that every nominee from the Biden administration faces the same charge, regardless of their background, regardless of their record,” Durbin told reporters after the first day of the hearing.\n\n“It is a campaign theme for 2022. It's played out every time the Judiciary Committee considers” a nomination, Jones said. “I don't think there's any credibility to it.”\n\n-- Dylan Wells\n\nSupreme Court Sherpa Doug Jones reflects on first day\n\n“We're very hopeful that this hearing is going to go as well as it did today,” former Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., told reporters after the first day of the confirmation hearing. Jones serves as Supreme Court Sherpa, helping Judge Jackson navigate the Hill.\n\n“No one is perfect. Everybody's gonna find something that they are not happy about,” said Jones of GOP criticism of Jackson. “Nothing that we've heard today was something that we haven't heard before.”\n\n“I think there's gonna be some very pointed questions about her record, and that's what the senators are there for. I think she will be prepared,” Jones said. Jackson delivered an opening statement today, but won’t be questioned until tomorrow.\n\nJones said it will be “very simple” for Jackson to argue that she’s not soft on crime due to her record, an attack leveled by some Republicans. As for Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley listing a number of child pornography cases today that he hopes to question Jackson about, Jones said “given his tweets and statements, it was not surprising. We expected those and she will be able to talk about each one of those cases.\"\n\nAsked if Jackson will share her thoughts on if the court should be expanded, another criticism from Republicans, Jones said, “I don’t think any judicial nominee should be talking about legislative policy. Everybody understands that the size of the Supreme Court is an issue for this body, for the Congress – it is not for the court.”\n\n“I think what you saw today was a concerted effort on everyone’s part to make sure that this nominee gets her hearing in a very respectful way,” Jones said.\n\n-- Dylan Wells\n\nIn case you missed it:Biden formally introduces 'truly humbled' Ketanji Brown Jackson as Supreme Court pick\n\nJackson: Lengthy legal opinions show value of transparency\n\nJudge Ketanji Brown Jackson said she has developed a reputation for writing long.\n\nAbout her nearly 600 opinions the Senate Judiciary Committee has collected as part of her confirmation process for the Supreme Court, Jackson joked about the length of the reading material, saying she strives to be explicit in her writings.\n\n“I believe in transparency, that people should know precisely what I think and basis for my decision,” she said.\n\nHer time as a public defender have made her sensitive to litigants’ need to understand that they have been heard by their judge, even if they don’t prevail.\n\nShe said she has dedicated her career to ensuring the words “equal justice under law” engraved on the front of the Supreme Court building “are a reality and not just an idea.”\n\n-- Rick Rouan\n\nMore:We binge-watched 14 hours of Ketanji Brown Jackson's speeches. Here’s what we learned.\n\nJackson pledges to be an 'independent' and 'neutral' judge\n\nPerhaps anticipating Republican criticism, Jackson pledged to be a Supreme Court justice who will adhere to the Constitution and not to her personal views.\n\n\"I have been a judge for nearly a decade now, and I take that responsibility and my duty to be independent very seriously,\" Jackson said. \"I decide cases from a neutral posture.\"\n\nWhile critics have accused her of being a liberal ideologue, Jackson said that \"I evaluate the facts, and I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me, without fear or favor, consistent with my judicial oath.\"\n\n-- David Jackson\n\nJackson: Name honors African heritage\n\nThe first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court said she got her name from her parents' pride in their African heritage.\n\nKetanji Brown Jackson said her parents were told that her given name, Ketanji Onyika, meant “lovely one.”\n\n“My parents taught me that, unlike the many barriers that they had had to face growing up, my path was clearer, such that if I worked hard and believed in myself, in America I could do anything or be anything I wanted to be,” she said. “Like so many families in this country, they worked long hours and sacrificed to provide their children every opportunity to reach their God-given potential.”\n\n-- Rick Rouan\n\nJackson thanks her husband and daughters\n\nLike most nominees, Jackson isn't talking about issues and is instead stressing personal qualities - particularly family.\n\nPraising her husband, Dr. Patrick Jackson, the Supreme Court nominee said: \"I have no doubt that, without him by my side from the very beginning of this incredible professional journey, none of this would have been possible.\"\n\nJackson also praised daughters Talia and Leila: \"Girls, I know it has not been easy as I have tried to navigate the challenges of juggling my career and motherhood. And I fully admit that I did not always get the balance right.\"\n\n\"But,\" she added, \"I hope that you have seen that with hard work, determination, and love, it can be done.\"\n\n-- David Jackson\n\nJackson: My faith sustains me\n\nAfter thanking President Biden and other officials for her nomination, Jackson also spoke about her religious roots.\n\n\"While I am on the subject of gratitude, I must also pause to reaffirm my thanks to God, for it is faith that sustains me at this moment,\" Jackson said. :Even prior to today, I can honestly say that my life had been blessed beyond measure.\"\n\n-- David Jackson\n\nJackson stresses her history of being confirmed\n\nThe Supreme Court nominee opened with a subtle reminder to the assembled senators: You have confirmed me for three previous jobs.\n\n\"Today will be the fourth time that I have had the honor of appearing before this Committee to be considered for confirmation,\" Jackson said in her opening statement.\n\nThat includes the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., Jackson's current position.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nHearing preview:What to watch for in Ketanji Brown Jackson's hearing\n\nLisa Fairfax introduces Jackson as a role model who ‘defines friendship.’\n\nLisa Fairfax, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, introduced her friend Jackson before she spoke at the Senate judiciary confirmation hearing.\n\n“She's the friend that made sure we all (belonged.) A woman of deep faith in God and unyielding love for family,” said Fairfax, who first met Jackson in college.\n\nThe two have remained friends for 35 years, she said. The Supreme Court nominee appeared to wipe a tear as Fairfax spoke of how Jackson showed their friend group the power of hard work in transforming “the seemingly impossible into the achievable.”\n\n-- Chelsey Cox\n\nBiden wishes Jackson good luck\n\nPresident Joe Biden called Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on Sunday night to wish her good luck with her confirmation hearing this week, the White House said.\n\nBiden has been receiving regular updates on the hearing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.\n\n-- Michael Collins\n\nBlackburn promises \"tough questions\" for Jackson\n\nSen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., one of the most outspoken Republican critics of Jackson's nomination, promised \"tough questions\" for the nominee at the hearings, but said they would be asked respectfully.\n\nBlackburn's complaints about Jackson included issues of parental rights, trans athletes, education policy, mask mandates, criminal justice, court packing and the length of prison sentences for child pornographers.\n\n“I can only wonder, what’s your hidden agenda?\" Blackburn asked Jackson at one point.\n\nBlackburn's criticism echoed those of other Republicans, though there is no indication they have the votes to derail her nomination.\n\nHer statement also concluded the opening statements by senators.\n\n-– David Jackson\n\nMore:What's next for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson? A high-profile confirmation process\n\nTillis: Judges should call ‘balls and strikes,’ not be activists\n\nSen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he would retain an “open mind” as he considered whether Ketanji Brown Jackson’s judicial philosophy fits with how he would prefer a Supreme Court justice to weigh cases.\n\n“I don’t want an activist at either end of the spectrum,” Tillis said during opening remarks on Monday, saying he told all three of former President Donald Trump’s nominees that he expected they would deliver opinions he disagreed with.\n\n“If we are talking about preserving the integrity of the Supreme Court, there’s no place on the court for judicial activism,” he said.\n\nTillis said justices should call “balls and strikes” based on the law.\n\nCalling the first nomination of a Black woman to the court “quite extraordinary,” Tillis said Jackson was showing “young boys and girls” that sitting on the high court was within reach.\n\n-- Rick Rouan\n\nIn her own words:We binge-watched 14 hours of Ketanji Brown Jackson's speeches. Here’s what we learned.\n\nSen. Alex Padilla: \"You are ready to blaze this trail\"\n\nSen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., stressing his own Latino roots, said Jackson's nomination to be the first Black woman on the Supreme Court proves the need for '\"more voices\" and \"more perspectives\" in government.\n\n\"You are ready to blaze this trial,\" said Padilla, who also echoed other Democrats in stressing Jackson's years of judicial and legal experience.\n\n\"You are clearly more than qualified,\" Padilla said.\n\nPadilla closed his opening statement by speaking in Spanish in praise of the nominee - perhaps a first for a Supreme Court nomination hearing.\n\n-– David Jackson\n\nReview:Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's opinions shows outcomes cut both ways\n\nRep. Jackson Lee dismisses Hawley’s child pornography remarks\n\nDuring the hearing lunch break, Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas told reporters that she expects that the child pornography questions raised by GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri “will be meritless.”\n\n“We will see how they are poised in the hearing. I don’t even call them charges, they are points that he wanted to make. But we’ll see how they poison hearings in terms of the questions to her,” Jackson Lee said.\n\nJackson Lee, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said of Judge Jackson, “I’m here to celebrate, but also going to be here to support her.”\n\nAs Jackson returned to the hearing room after the break, Jackson Lee approached the judge and grabbed her hands, before introducing herself to Jackson’s husband.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nBooker: ‘This is not a normal day for America’\n\nIn an emotional opening statement, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., celebrated the historic nomination of a Black woman to the Supreme Court.\n\n“This is not a normal day for America,” Booker said, harkening to other historic firsts for the court. “We have never had this moment before.”\n\nIn its history, the court has had 115 justices, but only five have been women and only one has been a woman of color.\n\n“We are showing that we indeed will go deep into the waters of our nation and pull forth the best talent,” Booker said. Qualified candidates from underrepresented groups have had an “artificial barrier” that have kept them from sitting on the federal bench, he said.\n\nCiting his upbringing in a small Black church, Booker said he was struggling to contain the joy he felt over Jackson’s nomination.\n\n“The senate is poised right now to break another barrier. We are on the precipice of shattering another ceiling,” he said. “I just feel this sense of overwhelming joy as I see you sitting there.”\n\n-- Rick Rouan\n\nMore:Jackson says she's 'humbled' by historic nomination to Supreme Court as focus shifts to Senate\n\nTom Cotton: Biden administration is 'waging war on the rule of law'\n\nSen Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a Republican who is thinking of running for president, said little about Jackson's record, but instead focused on attacking the Biden administration in general.\n\nThe administration is \"waging war on the rule of law\" on issues like gun rights, border security, and executive power, Cotton said in his opening statement. He also hit the administration over rising crime rates, and claimed we are witnessing \"a breakdown\" of society.\n\nOfficials also want to \"pack the Supreme Court,\" Cotton said, and the panel should remain at \"nine justices and no more.\"\n\nAs for Jackson, Cotton – who voted against her for a lower court slot – said he enjoyed meeting the nominee and will have \"more questions\" for her in the days ahead.\n\n-– David Jackson\n\nHow does someone become a Supreme Court Justice?\n\nJackson must be approved by the Senate, a power given to the chamber in the Constitution.\n\nEvery aspect of Jackson's personal and professional life has been and will be scrutinized by both the Senate and general public. Senate staffers will read through all of her judicial decisions, speeches, interviews and any other information they can find to prepare lines of questioning for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.\n\nThough the Biden administration vetted Jackson before nominating her, new information could emerge during the confirmation process.\n\nRead the whole story here:What's next for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson? A high-profile confirmation process\n\n-- Dylan Wells\n\nHirono condemns use of term 'affirmative action' to describe Jackson nomination\n\nSen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, condemned those who oppose the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court by invoking the phrase “affirmative action.”\n\n“They have implied you were solely nominated due to your race,” she said, calling a conservative media personality’s demand for the judge to release her LSAT scores “incredibly offensive and condescending.”\n\nAs the first Black woman to be nominated to the court, Jackson would break new ground for a court long dominated by white men who make decisions for a diverse country, she said.\n\n“Your nomination is not about filling a quota. It’s about time,” she said. “It’s about time we have a highly qualified, highly accomplished Black woman on the Supreme Court. It’s about time the highest court reflects the country it serves. It’s about time Black women and girls can find someone who looks like them sitting on the court.”\n\n-- Rick Rouan\n\nWho were the women who preceded Jackson?:For Black women judges like Jackson, blazing a trail has meant opportunity, scrutiny\n\nHawley leans on pornography sentencing\n\nSen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., didn’t waste time going after Jackson directly on a line of attack he’s raised in recent days: That as a federal trial court judge, she handed down sentences for defendants of child pornography charges below sentencing guidelines.\n\nHawley's criticism was notable, in part, because it represented a departure from many other Republicans on the committee who have directed their ire at Democrats or the Supreme Court itself.\n\nHawley, a former attorney general from Missouri, went through several of the cases he has focused on.\n\nU.S. Sentencing Commission guidelines are not mandatory and the independent agency’s own research has demonstrated that the majority of federal possession charges are sentenced under the guidelines regardless of the judge involved in the case.\n\n\"She hasn’t had the chance yet to respond to this,\" Hawley noted. “I think it’s important that we hear from Judge Jackson in coming days.\"\n\nHawley, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, was closely watched heading into the hearing because he was the one who first raised the allegations in the first place. Several independent fact check organizations have found that the claims are missing important context, including a years-old debate about whether the guidelines are too harsh.\n\nHawley said he believes they are not.\n\n\"This committee has heard testimony from prosecutors and others who are grappling with the problem of how to get at this porn and those who distribute it,\" Hawley said. \"I think it's difficult, against this backdrop, to argue that the sentencing guidelines are too harsh or outmoded.\"\n\n– John Fritze\n\nWho would Jackson be replacing?:Pragmatist. Institutionalist. Optimist. How Justice Stephen Breyer changed the Supreme Court\n\nBlumenthal: A Black woman should’ve been appointed 'years ago'\n\nSen. Richard Blumenthal gave the most robust defense of any Democratic senator on the committee thus far on President Joe Biden’s choice to nominate a Black woman to the high court.\n\n“The appointment of a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court – let’s be very blunt –should have happened years ago. This day is a giant leap into the present for our country and for the court,” he said.\n\nA poll released Monday by Monmouth University found 53% of Americans approve of the president’s pledge as a candidate.\n\nJackson will bring a different perspective to the court, Blumenthal, D-Conn., said, adding how representation is important to the judicial branch’s legitimacy and credibility.\n\n“Your service will make the court look more like America, hopefully too it will make the court think more like America,” he said.\n\n– Phillip M. Bailey\n\nSasse pushes back against 'broken' confirmation process\n\nSen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said the Senate Judiciary Committee can break a cycle of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justices that have become increasingly characterized by personal attacks as it considers the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson.\n\nFollowing his Republican colleagues' invocation of conservative nominees he said faced unfair criticism, Sasse called the process “broken,” and a symptom of a “broader brokenness and the erosion of our constitutional structure.”\n\nSasse said “screamed threats” in 2018 from Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, now the Senate majority leader, against justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh were an example of the “bullying” justices have faced. Schumer later apologized for comments made as the court heard a case about a Louisiana abortion law.\n\n“That’s weird. We should all be able to pause and say that’s weird. That kind of behavior shouldn’t happen,” Sasse said.\n\n– Rick Rouan\n\nJackson compared to Ruby Bridges\n\nSen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, compared Jackson's expected walk through the door of becoming the first Black woman on the Supreme Court to the walk 6-year-old Ruby Bridges made in November 1960, when she became the first African American student to integrate a public school in the South.\n\n– Kevin McCoy\n\nWho is Ruby Bridges? 60 years ago, Ruby Bridges integrated a New Orleans school. Here's what she tells kids today\n\nCruz: 'This is not about race'\n\nSen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, focused his opening statement on what has become a common theme of the hearing so far: Complaints about how Democrats handled past Supreme Court nominees from Republican presidents.\n\nAlmost as interesting is what Cruz didn't discuss: Much of anything about Jackson's record.\n\n\"This will not be a political circus,\" said Cruz, a potential 2024 presidential candidate. \"This will not be the kind of character smear that sadly our Democratic colleagues have gotten very good at.\"\n\n\"This is not about race,\" Cruz said. \"It is, however, about issues and substance.\"\n\nCruz also spent considerable time discussing the Supreme Court itself, arguing that it had become a quasi legislative body for progressive causes.\n\n\"It's much simpler to convince five lawyers in black robes than to try to convince 330 million Americans,\" Cruz said.\n\nIt is conservatives who have a 6-3 advantage on the current court.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nSupreme Court 101:What is the Supreme Court? Everything you need to know about the SCOTUS and its justices\n\nKlobuchar: Jackson would bring ‘real-world perspective’ to Supreme Court\n\nSen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., pushed back against Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee advocating for a strict reading of the Constitution.\n\nDuring her opening remarks in the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, Klobuchar said the court should consider the people at the other end of its decisions.\n\nJackson, she said, would bring a “real world perspective” the court needs.\n\nCiting Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, whom Jackson would replace upon his pending retirement, Klobuchar said the court had to ensure the Constitution remains “workable” for the time.\n\n“Those words, his words, are highly relevant to the court,” she said.\n\n– Rick Rouan\n\nLee: Court packing delegitimizes the Supreme Court\n\nOne issue Republicans will bring up often over the next four days will be a call by progressive activists to add justices to the bench as a way to combat the current 6-3 conservative-leaning majority.\n\nSen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, indicated how he will grill Jackson about whether she agrees if more justices should be added to the bench. He noted former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt attempted to do such in the late 1930s, and how it stained the court’s reputation.\n\n“There is nothing in the Constitution that requires us to have nine and only nine justices,” Lee said. “But nine is the number that works, and it’s worked now for 152 years. It’s not one we ought to revisit.”\n\nLee said previous justices of different ideological leanings have opposed the idea.\n\nJackson, he said, has served at all three levels of the judiciary and he acknowledged how given the 50-50 makeup of the Senate – with Democrats hold the tie-break vote with the vice president – she will likely be confirmed.\n\n– Phillip M. Bailey\n\nSentencing:Supreme Court pick Jackson could have 'profound' impact on sentencing\n\nCornyn questions whether Jackson 'advocacy' guides decisions\n\nSen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he was “disappointed” that Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson hasn’t revealed more about her “judicial philosophy.”\n\nPointing to Jackson’s lengthy resume, Cornyn said the federal judge had plenty of time to form that philosophy and questioned whether her “advocacy has bled over into (her) decision-making process as a judge.”\n\n“This is not your first rodeo,” Cornyn said.\n\nCornyn picked up where other Republicans had left off, railing against judicial activism and in favor of a court that constitutional framers, he said, believed would play a “modest but important” role in the government.\n\n– Rick Rouan\n\nWhitehouse: Jackson not from 'partisan petri dishes'\n\nSen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., has drawn significant attention to the issue of “dark money” influencing Supreme Court nominees in the past. He used most of him time during Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s hearing in 2020, for instance, to focus on that issue.\n\nBut while Republicans on the committee are hoping to raise that issue with Jackson, Whitehouse argued it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison.\n\n“She wasn’t groomed in partisan petri dishes,” Whitehouse said of Jackson, who he said “came to us not through a dark-money funded turnstile, but through a fair and honest selection process.”\n\n– John Fritze\n\nFeinstein: As a woman, I am proud\n\nSen. Diane Feinstein, D-California, who has participated in nine previous Supreme Court confirmation hearings, said Jackson’s resume is one of the most impressive she’s seen.\n\n“Looking at your record, it’s clear you have the qualifications, and the experience and the knowledge needed to serve on the Supreme Court,” she said. “And as a woman, it makes me very proud of that.”\n\nFeinstein mentioned how the high court is facing “foundational” cases, including abortion rights, gun regulations and environmental concerns such as climate change. She said as the former mayor of San Francisco she knows how those issues will impact real people across the country.\n\nJackson, the longtime California lawmaker said, has exemplified an even-handed approach to the law that will stand above politics, and independent of the other branches of government.\n\n– Phillip M. Bailey\n\nGraham tears into Dems for past hearings\n\nSen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., used his opening statement to complain bitterly that, in his view, Democrats have not treated previous nominees from Republican presidents fairly.\n\nGraham, who voted for Jackson for the D.C. Circuit last year, complained that diverse candidates nominated by Republican presidents haven't received the same treatment as Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court.\n\n\"If you're a Hispanic or African American conservative it's about your philosophy,\" Graham said of past Democratic criticism. \"Now, it's going to be about the historic nature\" of the nomination.\n\nGraham said Republicans would be labeled \"racist if we ask hard questions\" but said that's \"not gonna fly with us.\"\n\nGraham, who has voted for Democratic nominees for the Supreme Court before, also criticized what he described as a \"takedown\" on the left of another Supreme Court candidate Biden had considered, U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs, who is from Graham's home state.\n\nSome labor groups had questioned Childs' previous work on behalf of employers against unions.\n\n\"It's gonna be a couple interesting days,\" Graham said.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nLeahy: Jackson ‘fair and impartial’ jurist\n\nSen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court could help restore American confidence in a judicial system he described as part of the increasingly partisan “judicial wars.”\n\n“She’s a fair and impartial jurist with a fidelity to the law above all else,” Leahy said. “That’s what Americans want to see in a Supreme Court justice.”\n\nJackson, he said, could help unite the Senate behind a nominee who already has won bipartisan support as a nominee for the District Court of Washington, D.C.\n\n“In this moment we have before us a unique opportunity to change that narrative. I’m under no allusion that we can mend this process overnight,” he said. “We have before us a nominee who has brought us together across party lines before and one I hope can bring us back together again.”\n\n– Rick Rouan\n\nGrassley notes delay in records requests\n\nSen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the Judiciary Committee's ranking GOP member, said the U.S. Sentencing Commission has not yet given Republican members of the panel many records from Jackson's tenure at the independent advisory organization for the judicial branch.\n\nHe sarcastically predicted those records might surface \"about 20 years from now,\" long after the hearings conclude.\n\n– Kevin McCoy\n\nGrassley: Jackson hearing will be more respectful than Kavanaugh\n\nSen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, used his opening statement to set the GOP tone for how they plan to interrogate Jackson’s legal thinking and decision making.\n\nThe ranking Republican noted how this week’s hearings will be an “exhaustive examination” Jackson’s record and views, but will be much different than the raucous tone of the hearings that confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.\n\n“We won’t try to turn this into a spectacle based on alleged process fouls,” Grassley said. “On that front, we’re off to a good start. Unlike the start to the Kavanaugh hearings, we didn’t have repeated, choreographed interruptions of Chairman Durbin during his opening statement like Democrats interrupted me for more than an hour during my opening statement at the Kavanaugh hearing.”\n\nGrassley said since Biden announced her as his nominee for the Supreme Court, he encouraged his GOP colleagues to schedule meetings with her. He said Republicans will be asking tough questions about Jackson’s judicial philosophy, and the role judges should play in U.S. society, as Republicans are expected to discuss rising violent crime and adding justices to the high court.\n\n“I’ve continually emphasized the need for a thorough, respectful process,” Grassley said.\n\n– Phillip M. Bailey\n\nDurbin defends Jackson on crime\n\nDurbin defended Jackson against charges that have emerged from Republicans in recent days that she has handed down sentences in child pornography possession cases below U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.\n\n\"These baseless charges are unfair,\" Durbin said. \"They fly in the face of pledges my colleagues made that they would approach your nomination with civility and respect.\"\n\nSome Republican senators have noted that Jackson has sentenced defendants on the charges below the guidelines. But others – including some conservatives – have noted that many judges regularly sentence below the guidelines. Several independent fact check organizations have found that the claims are missing important context.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nWho is Jackson?: Supreme Court pick Ketanji Brown Jackson in her own words\n\nDurbin: Jackson not a ‘rubber stamp’ for president\n\nSen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had a message for the critics of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson: check the record.\n\nDurbin said during opening remarks that Jackson would not be a “rubber stamp” for the president who is nominating her to the high court, pointing to thousands of pages of transcripts and hundreds of opinions the committee has reviewed during her previous confirmations to other posts.\n\n“You’ve been faithful to the law not to any person,” he said.\n\n– Rick Rouan\n\nSenators settle in for hearing\n\nThe other 21 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are listening as Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois makes his opening remarks.\n\nDemocratic Sen. Jon Ossoff glanced over the press and turned to look at Judge Jackson as Durbin spoke, while Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas bent over a piece of paper, taking notes.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nFirst GOP criticism from Blackburn\n\nSen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., offered a preview of the kind of criticism Republicans are likely to deliver.\n\n“While I’m concerned that you don’t take seriously the rights of parents to choose what’s best for their children, you’ve consistently called for greater freedoms for hardened criminals,” Blackburn will say, according to excerpts of her opening statements.\n\nBlackburn will also raise the issue of child pornography sentencing, which has emerged as a GOP taking point in recent days. Some Republican senators have said that Jackson has sentenced defendants with child pornography possession charges below the guidelines set out by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. But others – including some conservatives – have noted that many judges regularly sentence below the guidelines.\n\n– John Fritze\n\n'Sherpa' Doug Jones, guests file into hearing room\n\nAhead of the start of the first Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, guests are beginning to file into the room.\n\nFormer Democratic Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama, the Supreme Court sherpa guiding Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson around the Hill, has arrived ahead of the hearing.\n\nJones could be seen speaking to Democratic Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, a guest of Senate Judiciary Chair Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nA guide on Capitol Hil:Former Alabama Senator Doug Jones tapped as 'sherpa' for Biden's Supreme Court nominee\n\n'KBJ, every day'\n\nSupporters and opponents of Jackson's confirmation have gathered outside the Supreme Court, according to several media accounts.\n\nChants of \"Every day, KBJ\" could be heard outside the court, Max Cohen of Punchbowl News tweeted.\n\nKimberly Robinson, a Supreme Court reporter with Bloomberg Law, tweeted a photograph that showed several dozen \"protestors or and against Judge Jackson\" outside the court.\n\nThe justices are hearing arguments in two cases Monday.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nJackson’s intro a signal to GOP\n\nIn the carefully choreographed presentation of Jackson to the Senate Judiciary Committee, even introductions matter.\n\nAnd in this case, at least one of the people introducing the judge is intended to send a signal to the GOP.\n\nJackson will be introduced by two people: Lisa Fairfax, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and former U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Griffith. Fairfax is longtime friend and Harvard classmate of Jackson’s who will speak to her character.\n\nGriffith is perhaps a less expected choice. A former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Griffith was nominated by President George W. Bush, a Republican. And so the message Jackson’s supporters hope to send is clear: She may be President Joe Biden’s nominee, but she has support from across the spectrum of judicial ideologies.\n\nGriffith was also involved in one of the cases Republicans most often cite to criticize Jackson: A decision in which she ruled that President Donald Trump’s White House counsel, Don McGahn, was required to testify before a congressional committee that was at the time exploring impeachment. Griffith was one of two judges on a three-judge panel that overturned Jackson’s ruling in that case.\n\nGriffith noted the disagreement in a letter supporting Jackson last month.\n\n“However, I have always respected her careful approach, extraordinary judicial understanding, and collegial manner, three indispensable traits for success as a Justice on the Supreme Court,” Griffith wrote.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nSupreme Court nomination highlights lack of Black women in Senate\n\nWhen Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson begins her confirmation as the first Black woman nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court, she won’t face questions from anyone who looks like her.\n\nThere are no Black women in the U.S. Senate. Kamala Harris, who would vote on Jackson’s confirmation only if the Senate vote ties, was the only Black woman in the chamber before she was sworn in as vice president.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nWho sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee?\n\nThe Senate Judiciary Committee that presides over Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings for the U.S. Supreme Court is split evenly with 11 Democrats and 11 Republicans.\n\nMembers include a handful of former presidential candidates and firebrands from both sides of the aisle who this week will question Jackson, the first Black woman nominated for the court.\n\nThe members of the committee are:\n\nSen. Dick Durbin, D-Il., chair\n\nSen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member\n\nSen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.\n\nSen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.\n\nSen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.\n\nSen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.\n\nSen. Chris Coons, D-Del.\n\nSen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.\n\nSen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii\n\nSen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.\n\nSen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.\n\nSen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.\n\nSen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.\n\nSen. John Cornyn, R-Texas\n\nSen. Mike Lee, R-Utah\n\nSen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas\n\nSen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb.\n\nSen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.\n\nSen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.\n\nSen. John Kennedy, R-La.\n\nSen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.\n\nSen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.\n\n– Rick Rouan\n\nPoll: Majority of Americans support Jackson\n\nA majority of Americans believe Jackson should be confirmed to the Supreme Court, but nearly half don't know enough about her to assess her qualifications, according to a Monmouth University Poll released on Monday.\n\nMore than two-thirds of Americans feel it is important for the high court to reflect the nation's diversity, the Monmouth poll found. About 2 in 10 believe that having a Black woman on the court will have a real impact on how cases are decided.\n\nThe results are consistent with other polling since President Joe Biden announced Jackson as his nominee about a month ago. Just more than half of voters in a Wall Street Journal poll earlier this month said the Senate should confirm Jackson to the court. About a third said they are opposed. Just under 20% said they had no opinion or didn’t know.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nProfile:Who is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson? For starters, she clerked for Breyer\n\nGallery:Associate Justice Stephen Breyer's Supreme Court career in photos\n\nWhat does bipartisanship look like?\n\nWhen the Senate confirmed Associate Justice Stephen Breyer in 1994, the vote was 87 to 9, with more than two dozen Republicans backing President Bill Clinton's nominee.\n\nHow times – and politics – have changed.\n\nBreyer, who is retiring this year, was the last Supreme Court nominee from a president of either party to win substantial bipartisan support. These days, a bipartisan confirmation means a nominee is lucky to pick up three or four senators from the other party.\n\nWhen Associate Justice Samuel Alito came along a dozen years later, the vote was far more narrow, 58-42, with only four Democrats breaking ranks. He was nominated by President George W. Bush. Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor did slightly better in 2009, picking up nine Republicans. Associate Justice Elena Kagan, arguably one of the least controversial nominees in modern times, pulled in five GOP votes. Sotomayor and Kagan were both Obama appointees.\n\nAnd then came President Donald Trump, whose three nominees were cleared on very thin margins. Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch got three Democrats; Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh received one Democratic vote – West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin – and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett became the first justice since the 19th Century to win confirmation without a single vote from the party opposing the president.\n\nWhat does this mean for Jackson? There's little reason to think the trend will change: In the current political landscape, Biden will be able to claim victory – and the mantle of bipartisanship – if only two or three Republicans wind up supporting her. If recent history is any guide, that's about the best she can hope for.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nWho is Ketanji Brown Jackson?\n\nBiden's decision to nominate Jackson for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court wasn't much of a surprise. In many ways, she was the safest bet.\n\nThat's because Jackson, who Biden nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last year, has already been confirmed three times before. The Miami native and Harvard-educated lawyer had formerly served as a U.S. District Court judge and on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Both of those jobs required Senate approval.\n\nJackson, 51, clerked for the man she would replace, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. And President Barack Obama not only nominated her to the federal bench in 2012 but he considered nominating her to the Supreme Court back in 2016.\n\nBio:What to know about Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Biden's Supreme Court pick\n\nReligion:Jackson would add another Protestant voice to Supreme Court\n\nJackson has served on the D.C. Circuit since June and so has written only three opinions there. Of her two majority opinions, one dealt with whether a defense contractor could sue Iraq. In the other, Jackson wrote for a unanimous court that sided with federal unions in a dispute over labor negotiations.\n\nBut she has a deep record from the federal trial court, writing hundreds of opinions. In her most often-cited decision, Jackson ruled in 2019 that President Donald Trump's former White House counsel, Don McGahn, had to testify as part of a congressional impeachment inquiry. But she's also crafted opinions that sided with the Trump administration, including on immigration and his border wall.\n\n– John Fritze, Kevin McCoy, Nick Penzenstadler\n\nA look at Ketanji Brown Jackson's family\n\nGrowing up in a largely Jewish community in South Miami, Florida, Jackson, who is Protestant, was a nationally ranked orator on her high school speech and debate team. At Harvard, actor Matt Damon was one of her scene partners in a drama course. But it was another relationship she developed at Harvard that would shape her life.\n\nShe and her husband, Dr. Patrick Jackson, met as Harvard undergraduates. They married later, as she went to Harvard Law School and he went to Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. Patrick Jackson is now a surgeon on staff at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.\n\nJackson and her husband have two daughters, Talia, a college student, and Leila, a high schooler. After Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016, Leila Jackson, then in middle school, wrote a letter asking Obama to consider her mother as Scalia's successor.\n\n\"She's determined, honest and never breaks a promise,\" Leila wrote, \"even if there were other things she'd rather do.\"\n\n– John Fritze, Kevin McCoy, Nick Penzenstadler\n\nAgenda for Jackson's hearing\n\nThe Senate Judiciary Committee, evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, will hold four days of hearings to consider Jackson for the Supreme Court, which is consistent with past nominees in modern times.\n\nStarting at 11 a.m. ET Monday, the first day's hearing will be like an appetizer, with committee members delivering 10-minute opening statements. Jackson will also get 10 minutes to give an opening pitch to the senators. The statements will likely offer some clues about the lines of questioning Democrats and Republicans will pursue.\n\nThe main event begins on Tuesday, when members of the committee will each get 30 minutes, in order of seniority, to question Jackson. The questioning will continue Wednesday with another round, with each senator receiving 20 minutes.\n\nThe final day of hearings, Thursday, will be an opportunity for outside groups and experts, such as the American Bar Association, to offer their thoughts on Jackson.\n\n– John Fritze", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/03/22/supreme-court-ketanji-brown-jackson-hearings/7051196001/", "title": "Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court hearing: Live stream, updates", "text": "This story covers Tuesday's Supreme Court hearing. For the latest live updates from Wednesday, see here.\n\nWASHINGTON – Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson faced senators' questions on impartiality, her sentencing patterns, her defense of Guantanamo Bay detainees, abortion and critical race theory during a marathon hearing Tuesday in which senators are considering her nomination to the Supreme Court..\n\nJackson, a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and President Joe Biden's pick for a lifetime appointment, told senators she believed Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion, is a settled issue. She leaned into her family's history in law enforcement to describe how it influences her role as a judge.\n\nAnd she noted the high honor that would come with being the sixth woman – and the first Black woman – ever on the nation's nine-member high court, calling it \"extremely meaningful.\"\n\nAnd when Republicans painted Jackson as soft on child sex criminals based on the sentences in a number of criminal cases she handled when she was a U.S. District Court judge, she responded by calling those offenses \"the worst of humanity.\"\n\nSenators also asked about her judicial philosophy and how she interprets the Constitution in cases where the document isn't explicit.\n\nTuesday marks the first of two days of questioning. Senators have 30 minutes each, in order of seniority. And then they'll get a second round of questions on Wednesday.\n\nDay one of Ketanji Brown Jackson hearing:Making history, first Black female Supreme Court nominee faces senators\n\nWho is Ketanji Brown Jackson? Jackson says she's 'humbled' by historic nomination to Supreme Court as focus shifts to Senate\n\nDurbin: Jackson was a model of ‘grace under pressure’\n\nAfter wrapping up the 13-hour hearing, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin praised Jackson for performing with “grace under pressure.”\n\nDurbin mentioned that one of the guests he invited to Tuesday’s marathon hearing was the woman who cleans his Senate office, who wanted to witness the history of the first Black woman to be nominated for the Supreme Court.\n\n“She wanted to be there because she wanted to see this judge and hear her and show her support. And we asked her afterwards what she thought of the hearing. She said, it was really interesting, but there are some mean people in there,” Durbin recounted. “And the fact is, the overwhelming majority of people on the committee were not mean at all. They did their job in a respectful, professional way. There are always a few and you know who they are who are going to raise issues in a way that I think crossed the line, but that's their business.”\n\nDurbin said the Republicans tried to lay gloves on her but failed.\n\n“I think at the end of the day, the charges that she called some people war criminals turned out not to be true,” he told reporters in a press conference following the hearing. “The fact that she was accused of not imposing sentences that were serious for serious crimes turned out not to be true. And a couple senators still cling to this discredited theory that she is somehow sympathetic to child pornography.”\n\n-- Ledyard King\n\nJackson distances herself from brief describing anti-abortion protestors as ‘hostile’\n\nAs the hearing went into its 13th hour, Jackson found herself defending language she wrote in a brief some 20 years ago when she was a lawyer that characterized anti-abortion advocates as “hostile, noisy crowd of in-your-face protesters.”\n\nThe brief was brought up by Tennessee GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who opposes Roe v. Wade “as an awful act of judicial activism” and was the last person to question Jackson Tuesday.\n\n“I find it incredibly concerning that someone who was nominated to a position with life tenure on the Supreme Court holds such a hostile view toward a view that is held as a mainstream belief that every life is worth protecting,” Blackburn told Jackson. “So how do you justify that incendiary rhetoric against pro life women?”\n\nJackson said the brief was filed on behalf of clients and not her personal sentiment.\n\n“That was a statement and a brief made (as) an argument for my clients,” she responded. “It's not the way that I think of or characterize people.”\n\n-- Ledyard King\n\nBlackburn closes out the night's questioning\n\nRepublican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee is the last senator to question Jackson tonight. Tomorrow morning, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia and GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina will question Jackson for the first time, before the Senate Judiciary Committee runs through another full round of member questions, once again by seniority.\n\nAs the second day of the hearing approaches the 13 hour mark, many senators are scrolling through their phones – or in Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy’s case, tapping on an iPad.\n\nSeated next to each other, Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island had a lengthy conversation while their colleague Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., questioned Jackson.\n\nThe audience watching the hearing has also thinned. Many senators have left the hearing for the night, and the number of guests seated in the back of the hearing room has declined as the evening goes on.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nJackson says sovereignty of Native American nations should be protected\n\nSen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.,, asked Jackson about her decisions on Native American rights.\n\n“I believe that respect for tribal sovereignty is paramount,” Padilla, whose state is home to the largest Native American population in the country, said. He also pointed out the upcoming decisions on the constitutionality of the Indian Act 1976, which is on the Supreme Court’s docket for next term.\n\n“The Supreme Court has established that there is a special trust relationship between tribes and the federal government,” Jackson responded. She added that the nations should be able to trust the \"stability the federal government has in terms of making sure that the tribes are recognized or cared for in the context of our system.”\n\n-- Chelsey Cox\n\nJackson on judicial independence\n\nWhere Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee criticized Jackson for not offering opinions on issues like abortion rights and the Second Amendment, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., asked Jackson to explain her stance on such topics.\n\n“You declined to answer as to not prejudge the issue. And I'll remind the committee, I believe that's been the approach taken by every Supreme Court nominee for the last three decades,” Padilla said.\n\nJackson said her approach is “consistent with the requirements of judicial independence.”\n\nShe explained that judges should actively consider the context of the case “and then with an open mind, receiving the arguments that are made in the context of that case, applying the law and making the decision.”\n\n-- Chelsey Cox\n\nJackson has opinions but not appropriate to share\n\nIt’s not that Jackson doesn’t have opinions about the controversial issues senators are trying to get her to discuss, it’s just that she doesn’t think it’s appropriate to share them.\n\nThat was the takeaway from an exchange with Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who pressed Jackson on an issue she has been asked about for the better part of the day: Whether she believes the Supreme Court’s nine-member bench should be expanded.\n\nJackson acknowledged that she had personal thoughts on that point, but she reiterated her sense that it isn't appropriate for her to discuss them. That’s because it is Congress that decides the number of members on the Supreme Court, not the court itself.\n\nConservatives have been pressing Jackson on the point all day because it is progressives who have raised the idea of expanding the court to blunt the 6-3 edge conservatives currently have on the bench. Despite interest on the left, President Joe Biden hasn’t indicated interest in pursuing the idea.\n\n-- John Fritze\n\nTom Cotton: Jackson “twisted the law’ in giving drug dealer reduced sentence\n\nIn one of the most heated exchanges of the day, Sen. Tom Cotton said Jackson “twisted the law” when she reduced a drug dealer’s sentence nearly in half two years after sentencing him to 20 years in prison.\n\nThe case involves Keith Young of Washington, D.C. who was sentenced in 2018 for drug and firearms crimes. At the time, sentencing guidelines required Jackson to take into account a minor charge more than a decade before when she sentenced him to 20 years.\n\nShortly after his sentence, Congress changed the sentencing rules to give judge more leeway on the punishment they handed down. Under the new rules, Young’s sentence could have been much lighter. So in 2020, when Young petitioned the court for leniency under “compassionate release” rules, Jackson cut seven and a half years off the original sentence.\n\nCotton said she had no right to do that since Congress did not allow judges to revisit sentence handed down before the law changed.\n\n“You chose to rewrite the law, because you were sympathetic to a fentanyl drug kingpin, whom you had expressed frustration at having sentenced him to a 20-year sentence in the first place,” he said. “You twisted the law.”\n\nJackson responded that Congress provided judges through the “compassionate release motion mechanism” with the opportunity to review sentences.\n\n“Prior to the compassionate release mechanism being enacted, a judge who imposed the sentence would have no opportunity to revisit,” she said. “In Mr. Young's case, the question was with this compassionate release motion under a circumstance in which Congress had changed the law, was that an extraordinary compelling circumstance to revisit his sentence and I made a determination that it was.”\n\n-- Ledyard King\n\nDay one recap:Making history, first Black female SCOTUS nominee faces senators\n\nJackson on the influence of her grandparents\n\nFighting tears, Jackson credited her grandparents with teaching her to get back up after being knocked down.\n\nShe described her grandparents as the hardest working people she’s ever known, “who just got up every day and put one foot after the other and provided for their families and made sure that their children went to college, even though they never had those opportunities.”\n\nJackson said she also focuses on her faith during hard times, a practice she also credits to her grandmother.\n\n“Those are the kinds of things that I learned from my grandmother who used to have those family dinners and bring us all together. And I think that's a common experience of Americans that when you go through difficult times you lean into family and you turn to faith,” she said.\n\n-- Chelsey Cox\n\nBooker draws in Jackson's family\n\nDemocratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey brought a burst of energy to his evening questioning, engaging with Judge Jackson’s family seated in the audience.\n\nAs Booker mentioned Jackson’s brother Ketajh Brown’s experience in the police, Brown nodded. Booker then acknowledged parents, speaking to them directly and then asking Jackson to speak about them.\n\nBooker later joked that he was upset with Jackson’s husband, saying that when he teared up on Monday it triggered a “sympathetic cry” from the senator.\n\nBooker started his remarks by comparing the size of the prop charts that Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Rhode Island Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, getting laughs from the hearing room.\n\n“Ted had a very big chart, I think he needs to give Senator Whitehouse some advice on charts. Sen. Whitehouse’s was very small,” Booker joked.\n\nAs the hearing approaches the eleven hour mark, many senators have left the room. Originally the committee planned to get through questions by all 22 committee members tonight, but two have been postponed for tomorrow morning as the hearing draws on.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nBooker pushes back on GOP claims of light sentencing\n\nSen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., pushed back on Republican claims that Jackson has been inappropriately light on sentencing.\n\n“I kind of sat here insulted about the accusation that somehow this mother of two, confirmed three times by the United States Senate, has victim advocacy groups writing letters … (who) has presided over facts specific case, most heinous crimes … the implication that you are somehow out of the norm of other federal judges that we have confirmed … these issues had never come up,” Booker said while referencing a chart of nationwide sentencing guideline ranges.\n\n-- Chelsey Cox\n\nCotton presses Jackson on sentences, crime\n\nSen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., asked Jackson a series of questions about whether “too many violent criminals” are captured “or not enough.”\n\n“Does the United States need more police or fewer police?” Cotton asked.\n\n“Is 17 years too long or not long enough for a criminal to spend in prison for murder?” he posed in a follow up question.\n\nThe questions were designed to elevate the GOP framing of Jackson as soft on crime, but Jackson repeatedly responded with the same basic answer.\n\n“Senator, these are policy questions,” Jackson said.\n\n“It’s not that they're difficult questions, she said. “It's that they're not questions for me. I am not the Congress.”\n\nJackson’s argument is that Congress often sets sentencing ranges for federal crimes and the U.S. Sentencing Commission makes recommended guidelines within those ranges in an effort to try to make sentences more consistent.\n\n-- John Fritze\n\nJackson on the McGahn decision\n\nSen. Mazie Hirono, D-HI., questioned Jackson about her decision to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify in impeachment investigations about allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and possible obstruction of justice on the part of former President Donald Trump.\n\nJackson said she considered vertical precedent, which are handed down from higher courts, as part of her decision.\n\n“So that even if you disagree with them, you have to follow them because they're binding precedent,” Jackson said.\n\nThe opinions about the McGahn matter by a district court judge were persuasive enough to convince Jackson that the former White House counsel should testify.\n\n“I had to look at what he did and decide, was it persuasive?” Jackson said. “And I did.”\n\n-- Chelsey Cox\n\nThe news comes to you:Sign up for the OnPolitics newsletter here to get the latest news in your inbox\n\nHirono uses GOP judge records to push back on charge KBJ soft on crime\n\nAfter Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., publicly challenged Jackson’s judgment for not handing down harsher sentences in child pornography cases, Hirono sought to show that Republican-appointed judges displayed similar discretion.\n\n“There was an article recently that highlighted the fact that many of (former President Donald Trump’s) circuit court nominees who were previously district court judges had also issued below guidelines sent to child pornography cases,” Hirono said.\n\nHawley had pressed Jackson on her decision to sentence an 18-year-old child pornography offender to three months in prison several years ago when guidelines called for a stiffer punishment.\n\nHirono also pointed out Republican senators unanimously voted to confirm GOP-nominated circuit court judges with numerous cases of below guideline sentencing for child sex crime offenders.\n\n- Chelsey Cox\n\nMore:Ketanji Brown Jackson's comments on motherhood, her husband's tears and what they mean for a historic moment\n\nHawley: 'I am questioning your judgment'\n\nAfter nearly 30 minutes of questioning, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., drove right to the point of his questions about Jackson’s sentencing of child pornography offenders.\n\n“I am questioning your discretion, your judgment. That's exactly what I'm doing,” Hawley told Jackson. “I'm not questioning you as a person. I'm not questioning your excellence as a judge, frankly, but you said it, you had discretion. And that's exactly what I'm doing, I'm questioning how you use your discretion.\"\n\nHawley summed up his questioning after a detailed recollection of a case Jackson heard as judge, recounting from court filings the number and details of images and videos an offender had in his possession.\n\n- Rick Rouan\n\nJackson: ‘I take these cases very seriously’\n\nJackson continued to push back against criticism from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., over her sentencing in child pornography cases.\n\n“I take these cases very seriously,” Jackson said in one of the more tense moments of Tuesday’s hearing.\n\n“The evidence that you would not describe in polite company the evidence that you are pointing to, discussing, addressing in this context, is evidence that I have seen in my role as a judge,” Jackson told Hawley of the graphic images she said she had to review in one of the cases.\n\n“It is heinous. It is egregious,” Jackson said. “What a judge has to do is determine how to sentence defendants proportionally, consistent with the elements that the statute incudes.”\n\nJackson also pushed back against Hawley's insinuation that she automatically took the defendant's side because the punishment she handed down didn't strictly follow sentencing guidelines.\n\n\"I appreciate senator that you have looked at these from the standpoint of statistics, that you're questioning whether or not I take them seriously or I have some reason to handle them in either a different way than my peers or a different way than other cases,\" she said. \"And I assure you that I do not. \"\n\n- John Fritze\n\nBlumenthal asks Jackson to make the Supreme Court more transparent\n\nSen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., treated Jackson's confirmation as a fait accompli, praising her trailblazing as the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court and saying that her past work as a public defender will bring a fresh perspective to the bench.\n\n\"You will make the court look more like America, but also think more like America,\" Blumenthal said.\n\nThe Democrat also talked about many issues that Jackson is likely to consider on the court, from privacy to sexual harassment to legal arbitration rules.\n\nBlumenthal also urged Jackson to bring more \"transparency\" to the high court's work, including television cameras and a new \"code of ethics.\"\n\n- David Jackson\n\nJackson’s parents field photo requests, meet members\n\nJudge Jackson’s parents Ellery and Johnny Brown are back in the hearing room again today, seated in the front row to Jackson’s right. With them is her brother, Ketajh Brown.\n\nSenators on the Judiciary Committee and Jackson herself have mentioned Ketajh’s career in the Baltimore police department and in the military during the day’s proceedings, as well as her parents’ biographies.\n\nDay two highlights - the grilling begins:Supreme Court pick Jackson fights back against GOP criticism over sentencing, Gitmo defense\n\nThe Browns have been popular during today’s hearing breaks, fielding photo requests and meeting committee members and guests watching the hearing. They’ve spoken with House lawmakers – who do not get to vote on their daughter’s nomination but are watching in the audience – including Democratic Reps. Bobby Rush of Illinois and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, both members of the Congressional Black Caucus.\n\nDuring the lunch break, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina greeted the judge's parents, and during the afternoon break the Supreme Court “sherpa” former Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., huddled with the family.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nRepublicans try to grill Jackson with political campaign issues\n\nThe Senate held a Supreme Court confirmation hearing Tuesday, and a Republican political rally broke out.\n\nSome GOP members of the Judiciary Committee have asked Jackson about critical race theory, education policy, trans rights, and the past treatment of Republican nominees – issues that may or may not come before the Supreme Court, but are being used on the campaign trail by Republicans seeking to win control of Congress in the 2022 mid-term elections.\n\nMore:Exclusive: 2022 could be most anti-trans legislative years in history, report says\n\nObservers said it looks like some of the Republican senators are playing to voters and fundraisers rather than Senate colleagues who are expected to confirm Jackson as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court .\n\n\"It's campaign talk, not serious deliberation about jurisprudence,\" said Jack Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.\n\nPitney cited GOP claims that Jackson's career has been promoted by anonymous political donations known as \"dark money.\"\n\nSaid Pitney: \"The GOP complaining about dark money is like Bonnie and Clyde complaining about bank security.\"\n\n- David Jackson\n\nJackson asked which justice she's most like? None, she answered.\n\nSen. Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska, departed from thornier issues to inquire about Jackson’s legal role models. He asked if there are any of the current or previous Supreme Court justices she admires most.\n\n“I must admit that I don’t really have a justice that I’ve molded myself after or that I would,” she said.\n\nJackson said the best way to assess her jurisprudence is by looking at her record and previous rulings, adding how she starts \"from a neutral posture\" in all cases.\n\nSasse then asked about the difference in legal thinking among the three liberal-leaning justices on the court, which Jackson also dodged saying there are differences, but that she hasn’t had time to dive into those cases.\n\n“I guess I’m surprised after nine years on the bench, I mean you’re super smart, and having worked for Justice (Stephen) Breyer and knowing of some of the philosophical arguments he and Justice (Elena) Kagan had, it just seems surprising you wouldn’t be able to reflect a little bit on those disagreements,” Sasse said.\n\n- Phillip M. Bailey\n\nSecond day of marathon hearing reaches halfway point\n\nDemocratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware just concluded his questioning, marking the halfway point in today’s hearing.\n\nThere are eleven senators remaining, each of whom will have 30 minutes to question Jackson. The day’s proceedings began at 9 a.m. All members will have another opportunity to ask questions tomorrow.\n\nGOP Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska will be up next when they resume around 4:05 p.m. ET.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nCoons: Jackson’s diverse decisions shows she'd be a fair\n\nDuring his questioning , Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., offered examples about Jackson’s history of bipartisan decisions, pointing out times she agreed with the Trump administration and the Republican National Committee over Democrats.\n\nCoons asked Jackson about her defense of former President Donald Trump’s wall spanning the U.S.-Mexico border, which she said was “guided by my understanding of the law and what is required, and not by anything else.”\n\nThe Delaware senator also said Jackson ruled in favor of the RNC in 2016 over the release of more emails belonging to former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.\n\n“My approach all the way through is one that I believe is required by my duties, by my oath, as a judge,” Jackson said of her decision process. “We rule without fear or favor. We are independent as judges in our responsibilities.”\n\n- Chelsey Cox\n\nJackson: sex crimes cases involving children are ‘harrowing’\n\nJackson told the Senate Judiciary Committee that “as a mother, cases involving sex crimes against children are harrowing.”\n\nHer statement came in response to Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who asked that Jackson share how having family members who served as law enforcement officers, including one as a detective in a Sex Crimes Unit, has impacted her decisions in cases involving child sex crimes.\n\n“I think it's important to understand that trial judges who have to deal with these cases are presented with the evidence or descriptions; graphic descriptions. These are the cases that wake you up at night, because you're seeing the worst of humanity,”Jackson said.\n\nCoons’ remarks came after Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and other GOP senators accused her of being soft on pedophiles.\n\n- Chelsey Cox\n\nJackson defends sentencing ‘as a mother’ points out Congress role\n\nAfter quizzing Jackson on racial issues and history, Sen. Ted Cruz grilled the judge about her sentencing record in child pornography cases.\n\nThe Texas Republican used a chart brought in by his Senate staff to point out how Jackson’s sentencing in those cases often fell below the recommended levels of federal prosecutors.\n\n“Every single case — 100% of them — when prosecutors came before you with child pornography cases you sentenced the defenders to substantially below, not just the guidelines, but what the prosecutor asked for,” Cruz said.\n\nJackson, who attended Harvard law school with Cruz, said the senator’s charts failed to include how lawmakers told judges what to consider in those cases, such as probation officer’s recommendations.\n\n“The second thing I would say is that I take these cases very seriously as a mother, as someone who as a judge has to review the actual evidence,” Jackson said.\n\n“Senator the evidence in these cases are egregious,” she added. “The evidence in these cases are among the worst that I’ve seen and yet as Congress directs, judges don’t just calcite the guidelines and stop.”\n\n- Phillip M. Bailey\n\nCruz questions Jackson over critical race theory\n\nJackson said she has not studied critical race theory and that it isn’t relevant to her work on the bench in response to questions on Tuesday from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.\n\nCruz brought props to the hearing, cycling through posters of children’s books he said were used at a Washington, D.C., area private school where Jackson is a board member. He questioned whether Jackson knew the books, including the children’s book “Antiracist Baby,” were taught at the school.\n\nBrown said she did not have oversight of the school’s curriculum as a board member. And she said the theory taught at the college level was not a factor in her work as a judge.\n\nAfter a long pause in response to a question about whether she agreed with the sentiments in the children’s book, Jackson said: “I do not believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist or as though they are not valued.”\n\nShe added later: \"It doesn’t come up in my work as a judge. It’s never something that I’ve studied or relied on and it wouldn’t be something I would rely on if I was on the Supreme Court.\"\n\n- Richard Rouan\n\nKlobuchar questions Jackson on voting rights, free press\n\nJackson affirmed that the right to vote is “fundamental” and a free press “protected” when asked to address her views by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.\n\nJackson cited the Supreme Court as saying the right to vote is “the basis of our democracy, that it is the right upon which all other rights are essentially founded” and said she agrees with that sentiment.\n\nThe Minnesota senator also asked Jackson about her views on the role of journalists in democracy, noting that her father was a “newspaper reporter.”\n\n“Journalists and freedom of the press is protected by the First Amendment,” Jackson said. “It is about the dissemination of information, which is necessary for a democratic form of government.”\n\n- Ella Lee\n\nKlobuchar praises Jackson's family for their attentiveness\n\nDemocratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar gave Jackson another chance to defend her sentencing policies regarding child pornography – and also praised family members for sitting behind the judge during the day-long session devoted to occasionally esoteric legal questions.\n\n\"They all seem to be awake throughout this hearing,\" the Minnesota senator told the Supreme Court nominee.\n\nKlobuchar also praised Jackson for her \"grace under pressure\" during harsher questions from Senate Republicans.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nBiden 'proud' of Jackson's performance in hearings\n\nPresident Joe Biden has been watching portions of his Supreme Court nominee's hearings over the last two days and is \"proud of the way she is showcasing her extraordinary qualifications,\" according to the White House.\n\nWhite House spokesman Chris Meagher told reporters at the daily press briefing Biden was \"moved by the grace and dignity (Jackson) has shown the deference to senators and the level of detail she is offering, reinforcing the value of her experience, her intellect and the strength of her character.\"\n\nBiden, a former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, was also impressed with her \"commitment to stay in the lane of judges prescribed by the Constitution,\" noting her respect for the text of the law and the importance of precedent, Meagher added.\n\nThe president also noted that she \"swiftly dismantled conspiracy theories put forward in bad faith\" in an apparent reference to GOP attacks that she had been lenient with sentencing in child sex abuse cases.\n\n- Courtney Subramanian\n\nJackson: Biden didn’t ask her about philosophy before nomination\n\nPressed by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Jackson said Biden didn’t ask about her judicial philosophy.\n\nLee called attention to Biden’s remark in February in which he said that he was looking for a Supreme Court candidate with a philosophy that “suggests that there are unenumerated rights in the Constitution, and all the amendments mean something, including the Ninth Amendment.”\n\nThat is widely viewed as pointing to the Roe v. Wade decision, which indirectly referenced the Ninth Amendment to establish a right to abortion.\n\nMore:After Roe? Pro- and anti-abortion rights groups face new landscape in 2022 midterms – and beyond\n\nLee wanted to know whether Biden had asked Jackson about her views on those so-called unenumerated rights.\n\nDid Biden “ask you either about your judicial philosophy more broadly separate and apart from the Ninth Amendment or ask you about your approach to the Ninth Amendment?” Lee asked.\n\n“He did not,” Jackson responded.\n\n- John Fritze\n\nDurbin fact-checks Cornyn on claim Jackson called Bush, Rumsfeld 'war criminals'\n\nAs Senate Judiciary Chairman Richard Durbin gaveled in the afternoon session, the Illinois Democrat offered new research on an earlier claim by Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn that Jackson referred to former President George W. Bush and his Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld \"war criminals\" in a legal filing.\n\nJackson told Cornyn she could not recall the particular reference but said she did not intend to disparage the former president or Defense secretary.\n\nDurbin appeared to clean up the discrepancy by noting that Jackson filed several habeas petitions against the U.S. – naming Bush and Rumsfeld in their official capacities – while advocating on behalf of individuals raising torture claims.\n\n\"To be clear, there was no time where you called President Bush or Secretary Rumsfeld a 'war criminal,'\" Durbin said.\n\n\"Correct, Senator. Thank you, that was correct,\" she added.\n\n- Courtney Subramanian\n\nHirono: Gitmo answer ‘should have been end of it’\n\nSen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham’s exchange with Jackson on representing Guantanamo Bay detainees went far longer than it should have.\n\n“I thought that whole exchange was really, in my view, questionable,” Hirono told reporters during a break in the hearing.\n\nFor several minutes the South Carolina Republican pressed Jackson on her defense of those detainees, who are accused of being terrorists. Jackson defended her time as a public defender and as a lawyer for Gitmo detainees, saying she was \"standing up for the constitutional value of representation.\"\n\nDuring the lunch break, Hirono said Graham kept pushing for an answer after the judge had provided a solid one.\n\n\"And she made it really clear that the role as an advocate is to zealously represent your clients and that's what she was doing in these Guantanamo cases,\" Hirono said. \"To me that should have been end of it.”\n\n- Phillip M. Bailey\n\nJudiciary Committee breaks for lunch, 15 senators to go\n\nThe Senate Judiciary Committee paused for a lunch break before proceeding with Judge Jackson’s confirmation hearing.\n\nThere are 15 senators left to speak after the break, which ends at 1:30 p.m. Each will get 30 minutes to question Jackson, and at some point the committee will pause again for a dinner break, meaning the hearing will continue into the evening.\n\nAfter the break, the first senator to question Jackson will be Republican Mike Lee of Utah, followed by Democrat Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Yesterday Lee suggested he will question Jackson about her view on expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court, something she’s already been asked about this morning.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nCornyn quizzes Jackson about 'staying in your lane'\n\nRepublican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas asked Jackson about one of her most repeated goals as a Supreme Court justice: \"Staying in your lane.\"\n\nCornyn appeared to question whether Jackson would stick to \"interpreting\" the law and not become a \"policy maker\" like a member of Congress or a state legislator.\n\nJackson said she is bound by the Constitution.\n\n\"Judges exercise their authority to interpret the law,\" she said – not to make it.\n\nSo judges shouldn't be politicians, Cornyn said.\n\n\"Yes,\" Jackson replied.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nImplicit rights:Decisions on same-sex marriage, contraception could be threatened by abortion ruling\n\nNew guests in the hearing room after a break\n\nDuring a break in questioning, Durbin., spoke with Supreme Court “sherpa” former Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala.\n\nDurbin then took photos with a group of Black women who identified themselves as law school deans. Other guests snapped photos and took selfies with Jackson’s parents during the 15 minute break.\n\nAs Republican Sen. John Cornyn began his questioning after the break, many senators were absent, but there was a new addition to the room: Maine Sen. Angus King. He is not a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but came to watch the proceedings.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nJackson: Gender balance 'extremely meaningful'\n\nJackson said she believes it would be \"extremely meaningful\" to have gender balance on the Supreme Court.\n\nIf confirmed, Jackson would be the sixth woman seated at the nation's highest court. She would join Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett -- marking the first time in history that four women serve together on the nine-member court.\n\nOn balance:Race, gender become factors in Supreme Court confirmation battle before Biden names his choice\n\n\"I think it’s extremely meaningful,\" Jackson said in respond to a question from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. \"One of the things that having diverse members of the court does is it provides for the opportunity for role models.\"\n\n\"We want, I think, as a country for everyone to believe that they can do things like sit on the Supreme Court,\" Jackson said.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nDurbin, Graham tussle in testy exchange on Guantanamo Bay\n\nAs Graham pressed Jackson on her defense of Guantanamo Bay detainees, Durbin intervened to rebut the South Carolina senator's questioning.\n\nHe pointed out that there are 39 Guantanamo detainees remaining and the cost of housing them would be dramatically less if they were moved to a supermax federal prison in Colorado.\n\nThe two then squabbled over the recidivism rate and policy of detention at Guantanamo Bay before Graham fumed the cost of housing prisoners shouldn't matter if there is the possibility they could kill Americans while the country is \"at war.\"\n\n\"I hope they all die in jail if they're going to go back to kill Americans, it won't bother me one bit,\" Graham shouted before he left the committee room.\n\n– Courtney Subramanian\n\nJackson says Roe v. Wade is ‘settled as a precedent’\n\nJackson said that she believes both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey are “settled as precedent” and that she would abide by stare decisis – a legal principle of ruling based on precedent – in cases related to abortion, falling in line with answers given by now-Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett during their hearings.\n\n“Roe and Casey are the settled law of the Supreme Court,” Jackson said. “Concering the right to terminate a women’s pregnancy, they have established a framework and the court has reaffirmed.”\n\nShe expanded on the importance of stare decisis, calling it important because it provides and establishes “predictability and stability.”\n\n“It also serves as a restraint in this way on the exercise of judicial authority because the court looks at whether or not precedents are relied upon, whether they’re workable, in addition to whether or not they’re wrong, and other factors as well.”\n\nAbortion reentered the national discourse after a majority of the Supreme Court signaled in December that they are considering an opinion that could come later this year that may overturn or significantly change the landmark 1973 Roe ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion.\n\n– Ella Lee, John Fritze\n\nAbortion:Four clues the Supreme Court is heading toward a major shift on Roe v. Wade\n\nSenators absent, Jackson's husband taking notes in hearing\n\nAs Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham questioned Jackson, several other committee members aren't in the room to hear him or her answers. Members are able to come and go throughout the hearing.\n\nDemocratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut are no longer in the room. On the Republican side of the hearing room to Jackson’s left, Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mike Lee of Utah, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska are not present.\n\nThere are still 18 senators left to question Jackson, meaning the hearing will go well into the evening.\n\nWhile Graham questions Jackson, her husband Dr. Patrick Jackson is actively taking notes. He is seated in the front row to his wife’s left, the same seat he sat in Monday, when he became emotional and could be seen wiping tears from his eyes during his wife's opening statement.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nGraham, other Republicans complain about treatment of GOP nominees\n\nIn addition to questioning Jackson, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are also grousing about confirmation hearings past – and how their favored candidates were treated.\n\nRepublicans are particularly busy dredging up the past, complaining about attacks on GOP nominees like Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and some lower court judicial candidates put forward by Republican presidents.\n\n\"There are two standards going on here,\" said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., claiming that Republican nominees are treated like \"weirdos\" while Democrats like Jackson are treated fairly.\n\nThat idea is very much under dispute.\n\nDemocrats on the Judiciary Committee have noted that a past Republican Senate majority denied even a hearing to Merrick Garland, the Supreme Court nominee put up by President Barack Obama in 2016.\n\n\"There's exactly one living senator who effectively changed the size of the Supreme Court,\" said Rep. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. \"That was the Rep. Leader Senator (Mitch) McConnell, who shrank the Court to eight seats for nearly a year in 2016.\"\n\nDemocrats also noted that Republicans on the current committee are distorting Jackson's record in this current hearing.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nGraham: 'How important is your faith?'\n\nSen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., started off his questioning by pressing Jackson about her faith.\n\n\"On a scale of one to ten, how faithful would you say you are in terms of religion?\" Graham asked.\n\nJackson described herself as a non-denominational Protestant but said she wasn't comfortable answering questions like how often she attends church.\n\n\"Personally, my faith is very important,\" Jackson said. \"But as you know there’s no religious test in the Constitution.\"\n\nGraham was making a point that had less to do with Jackson and more to do with Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who faced a number of questions about her Catholic faith during her confirmation hearing.\n\nJackson would add a second Protestant voice to the court. The current court includes on justice who is Jewish, six who are Catholic and one who identifies as an Episcopalian.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nJackson and faith:Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson would add another Protestant voice to heavily Catholic Supreme Court\n\nJackson restates commitment to impartiality\n\nSen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., drew attention to Jackson’s previous endorsement by former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who said his praise for her intellect, character and integrity is “unequivocal.” In response, Jackson affirmed her commitment to serving as an “even-handed” Supreme Court justice – a theme throughout her hearing thus far.\n\nShe pointed to her record as a trial and appellate judge in Washington, noting that despite ruling on “politically contentious issues,” her rulings remained fair.\n\n“My record demonstrates my impartiality,” she said.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nJackson highlights family's law enforcement ties in anti-crime criticism\n\nJackson pushed back on criticism that her time as a public defender meant she was soft on crime, noting that her family's background in law enforcement and her views as a lawyer and a judge informed how she viewed the effects of crime on a community and need for law enforcement.\n\nJackson's brother served as a Baltimore police office and two of her uncles were career law enforcement, including one who became the chief of the Miami Police Department in the 1990s. Leahy pointed out the National Fraternal Order of Police, the largest law enforcement labor organization in the U.S., has expressed strong support for her nomination.\n\nShe said as someone with family members on patrol or in the line of fire, she cares \"deeply about public safety.\"\n\n\"Those are not abstract concepts or political slogans to me,\" she said.\n\nJackson cited the importance of the role of criminal defense lawyers \"in defense of the Constitution and in service of the court\" but also the rule of law. Her time as a judge informs her view that in order to have a functioning society, people need to be held accountable for committing crimes.\n\n– Courtney Subramanian\n\nDemocrats tout Jackson's past work as a public defender\n\nSupportive Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are promoting another unique aspect of Jackson's nomination: She would be the first Supreme Court justice who has been a public defender.\n\nSen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., said Jackson's work as a lawyer for indigent defendants gave her a unique view of how the criminal justice system works, or doesn't work.\n\nJackson, who would also be the first Black woman on the high court, said public defender work is essential so that judges can learn \"both sides of the issue\" before them.\n\nIt helps jurists \"reach just results,\" Jackson said.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nJackson's background:Ketanji Brown Jackson would be Supreme Court's first federal public defender, a line of attack for critics\n\nLeahy: What about Merrick Garland?\n\nRepublicans spent much of the day Monday focused not on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson but rather on Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, accusing Democrats of treating him unfairly. Kavanaugh's hearing became a national spectacle over decades-old allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denied.\n\nSen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., seemed to have a response for that in his remarks Tuesday: What about Merrick Garland? Garland was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama in early 2016 but GOP leadership in the Senate blocked his confirmation for months until after President Donald Trump took office.\n\n\"We're still waiting today for Republicans to explain on the record what kind of substantive concerns they had with Merrick Garland,\" Leahy said.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nJackson hints at originalist 'constraints' on Constitution\n\nJackson provided a glimpse of her approach on whether or not she views the Constitution as an originalist, or interpreting the document as it was written with a fixed meaning.\n\nPressed by ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, about her views of whether the text evolves over time, Jackson said she was \"acutely aware of the limitations on the exercise of my judicial power.\" She said she didn't believe there is a living Constitution in the sense that it's changing or \"infused with my own policy perspective.\"\n\n\"The Supreme Court has made clear that when you're interpreting the Constitution, you're looking at the text at the time of the founding, and what the meaning was then as a constraint on my own authority. And so I apply that constraint,\" she said.\n\n– Courtney Subramanian\n\nJackson brands herself as ‘independent jurist’\n\nJackson reiterated her commitment to impartial judging and said her record clearly demonstrates that.\n\nWhen asked by Committee ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, what aspect of her record has been most important for the good of the country, she responded that all of her record is important because it demonstrates she is an “independent jurist.”\n\n“I don’t think that anyone can look at my record and say that it is pointing one direction or another, that it is supporting one viewpoint or another,” she said.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nJackson's opinions:Review of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's opinions shows outcomes cut both ways\n\nJackson, on replacing 'my justice'\n\nJackson praised her former boss, retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, whose seat she would fill if confirmed by the Senate.\n\nCommittee ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Jackson about a 2018 op-ed written by Breyer.\n\n“I have nothing but the highest esteem and respect for my former boss, who I’ve spent the better part of the past couple decades calling ‘my justice,’ having clerked for him.”\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nWho is Justice Breyer?:Pragmatist. Institutionalist. Optimist. How Justice Stephen Breyer changed the Supreme Court\n\nJackson dodges Grassley on court packing\n\nJackson made clear in her exchange with Grassley that she's not going to wade into the issue of expanding the size of the nine-member Supreme Court.\n\nThe Iowa Republican had tried a different way of posing the question, noting that some sitting justices – including Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg – have publicly opposed the idea.\n\nBut Jackson drew a compelling distinction between herself and the others: Ginsburg and Breyer had already been confirmed to a lifetime appointment when they made those comments.\n\n\"Other nominees to the Supreme Court have responded as I will,\" Jackson said, \"which is that it is a policy question for Congress.\"\n\n– John Fritze\n\nJackson avoids talking about how she might rule on hot button cases\n\nLike Supreme Court nominees before her, Jackson is declining to speculate on how she might rule on very disputed issues that may come before her and the other justices.\n\nSecond Amendment gun rights, presidential powers, alleged court packing, whistleblower rules, immigration and other issues raised by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley – Jackson said she would have to look at the details of each case and the wording of law before she could even begin to think about how to judge it.\n\n\"I'm committed to staying in my lane of the system,\" Jackson said at one point.\n\nExpect her to take a similar line on items like abortion and Roe vs. Wade, whenever they come up at this daylong hearing.\n\nNo judicial nominee, either Republican or Democrats, would talk specifics about how to rule on a case – especially a controversial one.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nSecond Amendment:Supreme Court majority skeptical of New York law that limits carrying handguns in public\n\n‘Standing up for the constitutional value of representation’: Jackson defends Gitmo cases\n\nJackson defended her representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees after the Sept. 11 attacks, making the case that public defenders sought to uphold the nation’s constitutional values that were under attack.\n\n“We couldn’t let the terrorists win by changing who we were fundamentally, and what that meant was that the people who were accused by our government of having engaged in actions related to this, under our constitutional scheme, were entitled to representation – are entitled to be treated fairly,” she said. “That’s what makes our system the best in the world.”\n\nShe said that federal public defenders don’t pick their clients and described the work as a service.\n\n“That’s what you do as a federal public defender; you are standing up for the constitutional value of representation,” she said.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nDurbin gives Jackson a chance to defend herself against GOP attacks\n\nDurbin is trying to preempt Republican criticism of the nominee by asking Jackson about some of the disputed aspects of her record, including her views on \"court packing,\" the handling of military detainees at Gitmo, her work as a public defender, and sentences on child pornography.\n\n\"CNN says (Josh) Hawley's assessment of your record of ruling on child porn cases is wrong and unfair,\" Durbin told Jackson at one point, referring to the Missouri Republican senator.\n\nIn prebuttal mode, Jackson avoided the charged \"political\" topic of adding justices to the high court – and said she based sentences of convicted pornographers based on the law and the circumstances. She described her work on Guantanamo Bay and as a public defender as \"standing up for the constitutional value of representation.\"\n\nDespite Durbin's effort, expect Republicans to raise these issues – and others – throughout the day.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nJackson responds to child porn criticism\n\nSpeaking for the first time about criticism that her sentences in child pornography cases consistently came in under U.S. Sentencing Commission guidelines, Jackson told the committee that she took the crimes seriously and sought to “impose a sentence that is sufficient but not greater than necessary.”\n\nJackson noted that in addition to prison time, her sentences in the seven cases raised by Republicans often included years of supervised released and other factors, such as limiting the ability of defendants to use their computers.\n\n“I am imposing all of those constraints because I understand how significant, how damaging, how horrible this crime is,” Jackson said.\n\nSen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has said that he intends to discuss some cases in detail later in the hearing.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nJackson agrees with Justice Barrett on court-packing question\n\nDurbin asked Jackson about her stance on making structural changes to the high court beyond its current nine seats, noting that Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was asked a similar question during her hearings. Many progressives have pushed to add more seats to the conservative, majority-ruled court.\n\nJackson said she agreed with Barrett, who said she could not opine on the politically controversial issue because it's inconsistent with a judicial role.\n\n\"My North Star is the consideration of the proper role of a judge in our constitutional scheme and in my view, judges should not be speaking in to political issues and certainly not a nominee for position on the Supreme Court,\" Jackson said.\n\n– Courtney Subramanian\n\nJackson’s family back in the hearing room\n\nJackson’s parents and brother entered the hearing room after she made her entrance. Like yesterday, they are seated to Jackson’s right. Her husband flanks Jackson’s left side, while “sherpa” former Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., has the seat closest to her right.\n\nOthers in the audience include Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, who was present for yesterday’s proceedings. Louisa Terrell, director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, is also in the room watching the questioning.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nJackson vows to ‘stay in my lane’\n\nIn her most extensive explanation yet of her judicial philosophy, Jackson told senators that she has developed a methodology “to ensure that I am ruling impartially.”\n\n“I am acutely aware that as a judge in our system I have limited power,” she said.\n\n“I am trying in every case to stay in my lane.”\n\nJackson said she looks at “original documents” and precedents of the Supreme Court.\n\nSenate Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin, D-Ill., raised the issue as his first question, anticipating that others would continue to ask. Jackson’s answer is unlikely to fully satisfy conservatives who would like a more detailed explanation of how she would approach interpreting the Constitution.\n\n– John Fritze\n\nGuests begin to arrive for second day of hearing\n\nFormer Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., who was designated as Judge Jackson’s “sherpa” to guide her throughout the confirmation process, is in the hearing room. The proceedings are set to start at 9 a.m.\n\nOutside the hearing room, a short line of ticketed guests has formed, awaiting entry to the room.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nDemocrats aim to confirm Jackson in matter of weeks\n\nSenate Democrats are aiming to fast-track Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation process at nearly the pace of Amy Coney Barrett, who was seated less than a month after being nominated in 2020.\n\nSen. Dick Durbin, the Judiciary Committee chairman, said he'd like to see her confirmed in an \"expedited way\" by April 8, when Congress leaves for a two-week Easter break.\n\n\"We don't know what's going to happen in the world,\" he said. \"I want to really focus on getting this to the finish line.”\n\n– Courtney Subramanian and John Fritze\n\nJackson's bio:Who is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson? For starters, she clerked for Justice Breyer\n\nJackson's opening statement highlights support system, professional commitments\n\nJudge Ketjani Brown Jackson on Monday thanked her support system and affirmed her commitment to neutral judgment in her opening remarks of her Supreme Court confirmation hearing.\n\nJackson said her parents taught her growing up that if she worked hard and believed in herself she could “do anything or be anything” she wanted to be, calling being born in America was the “first of my many blessings.” She said she is committed to deciding cases from a “neutral posture” and remaining transparent in her reasoning.\n\nShe also thanked God for her nomination and paid homage to her husband, children, high school debate coach and Justice Stephen Breyer, who she called a mentor.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nDay 2 agenda for Jackson\n\nToday is the second day of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and the first opportunity during the hearings for senators to question her.\n\nAll 22 committee members will have the chance to ask Jackson any questions they want, for 30 minutes each. The order of questions will be determined by seniority.\n\nMembers of the committee previewed some of the topics that may arise today.\n\nSen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., listed specific cases in which Jackson handed down sentences for defendants convicted on child pornography charges that were below sentencing guidelines. Jackson's supporters and experts have noted sentences for those offenses are regularly below the guidelines, regardless of the judge involved.\n\nSen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he would press Jackson for more detail about her judicial philosophy and how she would approach the Constitution in situations in which the founding document is not clear.\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nFormer Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., who is helping guide Jackson through the confirmation process in a role known as a \"sherpa,\" told reporters that he feels the judge is ready to counter GOP criticism during questioning.\n\n\"I think there's gonna be some very pointed questions about her record, and that's what the senators are there for. I think she will be prepared,\" Jones said.\n\nHe said that Jackson, not the Democratic members of the committee, is best positioned to respond to any attacks leveled by Republican senators.\n\n\"I think the best counter for some of those things is going to be Judge Jackson,\" he said. \"The senators are there to ask those probing questions. It’s going to be her job to give the answers.\"\n\n– Dylan Wells", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/04/05/ketanji-brown-jackson-wait-months-take-supreme-court-seat/7252011001/", "title": "Ketanji Brown Jackson will wait months to take Supreme Court seat", "text": "WASHINGTON – For Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, taking a seat on the Supreme Court will be a study in hurry up and wait.\n\nAfter President Joe Biden's nominee to the nation's highest court was confirmed by the Senate Thursday, Jackson will have to sit tight for nearly three months for her spot on the nation's highest bench to open – an unusually long delay that may have implications for public perceptions of the court, her ascension to it and a number of high-profile cases.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/05"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/29/politics/roger-wicker-supreme-court-biden-nominee-affirmative-action/index.html", "title": "Roger Wicker: Mississippi senator says Black woman Supreme ...", "text": "(CNN) The first Black woman nominated to the US Supreme Court by President Joe Biden will be a \"beneficiary\" of affirmative action, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi said Friday.\n\n\"The irony is that the Supreme Court is at the very same time hearing cases about this sort of affirmative racial discrimination while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quota,\" he said Friday in an interview with local radio network SuperTalk Mississippi, referring to the high court's recent decision to reconsider challenges to race-based affirmative action in college admissions.\n\n\"The majority of the court may be saying writ large it's unconstitutional. We'll see how that irony works out,\" he added.\n\nThe comments come despite not yet knowing who Biden will nominate. CNN has reached out to Wicker for comment.\n\nSupreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced this week his plans to retire at the end of the term, giving Biden his first opportunity to select a justice and make good on his campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the high court.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Sonnet Swire", "Veronica Stracqualursi"], "publish_date": "2022/01/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/03/31/fact-check-janice-rogers-brown-never-nominated-supreme-court/7216776001/", "title": "Fact check: Ketanji Brown Jackson was the first Black woman ...", "text": "The claim: Republicans nominated the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, but she was blocked by Biden\n\nAfter completing two days of intense questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's name and photo have filled the internet and newspapers alike.\n\nBut one Facebook post claims she isn't the historic first she has been presented to be.\n\nA March 25 Facebook post claimed Jackson was not the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court and instead Republicans were responsible for nominating the first Black woman. The post accrued more than 2,000 shares in less than a week.\n\nText accompanying the image reads: \"Fraud: It was Republicans who nominated the 1st Black woman to the SCOTUS & she was BLOCKED & filibustered by... wait for it...... Joe Biden. Media: Crickets.\"\n\nBut this is false. The woman pictured was not nominated to the Supreme Court, and Jackson is the first Black woman to be nominated.\n\nFollow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks\n\nUSA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the claim for comment.\n\nWoman pictured wasn't nominated to the Supreme Court\n\nThe woman pictured in the Facebook post is Janice Rogers Brown a former justice of the California Supreme Court. Like Jackson, Brown also served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.\n\nBrown was a D.C. Circuit judge during President George W. Bush's administration, during which there were reports that she was being considered to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Bush, a Republican, ultimately nominated current Justice Samuel Alito instead.\n\nAbout 17 years later, President Joe Biden announced the Jackson nomination. This was the first time a Black woman was nominated to sit on the Supreme Court.\n\nBiden did not block the nomination of the first Black woman to the Supreme Court\n\nThe assertion that Biden blocked Brown from a Supreme Court nomination is wrong, but for a time he did block her confirmation to the D.C. Circuit.\n\nDuring his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Biden spent many years on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including an eight-year stint as chair ending in 1995.\n\nWhile Biden was on the committee in November 2003, Brown was nominated to the D.C. Circuit. She was met with a filibuster, garnering only 53 of the 60 votes needed to overcome that. Biden was among the senators that filibustered Brown and other Bush-appointed nominees from 2003 to 2005.\n\nA group called the Gang of 14, a group of 14 senators which included Biden, negotiated the end of that two-year filibuster in 2005.\n\nIt wasn't until June of 2005 that Brown was confirmed by the Senate, becoming the second Black woman to serve as D.C. Circuit judge. Biden voted against her nomination.\n\nA month after Brown's confirmation, her name was floated for a Supreme Court vacancy.\n\nBiden said on CBS' Face the Nation in July 2005 that he would not support a Brown nomination to the nation's highest court: \"I can assure you that would be a very, very, very difficult fight and she probably would be filibustered.\"\n\nBush never named Brown as his nominee. Alito joined the Supreme Court in 2006.\n\nOur rating: False\n\nBased on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Republicans nominated the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, but she was blocked by Biden. Jackson was the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court, and she was nominated by Biden.\n\nOur fact-check sources:\n\nThank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.\n\nOur fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/31"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/27/supreme-court-stephen-breyer-retirement-live-updates/9232854002/", "title": "Biden to name first Black woman to SCOTUS as Breyer retires: recap", "text": "Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer officially announces retirement to President Joe Biden.\n\nBreyer was nominated to the high court by President Bill Clinton in 1994.\n\nHe has voted reliably with the Supreme Court's liberal bloc.\n\nBiden says he will nominate a Black woman as Breyer's successor by the end of February.\n\nWASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Thursday formally announced the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at a White House event, praising the liberal jurist as a \"model public servant\" and vowing to move swiftly to name his successor.\n\n\"I think he's a model public servant, in a time of great division in this country,\" Biden said.\n\nBiden, who pledged to name a Black woman to the high court, said he planned to name his nominee by the end of February.\n\nAt 83, Breyer is the second-most senior associate justice, and his retirement was encouraged by liberals who wanted to ensure Biden's nominee would benefit from a Senate controlled by Democrats.\n\nThe president said he would seek out advice from both parties and leading scholars, meet with potential candidates and carefully study their former cases before making his decision over the next month. But he vowed to name an \"historic candidate\" who is \"worthy of Justice Breyer's legacy.\"\n\nBiden, who presided over Breyer's confirmation as the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee nearly three decades ago, called Breyer's retirement \"bittersweet.\"\n\n\"We all had high hopes for the mark he would leave on the history of law and the Constitution,\" he recalled. \"And he's exceeded those hopes in every possible way.\"\n\nWhat's next:Breyer retirement lays groundwork for historic nomination of first Black woman to Supreme Court\n\nFellow justices praise Breyer for wisdom, service – and knock-knock jokes\n\nThe other eight members of the Supreme Court offered well wishes for their retiring colleague Thursday, praising Associate Justice Stephen Breyer for his decades of service, wit and joie de vivre at a time when tensions seem to have mounted on the high court.\n\nIn a series of statements, Breyer's colleagues applauded his approach to the law and his embrace of civility.\n\n\"Justice Stephen G. Breyer is an energetic jurist and dear friend,\" Chief Justice John Roberts said. \"His pragmatism, encyclopedic knowledge, and varied government experience have enriched the court's deliberations.\"\n\nRoberts also had some fun with his colleague, noting Breyer's penchant for \"fanciful hypotheticals during oral argument\" -- pet oysters and \"tomato children\" have both made it into argument transcripts under Breyer's name.\n\n\"He is also a reliable antidote to dead airtime at our lunches, moving seamlessly from modern architecture to French cinema, to old radio shows, to a surprisingly comprehensive collection of riddles and knock-knock jokes,\" Roberts said.\n\nAssociate Justice Clarence Thomas said that while Breyer is leaving the court \"our friendship and deep affection redoubles and endures.\"\n\nThe camaraderie is on display at a time when reports have suggested tension between justices as they tackle culture war issues such as abortion and gun rights this term. NPR recently reported that Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who has diabetes, has been avoiding in-person oral arguments and other meetings because she is not comfortable being close to people who are unmasked. Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch has consistently not worn a mask at arguments -- the only member of the court to decline to do so.\n\nSotomayor and Gorsuch released a statement last week saying they are \"warm colleagues and friends.\"\n\nBy all accounts Breyer doesn't appear to have ever been caught up in whatever drama may exist behind the curtain. While not a swing vote, Breyer has long been viewed as a bridge between the ideological factions on the court -- able to find compromise with some of his more conservative colleagues. He has written books about the importance of civility to the court as an institution.\n\n\"His passion never manifests itself in anger,\" said the newest member of the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett. \"Both in print and in person, Steve aims to persuade through exuberance rather than bite. He is a model of civility.\"\n\n-- John Fritze\n\nPsaki: Lack of Black women on Supreme Court does not equal lack of qualified candidates\n\nThe fact that no Black women have ever been nominated for the Supreme Court is not an indication of a lack of qualified candidates, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.\n\nInstead, she said, it “shows a deficiency of the past selection processes.”\n\n“The president's view is that it is long past time to have a Black woman on the Supreme Court,” she said.\n\nPsaki had been asked whether Biden’s requirement that his nominee be a Black woman is “reverse racism” or otherwise inappropriate.\n\nPsaki said that, in addition to nominat a record number of Black women to serve on the lower courts, Biden has also put forward “the highest level of Ivy League nominees.”\n\n“He has nominated a broad sway of extremely qualified, experienced and credentialed nominees,” she said, “and done that by also making them incredibly diverse.”\n\n-- Maureen Groppe\n\nBreyer 'hand delivered' resignation letter to Biden\n\nPsaki declined to say when Biden was made aware of Breyer's decision but revealed that the liberal jurist hand-delivered his formal resignation letter to the president this morning before the official White House event.\n\nPsaki said the White House would lay out more detail about when Biden learned of Breyer's decision.\n\n-- Courtney Subramanian\n\nPsaki takes aim at Republicans as she points to no public short list to replace Breyer\n\nWhite House press secretary Jen Psaki responded to Republican criticism of Biden's potential pick to succeed Breyer, emphasizing the White House has yet to reveal a list of potential nominees.\n\n\"We have not mentioned a single name. We have not put out a list,\" she said. \"If anyone is saying they plan to characterize whoever he nominates, after thorough consideration with both parties, as radical before they knew literally anything about who she is, they just obliterated their own credibility.\"\n\nPsaki's comments came after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., released a statement saying Biden \"must not outsource this important decision to the radical left.\"\n\nShe said Biden is grateful to Republican members who have already indicated they plan to work with him.\n\nAsked when the White House plans to release Biden's short list, Psaki said declined to provide a timeline and repeated Biden is reviewing potential candidates.\n\n-- Courtney Subramanian\n\n'Long overdue':Biden reiterates vow to name first Black woman to Supreme Court\n\nMcConnell warns Biden against outsourcing SCOTUS pick to ‘radical left’\n\nSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called on Biden to nominate a moderate candidate to replace Breyer.\n\n“To the degree that President Biden received a mandate, it was to govern from the middle, steward our institutions, and unite America,” McConnell said in a statement Thursday. “The president must not outsource this important decision to the radical left.”\n\nDemocrats are likely to scoff at McConnell’s warning. The GOP leader blocked Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland, in 2016 and then put Donald Trump’s nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, on a confirmation fast track.\n\n-- Phillip Bailey\n\nVP Harris to have 'central role' in nomination and confirmation of Breyer replacement\n\nVice President Kamala Harris will play a central role in finding a nominee to replace Breyer on the Supreme Court, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.\n\nShe noted Harris’ past experience on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as California’s attorney general.\n\nBiden, Psaki said, “respects her opinion greatly.”\n\nRon Klain, Biden’s chief of staff, will also be heavily involved as will senior adviser Cedric Richmond, legislative affairs director Louisa Terrell and others.\n\nDuring the confirmation process, outside experts will also be brought in to help, according to Psaki.\n\n-- Maureen Groppe\n\nBiden has been considering candidates since last year\n\nBiden has been reviewing the records of potential Supreme Court candidates since last year, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.\n\n“His intention is to nominate a qualified candidate after completing a rigorous process,” she said of the timing.\n\nBiden’s statement that he intends to announce his nomination to replace Stephen Breyer by the end of February makes clear it’s a priority for him, she added.\n\n-- Maureen Groppe\n\nWhat has Biden said in the past about filling Supreme Court vacancies?\n\nWhile campaigning for president, Biden promised to name a Black woman to the nation's highest court for the first time in history. On Thursday, he reaffirmed that commitment. Biden already has nominated 62 women to the federal judiciary.\n\nIn the past he's commented on everything from court packing to who should get to pick nominees. With the retirement of Justice Breyer, Biden's past remarks could yield some clues about how he will go about picking a replacement for Breyer now.\n\nRead the rest here:What Biden has said about filling vacancies on the nation's highest court\n\n-- Chelsey Cox\n\nBiden invites Breyer to stay in the Lincoln Bedroom\n\nAfter Beyer spoke, Biden invited the justice and his wife to visit the White House and stay in the Lincoln Bedroom. Biden noted a handwritten copy of former President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is on the wall.\n\n“You’ve got to come and see it,” he said. “Bring your grandchildren as well.”\n\nBreyer had described how his wife, Joanna, paid their grandchildren to memorize the address, which Lincoln delivered during the Civil War.\n\n-- Maureen Groppe\n\nMore:Justice Stephen Breyer's notable majority opinions and dissents, from abortion to the death penalty\n\nBiden may be considering Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for SCOTUS\n\nPresident Joe Biden confirmed Thursday he will nominate a Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court for the first time in the nation's history. One person widely considered to be a top candidate: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.\n\nThe 51-year-old, Harvard Law grad, who was recently confirmed to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, was floated as a possible nominee back in 2016 when President Barack Obama was still in the White House.\n\nYou can read more about Judge Jackson here.\n\n-- John Fritze\n\nMore:Who is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson? For starters, she once clerked for Justice Breyer\n\nBreyer cites Lincoln's Gettysburg Address\n\nHolding a pocketbook copy of the Constitution, Breyer called the U.S. a “complicated country” that doesn’t always agree. He said the U.S. was founded as “an experiment,” one that continues today, before quoting Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.”\n\n“We are now engaged in a great civil war to determine whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure,” Breyer said.\n\nHe expressed optimism that the “great experiment” will continue for future generations.\n\n“I'm an optimist, and I'm pretty sure it will,” he said.\n\n-- Joey Garrison\n\nMore:'Stealthy' Justice Stephen Breyer had a big impact on abortion. That legacy is now in jeopardy\n\nBiden declines to take questions about Breyer retirement, nominee\n\nBiden declined to take questions Thursday following brief remarks announcing the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, saying it would be \"inappropriate.\"\n\n\"I think it's inappropriate to take questions with the justice here,\" Biden said. \"He's still sitting on the bench. But you'll have plenty of opportunities to get me later today.\"\n\nSupreme Court justices rarely take questions from reporters but many of the questions Thursday would likely have directed to Biden the frenzied process that will now begin for choosing Breyer's successor.\n\n-- John Fritze\n\nPragmatist. Institutionalist. Optimist:How Justice Stephen Breyer changed the Supreme Court\n\nBiden to announce decision before the end of February\n\nBiden said it's his intention to announce his decision for Breyer's successor before the end of February.\n\n\"I have made no choice at this point,\" the president said, noting that he plans to invite senators from both parties, leading scholars and lawyers and advisers like Vice President Kamala Harris to offer their points of view.\n\n\"In the end, I will nominate a historic candidate, someone who is worthy of Justice Breyer's legacy.\"\n\n-- Courtney Subramanian\n\nBiden praises Breyer’s legacy\n\nBiden said Breyer exceeded the hopes for him, when he was appointed to the court, “in every possible way.”\n\nIn particular, Biden praised Breyer for seeking common ground to bring colleagues together on opinions Biden called Breyer’s opinions practical, sensible and nuanced.\n\nBreyer knew the job of a judge is not to law down the law, but to “get it right,” Biden said. He “gave faith to the notion that the law exists to help the people,” Biden added.\n\nBeyer called Biden’s remarks “terribly nice.”\n\n-- Maureen Groppe\n\nBiden confirms he will nominate first Black woman to SCOTUS\n\nPresident Joe Biden reiterated Thursday he will nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court for the first time in the nation’s history.\n\n“It’s long overdue,” Biden said at the White House in an event with Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, who is retiring later this year. “I will keep that commitment.”\n\nBiden, who said he is already reviewing candidates, said he would announce a candidate before the end of February.\n\n-- John Fritze\n\nBiden on Breyer: ‘Today is his day’\n\nBiden called Breyer a “model public servant in a time of great division in this country,” adding that he’s “everything his country could have asked.”\n\n“Today is his day – our day to commend his life of service and his life on the court,” Biden, before going into what he wants from a nominee to replace him.\n\n-- Joey Garrison\n\nBiden 'proud and grateful' to witness Breyer's career\n\nBiden, a former senator who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it was \"my honor\" to vote to confirm Breyer to the U.S. Court of Appeals first in 1980 and later preside over his Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1994.\n\nHe said the pair joked before his remarks about how Biden would be president when he decided to retire.\n\n\"I was proud and grateful to be there at the start of his distinguished career in the Supreme Court,\" Biden said. \"And I'm very proud to be here today on this announcement of his retirement.\"\n\n-- Courtney Subramanian\n\nBiden, Breyer begin remarks\n\nPresident Joe Biden and Associate Justice Stephen Beyer have entered the Roosevelt Room at the White House, where the two will formally announce Breyer’s retirement.\n\n“This is sort of a bittersweet day for me,\" Biden said. \"Justice Breyer and I go back a long way.”\n\n-- John Fritze\n\nWhat is the process for Supreme Court nominations?\n\nThe process for replacing a Supreme Court justice always is closely watched, but it will take on new intrigue in the divided Senate, where Democrats have struggled to unify behind Biden's agenda.\n\nThe Senate is split evenly between the two parties, with Vice President Kamala Harris acting as the tie-breaking vote. While Democrats control the chamber, moderate senators in the party have stopped several pieces of legislation the Biden administration has championed.\n\nHere is how Biden, and the presidents before him, get their nominee onto the high court: The process for Supreme Court nominations and how long it could take.\n\n--- Rick Rouan\n\nBreyer formally announces retirement in letter to Biden\n\nSupreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer confirmed Thursday he will retire after nearly three decades on the bench, offering his first public statement since the news of his decision broke a day earlier.\n\n\"I enormously appreciate the privilege of serving as part of the federal judicial system,\" Breyer wrote in a letter to the president announcing his retirement. \"I have found the work challenging and meaningful.\"\n\nBreyer’s letter was released by the court minutes before he was set to hold a joint appearance with Biden, who will now begin the process of nominating his successor.\n\nNominated by President Bill Clinton in 1994, Breyer has been a reliable vote for the court’s liberal bloc on cases dealing with abortion, guns and religion.\n\n-- John Fritze\n\nBreyer had a big impact on abortion. Will that legacy survive?\n\nJustice Stephen Breyer may not be the best-known member of the Supreme Court, but the senior-most liberal justice has had a huge impact on the divisive issue of abortion.\n\nAs he prepares to leave the court, many of those opinions appear to be in jeopardy.\n\nBreyer has written key opinions expanding the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established the constitutional right to abortion and a subsequent 1992 case. But the court, where conservatives enjoy a 6-3 advantage, has shifted substantially in recent years and a majority has signaled it may undermine those precedents later this year.\n\nYou can read more about Breyer’s abortion decisions here:\n\nAbortion rights:'Stealthy' Justice Stephen Breyer had a big impact on abortion. That legacy is now in jeopardy\n\n-- John Fritze\n\nRepublicans could delay, but not block Biden's Supreme Court pick if all Democrats back nominee\n\nRepublicans could delay the confirmation of Biden’s pick to replace Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, but they won’t be able to block it by themselves if all Democrats unite behind a nominee.\n\nUnder Senate rules that GOP lawmakers changed several years ago, a simple majority is all that’s needed to approve a presidential nomination to the country’s highest court.\n\nThat means the 50 Democrats could push through Biden’s pick with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking 51st vote, a fact acknowledged by South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Judiciary Committee that will hold hearings on the eventual nominee.\n\n“If all Democrats hang together – which I expect they will – they have the power to replace Justice Breyer in 2022 without one Republican vote in support,” he tweeted Wednesday shortly after news of Breyer’s retirement broke.\n\nRead the whole story here:Republicans could delay, but not block Biden's Supreme Court pick if all Democrats back nominee\n\n– Ledge King", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/01/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/opinions/scotus-justice-ketanji-brown-jackson-opinion/index.html", "title": "Opinion: What kind of justice will Ketanji Brown Jackson be? - CNN", "text": "(CNN) CNN Opinion asked contributors to weigh in on President Joe Biden's selection of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US Supreme Court. The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the contributors.\n\nFatima Goss Graves: A nomination that should unite the country\n\nJudge Ketanji Brown Jackson is an eminently qualified public servant with distinguished experience as a federal judge, and her historic nomination promises an end to the erasure of Black women from our most sacred legal institutions. She brings extensive litigation experience at every level of the federal court system, including distinguished service as a federal public defender. As a district court judge, she ruled on over 550 cases and is renowned for her careful, methodical approach to ensuring equal justice under the law on reproductive rights, disability rights and workers' rights.\n\nFrankly, this is a nomination that should unite the country. Diversity strengthens the integrity of the institution to the broader public and, in particular, the many Black women who face many of the harshest injustices of our system today. It's critical for the US Supreme Court to understand the impact of its rulings in the real world, and it can't do that until it reflects the country it governs. Jackson will move us closer to a more fair and just system for women, for Black Americans and for everyone on the side of equality before the law.\n\nIt is incumbent upon US senators to give her a fair and timely confirmation without obstruction, honoring their constitutional duty to advise and consent -- and their moral duty to treat her with the respect and dignity she deserves.\n\n​​Fatima Goss Graves is president and CEO of the National Women's Law Center.\n\nElie Honig: A nominee Republicans will be hard-pressed to oppose\n\nFirst things first: it's about time. It's long past time. For the first time in the history of the US Supreme Court, a Black woman has been nominated as a Justice.\n\nAnd, to be clear, you will not find a more qualified nominee than Judge (likely soon-to-be Justice) Kentaji Brown Jackson. She graduated from Harvard, both undergrad and law school. She clerked for a federal district court judge and then, in a nice bit of symmetry, nabbed a mega-prestigious clerkship with Justice Stephen Breyer, who she now stands to replace.\n\nShe worked in private practice and for the US Sentencing Commission before she became a federal district court judge in 2013. Last year, she was nominated as a federal appellate judge , winning confirmation with 53 votes, including three Republicans. I have seen her in action on the bench, and I came away exceptionally impressed. In the case I covered, she was prepared, sharp, incisive and fair.\n\nSenate Republicans can act one of two ways in the wake of Jackson's nomination. They can dig in and oppose it, but they don't have much of substance to work with -- and they'll likely lose anyway, given the current Democratic Senate majority (which will presumably be coupled with the votes of three Republicans who supported her federal appellate judgeship).\n\nOr Republicans can pick their battles and throw their support behind Jackson, given her qualifications and the seeming inevitably of her confirmation. Maybe it seems quaint -- Breyer himself was confirmed by an 87 to 9 vote back in 1994, which now seems impossible -- but it also could be smart politics.\n\nElie Honig is a CNN senior legal analyst and former federal and state prosecutor, and author of \"Hatchet Man: How Bill Barr Broke the Prosecutor's Code and Corrupted the Justice Department.\"\n\nEd Whelan: Senate Republicans have an opportunity here\n\nIn selecting Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to fill Stephen Breyer's seat on the Supreme Court, President Joe Biden has fulfilled his campaign pledge to nominate the first female African American justice.\n\nBiden selected Jackson for additional reasons, of course. Jackson has impressive credentials, and Biden likely feels confident that Jackson will implement the results-oriented, make-it-up-as-you-go-along \"living constitutionalism\" that progressives espouse.\n\nBiden has already demonstrated that differences in judicial philosophy justify efforts to oppose the confirmation of the first female African American justice. Back in 2005, he even threatened to filibuster President George W. Bush's possible nomination of DC Circuit judge Janice Rogers Brown to the Supreme Court.\n\nThe left is likely to make accusations of racism and sexism in response to any concerns expressed over Jackson's vision of the judicial role. But if Senate Republicans assess Jackson on the basis of judicial philosophy, and don't succumb to political pressure because of her race and sex, they will responsibly fulfill their constitutional duty to advise and consent.\n\nThe Democrats have control of the Senate, albeit slim control, so Jackson will almost certainly be confirmed. The process will probably be rather quiet. But Senate Republicans should use the opportunity to emphasize that judging is a craft that is distinct from policymaking. They can reinforce the message that the duty of a Supreme Court justice is to discern and apply the meaning that constitutional and statutory provisions bore when they were adopted, not to rewrite those provisions to advance an ideological agenda.\n\nEd Whelan holds the Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. A former law clerk to Justice Scalia, he is co-editor of \"The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law\" and of two other volumes of Scalia's work.\n\nLaura Coates: The power of seeing a former public defender nominated\n\nFor me, the power of seeing a Black woman nominated to the highest court in the land is without equal. But what is also extraordinary is that she will be a former federal public defender -- a position she held for 2 1/2 years -- in a country with a legal system still aspiring to be a justice system.\n\nAs a prosecutor, I wielded a tremendous amount of power in the exercise of my discretion to pursue (or decline to pursue) charges and autonomy in the way I met my burden of proof. But like the power held by a co-equal branch of government, the power of prosecutors must be checked -- not to disrupt the pursuit of justice but to further it. In a country where race and bias are far too frequently elevated above fairness, public defenders are the welcome foil to balance the system.\n\nThe relationship between public defenders and prosecutors may be necessarily adversarial, but it is always symbiotic. Prosecutors get all the credit (and blame) for ensuring accountability, as if they alone believe in it.\n\nThe public may mistakenly view those who represent the accused as soft on crime. Indeed, if past is prologue, I expect such an absurd talking point to emerge during Jackson's confirmation hearings. But public defenders are not soft on crime -- they are hard on injustice, which is precisely where we as a society must be. And precisely where a Supreme Court justice ought to be.\n\nI sincerely hope Jackson is afforded the dignity she ensured for the presumed innocent: due process, fairness, equal protection from an abuse of power and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. After all, it's the US Supreme Court.\n\nLaura Coates is a CNN senior legal analyst and author of \"Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor's Fight For Fairness.\" She is a former assistant US attorney for the District of Columbia and trial attorney in the civil rights division of the Department of Justice. Coates is the host of the daily \"Laura Coates Show\" on SiriusXM. Follow her @thelauracoates\n\nJeffrey Toobin: What kind of justice will Ketanji Brown Jackson be?\n\nOne thing that's always said when there's a US Supreme Court nomination is that presidents are often surprised by how their choices turn out. Presidents think the future justice will vote one way, and they wind up voting another way.\n\nDon't believe it. Especially in recent years, the art of picking Supreme Court justices has been refined to a science. All nine of the current justices largely vote in ways that would please the presidents who nominated them. That's likely to be true if Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is confirmed as well.\n\nThe myth of the surprised president dates principally from the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, who nominated Earl Warren and William Brennan to the Supreme Court and found, to his dismay, that they were both powerful and outspoken liberals.\n\nHere's one thing to know about the Eisenhower administration: it was a long time ago. In those days, the court was not the public political battleground that it has become, and Eisenhower's choices were motivated more by politics than ideology. (Eisenhower had promised the seat to Warren, then the governor of California, and he chose Brennan to appeal to Catholic voters on the eve of his 1956 reelection.)\n\nIt's true that President George H.W. Bush's appointment of David Souter in 1990 ranks as a modest surprise, but his behavior as a moderate on the court was consistent with both his own earlier record as a judge and Bush's overall approach to social issues. Also, 1990 was a long time ago.\n\nIn recent years, though, as the court has become the focus of fights on such issues as abortion, guns and affirmative action, ideology has become the main criteria for selections. Presidents (as well as their advisers and supporters) care a great deal about the possibility of ideological mistakes. So they don't make them. President Joe Biden wanted a judicial liberal, and that's what he will get with Jackson. She will not surprise him, or us.\n\nJeffrey Toobin is CNN's chief legal analyst and the author of \"The Nine\" and \"The Oath.\"\n\nA'shanti F. Gholar: An important step in addressing racial injustice\n\nJudge Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination is an important step in addressing the injustices in the US judicial system, but it's not the only step we need to take. America's legal system has always looked different for Black women, who have historically been discriminated against. That will not change until we see more Black women jurists like Jackson in positions of legal power, and that begins with empowering Black women to be the leaders they deserve to be.\n\nJackson is the ideal role model in this regard. Her record is one that has championed equity and justice . She fought to defend the rights of incarcerated individuals, issued rulings that protected labor and women's rights and upheld the integrity of our constitution when it was under attack by the Trump administration.\n\nAlong with her wealth of judicial expertise, she also brings with her experiences and identities that have never been enjoyed by another Supreme Court justice -- and have been sorely missed in the highest court in America. I look forward to her swift approval process through the US Senate and hopefully to her being seated on a bench that doesn't require her to bring her own folding chair.\n\nA'shanti F. Gholar , former national deputy director of community engagement and director of African American Engagement for the Democratic National Committee, is the president of Emerge , an organization that recruits and trains Democratic women to run for office.\n\nErwin Chemerinsky: Jackson may be the stabilizing force the Supreme Court needs\n\nPresident Joe Biden simply could not have done better than his choice of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the United States Supreme Court. In the world of law, credentials don't get better than hers. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, she clerked for judges in the federal district court and the federal court of appeals. She was also a clerk for Justice Stephen Breyer, who she is now poised to replace. Jackson has had extensive experience in a variety of settings and has served as a federal judge since 2013.\n\nShe also brings to the court experiences and perspectives the current justices lack. Most obviously, she is the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court. If confirmed, Jackson will also be the only justice on the current court to have worked as a public defender. She has significant experience as a trial judge, something only Justice Sonia Sotomayor has among those now on the high court.\n\nAs I think about what makes for a great justice, Jackson has it all: keen intelligence, enormous experience, unquestionable integrity, a terrific judicial temperament and a vision of justice. She should be confirmed swiftly by the Senate and start what will hopefully be a long career on the Supreme Court. Many will rightfully point out the fact that she won't change the current ideological balance of the court by replacing Breyer. But if Jackson is still a justice in 2040 and 2050, she may be a stabilizing force on a very different court.\n\nErwin Chemerinsky is dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He is the author of \"Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights.\"\n\nJennifer Rodgers: The Supreme Court needs more diversity. Justice Jackson offers just that\n\nJudge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden's nominee to fill the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer's seat on the Supreme Court, has it all. She is a highly accomplished lawyer and an experienced jurist with the sterling educational and clerkship credentials expected of someone about to ascend to the pinnacle of the legal profession. And, as a Black woman, Jackson will bring a historic perspective and important representation to the nation's highest court.\n\nJackson shares all of the above characteristics with the other two final candidates Biden was considering: California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger and US District Judge J. Michelle Childs . All three women are also 55 or under; nominating someone relatively young has become close to mandatory in recent years for Supreme Court nominees of presidents of both parties since justices can serve for life. But what distinguishes Jackson from the others, and what very well may have led to her selection, is her service as a criminal defense lawyer, both as a federal public defender and in private practice . She offers the kind of professional diversity that has become one of the calling cards of Biden's judicial nominations strategy.\n\nBiden is right to prioritize elevating judges who bring different backgrounds and experiences to the courts, especially to the Supreme Court, where not a single justice has Jackson's experience defending criminal cases. The Supreme Court needs more diversity, of all kinds; hopefully Jackson will be the first step in making that become a reality.\n\nJennifer Rodgers is a former federal prosecutor, adjunct professor of clinical law at NYU School of Law, lecturer-in-law at Columbia Law School and a CNN legal analyst.\n\nElliot Williams: Jackson's airtight resume is GOP kryptonite\n\nThe legal profession is plagued by elitism. It's easy for me to say this, having attended Ivy League schools myself, but prestigious academic institutions do not confer much of anything that can't be gained from other schools.\n\nOf the nine justices currently on the Supreme Court, however, eight have degrees from Harvard or Yale. If confirmed, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who has two Harvard degrees, will perpetuate the Ivies' dominance on the Supreme Court.\n\nWhile I will be the first to argue that the Supreme Court desperately needs justices with more varied educational backgrounds, in Jackson's case, her credentials from an elite institution are a good thing.\n\nHere's why. Shortly after President Joe Biden announced he would fulfill his promise to put a Black woman on the court -- an uncontroversial statement given past presidents' commitments to make barrier-breaking nominations -- a US senator went on the record to call the eventual nominee a \" beneficiary \" of affirmative action. Another senator expressed doubts about whether the nominee would know \"a law book from a J. Crew catalog.\" A prominent conservative took to Twitter and predicted the nominee would be a \"lesser black woman.\" (He later deleted the tweets and apologized, calling it \"inartful.\")\n\nAt their cores, each of these statements was a manifestation of disbelief that -- gasp! -- a Black woman might be just as qualified as any other previous nominee to serve on the Supreme Court.\n\nBlack people face enough barriers in workplaces as it is. For instance, job applicants with \"Black-sounding\" names are less likely to get interviewed than their White counterparts, and Black women with natural hairstyles are seen as less professional and competent . I speak firsthand in saying that being Black and successful in America is a constant exercise in having to prove you are worthy. That struggle doesn't end in the marble halls of the Supreme Court.\n\nIf, today, Jackson's having two Harvard degrees and an otherwise airtight resume is what it takes to quiet at least some of the criticism, then so be it.\n\nElliot Williams is a CNN legal analyst. He is a former deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department. Follow him on Twitter @elliotcwilliams\n\nRaul A. Reyes: A justice who sees the basic humanity of immigrants\n\nIn Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden has put forth a US Supreme Court nominee with impeccable credentials and a stellar legal background.\n\nIn addition to her degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, she brings diverse professional experience to the high court; she has worked at large and small firms, as a public defender, and served on the US Sentencing Commission, where she backed a proposal to reduce federal drug trafficking sentences. This type of varied experience will serve her well on a court that often seems out of touch and has seen its public approval rating drop.\n\nAccording to Associated Press polling , the majority of African Americans say it's very or extremely important that a Black woman serves on the Supreme Court, and the President has now delivered on a key promise.\n\nJackson will likely earn support from Latino advocacy groups as well, as our communities have much in common in the struggle for civil rights and social justice.\n\nJackson's rulings on immigration are also important, as congressional inaction and legal challenges to immigration policy have given the Supreme Court an outsized role on this issue.\n\nAlthough in several cases she sought to protect the rights of migrants, she also denied a challenge to Trump's border wall -- so no one can accuse her of favoring \"open borders.\" Most importantly, whether ruling for or against migrants, Jackson has avoided using terms like \"illegals\" or \"aliens.\" As the National Immigration Law Center notes , this acknowledges the basic humanity of immigrants.\n\nThe Supreme Court holds immense power over our daily lives, on issues ranging from health care to the environment to reproductive and voting rights. At a time when many Americans have lost faith in institutions, Jackson will help restore trust and stability to the high court. Her historic nomination deserves bipartisan support.\n\nRaul A. Reyes is an attorney and a member of the USA Today board of contributors. Follow him on Twitter @RaulAReyes\n\nLaphonza Butler: What Jackson proves about breaking the mold\n\nPresident Joe Biden's nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman Supreme Court nominee in the court's history is a tremendous moment for America. After a rigorous process, Jackson has proven that she has the experience and character to do this vital job.\n\nAs a Black woman, I am thrilled for what this means for me, my daughter and my community.\n\nWhile I rejoice in the historic nature of her nomination, I also want to celebrate the incredible qualifications Jackson brings to this role. A daughter of teachers , she went to Harvard Law School, has served in nearly every part of our legal system and brings that kind of well-rounded experience that we need on the highest court. It's no wonder that she has been confirmed three times on a bipartisan vote.\n\nUnfortunately, even being an impeccably qualified nominee who has been praised by both former President Barack Obama for being an \"unwavering voice for justice and fairness\" and by former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan , who gave her \"unequivocal\" praise for her integrity and intellect, Jackson will almost certainly face racist and sexist comments that come with being the first.\n\nAt EMILY's List, we have seen far too many history-makers and ground-breakers have their accomplishments questioned and their qualifications undermined. But we know what Jackson's example proves: to be the first and to break the mold, you bring qualifications, experience and character that is unrivaled.\n\nI am proud to support her and look forward to the legacy she will hopefully create on the court.\n\nLaphonza Butler is the president of EMILY's List, the nation's largest resource for women in politics. Butler grew up in Magnolia, Mississippi and served as a union leader and adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign.\n\nAdam White: Jackson's nomination gives senators an important incentive\n\nAdam White\n\nEvery US Supreme Court nomination presents an opportunity for Americans and our elected leaders to reflect on the court's crucial, singular role in American government: to decide cases under the rule of law, according to the constitution and laws of our country.\n\nJudge Ketanji Brown Jackson was recognized as the frontrunner for this seat because she is a respected judge on one of the nation's most important courts. Her discussions with US senators, in visits and in the public hearing, will be an ideal forum for serious constitutional debate.\n\nJudicial nominees are rightly reluctant to prejudge issues, especially when the nominee is a sitting judge. If Jackson follows this tradition, then senators will have all the more incentive to ask her about the bigger picture: her view of the court's role in government and its responsibility to faithfully interpret the laws as written.\n\nIn an era when the Supreme Court is enduring partisan attacks on its legitimacy, and facing dangerous threats to pack the court for partisan purposes, it is crucial for senators -- and all Americans -- to know that the next justice is committed to preserving the rule of law and the court's indispensable constitutional role.\n\nAdam White is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. In 2021, President Joe Biden appointed him to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States.\n\nMini Timmaraju: A smart choice for upholding reproductive freedom\n\nThe nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson -- the first Black woman ever nominated to the US Supreme Court -- is an historic and exciting moment.\n\nShe is an immensely qualified judge who will bring a new, much-needed and long-overdue perspective to the court. Not only that, Jackson has a demonstrated record of upholding reproductive freedom , a critical consideration with the right to abortion facing unprecedented attacks.\n\nJackson's nomination comes at a pivotal moment for the court. Her confirmation won't change the balance of the court or the outcome of the looming decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization -- the case directly challenging Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion. However, we must seize this chance to confirm a justice who will work to protect our most cherished rights and freedoms and help to shape the future of our country in the decades to come.\n\nThe anti-choice movement and its political allies spent decades working to install their ideologues on our nation's highest court. The confirmations of Trump's justices to the Supreme Court cemented a majority that is unmistakably hostile to abortion, and that won't be easily undone. But confirming justices like Jackson is how we move closer to a future in which all of our families and communities thrive -- a future in which there is equal justice for all of us.\n\nWith so much on the line, we can't leave anything on the table in our fight to confirm Jackson to the court.\n\nMini Timmaraju is the President of NARAL Pro-Choice America, an organization that advocates for abortion access in USA.\n\nPaul Callan: Timing is everything\n\n​​With Russian troops on the march in Ukraine, Americans have not been sitting on the edge of their seats, waiting to see whom President Joe Biden will nominate to the US Supreme Court.\n\nInstead, they are glued to their television sets wondering if Russian President Vladimir Putin is crazy enough to trigger World War III in his quest to rebuild the former Soviet Union.\n\nBiden's attempt to change the subject from war, inflation and the economy to the Supreme Court may hurt Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation prospects. The timing of this announcement means the White House has lost an important opportunity to rally the public behind Jackson before Republicans go on the offensive.\n\nNo doubt, Biden's nominee is highly qualified for the position. Jackson checks all the right boxes -- she holds a Harvard Law degree, clerked for federal judges and served as a public defender. She now sits as a federal appellate judge on the prestigious DC Circuit Court. She appears to be widely respected in the legal profession, and progressives have already applauded Biden's decision to nominate her. Republicans, on the other hand, are likely to say that she is too radical for the Supreme Court.\n\nIronically, her biggest obstacle to a swift confirmation is more likely to be Putin than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. With Americans more focused on the war in Ukraine than the Supreme Court, Jackson's confirmation is unlikely to get the attention it deserves. Americans will need an opportunity to get to know Jackson, and the initial publicity surrounding any nominee serves an important educational purpose. Without that public support, Jackson could be more vulnerable to damaging attacks from the GOP.\n\nAnnouncing Jackson's nomination at this moment, given the current crisis in Ukraine, is a rookie mistake for a president languishing in the polls. As a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden seems to have forgotten that even in the selection process for Supreme Court nominees, timing is everything.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/25"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_13", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:22", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/27/supreme-court-football-coach-joseph-kennedy-prayers/7603448001/", "title": "Supreme Court backs praying coach Joseph Kennedy who knelt on ...", "text": "Kennedy lost his job after kneeling midfield after games at a public high school.\n\nThe ruling could change how courts review religious actions by government employees.\n\nIt was the latest Supreme Court decision in which the vote split along ideological lines.\n\nWASHINGTON – In a decision with sweeping implications for the separation of church and state, the Supreme Court on Monday sided with a former high school football coach who lost his job for offering prayers at the 50-yard line after games despite objections from the school district that students felt compelled to take part.\n\nIn the latest instance of the nation's highest court backing a religious freedom claim, a majority of the justices said that assistant coach Joseph Kennedy's prayers were a private matter and did not amount to the school district's endorsement of Christianity.\n\nAssociate Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the 6-3 majority opinion. The court's three liberal justices dissented, asserting that the majority had effectively abandoned a 1971 precedent that had once set the standard for how such cases should be resolved.\n\n\"Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse republic – whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head,\" Gorsuch wrote. \"Here, a government entity sought to punish an individual for engaging in a brief, quiet, personal religious observance doubly protected by\" the First Amendment.\n\nKennedy:Coach Kennedy reacts to Supreme Court decision in prayer case\n\nBacklash, celebration:Ruling overturning Roe sparks debate about court's legitimacy\n\nGuns:Supreme Court's Second Amendment decision demands courts look to history\n\nChief justice:Roberts wanted to go slow curbing Roe. His colleagues were in a hurry.\n\nThe decision came on the heels of a series of rulings in which the court has significantly shifted the interpretation of the Constitution toward a conservative viewpoint. Chief among those was the court's decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.\n\nAlso last week, in another 6-3 opinion, the court struck down a century-old New York gun law that limited the ability of residents to obtain licenses to carry guns in public. In doing so, the court set a new standard for reviewing Second Amendment cases that could have a profound impact on other gun regulations across the nation.\n\nThough less high profile than those cases, the decision Monday siding with the \"praying coach\" had implications not only for the practice of religion in schools but in other government contexts as well. In recent weeks, the court has repeatedly sided with religious plaintiffs challenging government policies that were crafted in response to the constitutional prohibition on public entities favoring one religion over another.\n\n\"Our Constitution protects the right of every American to engage in private religious expression, including praying in public, without fear of getting fired,\" said Kelly Shackelford, president of First Liberty, which represented Kennedy. \"We are grateful that the Supreme Court recognized what the Constitution and law have always said – Americans are free to live out their faith in public.\"\n\nAssociate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent joined by the court's other two liberal justices, said the decision weakens the barrier between church and state.\n\n\"This case is not about the limits on an individual’s ability to engage in private prayer at work,\" Sotomayor wrote in her dissent. \"This case is about whether a school district is required to allow one of its employees to incorporate a public, communicative display of the employee’s personal religious beliefs into a school event.\"\n\nKennedy was placed on administrative leave in 2015 from his job at Bremerton High School, a public school near Seattle. The San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled last year that Kennedy was acting as a public employee when he offered the prayers and so his actions were not protected by the First Amendment.\n\nCoach:Supreme Court appears sympathetic to praying high school football coach\n\nFlag:Boston can't deny Christian flag if it flies others at City Hall, Supreme Court rules\n\nThe high court rejected that argument, asserting that Kennedy's prayer's were separate from his official duties as a coach and employee at the school.\n\n\"He was not instructing players, discussing strategy, encouraging better on-field performance, or engaged in any other speech the district paid him to produce as a coach,\" Gorsuch wrote.\n\nFor decades, the court's guiding doctrine for deciding cases dealing with the intersection of government and religion was the \"Lemon test,\" named after a 1971 decision in which the court ruled government policies must have a secular purpose, cannot advance or inhibit religion and cannot excessively entangle church and state.\n\nIn a 1984 concurring opinion that some lower courts have read as part of the Lemon test, Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor raised the idea that the justices should consider whether a policy amounts to an endorsement or disapproval of religion. But in recent years the court has bypassed Lemon, and Monday's opinion openly dismissed it.\n\n\"This court long ago abandoned Lemon and its endorsement test offshoot,\" Gorsuch wrote. In the dissent, Sotomayor asserted the court had \"overruled\" Lemon.\n\n\"In some ways, the court's ruling ... is unexceptional,\" said Abner Greene, a professor at Fordham University's School of Law. \"But this Court again reaches more broadly than necessary, in its apparent mission to return us to understandings of our Founding Fathers.\"\n\nRachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which represented the school district, said the decision dispenses with the way courts have for decades looked at disputes over religion in the public square.\n\n\"It is no coincidence that the erosion of the line between church and state has come alongside devastating losses on so many of the rights we cherish,\" Laser said. \"As that line has blurred, public education, reproductive rights, civil rights and more have come under attack.\"\n\nSchool officials said they offered Kennedy the option of praying elsewhere. They said they heard from players' parents who were concerned their children felt compelled by peer pressure to participate. Kennedy countered that the accommodations were impractical because the spaces that officials offered were \"insanely far away from my players.\" And he said he never asked and pressured anyone else to pray with him.\n\nDuring the April oral arguments in the case, several of the conservative justices indicated they thought the prayers were a private matter and different from a teacher praying in a classroom with students present. The Supreme Court ruled in 1962 that public schools could not offer prayers, even if participation by students is voluntary.\n\nSeveral of the court's liberal justices raised concerns during arguments this year about whether students might feel pressured to take part not because of any mandate from Kennedy but because it was important to their coach. Gorsuch waved those concerns off, saying there was no evidence that players felt they had to take part in the prayer.\n\nThat interpretation, Gorsuch said, would cause other problems in schools.\n\n\"Not only could schools fire teachers for praying quietly over their lunch, for wearing a yarmulke to school, or for offering a midday prayer during a break before practice,\" he wrote. \"Under the district’s rule, a school would be required to do so.\"\n\nThe court has looked favorably on religious freedom claims in recent disputes over the First Amendment's establishment clause, which prohibits the government from becoming entangled with religion, and the amendment's free exercise clause, which guarantees the right to practice religion free of government interference.\n\nIn 2014, the court upheld a centuries-old tradition of offering prayers to open government meetings, even if those prayers are overwhelmingly Christian. In 2019, the court ruled that a Latin cross on government land outside Washington, D.C., did not have to be moved or altered in the name of church-state separation. In May, the Supreme Court ruled that Boston could not deny a Christian group the ability to raise a flag at City Hall alongside secular organizations that are encouraged to do so to celebrate the city's diversity. The court also struck down a state prohibition in Maine on using public money to attend schools that offer religious instruction.\n\n\"I’m still trying to process it,\" Kennedy told the Kitsap Sun, part of the USA TODAY Network. \"I haven’t stopped smiling once and it feels like my whole soul is vibrating. It’s awesome, it hasn’t settled in, but it’s awesome.\"\n\nContributing: Kitsap Sun", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/politics/football-coach-prayer-high-school-supreme-court-kennedy/index.html", "title": "Supreme Court rules school district cannot prohibit football coach's ...", "text": "Washington (CNN) The Supreme Court said Monday that a Washington state school district violated the First Amendment rights of a high school football coach when he lost his job after praying at the 50-yard line after games.\n\nThe opinion was 6-3 along conservative-liberal ideological lines.\n\n\"The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike,\" Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion.\n\nThe court said coach Joe Kennedy's prayers amounted to private speech, protected by the First Amendment, and could not be restricted by the school district.\n\nThe decision lowers the bar between church and state in an opinion that will allow more religious expression in public spaces. The court clarified that a government entity does not necessarily violate the Establishment Clause by permitting religious expression in public.\n\n\"We are aware of no historically sound understanding of the Establishment Clause that begins to '(make) it necessary for government to be hostile to religion' in this way,\" Gorsuch wrote.\n\nThe Establishment Clause of the Constitution says Congress can \"make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.\"\n\nKennedy praised the court's ruling in a statement on Monday, saying, \"All I've ever wanted was to be back on the field with my guys.\"\n\n\"I thank God for answering our prayers and sustaining my family through this long battle,\" he said.\n\nThe decision continues a trend of a right-leaning court that has sided repeatedly in recent years with religious conservatives. Last week, the court said that Maine could not exclude religious schools from tuition assistance programs in a 6-3 decision divided along ideological lines.\n\n\"Today's ruling is the court's second major expansion of constitutional protections for religion in six days,\" said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law.\n\n\"Last week, the court made it harder for states to decline to fund religious education. Today, the court is making it harder for secular schools to keep religion out of extracurricular activities, like high school football. In the name of defending religious exercise, the court's conservative majority has neutered the First Amendment's other reference to religion -- its prohibition of state sanctioning of it.\"\n\nJustice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the three liberal dissenters, said the court \"weakens\" the Establishment Clause's \"backstop\" protecting religious freedom.\n\n\"It elevates one individual's interest in personal religious exercise, in the exact time and place of that individual's choosing, over society's interest in protecting the separation between church and state, eroding the protections for religious liberty for all,\" Sotomayor wrote.\n\n'Audible prayers' on the field\n\nKennedy began his prayer ritual soon after he was hired in 2008, but the school district grew concerned when Kennedy's short, quiet prayers grew in 2015 as players began joining him on the field all while the crowd was still in the stands.\n\nThe school district said it never restricted him from offering silent, private prayers, and offered him an alternate place to pray off the football field after games. Kennedy refused the accommodations and was ultimately placed on paid administrative leave and suspended from the program. After the season, he was given a poor performance evaluation.\n\nHe did not seek a new contract, but instead filed suit, arguing that the school district had violated his rights under the First Amendment. Kennedy lost his case at the district court level and before the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals , which held that his prayer amounted to governmental speech that is not protected by the First Amendment.\n\nBefore oral arguments in April, Kennedy told CNN in an interview that \"every American should be able to have faith in public and not to be worried about being fired over it.\" Kennedy, who is Christian, said his prayers were meant to fulfill a covenant he had made to praise God after every game, \"win or lose.\"\n\nLawyers for the school district had argued to the court that Kennedy's prayer practice was not private or personal prayer, but rather a ritual undertaken in full view of students that the school district was justified in restricting.\n\n\"No one doubts that public school employees can have quiet prayers by themselves at work even if students can see,\" Richard B. Katskee, a lawyer for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told the justices.\n\nBut, Katskee said, that is not what Kennedy had engaged in. Instead, Katskee argued, Kennedy \"insisted on audible prayers at the 50-yard line with students ... (and) announced in the press that those prayers are how he helps these kids be better people.\"\n\nKatskee argued that even if the court viewed Kennedy's speech as private, the school district had adequate justification to restrict it because officials are permitted to \"prevent disruption of and maintain control over school events.\" Katskee gave the example that a Satanist group had come forward to demand the same access to the football field.\n\nNotre Dame Law School Professor Richard W. Garnett, who wrote a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Kennedy, said on Monday that the high court's ruling will \"provide much needed clarity and consistency\" to an area of the law that has been \"notoriously confused and inconsistent.\"\n\n\"The Establishment Clause is concerned with the entanglement of governmental and religious authority,\" he said, adding: \"It does not require the censorship of private religious expression.\"\n\nJustices differ on whether players were coerced\n\nIn his majority opinion, Gorsuch differentiated the case from past cases, pushing back on the notion that the opinion would lead to more school prayer.\n\nHe said the prayers at issue \"were not publicly broadcast or recited to a captive audience. Students were not required or expected to participate.\"\n\nGorsuch added that students \"were not required or expected to participate,\" rejecting concerns of some of the parents that students could feel \"coerced.\"\n\nAnd he limited the discussion to three prayers instead of a broader pattern of the coach's conduct.\n\n\"Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse Republic -- whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head,\" Gorsuch wrote.\n\nSotomayor's dissent, which included photographs of the prayers in question, suggested that she thought the majority was not describing accurately the factual circumstances of the case.\n\n\"As the majority tells it, Kennedy, a coach for the District's football program, 'lost his job' for '(praying) quietly while his students were otherwise occupied,'\" she wrote. \"The record before us, however, tells a different story.\"\n\nHer dissent also pointedly noted that the school district tried to accommodate the coach by offering him a place to pray, off the field. \"Again, the District emphasized that it was happy to accommodate Kennedy's desire to pray on the job in a way that did not interfere with his duties or risk perceptions of endorsement,\" she said.\n\nShe said that it was \"unprecedented\" for the court to hold that Kennedy's conduct, \"taken as a whole, did not raise cognizable\" concerns of coercion.\n\nSotomayor stressed that students could have felt coerced to join in the prayer and pointed to the fact that the court in the past has \"recognized that students face immense social pressure.\"\n\nShe said that they look up to their teachers and coaches as role models and \"seek their approval\" and that players might try to gain a coach's approval to secure a stronger letter of recommendation for college recruiting or more playing time on the field. \"The record before the Court bears this out,\" she wrote.\n\nAlready, such concerns have been raised by the National Education Association, the nation's leading labor union for teachers, which said on Monday that the majority opinion would open the door to coercive prayer in schools.\n\n\"The Constitution should protect public school students from being coerced into religious activity,\" NEA president Becky Pringle said in a statement. \"The court's decision here does the opposite: it ignores the real-life pressure and coercion that students will feel when school officials stage public religious observances in class or at school events.\"\n\nThis story has been updated with additional details Monday.", "authors": ["Ariane De Vogue", "Tierney Sneed", "Devan Cole"], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/contributors/2022/06/16/supreme-court-decision-coach-prayer-muslim-jew/7546645001/", "title": "Supreme Court allowed football Coach Joe Kennedy's Christian ...", "text": "Howard Slugh, Gregory Dolin and Ismail Royer\n\nOpinion contributors\n\nFouad Zaban is head coach of the Fordson High School football team in Dearborn, Michigan. He's a Muslim, like most of his team. If a player offered him a drink of water during Ramadan, the coach would have to decline. If the student asked why, he would explain that he is fasting because of his faith.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2022/06/27/supreme-court-wrong-bremerton-coach-kennedy-prayer/7745645001/", "title": "Supreme Court wrong about Bremerton coach Kennedy's coercive ...", "text": "Frank Lambert\n\nOpinion contributor\n\nAs a rookie with the Pittsburgh Steelers, I objected to the pre-game prayers. They were the same each week and represented a negotiation with the almighty.\n\nAlthough the prayers were led by our defensive captain instead of a coach, I felt considerable pressure to attend. I did not want to offend a powerful veteran, and I wanted to be a good teammate.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/27/biden-g-7-ukraine-global-food-gas-crisis/7750553001/", "title": "Biden, G-7 leaders tackle Ukraine conflict, gas prices and food crisis", "text": "Welcome to a new week, OnPolitics readers!\n\nThe Supreme Court on Monday sided with a former high school football coach who lost his job for offering prayers at the 50-yard line after games despite objections from the school district in which students felt compelled to take part.\n\nIn the latest instance of the nation's highest court backing a religious freedom claim, a majority of the justices said assistant coach Joseph Kennedy's prayers were a private matter and did not amount to the school district's endorsement of Christianity.\n\nAssociate Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the 6-3 majority opinion. The court's three liberal justices dissented, asserting that the majority had effectively abandoned a 1971 precedent that had once set the standard for how such cases should be resolved.\n\nThe decision came on the heels of a series of rulings in which the court has significantly shifted the interpretation of the Constitution toward a conservative viewpoint. Chief among those was the court's decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.\n\nIt's Amy and Chelsey with today's top stories out of Washington\n\nBiden and global leaders address Ukraine conflict, food crisis at G-7 summit\n\nGroup of Seven nations are moving closer to capping the price that countries can pay for Russian oil, a senior U.S. official said.\n\nThe official said leaders aim to further restrict Vladimir Putin's cash flow, bring down prices at the gas pump and provide greater stability to energy markets.\n\nLeaders were said to be zeroing in on the way Russian oil is shipped. The U.S. official said G-7 leaders are planning to direct their governments to take urgent steps to design a price cap mechanism for countries that do not participate in the economic alliance.\n\nLeaders' plans to tackle Ukraine crisis: The U.S. also announced on Monday that it would impose sanctions that would make it harder for Russia to replace its military equipment. The official said that the U.S. Treasury Department will introduce blocking sanctions on private military companies operating in Ukraine and Russian officials trying to exert authority in contested areas.\n\nG-7 leaders have also agreed on a new way to fund the Ukrainian war effort, according to the White House. A fact sheet on the new measures says nations will seek to use funds generated by new tariffs on Russia to help Ukraine. As part of the announcement, the U.S. says it will raise tariffs on roughly $2.3 billion of Russian goods.\n\nWhy the conversation around food matters: Up to 50 million people in 45 countries are on the brink of famine as the costs of food, fuel and fertilizer have gone up, and grains grown in Ukraine that typically feed millions of people can’t be exported.\n\nMillions of people could starve to death. Countries and regions could become destabilized as food shortages led to riots, protests and increased migration, experts warn. Finding ways to prevent sure dire outcomes will be high on the G-7 agenda as the summit continues for the next few days.\n\nWant this news roundup in your inbox every night? Sign up for OnPolitics newsletter here.\n\nReal quick: stories you'll want to read\n\nTwo Americans face death penalty in Russia: The State Department has told the families of war volunteers Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, that “every single avenue of communication is being employed” after their capture by Russian forces on June 9.\n\nThe State Department has told the families of war volunteers Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, that “every single avenue of communication is being employed” after their capture by Russian forces on June 9. Legitimacy of SCOTUS questioned: Public approval of the high court further declined after justices' decision to overturn Roe v. Wade Friday.\n\nPublic approval of the high court further declined after justices' decision to overturn Roe v. Wade Friday. States compete to lead nominating calendar: Iowa has traditionally led the early voting window, but the Democratic National Committee has recently allowed any state to compete for the position.\n\nIowa has traditionally led the early voting window, but the Democratic National Committee has recently allowed any state to compete for the position. U.S. can't outcompete wheat production: U.S. growers are struggling to fill the void after Russia-Ukraine conflict disrupted the wheat market in top producer, Ukraine.\n\nThe 5 GOP lawmakers who asked for presidential pardons\n\nEvidence presented during the last hearing of the Jan. 6 committee Thursday revealed that former President Donald Trump and his allies devised several schemes to validate claims of 2020 presidential election fraud. None worked, due to the intervention of Justice Department officials, but at least five Republican lawmakers who supported Trump requested presidential pardons after the attack on the Capitol.\n\nReps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Louie Gohmert of Texas all issued statements denying the allegations of the committee or condemning the panel altogether.\n\nCatherine Ross, a law professor at George Washington University and author of “A Right to Lie? Presidents, other liars and the First Amendment,” told USA TODAY that a pardon request suggests an admission to guilt.\n\n“The most likely explanation is that they knew they were guilty of a crime and they didn’t want to be prosecuted and they didn’t want to go jail,” Ross said. “It suggests knowledge of culpability and legal risk.”\n\nThe five men have more than just their pardon request in common. All are members of the Freedom Caucus, the far-right coalition in the House that grew out of the Tea Party movement and all voted against certifying Electoral College votes in battleground states Arizona and Pennsylvania. Former Trump lawyer John Eastman suggested in a six-point plan that the states – two of seven swing states Trump lost – should not be counted toward President Joe Biden.\n\nWhen life begins is a central debate driving the abortion debate. Here's what different religions have to say on the issue. – Amy and Chelsey", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/30/breaking-down-supreme-court-on-roe-wade-second-amendment/7757961001/", "title": "Breaking down the Supreme Court's blockbuster, divisive term", "text": "", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/30"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/06/27/scotus-ruling-ukraine-shopping-mall-missile-strike-south-african-tavern-deaths-colorado-avalanche-it/7739831001/", "title": "Supreme Court takes on school prayer", "text": "The Supreme Court backed a religious freedom claim, siding with a high school football coach who lost his job for praying on the field. Twenty-two teens were found dead in a South Africa tavern. And the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup (then immediately dropped it).\n\n👋 Hey! Laura Davis here, and this is Monday's news, with a side of ugly dogs.\n\nBut first: Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the ugliest of them all? 🐶 It's Mr. Happy Face! A bunch of hideous dogs got together in California to compete for the title of World's Ugliest Dog. I'm sure they're nice. Here's the one crowned ugliest pup: Meet Mr. Happy Face, a 17-year-old Chinese Crested who fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. Check out all the winners here.\n\nThe Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.\n\nSCOTUS sides with coach over postgame prayer\n\nIn a decision with sweeping implications for the separation of church and state, the Supreme Court on Monday sided with a former high school football coach who lost his job for offering prayers at the 50-yard line after games despite objections from the school district because students felt compelled to take part. Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the 6-3 majority opinion that said Joseph Kennedy's prayers were a private matter and did not amount to the school district's endorsement of Christianity. The court's three liberal justices dissented, asserting the majority had effectively abandoned a 1971 precedent that had set the standard for how such cases should be resolved. The ruling could change how courts review religious actions by government employees. Keep reading.\n\nSupreme Court sides with praying football coach. We break it down.\n\nWe break it down. Landmark abortion ruling sparks debate about legitimacy of Supreme Court.\n\nUkraine shopping mall hit by Russian missile strike\n\nRussia intensified its campaign of terror in Ukraine on Monday with a missile strike on a crowded shopping mall in Kremenchuk. At least 11 people were dead, said regional Gov. Dmytro Lunin. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the number of possible victims was \"unimaginable,\" adding that the target presented \"no threat to the Russian army.\" It was one of at least 60 missiles Russia launched into Ukraine over the weekend, a barrage that killed civilians and destroyed and damaged apartment buildings. The latest updates from Ukraine.\n\n📸 Gallery: Scores feared dead, injured in missile strike on shopping mall.\n\nWhat everyone's talking about\n\nThe Short List is free, but several stories we link to are subscriber-only. Consider supporting our journalism and become a USA TODAY digital subscriber today.\n\nG-7 leaders meet in Germany\n\nPresident Joe Biden is in Germany for the Group of Seven summit, an annual economic meeting between leaders from the U.S., France, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan. The G-7 leaders spent Monday morning discussing ways to help Ukraine beat back a Russian offensive. They were addressed virtually by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose remarks were expected to jump-start conversations about additional artillery shipments. G-7 leaders are also discussing a price cap on Russian oil. Catch up: Everything that's happened at the G-7 summit.\n\nWhat is the G-7? And what is the Group of 20, or G-20? Answers here.\n\nWhat happened in South Africa?\n\nA celebration for end-of-school exams turned deadly – but officials aren't sure why. The bodies of 22 teenagers were discovered at a nightclub in South Africa. Reports said they had no visible signs of injury. Most of the victims, ages 13-17, were discovered lying on tables, slumped over chairs and sprawled on the floor of the club, police said. Their cause of death remained under investigation Monday, South African police officials said. Forensic samples were being sent to a toxicology laboratory, police said, not ruling out the possibility the victims were poisoned or ingested a toxin. Keep reading.\n\nReal quick\n\n💬 Pssst ... Did you know you can get the news via text every day? Sign up for The Short List text messages and I'll send the news straight to your phone five days a week – plus quizzes every Friday! Go here to sign up.(It's quick, I promise.)\n\nThat'll buff out 😉\n\nIt took the Colorado Avalanche 21 years to bring the Stanley Cup back, and about five minutes for them to make their mark on it. With the team gathered on the ice Sunday night in the aftermath of their Cup-clinching Game 6 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, right wing Nicolas Aube-Kubel skated toward the scrum for a team photo with the Cup in hand, only to lose his footing and slam the trophy on the ice as he fell, denting the base. \"I don’t even know if they had it five minutes and there’s a dent in the bottom already. Right in the middle of the team photo,\" said Phil Pritchard, the Hockey Hall of Fame’s keeper of the cup. The Avalanche prevented the Lightning from completing a Stanley Cup three-peat. It was the third Stanley Cup title in the franchise's history and the first since 2001. But don't worry – they'll get the cup repaired. Read more.\n\nAvalanche end Lightning's reign, win Stanley Cup for first time since 2001.\n\nwin Stanley Cup for first time since 2001. Nazem Kadri told his critics to 'kiss my [expletive]' after Avalanche won the Stanley Cup.\n\n🌤 What's the weather up to in your neck of the woods? Check your local forecast here.\n\nA break from the news", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/01/politics/supreme-court-analysis-abortion-guns-climate-change/index.html", "title": "The force of the Supreme Court's right turn has shaken the country ...", "text": "(CNN) The Supreme Court reached into every corner of American life, reordering intimate family choices, breaching the separation of church and state, and diminishing the steps government can take to prevent gun violence or protect the environment.\n\nThe upheaval of the past several weeks, especially as the court outright ended a half-century of women's privacy rights, is unmatched in modern times. The speed and sweep by which the right-wing majority acted reflects, as one liberal dissenter wrote, a \"restless and newly constituted Court.\"\n\nAnd it is not finished.\n\nThe conservative supermajority -- anchored by three relatively young appointees of former President Donald Trump -- is positioned to continue its impact with disputes next session over the Voting Rights Act, affirmative action and religious objections to LGBTQ protections.\n\nYet it will be the epic 2021-22 session that stands out over time. The case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization , reversing Roe v. Wade, will likely be remembered as one of the most far-reaching rulings in Supreme Court history. The 5-4 decision marked the first-ever complete reversal of a constitutional right.\n\nThe justices also enlarged the Second Amendment, favoring gun owners, and redefined the balance between the First Amendment's prohibition against government \"establishment of religion\" and its \"free exercise.\" That will allow more prayer in public settings and require more government money for religious education.\n\nThe new landscape was made possible because of the three Trump appointees -- Neil Gorsuch, age 54, Brett Kavanaugh, 57, and Amy Coney Barrett, 50. They separated themselves from prior Republican-named justices who had adhered to precedent and \"the promise of constancy,\" as Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy and David Souter called it in the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed Roe.\n\nThe drive to the right was not wholly unexpected, even though its force has shaken the country.\n\nWhen liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September 2020 and Trump quickly replaced her with Barrett, the new six-justice right-wing bloc appeared positioned to roll back decades of individual rights and government power.\n\nIt was just a question of how quickly it would happen and whether the conservative but incrementalist Chief Justice John Roberts would be able to slow the juggernaut.\n\nTwenty months later, it is plain the majority was in a rush. The right wing did not need Roberts' vote for a majority, and on many conservative agenda items, such as religion, race and regulatory power, he was fully with them. (Roberts wrote alone in Dobbs -- with a middle ground that dissatisfied both sides).\n\nAggressive conservatives\n\nIn the most momentous cases, including abortion rights, the justices aggressively decided more than the case demanded. When the justices agreed to take up a Mississippi law that banned abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy, it said it would decide only whether that ban was unconstitutional based on Roe and Casey protections for a woman's abortion choice before fetal viability, at about 23 weeks.\n\nKavanaugh, who succeeded Kennedy in 2018, signed on to the Dobbs opinion denigrating Casey's reasoning and likening Roe to the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld racial segregation, even as he professed \"deep and unyielding respect\" for O'Connor, Kennedy and Souter.\n\nThe Dobbs opinion suggested a new era of abortion debate beyond the domain of the justices.\n\n\"After today's decision, the nine Members of this Court will no longer decide the basic legality of pre-viability abortion for all 330 million Americans,\" Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring statement as he joined the majority opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, which was also signed by the other Trump appointees and Justice Clarence Thomas. \"That issue will be resolved by the people and their representatives in the democratic process in the States or Congress.\"\n\nIt is likely, however, with states responding to the Dobbs decision with new anti-abortion laws, that related controversies will soon return to the high court.\n\nThe justices reached out in the Environmental Protection Agency case, too, as the Obama-era Clean Power Plan had been repealed and no Biden administration plan was yet in place. Thursday's decision will limit the Biden effort to control emissions in coal and other industries to counteract climate change.\n\nMore broadly, the ruling will affect Washington's ability to protect the country's public health and safety.\n\nWriting for the majority, Roberts allowed that limiting carbon dioxide emissions and forcing a transition from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a \"sensible\" way to address the climate change crisis. \"But it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme in\" prior statute, he said.\n\nContending that the court itself was asserting inordinate control on climate policy, dissenting Justice Elena Kagan said, \"I cannot think of many things more frightening.\"\n\nEarlier this year, the six-justice conservative wing rejected the Biden administration's effort to stop the spread of Covid-19 with a vaccination rule. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration had directed employers with 100 or more workers to require vaccines or weekly Covid-19 testing.\n\nThe court ruled in January that OSHA had exceeded its statutory role in workplace safety. \"Although COVID-19 is a risk that occurs in many workplaces, it is not an occupational hazard in most,\" the justices said in their unsigned opinion.\n\nThe same six justices favored conservative Christians in Maine and ruled that if a state subsidizes private education, it must include religious institutions. They also sided with a Washington state high school football coach who prayed at midfield after games, and in doing so jettisoned a legal approach that warned against government \"endorsement\" of religion.\n\nAs the majority emphasized respect for religious expression in the case of Kennedy v. Bremerton School, dissenters said the decision disserved schools and students, along with the country's \"longstanding commitment to the separation of church and state.\"\n\nLiberal wing can do little but dissent\n\nNew Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson , the nation's first African American woman on the bench in the court's 233-year history, succeeded retiring Stephen Breyer on Thursday and will be in place for the new session.\n\nAt age 51, compared with the 83-year-old Breyer, Jackson will bring a new shot of youth along with her historic status. The 6-3 conservative-liberal balance, however, will not change.\n\nThe wing that Jackson joins is likely to remain on the losing side, particularly in the highly charged voting-rights and culture-war controversies on the agenda for the 2022-23 session, which begins in October.\n\nWhen the three liberals, including Breyer, dissented in the Dobbs abortion case, they recalled a lament of Breyer's from 2007 as he dissented from a decision striking down school reintegration plans: \"It is not often in the law that so few have so quickly changed so much.\"\n\n\"So few\" are now -- as a supermajority -- more aptly \"so many.\"\n\nThe swift pace of such great change has been staggering. Dissenters tried, in vain, to hold on to precedent that went back half a century in the abortion rights and religious liberties controversies.\n\nIn the EPA case, they clung to a recent precedent, a 2007 case in which the high court recognized the EPA's authority to regulate carbon dioxide and to address environmental crises.\n\n\"But that Court,\" wrote Kagan, \"was not this Court.\"\n\nCorrection: An earlier version of this story misattributed a quote in the Dobbs concurring opinion. It was written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh.", "authors": ["Joan Biskupic", "Cnn Legal Analyst", "Supreme Court Biographer"], "publish_date": "2022/07/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/07/01/june-abortion-gun-reform-supreme-court-elections-trump/7768678001/", "title": "From abortion rights to Jan. 6 hearings, recapping a historic June", "text": "June was a packed month in American politics.\n\nFrom the Supreme Court to Congress and beyond, major news happened often.\n\nAcross the legislature, Supreme Court and elections, June was a packed month for politics. Bombshell testimony from the Jan. 6 committee looked to connect former President Trump with the attack on the Capitol. The Supreme Court issued major decisions on abortion, gun rights and religious freedom. Millions went to the polls in primaries for midterm elections that will determine control of the House and Senate.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/30/abortion-guns-supreme-court-ends-historic-term-hard-right-turn/7740103001/", "title": "Abortion, guns: Supreme Court ends historic term with hard right turn", "text": "Several observers said the Supreme Court term that ended Thursday was as chaotic as it was historic.\n\nThe court decided high-profile cases with the conservative justices aligned against the liberals.\n\nThat included decisions expanding access to guns and ending the constitutional right to abortion.\n\nWASHINGTON – Back when the Supreme Court justices took their seats last fall for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered their majestic courtroom, the hot controversy was whether too many cases were being decided without oral argument.\n\nNine months later, after a bombshell term that brought about the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the striking down of at least one and potentially many other gun laws and a rethinking of the separation between church and state, the court has thrust itself into America's culture wars in a way experts say the nation has not witnessed in decades.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/30"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_14", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:22", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/07/15/nfl-nba-nhl-mlb-sports-teams-running-out-of-fans/39667999/", "title": "Sports Teams Running out of Fans – 24/7 Wall St.", "text": "Grant Suneson\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nCorrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this story incorrectly listed the city in which the Carolina Hurricanes are based.\n\nEach year, tens of millions of Americans pour into arenas, parks, rinks and stadiums to see a professional sporting event in one of the four major American sports leagues – the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB.\n\nBut fans are now less inclined to go to games in person. Each league saw a decline in total attendance from 2008 to 2018. Fans are often unwilling to pay high ticket prices, and teams don’t seem to care, as an increasing amount and share of their revenue comes from lucrative TV contracts as opposed to ticket sales. But not all teams are losing fans at an equal rate. Some have seen average attendance declines of more than a third over the last decade.\n\nFrom Disneyland to Universal:Theme parks are facing a challenging summer\n\nTo determine the sports teams running out of fans, 24/7 Wall St. used sports attendance data from ESPN to find the pro sports franchises that saw an attendance decline of at least 10% from the 2008 season to the 2018 season. Teams that switched venues or made significant changes to their existing venue were not considered.\n\nWhile it is tough to know exactly what is stopping fans from coming to games, losing is likely a top cause. Fans are simply not willing to pay top dollar to see a game that will probably end in disappointment for them. In fact, 10 of the 12 teams running out of fans played worse in 2018 than they had a decade earlier. Every team can have losing seasons, but franchises that always seem to come up short can lose the attention of their fans. Those squads are the hardest teams to root for.\n\nNot all teams have attendance slumps for the same reason. Some teams, like the Philadelphia Phillies, usually have a packed stadium, but recent struggles seem to have impacted attendance. Other teams, like the Tampa Bay Rays, have never had strong attendance, and the one-time surge they experienced after their franchise-best 2008 season has long since dissipated. This is each MLB team’s best season in franchise history.\n\nCredit score:5 supposedly ‘logical’ credit moves that can lead to trouble\n\nTo determine the teams losing the most fans, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed 10-year percentage changes in average attendance at regular season home games in the NHL, NBA, MLB, and NFL. Attendance figures are from ESPN and are as of the most recent completed season – the 2018-2019 season for the NHL and NBA, and the 2018 seasons for the NFL and MLB – and the season 10 years earlier. We considered only teams that saw at least a 10% decline in the average percentage of the stadium that was filled.\n\nTo avoid attendance declines based on a reduction in stadium capacity, franchises that built a new facility or moved to a new city in those years were excluded. The average percentage of capacity filled during home games in a season for the NHL, NBA, and NFL also came from ESPN and is as of the most recently completed regular season. In the case of the MLB, average capacity filled is based on the average home game attendance from ESPN and officially listed stadium capacities.\n\n12. Indianapolis Colts\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -10.8%\n\n• 2008 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 66,378 (105.4%)\n\n• 2008 record: 12-4\n\nThe Indianapolis Colts had a lot going for them in 2008. Peyton Manning was in his prime, the team was in the midst of a nine-year run of consecutive playoff appearances, and it had a new home in Lucas Oil Stadium. An average of 66,378 fans attended each home game that season – 5.4% over the new stadium's announced capacity.\n\n12. Indianapolis Colts\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -10.8%\n\n• 2018 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 59,199 (94.0%)\n\n• 2018 record: 10-6\n\nIn 2017, the Colts struggled. Franchise QB Andrew Luck was sidelined all season with a shoulder injury and the team went 4-12, missing the playoffs for the third straight season. This seems to have caused Colts fans to lose interest in their team, as 2018 was the first season in Lucas Oil Stadium history that average attendance did not exceed 100% of the announced capacity. Just 94.0% of seats were filled in 2018, 23rd among all NFL teams. But fans may be back in droves after a revamped Indy roster posted a 10-6 record in 2018 and made the playoffs after a three-season drought.\n\n11. Carolina Hurricanes\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -13.6%\n\n• 2008-2009 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 16,572 (88.5%)\n\n• 2008-2009 record: 45-30-7\n\nIn the 2008-2009 NHL season, hockey teams had no problem packing their stadiums, with most franchises filling over 95% of their stadiums for home games on average. But Raleigh, North Carolina, is not known as a hockey city, and only 88.5% of seats were filled for Hurricanes games that season – even though the team played well all season and made the Eastern Conference Finals.\n\n11. Carolina Hurricanes\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -13.6%\n\n• 2018-2019 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 14,322 (76.7%)\n\n• 2018-2019 record: 46-29-7\n\nThe 2008-2009 NHL season would prove to be the last time the Hurricanes made the NHL playoffs for a decade. The team's run of futility ended in 2019, when it captured a wild card spot. A decade of losing hockey can drive fans away, and Carolina's average attendance of 14,322 at home games was also one of the lowest in the NHL – more than 2,000 fewer fans per game on average compared with 10 years prior. The Hurricanes ranked next-to-last in capacity filled in the 2018-2019 season, with an average of 76.7% of seats filled for home games.\n\n10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -15.7%\n\n• 2008 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 64,511 (98.3%)\n\n• 2008 record: 9-7\n\nHopes were high for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers going into the 2008 season: head coach Jon Gruden led the team to a 9-7 record and a trip to the playoffs the previous year. Fans packed Raymond James Stadium nearly to capacity for every game, but they were left disappointed when the team lost its last four games of the season to go 9-7 again, this time missing the playoffs. Gruden was fired, and the team has struggled ever since.\n\n10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -15.7%\n\n• 2018 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 54,356 (82.8%)\n\n• 2018 record: 5-11\n\nIn 2018, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were one of just four teams that failed to fill at least 90% of their home stadium on average. A string of disappointing coaches and quarterbacks have left the Bucs without a playoff appearance since 2007. Fans are losing interest – total attendance has dropped by more than 10,000 people per game in the last decade. Former Cardinals coach Bruce Arians is now tasked with righting the Buccaneers' ship.\n\n9. Phoenix Suns\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -17.0%\n\n• 2008-2009 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 18,422 (100.0%)\n\n• 2008-2009 record: 46-36\n\nThe 2008-2009 Phoenix Suns marked the end of an era. In the previous four seasons, two-time MVP Steve Nash led the \"Seven Seconds or Less\" Suns, a team that played fast and scored in bunches. But after the Suns lost in the first round of the 2007-2008 playoffs, coach Mike D'Antoni left for the New York Knicks. Still, the core of the team was the same, and fans packed the US Airways Center to capacity to see the Suns lead the NBA with 109.4 points per game.\n\n9. Phoenix Suns\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -17.0%\n\n• 2018-2019 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 15,293 (83.0%)\n\n• 2018-2019 record: 19-63\n\nAfter years of futility, the Phoenix Suns had the second-worst average home attendance in the 2018-2019 NBA season, with just 15,293 fans in attendance per game. Even DeAndre Ayton, the top overall pick in the 2018 draft, failed to draw fans to games. This is understandable, as the Suns posted an abysmal 19-63 record in the 2018-2019 season, their ninth straight season without a playoff berth.\n\n8. Cincinnati Reds\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -20.9%\n\n• 2008 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 25,415 (60.4%)\n\n• 2008 record: 74-88\n\nEven as they entered a rebuilding phase in 2008, the Cincinnati Reds managed to fill over 60% of seats for their home games. More than 25,000 fans, on average, showed up for Reds games – one of the lower averages in the MLB that season, but not bad considering the Reds had not made the playoffs in over a decade.\n\n8. Cincinnati Reds\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -20.9%\n\n• 2018 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 20,115 (47.5%)\n\n• 2018 record: 67-95\n\nThe Cincinnati Reds have been steadily losing fans since 2013, the last time the team posted a winning record or made the playoffs. That season, Cincy averaged over 31,000 fans per game. In 2018, the Reds barely averaged over 20,000. Cincinnati now has the dubious distinction of being one of just five teams that failed failed to average a half-full stadium in the 2018 season. The Reds hosted a total of 1.6 million fans in 2018, the franchise's lowest total since 1984.\n\n7. Cincinnati Bengals\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -21.4%\n\n• 2008 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 64,582 (98.6%)\n\n• 2008 record: 4-11-1\n\nCincinnati Bengals home games were almost completely full, on average, in 2008, even though the team won only four games all season after QB Carson Palmer missed most of the year with an elbow issue. Bengals fans regularly sold out Paul Brown Stadium at the time, thanks to Palmer and head coach Marvin Lewis, who, in 2005, brought the Bengals their first playoff appearance in 15 years.\n\n7. Cincinnati Bengals\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -21.4%\n\n• 2018 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 50,753 (77.5%)\n\n• 2018 record: 6-10\n\nOther than the Los Angeles Chargers, who played in the tiny StubHub Center, no team averaged fewer fans than the Cincinnati Bengals during the 2018 NFL season. The Bengals' stadium was just 77.5% full on average for home games, the third-lowest capacity in the NFL. Cincy posted a 6-10 record, dead last in the AFC North. Cincinnati's attendance has been steadily declining since it last made the playoffs in 2015. The team is still seeking its first playoff win since 1990.\n\n6. Ottawa Senators\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -23.2%\n\n• 2008-2009 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 18,949 (105.0%)\n\n• 2008-2009 record: 36-35-11\n\nOttawa Senators fans had many reasons to be optimistic heading into the 2008-2009 season – the franchise had made the playoffs each of the previous 11 seasons. Nearly 19,000 fans came to watch Senators home games, on average, beyond the capacity of Scotiabank Place, Ottawa's arena at the time. Despite missing the playoffs that season, Ottawa ranked among the top 10 franchises in terms of average attendance and average capacity filled.\n\n6. Ottawa Senators\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -23.2%\n\n• 2018-2019 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 14,553 (76.0%)\n\n• 2018-2019 record: 29-47-6\n\nThe 2018-2019 season gave Senators fans very little to cheer for. With just 64 points, the team finished dead last in the NHL by a wide margin. The Senators missed the playoffs for a second consecutive season, and attendance has slipped to around 14,500 fans per game. Ottawa's arena was just 76% full for the average game that season, also dead last in the NHL.\n\n5. Washington Redskins\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -31.1%\n\n• 2008 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 88,604 (96.6%)\n\n• 2008 record: 8-8\n\nFrom 2006 to 2008, the Washington Redskins led all NFL teams in average attendance, with more than 87,000 fans per game. No other team had more than 80,000 attendees per game during those seasons. FedEx Field was regularly packed to and beyond capacity as the team made the playoffs in 2005 and 2007.\n\n5. Washington Redskins\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -31.1%\n\n• 2018 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 61,028 (74.4%)\n\n• 2018 record: 7-9\n\nWashington was the only team that failed to fill at least three-quarters of seats in its stadium in the 2018 season, losing nearly a third of its fans over the past 10 years. The Redskins have not won a playoff game since the 2005 season, and they got blown out in their only three postseason appearances since.\n\n4. Chicago White Sox\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -34.9%\n\n• 2008 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 30,877 (76.0%)\n\n• 2008 record: 89-74\n\nIn 2008, White Sox fans were riding high. Just a few seasons removed from their first World Series win since 1917, the team was still playing well under manager Ozzie Guillen. That season, the South Siders won the AL Central and drew more than 30,000 fans per game, filling an average of 76% of their stadium, one of the higher rates in the majors.\n\n4. Chicago White Sox\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -34.9%\n\n• 2018 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 20,110 (50.1%)\n\n• 2018 record: 62-100\n\nLittle has gone right for the White Sox since 2008. Chicago has steadily lost fans as the team has not made the postseason since. The White Sox barely filled half of their available seats in 2018 – just over 20,000 fans per game. This is not surprising, as the White Sox had one of their worst seasons ever, losing 100 games for the first time since 1970.\n\n3. Philadelphia Phillies\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -35.3%\n\n• 2008 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 42,254 (97.1%)\n\n• 2008 record: 92-70\n\nPhillies fans were excited ahead of the 2008 MLB season as the team finally broke through and ended its 13-year playoff drought the year prior. In 2008, Philadelphia won what would be its second of five straight NL East titles on its way to a World Series championship. More than 97% of seats at Citizens Bank Park were occupied that season, accounting for over 42,000 fans per game – both figures ranked among the top five in baseball that year.\n\n3. Philadelphia Phillies\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -35.3%\n\n• 2018 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 27,318 (63.4%)\n\n• 2018 record: 80-82\n\nThis Phillies led the majors in total attendance from 2010 to 2012, but it can be tough to maintain enthusiasm for a team that has not made the playoffs since 2011. In 2018, an average of 27,318 fans per game came to Citizens Bank Park, near the middle of MLB attendance. Now that the team is playing better with the acquisition of superstar Bryce Harper, Philly fans are already returning to the ballpark in droves in 2019.\n\n2. Tampa Bay Rays\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -35.9%\n\n• 2008 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 22,259 (52.8%)\n\n• 2008 record: 97-65\n\nEven when the Tampa Bay Rays are playing well, the team's stadium is rarely full. In 2008, the Rays won 97 games and made the postseason for the first time in team history, eventually losing in the World Series. Fans didn't seem to care, as the team's average home attendance was just over 22,000, or 52.8% of Tropicana Field's capacity.\n\n2. Tampa Bay Rays\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -35.9%\n\n• 2018 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 14,258 (41.8%)\n\n• 2018 record: 90-72\n\nA decade after their first postseason run, the Rays are still a winning team, despite sharing a division with the high-powered Yankees and Red Sox, and the fans are still not showing up. Despite being 18 games over .500 in 2018, average attendance for Rays home games fell to 14,258 people per game, or just 41.8% of the Trop's capacity. Most teams are able to attract more than 2 million fans to their games over a season. The Rays haven't hit that mark since their inaugural season of 1998.\n\n1. Detroit Tigers\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -41.3%\n\n• 2008 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 39,538 (98.6%)\n\n• 2008 record: 74-88\n\nFollowing the team's 2006 World Series appearance, in which they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, attendance at Detroit Tigers had been increasing. Though the team had a losing record, Comerica Park was typically close to full in 2008, with nearly 40,000 fans coming to each game.\n\n1. Detroit Tigers\n\n• Avg. home attendance change 2008-2018: -41.3%\n\n• 2018 avg. home game attendance (pct. capacity): 23,212 (56.3%)\n\n• 2018 record: 64-98\n\nA four-season playoff drought may have, in part, spurred the exodus of Tigers fans. The team managed a string of postseason appearances in the early 2010s, but it has struggled since – and attendance suffered along with the team's performance. After peaking in 2013, attendance at Tigers games has consistently fallen, reaching 23,212 per game in 2018.This may also have something to do with the fact that Detroit is quickly losing residents, as once-available manufacturing jobs are gone. It may be difficult to convince some of the remaining fans to come to Tigers games if the team is unable to put together a winning season.\n\n24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/07/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/07/02/how-each-state-got-its-name/112043890/", "title": "How Each State Got Its Name – 24/7 Wall St.", "text": "John Harrington\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nYou can practically glean the history of America in the names of all 50 states.\n\nThe story of the United States begins in the East and the South and is reflected in the origin of the names of the states. In the East and South, many states owe their monikers to our forebears from England, France, and Spain. These states include New York, Vermont, and Florida.\n\nAnother influence from the earliest time in our history is Native American culture, apparent in several state names. It is also apparent in many city names. There are a lot of obscure places with strange names that people have a hard time with – like these 50 town names most people will struggle to pronounce.\n\nNative American place names figure prominently as we move westward, in states such as Arkansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and North and South Dakota. About half of America’s states owe their names to Native American origin. Names with Spanish origins can be found in the West, including Colorado, New Mexico and California. Hawaii and Alaska’s names are derived from words describing the lands in the language of the native people who inhabited those areas before the arrival of Europeans.\n\nTo compile a list of how the states got their names, 24/7 Tempo reviewed information from state websites and online resources.\n\nAlabama\n\n• Joined United States: Dec. 14, 1819 (22nd state to join)\n\n• Capital: Montgomery\n\n• Population: 4,888,949\n\nThe genesis of the Alabama name is believed to have come from a fusion of two Choctaw words, Alba and Amo. Alba means \"vegetation,\" while Amo refers to \"gatherer.\" The name \"vegetation gatherers\" would fit the Alabama Indians who cleared the land for farming.\n\nAlaska\n\n• Joined United States: Jan. 3, 1959 (49th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Juneau\n\n• Population: 738,068\n\nThe name \"Alaska\" comes from the Aleut word \"Alyeska\" which means \"great land.\" The Aleuts are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands and western Alaska.\n\nALSO READ: Can You Answer These Real ‘Jeopardy!’ Questions About Each State\n\nArizona\n\n• Joined United States: Feb. 14, 1912 (48th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Phoenix\n\n• Population: 7,123,898\n\nIt is not clear how Arizona got its name. Historian James H. McClintock believes the name was derived from a Native American place name that sounded like Aleh-zon or Ali-Shonak, which meant \"small spring\" or \"place of the small spring,\" according to the Southern Arizona Guide.\n\nArkansas\n\n• Joined United States: June 15, 1836 (25th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Little Rock\n\n• Population: 3,020,327\n\nThe word \"Arkansas\" came from the Quapaw Native Americans. The Quapaws were known as the \"people who live downstream,\" or Ugakhopag. \"The Native Americans who spoke Algonquian and lived in the Ohio Valley called the Quapaws Arkansas, which means \"south wind.\"\n\nCalifornia\n\n• Joined United States: Sept. 9, 1850 (31st state to join)\n\n• Capital: Sacramento\n\n• Population: 39,776,830\n\nCredit the Spanish conquistadors for naming California. The name of the nation's largest state comes from Califia, a legendary queen of the island paradise described in a Spanish romance novel from the early 16th century.\n\nColorado\n\n• Joined United States: Aug. 1, 1876 (38th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Denver\n\n• Population: 5,818,049\n\nAnother state whose name owes it origins to the Spanish is Colorado. The state's name means \"colored red\" or \"color rojo\" in Spanish. It was used for the Colorado River because of the abundance of red sandstone soil in the region.\n\nConnecticut\n\n• Joined United States: Jan. 9, 1788 (5th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Hartford\n\n• Population: 3,588,683\n\nThe Dutch were the first Europeans to reach Connecticut in 1614. But there were already Native Americans in what would become the Nutmeg State. The name \"Connecticut\" is derived from the Algonquian word \"quinnehtukqut\" that means \"beside the long tidal river.\"\n\nALSO READ: Most Americans Will Struggle to Pronounce These 50 Town Names\n\nDelaware\n\n• Joined United States: Dec. 7, 1787 (1st state to join)\n\n• Capital: Dover\n\n• Population: 971,180\n\nDelaware, the first state to ratify the Constitution, owes its name to explorer Samuel Argall, who named the Delaware River and Bay for Virginia Gov. Thomas West, Lord De La Warr. The state takes its name from the river and bay.\n\nFlorida\n\n• Joined United States: March 3, 1845 (27th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Tallahassee\n\n• Population: 21,312,211\n\nFamed Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon may not have found the fountain of youth, but he is credited with naming Florida, as the first European to reach it. The region was named by de Leon in 1513 and it comes from the Spanish word \"florido,\" which means \"full of flowers.\"\n\nGeorgia\n\n• Joined United States: Jan. 2, 1788 (4th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Atlanta\n\n• Population: 10,545,138\n\nGeorgia, founded by James Oglethorpe, was named for King George II of England, who granted the colony its charter in 1732. The –ia suffix means \"state of\" and comes from the Greek language.\n\nHawaii\n\n• Joined United States: Aug. 21, 1959 (50th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Honolulu\n\n• Population: 1,426,393\n\nThere are several theories of how America's youngest state got its name. One theory maintains that \"Hawai'i\" is derived from the word \"owhyhee,\" which means homeland in native Hawaiian. Another theory postulates that the name comes from a combination of the words \"Hawa\" and \"ii\" and means a small or new homeland. Still another belief is that the name originates from the Polynesian Hawaii Loa, who discovered the islands, according to an ancient local legend.\n\nIdaho\n\n• Joined United States: July 3, 1890 (43rd state to join)\n\n• Capital: Boise\n\n• Population: 1,753,860\n\nIdaho, a state made famous in a B-52s song, may sound like a Native American name, but the word is made up. \"Idaho\" was created by mining lobbyist George M. Willing, who insisted it was a Native American Shoshone expression meaning \"gem of the mountains\" for the area around Pike's Peak. By the time it was discovered the name was phoney, it was already being used.\n\nALSO READ: The Most Common Town Names in the US\n\nIllinois\n\n• Joined United States: Dec. 3, 1818 (21st state to join)\n\n• Capital: Springfield\n\n• Population: 12,768,320\n\nThe Prairie State gets its official name from Native Americans. Illinois comes from \"Illiniwek,\" which is what the Illini people were called. The name means \"best people.\" Illinois is the spelling we use for the indigenous people the French explorers encountered in the region in the late 17th century.\n\nIndiana\n\n• Joined United States: Dec. 11, 1816 (19th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Indianapolis\n\n• Population: 6,782,564\n\nThe name \"Indiana\" means \"Land of the Indians\" or \"Land of Indians.\" After the French lost the French and Indian War in 1763, the English took over the territory that would include latter-day Indiana. The new owners of the land sought a new name for the territory, and in recognition of the people who originally occupied it, named it Indiana.\n\nIowa\n\n• Joined United States: Dec. 28, 1846 (29th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Des Moines\n\n• Population: 3,160,553\n\nThe story behind Iowa's name is a bit complicated. One version claims the name comes from the Iowa river, which was named for the native American Iowas (or Ioways), who were a Sioux tribe. One frontiersman wrote in 1868 that Native Americans encamped by a river were pleased with the location and said in their native tongue \"'Iowa, Iowa, Iowa,\" meaning \"beautiful.\" Members of the Ioway people have a different version of the name. One is the French spelling of Ayuhwa, meaning \"sleepy ones.\"\n\nKansas\n\n• Joined United States: Jan. 29, 1861 (34th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Topeka\n\n• Population: 2,918,515\n\nKansas gets its name from the Native American Kaws or Kansa people, also a Sioux tribe. They derived the name from the Sioux word for \"southwind.\" The Kansa people are also referred to as \"people of the south wind.\"\n\nKentucky\n\n• Joined United States: June 1, 1792 (15th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Frankfort\n\n• Population: 4,472,265\n\nThere are several different theories regarding the name \"Kentucky,\" though it has a Native American origin. Kentucky comes from the Iroquois word \"ken-tah-ten,\" which means \"land of tomorrow.\" The other possible meanings for \"Kentucky\" that derive from the Iroquois language are: \"meadow,\" \"prairie,\" and \"the river of blood.\"\n\nALSO READ: How Each State Got Its Shape\n\nLouisiana\n\n• Joined United States: April 30, 1812 (18th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Baton Rouge\n\n• Population: 4,682,509\n\nThere is no disputing the origin of Louisiana's name. The home of Cajun cooking and jazz music was named in honor of King Louis XIV of France, the Sun King, by explorer René-Robert Cavelier in the mid-1600s.\n\nMaine\n\n• Joined United States: March 15, 1820 (23rd state to join)\n\n• Capital: Augusta\n\n• Population: 1,341,582\n\nMaine's name might have originated from Royal Navy mariners Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason, who received a charter for what would become Maine and used the name to differentiate the mainland from the islands around it.\n\nMaryland\n\n• Joined United States: April 28, 1788 (7th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Annapolis\n\n• Population: 6,079,602\n\nThe state of Maryland, which as a colony, was founded as a haven for Catholics persecuted in England, was named to honor Queen Henrietta Maria, the Catholic wife of England's King Charles I.\n\nMassachusetts\n\n• Joined United States: Feb. 6, 1788 (6th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Boston\n\n• Population: 6,895,917\n\nThe name \"Massachusetts\" is derived from the language of the Algonquian nation and translates as \"at or about the great hill.\" The hill refers to the Blue Hills southwest of Boston.\n\nMichigan\n\n• Joined United States: Jan. 26, 1837 (26th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Lansing\n\n• Population: 10,390,149\n\nOne account maintain the Michigan name is based on a Native American Chippewa word, \"meicigama,\" meaning \"great water.\" Another version of the name claims the state gets its name from Lake Michigan and that Michigan is a French conversion of the Ojibwa word misshikama, which means \"big lake,\" \"large lake,\" or \"large water.\"\n\nALSO READ: Can You Answer These Real Jeopardy! Clues About U.S. History?\n\nMinnesota\n\n• Joined United States: May 11, 1858 (32nd state to join)\n\n• Capital: St. Paul\n\n• Population: 5,628,162\n\nAs we move west, many of the state names are derived from Native American place names or language. Minnesota is one of them. The name \"Minnesota\" comes from the Dakota Sioux word \"Mnisota,\" the Native American name for the Minnesota River, which means \"cloudy water\" or \"sky-tinted water.\"\n\nMississippi\n\n• Joined United States: Dec. 10, 1817 (20th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Jackson\n\n• Population: 2,982,785\n\nThe name \"Mississippi\" comes from the word \"Messipi\" - the French version for either the Ojibwe or Algonquin name for the river, \"Misi-ziibi,\" meaning \"great river.\"\n\nMissouri\n\n• Joined United States: Aug. 10, 1821 (24th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Jefferson City\n\n• Population: 6,135,888\n\nThe name Missouri originates from the Native American Sioux of the state called the Missouris. Missouri means \"town of the large canoe.\" Other meanings for \"Missouri\" include \"those who have dugout canoes,\" \"wooden canoe people,\" or \"he of the big canoe.\"\n\nMontana\n\n• Joined United States: Nov. 8, 1889 (41st state to join)\n\n• Capital: Helena\n\n• Population: 1,062,330\n\nThe name \"Montana\" is based on the Spanish word for mountain, montaña, though it is not known who first used the name for the territory. The name \"Montana\" was proposed in 1864 when the area was separated from the Nebraska Territory.\n\nNebraska\n\n• Joined United States: March 1, 1867 (37th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Lincoln\n\n• Population: 1,932,549\n\nThe Cornhusker State's name is based on an Otoe Indian word \"Nebrathka,\" meaning \"flat water,\" which refers to the Platte River, a symbol of Nebraska.\n\nALSO READ: Oldest Historic Town in Every State\n\nNevada\n\n• Joined United States: Oct. 31, 1864 (36th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Carson City\n\n• Population: 3,056,824\n\nThe Spanish influence is evident in Nevada, whose name is derived from the Spanish phrase \"Sierra Nevada,\" meaning snow-covered mountain range. \"Nevada\" is Spanish for \"covered in snow\" or \"snow-capped.\"\n\nNew Hampshire\n\n• Joined United States: June 21, 1788 (9th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Concord\n\n• Population: 1,350,575\n\nNew Hampshire was named by Captain John Mason after Hampshire, England, where Mason had lived as a child. Mason received a land grant for what would become New Hampshire in 1629.\n\nNew Jersey\n\n• Joined United States: Dec. 18, 1787 (3rd state to join)\n\n• Capital: Trenton\n\n• Population: 9,032,872\n\nNew Jersey, the third state to join the Union, was named for the island of Jersey in the English Channel in honor of Sir George Carteret, one of the two men to whom the land that would become New Jersey was originally given. The city of Carteret in central New Jersey is named after Sir George Carteret.\n\nNew Mexico\n\n• Joined United States: Jan. 6, 1912 (47th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Santa Fe\n\n• Population: 2,090,708\n\nThe origin of the world \"Mexico\" is from the Aztec word meaning \"place of Mexitli,\" which is an Aztec god. Other possible origins include a combination of metztli (\"moon\"), xictli (\"center\") and the suffix -co (\"place\") and means \"place at the center of the moon.\" The Spanish named the lands north of the Rio Grande \"Nuevo Mexico,\" or New Mexico. The name was anglicized after the area was turned over to the U.S. by Mexico after the Mexican-American War ended in 1848.\n\nNew York\n\n• Joined United States: July 26, 1788 (11th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Albany\n\n• Population: 19,862,512\n\nThe Empire State was named after the Duke of York and Albany, the brother of King Charles II, in 1664. There had been a settlement called York in England since before the Romans invaded England. The word York comes from the Latin word for city.\n\nALSO READ: The Least Common Town Names in the US\n\nNorth Carolina\n\n• Joined United States: Nov. 21, 1789 (12th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Raleigh\n\n• Population: 10,390,149\n\nNo mystery as to how the Tar Heel State got its name. Carolina, derived from the Latin word for Charles (Carolus), was named by King Charles II of England to honor his father, King Charles I in the 17th century. Carolina would eventually be divided into two colonies, North and South Carolina, in 1712.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\n• Joined United States: Nov. 2, 1889 (39th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Bismarck\n\n• Population: 755,238\n\nBoth North and South Dakota get their name from the Sioux word for \"friend\" or \"ally,\" though there is no definitive detail for this origin.\n\nOhio\n\n• Joined United States: March 1, 1803 (17th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Columbus\n\n• Population: 11,694,664\n\nThere are several Native American name possibilities for Ohio. One suggests that the name \"Ohio\" originates from the Iroquois word for \"good river.\" Other origins claim \"Ohio\" might have come from the Wyandot people's word meaning \"large/great\" or \"the great one\" or it was derived from the Seneca word \"ohi-yo'\" meaning \"large creek.\"\n\nOklahoma\n\n• Joined United States: Nov. 16, 1907 (46th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Oklahoma City\n\n• Population: 3,940,521\n\nThe Sooner State's name comes from the Choctaw people's words \"okla humma,\" which roughly means \"red people\" or \"red persons.\"\n\nOregon\n\n• Joined United States: Feb. 14, 1859 (33rd state to join)\n\n• Capital: Salem\n\n• Population: 4,199,563\n\nThe origin of the state name is up for debate with a number of possible origins. The name \"Oregon\" might have been derived from a 1715 French map that references the Wisconsin River as \"Ouaricon-sint.\" Another possibility is that the name \"Oregon\" stems from an English army officer's reference in the late 18th century to \"the River called by the Indians Ouragon.\" Still another possibility is that the name comes from the French word \"ouragan,\" meaning \"hurricane,\" because French explorers called the Columbia River \"Le Fleuve aux Ouragans,\" or \"Hurricane River,\" because of the strong winds gusting out of the Columbia Gorge.\n\nALSO READ: 50 Strangest Town Names in America (and Where They Came From)\n\nPennsylvania\n\n• Joined United States: Dec. 12, 1787 (2nd state to join)\n\n• Capital: Harrisburg\n\n• Population: 12,823,989\n\nIf you remember your high school Latin, then it's easy to deconstruct the name \"Pennsylvania, meaning \"Penn's woods\" or \"Penn's land.\" The state was named after William Penn, who was granted the land by King Charles II of England in 1681. The \"sylvania\" suffix is derived from the Latin word for forest, which is sylva.\n\nRhode Island\n\n• Joined United States: May 29, 1790 (13th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Providence\n\n• Population: 1,061,712\n\nThe origin of Rhode Island's name harks back to the Old World. The first mention of Rhode Island in writing was by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano in the early 16th century. He referred to an island near the mouth of Narragansett Bay that he compared to the Island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean. Still, others connect the name to 17th century Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, who called it \"Roodt Eylandt,\" meaning \"red island\" because of its red clay.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\n• Joined United States: May 23, 1788 (8th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Columbia\n\n• Population: 5,088,916\n\nCarolina, derived from the Latin word for Charles (Carolus), was named by King Charles II of England to honor his father, King Charles I in the 17th century. Carolina would eventually be divided into two colonies, North and South Carolina, in 1712.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\n• Joined United States: Nov. 2, 1889 (40th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Pierre\n\n• Population: 877,790\n\nBoth North and South Dakota get their name from the Sioux word for \"friend\" or \"ally,\" though there is no definitive proof for this origin.\n\nTennessee\n\n• Joined United States: June 1, 1796 (16th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Nashville\n\n• Population: 6,782,564\n\nThe name \"Tennessee\" may have come from Creek and Cherokee words, but it is uncertain where the Volunteer State got its name. Spanish explorer Juan Pardo first recorded the name in 1567 as he and his soldiers passed through a Cherokee village called \"Tanasqui.\"\n\nALSO READ: Most Americans Will Struggle to Pronounce These 50 Town Names\n\nTexas\n\n• Joined United States: Dec. 29, 1845 (28th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Austin\n\n• Population: 28,704,330\n\n\"Texas\" comes from the Native American Caddo word \"teyshas,\" which means \"friends\" or \"allies.\" Some Native American people like the Caddo or the Hasinais used the word as a greeting. In time, the word came to refer to the area north of the Rio Grande and east of New Mexico.\n\nUtah\n\n• Joined United States: Jan. 4, 1896 (45th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Salt Lake City\n\n• Population: 3,159,345\n\nUtah owes its origin to an Apache Indian word, \"yuttahih,\" that means \"people of the mountains\" or \"they who are higher up.\" In the Native American people's language, the word \"ute\" means \"land of the sun.\"\n\nVermont\n\n• Joined United States: March 4, 1791 (14th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Montpelier\n\n• Population: 623,960\n\nFrench explorer Samuel de Champlain called the stunning Green Mountains of Vermont \"Verd Mont,\" which is French for \"green mountain.\"\n\nVirginia\n\n• Joined United States: June 25, 1788 (10th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Richmond\n\n• Population: 8,525,660\n\nThe state of Virginia was named after England's Queen Elizabeth I, who was also known as \"The Virgin Queen.\" The lands in North America claimed by England in the 1600s were called \"Virginia.\" Queen Elizabeth I granted Walter Raleigh the charter to create a colony.\n\nWashington\n\n• Joined United States: Nov. 11, 1889 (42nd state to join)\n\n• Capital: Olympia\n\n• Population: 7,530,552\n\nThe state of Washington was named in honor of George Washington and is the only state named after the the nation's first president, or any U.S. president.\n\nALSO READ: Can You Answer These Real ‘Jeopardy!’ Questions About Each State\n\nWest Virginia\n\n• Joined United States: June 20, 1863 (35th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Charleston\n\n• Population: 1,803,077\n\nWest Virginia split from Virginia when the 39 western counties of Virginia refused to secede from the Union during the Civil War. West Virginia came into being in 1863. For Virginia's name origin please look up Virginia on our list.\n\nWisconsin\n\n• Joined United States: May 29, 1848 (30th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Madison\n\n• Population: 5,818,049\n\nThe Wisconsin Historical Society says Wisconsin was originally called \"Meskonsing\" and is the English rendering of a French version of a Miami Indian name for the Wisconsin River that runs through the center of the state. The society said that in the Miami people's language it meant, \"this stream meanders through something red,\" a reference to the red sandstone bluffs of the Wisconsin Dells.\n\nWyoming\n\n• Joined United States: July 10, 1890 (44th state to join)\n\n• Capital: Cheyenne\n\n• Population: 573,720\n\nThe name \"Wyoming\" is derived from the Delaware people's word \"mecheweami-ing,\" meaning \"at the big plains.\" Another possible origin for Wyoming's name is that it is an Algonquin word meaning \"large prairie place.\"\n\n24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2019/05/09/george-jones-mower-mural-one-bold-eagle-news-around-states/39462909/", "title": "News from around our 50 states", "text": "From staff and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: Lawmakers have voted to place statues of Rosa Parks and Helen Keller on the grounds of the state Capitol. State senators on Tuesday voted 29-0 for the bill. The legislation now goes to Gov. Kay Ivey for her signature. The bill by Rep. Laura Hall creates a Women’s Tribute Statue Commission to fund, commission and place statues of Parks and Keller on the Capitol grounds. Parks was arrested Dec. 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery city bus to a white passenger. Her arrest helped spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the civil rights movement. Keller, who was both deaf and blind, became a world-famous author and activist.\n\nAlaska\n\nKodiak: Many are familiar with uninvited guests unexpectedly crashing at the house, but an eagle took such a scenario to new heights. An eagle grabbed a piece of freezer-burned halibut that someone had thrown out and apparently misjudged its climb up a cliff with the 4-pound piece of fish while likely being chased by another eagle, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reports. The wrong trajectory led the eagle to smash through a front window of Stacy Studebaker’s home Saturday. “It was so unbelievably loud. My first thought was I thought an atomic bomb had dropped and the windows were blowing out,” says Studebaker, who founded the local chapter of the Audubon Society. She and a neighbor struggled to get the raptor out of her home as it dealt mayhem. Except for some blood around the beak, the eagle didn’t appear to be injured.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: Tonto National Monument, a desert park northeast of Phoenix, has been designated an International Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association. That honor is bestowed on areas worldwide that take steps to make it easier for people to enjoy the night sky without the distractions of light pollution. Achieving this designation involves retrofitting light fixtures and bulbs, acquiring data for darkness analysis, and monitoring and interpreting the importance of preserving darkness. The state is awash in dark-sky sites, including the communities of Camp Verde, Flagstaff, Fountain Hills, Oak Creek and Sedona; Grand Canyon National Park; Kartchner Caverns State Park; Oracle State Park; Petrified Forest National Park; Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument; Parashant National Monument; Tumacacori National Historical Park; Walnut Canyon National Monument; and Wupatki National Monument.\n\nArkansas\n\nFayetteville: Local leaders are considering a measure that would prevent the city from using public money to buy disposable products made with Styrofoam. The Fayetteville City Council discussed the proposal Tuesday night but took no action. The measure would also prohibit vendors, concession stands or food trucks operating on city property from using polystyrene foam, better known as Styrofoam. The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that the proposal is set to be considered again later this month. Cities and states across the nation have been busy banning or imposing fees for single-use foam and plastic products, while a wave in the opposite direction has led some states to seek prohibitions against such bans at the local level.\n\nCalifornia\n\nBeverly Hills: A fiery debate is breaking out as people at tony hair salons, gas stations and stores weigh in on whether the city of the rich and famous should become the first in the U.S. to outlaw the sale of tobacco products everywhere except a few cigar lounges. The City Council decided Tuesday night to make some changes to the proposal, such as allowing guests in Beverly Hills’ luxury hotels to acquire cigarettes through their concierge or room service. Members indicated they plan to pass the amended measure May 21. Abstainers have said yes to the idea, and the sooner the better, while smokers protested. California already outlaws smoking in workplaces, restaurants and bars. It also has one of the highest cigarette taxes in the country – nearly $3 a pack. The proposed ordinance would ban all tobacco products from grocery stores, pharmacies, hotels and gas stations.\n\nColorado\n\nDenver: Voters narrowly made the city the first in the nation to decriminalize psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in “magic mushrooms.” Decriminalization led by a slim 51%, according to preliminary figures on Tuesday’s election released by Denver’s Election Division. As many as 1,300 votes still remain to be counted, but that figure was not enough to swing the vote the other way, division spokesman Alton Dillard said. Final results will be released May 16, he said. Organizers say their only goal in the mushroom measure is to keep people out of jail for using or possessing the drug to cope with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and other conditions. The initiative effectively decriminalizes use or possession of psilocybin by people 21 and older, making it the lowest enforcement priority for police and prosecutors. It does not legalize psilocybin or permit its sale by cannabis businesses.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: An effort to better market the state as a good place to live, visit and do business has cleared a key legislative hurdle. The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 113-28 for a bill requiring the Department of Economic and Community Development to come up with a marketing strategy that includes outreach to startup businesses and entrepreneurs, a new social media photo competition highlighting Connecticut’s beauty, and a campaign highlighting successful businesses. The bill, which awaits Senate action, also suggests DECD consider updating the state’s “Still Revolutionary” logo or design a new one with the help of a middle-school design competition. Other suggestions include targeting former residents between ages 30-45 and improving print marketing in airport lounges. Some Republicans opposed the bill, arguing lawmakers should simply cut taxes to attract business.\n\nDelaware\n\nDover: In an effort to better identify victims of human trafficking, hospitals across the state will start to use the same techniques, making the First State likely the first in the country to adopt a coordinated approach, health officials say. Delaware has become an attractive place for traffickers because of its place along the I-95 corridor – and critics say state officials have been slow to address the growing problem. The Delaware Healthcare Association, which represents all the hospitals in the state, announced five recommendations Wednesday that will be implemented at all hospitals within the next year: educating the entire staff about human trafficking, using a specific assessment to identify red flags, following a step-by-step process to respond to suspected trafficking, using a hospital code for trafficking victims to collect statewide data and following a memo on how best to address minors who are being trafficked.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: Comedian Dave Chappelle has been chosen to receive this year’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The 45-year-old Chappelle shot to international stardom through his Comedy Central program, “Chappelle’s Show,” which gleefully skewered racial stereotypes and hot-button societal issues. He later made headlines for walking away from a lucrative contract over creative differences. Chappelle attended Washington’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and his first hourlong comedy special was filmed in the nation’s capital. Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter called Chappelle “a hometown hero” and said his social commentary and body of work embody Twain’s statement that “against the assault of humor, nothing can stand.” Chappelle will be presented with the award in a star-studded ceremony Oct. 29 that will be broadcast on television Jan. 6, 2020.\n\nFlorida\n\nGainesville: The lovebugs that are driving Floridians crazy right now may not be good for the finish on cars, but they are good for the environment, particularly the soil, according to the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. The pesky, slow-flying insects lay their eggs in places with dying vegetation, such as thatch, which is the cut grass spit out by lawn mowers. That’s where immature lovebugs, which actually are a type of fly known scientifically as plecia nearctica, live and eat. Feeding on the dead vegetation redistributes essential nutrients back into the ground, and that benefits plants and the environment. Also known as honeymoon flies, double-headed bugs and kissing bugs, the adult insects feed on plant nectar, especially sweet clover, goldenrod and Brazilian pepper.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: The state is seeking proposals to develop a Medicaid waiver that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp says will make health care more affordable and accessible. If approved by the federal government, the waiver would allow Georgia to expand Medicaid more conservatively than federal rules typically allow. The Department of Community Health asked six consulting firms Monday to submit proposals for waivers addressing Georgia’s Medicaid program and private health insurance. Officials are aiming to submit them to the federal government by the end of 2019. A bill that Kemp signed in March gave his office wide leeway to seek a waiver that reshapes the state’s health care system. Georgia is one of 14 states that haven’t fully expanded Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: The State Department of Health has launched a new website that provides near real-time data on the air quality following last summer’s Kilauea eruption. The site is expected to serve as an online resource, particularly in the event of future volcanic eruptions, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports. “We listened to the concerns of residents, took action to improve our air quality monitoring system, and created a one-stop, user-friendly website. We’re much more volcano-ready than we have ever been,” says Health Director Bruce Anderson. Data for the website is pulled from air quality monitoring stations at strategic locations throughout the state. Most are on the Big Island. The state upgraded and expanded its air quality monitoring system with more than $1.5 million in federal and state funds. People can access the data via an interactive air quality map.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: A planned hiking-and-biking trail connecting the popular central Idaho tourist destinations of Redfish Lake and Stanley is being challenged in federal court by the owners of Sawtooth Mountain Ranch. David Boren and Lynn Arnone filed the lawsuit last month seeking to stop a U.S. Forest Service plan to build a 4.4-mile trail for pedestrians, cyclists and horseback riders. The trail cuts across the Sawtooth Mountain Ranch. But the Sawtooth National Forest has a conservation easement deed dating to 2005 that it says allows the trail to cross the private property. The lawsuit contends the planned trail deviates from the easement and has “numerous flaws and illegalities.”\n\nIllinois\n\nChicago: Community and environmental activists are pushing for the opening of Lake Calumet on the city’s South Side to public access for recreation. Currently, a chain-link fence topped with razor wire surrounds the lake, blocking public access to hundreds of acres of natural habit. Ders Anderson of Chicago-based Openlands told the Daily Southtown in Tinley Park that Lake Calumet has long been recognized for the waterfowl, bald eagles and other bird species that roost nearby. Anderson says in addition to bird-watching, walking or bicycling on trails near the water, canoeing on the shallow lake or simply relaxing would benefit residents of Chicago and nearby suburbs. About 1,500 acres around Lake Calumet are part of the Port of Chicago, controlled by the Illinois International Port District.\n\nIndiana\n\nFranklin: Researchers at Franklin College have received a record-breaking research grant to study the behavior and management of Canada geese in the state, where the migratory bird’s population is growing along with complaints. The four-year grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act includes a $250,000 award that will fund Franklin College’s contribution to the study, on which the college is partnering with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Ball State University. It is the largest research grant ever awarded to the small college about 20 miles south of Indianapolis. Indiana’s Canada goose population is estimated around 130,000, according to the DNR, but the rise in complaints involving geese in urban areas suggests that figure may actually be higher.\n\nIowa\n\nOnawa: A new report has named this small town, known for its wide main street and its claim to the invention of the Eskimo Pie, the poorest in the state. According to 24/7 Wall Street, Onawa is the only town in Iowa where more than 1 in 4 residents lives below the poverty line. The town’s 24.9% SNAP benefit recipiency rate is more than double the 11.2% rate statewide, the report says. The town with a population of 2,849 has a median household income of $31,089 (state: $56,570), a poverty rate of 25.3% (state: 12%) and a median home value of $93,500 (state: $137,200). The population is 90% white and 8% American Indian. Onawa is most widely known for staking a claim as the town with the “widest main street in America” at 150 feet wide. It’s also known as the birthplace of the Eskimo pie, a frozen treat made of ice cream encased in a chocolate coating, reportedly invented by Chris K. Nelsen in the summer of 1919.\n\nKansas\n\nKansas City: A water park where a 10-year-old boy was decapitated isn’t hiring lifeguards, advertising or selling tickets with just weeks left before its typical Memorial Day weekend opening date, underlining speculation that it could be put up for sale. Schlitterbahn remains mum on its plans but has largely removed reference from its website about the park where Caleb Schwab was killed in 2016 when the raft he was riding on the 17-story Verruckt slide went airborne and hit a metal pole. Verruckt – German for “crazy” – never reopened and was torn down last year. Season tickets have been on sale for months for Schlitterbahn’s four Texas locations, but not the Kansas park. Speculation about a potential sale was fueled by mortgage lender EPR Properties announcing last week that Schlitterbahn is expected to pay off its approximately $190 million loan on the property soon.\n\nKentucky\n\nWalton: The high school senior who went to court over a restriction tied to chickenpox at his school has come down with the illness, his lawyer says. Christopher Wiest says Jerome Kunkel, 18, got sick last week, nearly two months after the Northern Kentucky Health Department issued its order to control an outbreak at two small parochial schools in Boone County. “He’s fine,” Wiest said. “He’s a little itchy.” In January, chickenpox broke out at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School and Assumption Academy, its high school. The schools and church in Walton are affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X, a conservative branch of Roman Catholicism that rejects Vatican II reforms. Nearly 90% of the schools’ students have religious exemptions against vaccinations. Kunkel and his classmates did not receive the vaccine because its production involves laboratory-generated cells taken from a fetus aborted in 1966.\n\nLouisiana\n\nShreveport: A display of “magic, luck and friendship” will brighten up downtown’s Shreveport Common neighborhood this fall. The FriendsWithYou artist group will install a vivid, colorful public park called Rainbow City, including more than 35 larger-than-life, vinyl, multicolored inflatable sculptures standing up to 50 feet high. Rainbow City will be unveiled in late October in the Common Park. Various interactive and entertaining experiences are programmed at the inflatable park from Oct. 26 through Dec. 7, including a Dia de los Muertos celebratory dance party, a PJs and Pancakes breakfast, a romantic movie screening under the stars, a yoga session and more. On Oct. 26, FriendsWithYou will lead a Rainbow City Parade, featuring a new inflatable character named “Gumball,” designed by Caddo Parish student Isaiah Roberts. The fourth grader’s drawing was selected from hundreds of submissions.\n\nMaine\n\nPortland: The state’s baby eel fishermen are enjoying a steady harvest and strong prices during the first season in which regulators are using new controls to stop poaching. Baby eels, called elvers, are one of the most lucrative marine resources in the U.S. on a per-pound basis, but the fishery has had problems with poaching. This year, packing and shipping of the fish is subject to more scrutiny by the Maine Marine Patrol. Fishermen are more than 90% of the way through their quota for the year, which is slightly less than 10,000 pounds. The average price is more than $2,000 per pound, which would be the third highest average on record if holds, state officials said. “For the guys who want to do the right thing and grow this fishery, they’re happy to comply,” says Jeffrey Pierce, a former state legislator who is an adviser to the Maine Elver Fishermen Association.\n\nMaryland\n\nBaltimore: Police arrested seven people Wednesday as they ended a monthlong sit-in in the lobby of an administrative building at Johns Hopkins University, where a group of protesters have demonstrated against the creation of a campus police force and the institution’s contracts with the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency. City police officers and firefighters “provided assistance” shortly before 5 a.m. to reopen Garland Hall, the primary administrative building, the university announced. Protesters had chained the doors shut and blocked stairwells, defying a city fire marshal’s orders to keep the entrances and exits clear. Firefighters used an electric saw to get inside. The city’s top prosecutor swiftly dismissed the idea of prosecuting them. “No one arrested, student or community member, will be prosecuted,” said Melba Saunders, spokeswoman for State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: America’s oldest performing arts group is looking for a child who was literally wowed by a recent classical music concert. The Handel & Haydn Society had just finished its rendition of Mozart’s “Masonic Funeral” at Symphony Hall on Sunday when a youngster blurted out loudly: “WOW!” Boston classical music station WCRB-FM captured the exuberance on audio. The crowd can be heard bursting first into laughter and then into rousing applause for the child. Now the organization founded in 1815 has mounted a search for the kid it’s calling the “Wow Child” – not to reprimand him or her but to offer a chance to meet the conductor and hear the orchestra again as a guest of honor. “It was one of the most wonderful moments I’ve experienced in the concert hall,” Handel & Haydn president and CEO David Snead wrote in a letter to concertgoers asking them to share the child’s name.\n\nMichigan\n\nDetroit: A 17-foot bronze sculpture that arrived downtown last year got people talking, taking selfies and wondering what exactly it means. This week, the conversation sparked by “Waiting,” a work of art by internationally acclaimed artist Kaws, will get some fresh context, thanks to the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. “Kaws: Alone Again,” which opens Friday and runs through Aug. 4, is a solo exhibition of work by Brooklyn-based artist Brian Donnelly, who goes by the alias Kaws. The show was organized by MOCAD’s executive director Elysia Borowy-Reeder in collaboration with the contemporary art superstar. “Riffing on specific genres of pop art, figuration, deconstruction, collage and fashion, the exhibition represents an underlying irreverence and affection for our turbulent times, as well as Kaws’ agility as an artist to appropriate and transform,” MOCAD says about the exhibition.\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Paul: Mississippi River flooding in the capital this spring swamped the record for the longest period of flooding ever measured in the city. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that the river was above flood stage for 42 straight days, easily surpassing the 2001 record of 33 days. The National Weather Service says the river fell below flood stage last weekend. The city is continuing to assess and clean up riverside streets that were submerged before reopening them. All of the city’s flood plain parks, including boat launches, remain closed.\n\nMississippi\n\nOxford: The mayor is apologizing about confusion over parking meters. Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill says drivers will not be ticketed for parking at a malfunctioning meter. The Oxford Eagle reports the city put stickers on meters a couple of weeks ago warning people not to park at broken ones. The city’s parking director, Matt Davis, had also told the newspaper that citations would be issued. Parking meters are still fairly new on the town square in Oxford. Tannehill says the mayor and aldermen never voted to allow ticketing for vehicles parked at broken meters. She said Saturday on social media that if someone finds a broken meter, the city should tell that driver: “ ‘It’s your lucky day.’ ”\n\nMissouri\n\nSpringfield: An Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals panel has upheld a previous ruling on a city ordinance that prohibits women from showing their nipples and areolas in public, despite protests from local activists who argue the policy is discriminatory. The decision Monday is the latest in a four-year controversy that started when some women walked shirtless through downtown Springfield to protest the differing rules for men and women. Members of the City Council, who feared the scandalizing of children and moral degradation of the community, later passed an ordinance prohibiting women from showing their nipples in public. But the ACLU and local “Free the Nipple” activists sued, and a federal judge upheld the city’s ordinance in 2017. On Monday, a three-judge panel for the appeals court agreed with the lower court, citing at least eight cases during which courts upheld similar laws.\n\nMontana\n\nBillings: Law enforcement officials say they’ve managed to slow an increase in violent crime rates in the state’s most populous county that’s being driven largely by methamphetamine trafficking and abuse. U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme and Montana Attorney General Tim Fox on Wednesday announced results from the first year of an initiative targeting violent criminals in Yellowstone County. They say the number of murders, robberies and aggravated assaults increased just over 1% over the past year, after surging 26% in the prior 12-month period. Alme credited the government’s Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative for helping bring federal charges against 170 defendants in Yellowstone County for drug trafficking, armed robbery and firearms offenses. Alme says a similar effort in Missoula County is also showing positive results.\n\nNebraska\n\nNiobrara: People who suffered losses when the Spencer Dam failed have gotten more bad news: State law limits the liability of the dam’s owner. That owner, Nebraska Public Power District, has said the March 14 collapse was due to a combination of high Niobrara River flows and massive chunks of ice. The home of a man who lived below the dam, Kenny Angel, was swept away. His body still has not been found. The Norfolk Daily News reports that attorney David Domina addressed a gathering of homeowners, farmers and businesspeople Monday in Niobrara. He told them state law limits the district liability to $1 million per claim per occurrence and $5 million per occurrence for all claimants. He says Knox County already is listing more than $17 million in damages.\n\nNevada\n\nSparks: The Forest Service’s rejection of a proposal to drill for oil or gas in the Ruby Mountains has become official after no one complained during the 45-day objection period. Forest Supervisor Bill Dunkelberger says the agency’s decision became final Tuesday. He says the service didn’t receive a single objection after it determined the drilling wasn’t suitable for the area and selected the “no leasing” alternative in mid-March. He says that reaffirms his belief he made the right decision for future management of more than 82 square miles of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest along the mountain range in northern Nevada’s Elko County. Dunkelberger concluded any economic benefits from the drilling would be limited compared to money the natural resources contribute to the area economy through tourism, recreation and livestock grazing.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nDurham: University of New Hampshire researchers say they’ve discovered a new strain of canine distemper virus in wild animals in New Hampshire and Vermont. Over one year, pathologists diagnosed canine distemper virus infection in eight mammals: fishers, gray foxes, a skunk, a raccoon and a mink. Pathologists found all of the animals were infected with a distinct strain of the virus that had been identified only in a single raccoon in Rhode Island in 2004. They said the identification of this strain fills a gap in the general knowledge of canine distemper virus strains circulating in North America. The strain was identified by UNH pathologists in collaboration with colleagues at Cornell University, University of Georgia, Northeast Wildlife Disease Cooperative, and state Fish and Game departments.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nNewark: Gov. Phil Murphy has signed four bills into law aimed at improving maternal health care, particularly for residents using Medicaid. The Democrat signed the measures Wednesday at University Hospital in Newark. The new laws were enacted just a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study showing that pregnancy-related deaths are rising and that being black is a main risk factor. One measure provides for Medicaid to cover doulas. Another sets up a pilot program for perinatal care for those on Medicaid. The third bill bars early, elective deliveries that are not medically necessary for those on Medicaid and on the state’s health benefits plans. The final measure codifies a current practice by requiring perinatal risk assessment forms be filled out by Medicaid providers.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nLas Vegas: A group of college students is helping redesign the Jemez Historic Site visitor center using multimedia tools. New Mexico Highlands University announced this week that 15 of its media arts students are creating floor-to-ceiling video projections of historic images and oral histories at the Native American site. The students also are adding interactive touch-screen computer tablets that focus on artifacts and an event called “Light Among the Ruins.” Supervisory archaeologist Ethan Ortega says the students used oral histories and texts written by Jemez tribal members to create the new components. The Jemez Historic Site includes the stone remains of a 500-year-old village and the San Jose church, which dates to 1622. It’s located at Jemez Springs, about 50 miles north of Albuquerque.\n\nNew York\n\nAlbany: A new exhibit chronicling the end of one of the most turbulent decades in American history has opened to the public at the Empire State Plaza. The exhibit titled “1969” opened Wednesday at the Vietnam Memorial Gallery in the Robert Abrams Justice Building in downtown Albany. Events such as the first moon landing and Woodstock music concert occurred 50 years ago this year, while the Vietnam War raged in Southeast Asia. The exhibit includes photographs, archival footage and artifacts from the era, along with audio recordings of veterans from New York telling stories about their Vietnam experience in ’69. Nicholas Valenti, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam and is now a leader of the Vietnam Veteran chapters of New York, joined state officials at the official opening.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nDurham: Duke University has received a $5 million grant to improve the 55-acre Sarah P. Duke Gardens site on campus, which attracts about 400,000 visitors each year. University President Vincent Price said in a news release that The Duke Endowment is providing the grant for the Garden Gateway Project, a fundraising campaign. The grant brings the total raised to $16 million of the $30 million goal for the project, which will revitalize the gardens’ front entrance and fund new and improved facilities and classrooms. The plan also calls for a new performance lawn and expanded indoor event hall. The Duke Endowment is a private foundation based in Charlotte. The university, the foundation and Duke Energy are separate organizations despite sharing a name.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nMedora: Part of the scenic drive and some trails are being temporarily closed at Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s North Unit while prescribed fire projects are completed. Planned burns are used as a resource management tool. The National Park Service says one fire Thursday is to encompass about 4,300 acres, or nearly 7 square miles. There also will be a smaller fire covering 700 acres, or about a square mile. The scenic drive will be closed at the Caprock Coulee trailhead to the end of the road. Portions of the Achenbach and Caprock Coulee trails will be closed for visitor safety. Burning is expected be completed by the end of the day.\n\nOhio\n\nCincinnati: The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden is expecting two new babies this year. “Two of our giraffes are pregnant. One, Tessa, is due in June, and the other, Cece, is due in the fall,” spokeswoman Michelle Curley says. Both Tessa and Cece have given birth at the zoo before, but these will be the first giraffe calves in three years. Cece’s daughter Cora and Zoey, who was born to Jambo, made their debut in 2016. In 2014, Tessa gave birth to Nasha. Way back in 2011, Tessa gave birth to the zoo’s first baby giraffe in 26 years. According to the zoo, giraffe calves typically weigh about 125 pounds at birth and are approximately 6 feet tall.\n\nOklahoma\n\nTulsa: Fines, dues and court expenses assessed to defendants in the state have spiked since fiscal year 2007, and some criminal justice reform advocates say state and local government agencies are increasingly relying on them as an income source. Tulsa World reports that citations, fees and costs have risen 27% since 2007. State lawmakers have also imposed two administrative charges that collectively require defendants to pay an additional 25% of all fees amassed by the courts for the executive branch. Court collections have contributed to about 66% to 90% of yearly district court subsidies over that same period. Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform director Kris Steele says an impoverished person’s inability to pay either puts them in jail or leads to their return to crime in order to satisfy the debts.\n\nOregon\n\nSalem: The Legislature is considering a bill that would let farmers sue companies, such as Bayer and Syngenta, that hold patents on genetically engineered seeds if crops grown from those seeds contaminate other crops. Contamination from genetically engineered crops can make organic and conventional crops unable to be sold. GE crops also can escape their fields and become a nuisance for other farmers that is hard to eradicate. House Bill 2882 would allow landowners or tenants to seek three times actual economic damages if GE organisms, also called GMOs, are present on their land without permission. It also would allow residents to sue the corporations if GE organisms are found on land owned or occupied by a public body in the area where they live.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: Three Mile Island, site of the United States’ worst nuclear power accident, will begin a planned shutdown starting June 1 now that it is clear that it will not get a financial rescue from the state, its owner said Wednesday. Exelon Corp.’s statement comes two years after the energy giant threatened to close the money-losing plant without what critics have called a bailout. The fight over Three Mile Island and Pennsylvania’s four other nuclear power plants invigorated a debate over the “zero carbon emissions” characteristics of nuclear power in the age of global warming and in one of the nation’s largest fossil fuel-producing states. Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 is licensed to operate through 2034, and shutting it down will cut its life short by 15 years. It will go offline by Sept. 30, Exelon said.\n\nRhode Island\n\nWarwick: A school district has changed its policy after facing criticism for a plan to serve students who owe lunch money sun butter and jelly sandwiches instead of a hot meal. Warwick Public Schools, which serves students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, said Wednesday that a school subcommittee recommended students get the lunch of their choice regardless of their account balance. Chairwoman Karen Bachus clarified that under the current policy students would’ve been provided the sandwich, which is also a daily choice on the school lunch menu, vegetables, fruit and milk. The district faced pushback after announcing in a Facebook post Sunday that students who owed money on paid, free or reduced lunch accounts would be served cold sandwiches until the balance is paid starting May 13.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nCharleston: The state’s largest detention center is facing a serious staffing shortage, and officials are hoping to hire those looking for work. WCIV-TV reports there are about 90 vacancies currently out of nearly 400 jobs at the Al Cannon Detention Center. Deputy PJ Skipper says the job isn’t for everyone, but it’s one that has kept her coming back every day for 23 years. She says she initially planned a short two-year stint but realized working there is a calling. She says if she can make a difference with just one inmate, she’s done her job. The sheriff’s office is holding a Career Day on Saturday. Those interested should bring a driver’s license or other ID and be ready to take tests to see if they qualify for the posts.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nKeystone: Fireworks will return to Mount Rushmore National Memorial for the Fourth of July celebration in 2020. Mount Rushmore’s fireworks were discontinued after 2009 due to concerns related to the pine beetle infestation that increased fire concerns in the Black Hills National Forest. The forest has since rebounded, and advances have been made in pyrotechnic safety. Gov. Kristi Noem, federal Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and National Park Service Deputy Director P. Daniel Smith on Tuesday announced the resumption of fireworks. Noem said the agreement came after several months of meetings and discussions.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: Along with classic country songs like “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” there’s a legendary tale that millions associate with George Jones – the lawn mower story. Once, during a terrible bout of binge drinking, Jones says he was left alone in his house with no booze. To stop him from driving to the liquor store, his wife had hidden all his car keys. “But she forgot about the lawn mower,” Jones wrote in his autobiography, “I Lived to Tell It All.” Jones cleaned up his act for good in 1999, living a sober life until his death in 2013, but the lawn mower legend lives on. Now, it’s been immortalized in a new mural on the side of Nashville’s Colonial Liquors, where Jones was once a frequent customer. The mural was painted by Nashville artist Shawn Catz, along with a crew of musician friends. But the cartoon design actually comes from an episode of “Tales From the Tour Bus,” an animated TV series by Mike Judge (“Beavis & Butthead,” “King of the Hill”).\n\nTexas\n\nAustin: Removal of Confederate and other historical markers would need approval from voters or state lawmakers under a bill that won initial approval from the state Senate on Tuesday. The measure would take removal powers away from local governments and other public entities who have grappled with calls to remove Confederate markers that are now facing protests over the era’s racist history. The Dallas City Council voted last year to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee from a park, and the University of Texas in 2017 removed several statues of Lee and other Confederate figures. Earlier this year, Gov. Greg Abbott and other top state Republicans agreed to remove a Capitol plaque that said slavery was not the underlying cause of the Civil War.\n\nUtah\n\nCedar City: Southern Utah University has secured funding for a new child development center, which officials say could fill a previously unmet need of on-campus child care. But city residents as a whole may also be struggling to find quality, affordable child care. Data suggests care in Cedar City isn’t just hard to come by but also expensive. Though finding affordable, quality child care is an issue many families and individuals face, SUU is focusing its services on students who are single mothers. Construction on the Sorenson Legacy Child and Family Development Center will begin in July, and it will be open for student use by August 2020. Kathy Wyatt, steering committee chair of the child care center and SUU’s first lady, says the center will double as a preschool, taking in children who are infants up to age 5.\n\nVermont\n\nDerby Line: U.S. officials have marked the completion of a new U.S.-Canada border crossing facility that is designed to smooth the flow of people and trade between the two countries while keeping the U.S. safe from terrorism and criminal organizations. The new $33 million facility at the northern end of Interstate 91 in the Vermont town of Derby Line replaces another facility that was built in 1965. High-tech improvements make the new facility more energy efficient, and it includes technological upgrades and larger spaces where officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection can process both people and cargo. Construction began in fall 2016. The port of entry processes about 1.1 million people a year, says Christopher Averill, the regional administrator of the General Services Administration.\n\nVirginia\n\nRichmond: A police officer who cursed at a group of black middle schoolers and later promised to publicly apologize has rescinded the offer. Richmond police Chief William Smith tells The Richmond Times-Dispatch that the officer, whose name hasn’t been released, no longer feels he can handle the large setting. A March video shows the officer telling the Albert Hill students to “wait until your asses turn 18, then you’re mine.” Student Cameron Hilliard filmed the video and says someone outside her group yelled an obscenity directed at officers, launching the confrontation. The officer apologized to the students and their guardians last week and signed an agreement to publicly apologize at a school assembly. The chief says the officer is sorry for not being able to meet with the school.\n\nWashington\n\nOlympia: Gov. Jay Inslee, who is seeking a path to the White House on the message of climate change, signed a measure Tuesday that makes the state the fourth in the nation to establish a mandate to provide carbon-free electricity by a targeted date. The measure was among several environmental bills that Inslee signed at a park in Seattle, surrounded by climate advocates and others. The signing of the new law comes less than a week after Inslee unveiled his first major policy proposal of his presidential campaign, in which he called for the nation’s entire electrical grid and all new vehicles and buildings to be free of carbon pollution by 2030. “We are determined to build a solar and wind and electrical system where people can access clean energy and cleaner air to breathe for our kids as long as Washington state is here,” he said.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: The U.S. government sued nearly two dozen of Gov. Jim Justice’s coal companies Tuesday to get them to pay about $4.8 million in unpaid mine safety fines. The civil lawsuit was filed by federal prosecutors on behalf of the U.S. Department of Labor and the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Justice’s companies committed more than 2,000 federal Mine Health and Safety Act violations since May 2014 but have refused to pay the penalties despite multiple attempts by federal agencies to get the money, according to the lawsuit. “This is unacceptable, and, as indicated by this suit, we will hold them accountable,” said U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: Assembly Republicans with prisons in their districts are complaining about Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ decision to grant temporary raises at only six institutions. Nineteen Republicans sent a letter Wednesday to Evers saying that the raises aren’t fair and that compensation should be addressed through the state budget. A state audit released last week found entry-level guard pay in Wisconsin was second-lowest among seven Midwestern states. Evers’ budget calls for spending an additional $23.8 million to create a pay progression system for prison workers. Days before the audit was released, Evers’ administration gave temporary raises of up to $5 an hour to workers at Columbia, Dodge, Green Bay, Taycheedah and Waupun correctional institutions as well as the Lincoln Hills youth prison. Evers spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff says Evers is trying to fix problems Republicans have ignored.\n\nWyoming\n\nLaramie: If Thomas Foulke has his way, some of the oldest domesticated crops in the world will help grow a new industry in the state. Foulke, a senior research scientist at the University of Wyoming in the Department of Agriculture and Applied Economics, is leading an effort called the Wyoming First-Grains Project, which aims to develop a niche industry around growing “first grains.” He describes those as the earliest domesticated cereal crops, among them Emmer wheat, spelt, barley and einkorn. “People were making bread from wild grains before they even domesticated it,” he said. “There was something about bread and something about wheat that was really important to early humans.” In conjunction with UW research farms in Lingle, Powell and Sheridan, the First-Grains Project produced about 20 acres of spelt and Emmer wheat last year.\n\nFrom staff and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/05/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/06/12/how-many-people-were-born-the-year-you-were-born/111928356/", "title": "How Many People Were Born The Year You Were Born – 24/7 Wall St.", "text": "Samuel Stebbins\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nAs COVID-19 spread across the United States, more than 300 million Americans were ordered to remain at home for weeks and even months. The extended period of isolation led many to speculate that the U.S. could see a spike in births nine months – a coronavirus baby boom.\n\nSuch an increase, however, may be unlikely. For many families, economic conditions and job security play a significant role in deciding when to have a child. And while the coronavirus pandemic has given many couples the opportunity to try for a pregnancy, the crisis has also led to the country’s worst unemployment crisis since the Great Depression. Here is a look at every state’s unemployment claims since COVID-19 shut the economy down.\n\nYet another factor that could give would-be new parents pause is the possibility of unnecessary exposure to the virus. Couples who are expecting need to make regular doctor visits, and more than 98% of newborns in the U.S. are delivered in a hospital – many of which have been overwhelmed by coronavirus patients and could continue to be if there is a second wave of the outbreak. Health care facilities are high-risk areas, and many states have placed restrictions on nonessential medical treatment in recent months. These are every state’s rules for staying at home and social distancing.\n\nShould the birth rate dip as a result of the pandemic, it would be the continuation of a long-term trend. The birth rate has fallen in the U.S. in 10 of the last 11 years – and the birth rate in 2018 of 12 births for every 1,000 people was the lowest on record since at least the early 1930s.\n\nExactly how the coronavirus pandemic will affect the U.S. birth rate remains to be seen. To provide some historical context, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics System to determine how many people were born every year since 1933. We also included population figures from the U.S. Census Bureau for each year as well as the most popular names from the Social Security Administration.\n\nMoney without a home:These Americans are entitled to stimulus checks if you can find them\n\nHopeful signs:Hiring picks up in these industries as coronavirus layoffs ease and states reopen\n\n• Births: 2,081,232\n\n• Total population: 125,578,763\n\n• Birth rate: 17 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Robert\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1934\n\n• Births: 2,167,636\n\n• Total population: 126,373,773\n\n• Birth rate: 17 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Robert\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1935\n\n• Births: 2,155,105\n\n• Total population: 127,250,232\n\n• Birth rate: 17 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Robert\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1936\n\n• Births: 2,144,790\n\n• Total population: 128,053,180\n\n• Birth rate: 17 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Robert\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1937\n\n• Births: 2,203,337\n\n• Total population: 128,824,829\n\n• Birth rate: 17 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Robert\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1938\n\n• Births: 2,286,962\n\n• Total population: 129,824,939\n\n• Birth rate: 18 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Robert\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1939\n\n• Births: 2,265,588\n\n• Total population: 130,879,718\n\n• Birth rate: 17 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Robert\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n• Births: 2,360,399\n\n• Total population: 132,122,446\n\n• Birth rate: 18 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: James\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1941\n\n• Births: 2,513,427\n\n• Total population: 133,402,471\n\n• Birth rate: 19 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: James\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1942\n\n• Births: 2,808,996\n\n• Total population: 134,859,553\n\n• Birth rate: 21 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: James\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1943\n\n• Births: 2,934,860\n\n• Total population: 136,739,353\n\n• Birth rate: 22 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: James\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1944\n\n• Births: 2,794,800\n\n• Total population: 138,397,345\n\n• Birth rate: 20 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: James\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1945\n\n• Births: 2,735,456\n\n• Total population: 139,928,165\n\n• Birth rate: 20 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: James\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1946\n\n• Births: 3,288,672\n\n• Total population: 141,388,566\n\n• Birth rate: 23 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: James\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1947\n\n• Births: 3,699,940\n\n• Total population: 144,126,071\n\n• Birth rate: 26 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: James\n\n• Most popular girl name: Linda\n\n1948\n\n• Births: 3,535,068\n\n• Total population: 146,631,302\n\n• Birth rate: 24 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: James\n\n• Most popular girl name: Linda\n\n1949\n\n• Births: 3,559,529\n\n• Total population: 149,188,130\n\n• Birth rate: 24 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: James\n\n• Most popular girl name: Linda\n\n• Births: 3,554,149\n\n• Total population: 152,271,417\n\n• Birth rate: 24 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: James\n\n• Most popular girl name: Linda\n\n1951\n\n• Births: 3,750,850\n\n• Total population: 154,877,889\n\n• Birth rate: 25 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: James\n\n• Most popular girl name: Linda\n\n1952\n\n• Births: 3,846,986\n\n• Total population: 157,552,740\n\n• Birth rate: 25 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: James\n\n• Most popular girl name: Linda\n\n1953\n\n• Births: 3,902,120\n\n• Total population: 160,184,192\n\n• Birth rate: 25 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Robert\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1954\n\n• Births: 4,017,362\n\n• Total population: 163,025,854\n\n• Birth rate: 25 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1955\n\n• Births: 4,047,295\n\n• Total population: 165,931,202\n\n• Birth rate: 25 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1956\n\n• Births: 4,163,090\n\n• Total population: 168,903,031\n\n• Birth rate: 25 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1957\n\n• Births: 4,254,784\n\n• Total population: 171,984,130\n\n• Birth rate: 25 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1958\n\n• Births: 4,203,812\n\n• Total population: 174,881,904\n\n• Birth rate: 24 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1959\n\n• Births: 4,244,796\n\n• Total population: 177,829,628\n\n• Birth rate: 24 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n• Births: 4,257,850\n\n• Total population: 180,671,158\n\n• Birth rate: 24 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: David\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\nToo many unemployment payments?:Here’s how I sent the money back\n\nLife altered:'Life-changing event' of COVID-19 could alter how we work, spend and retire\n\n1961\n\n• Births: 4,268,326\n\n• Total population: 183,691,481\n\n• Birth rate: 23 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Mary\n\n1962\n\n• Births: 4,167,362\n\n• Total population: 186,537,737\n\n• Birth rate: 22 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Lisa\n\n1963\n\n• Births: 4,098,020\n\n• Total population: 189,241,798\n\n• Birth rate: 22 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Lisa\n\n1964\n\n• Births: 4,027,490\n\n• Total population: 191,888,791\n\n• Birth rate: 21 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Lisa\n\n1965\n\n• Births: 3,760,358\n\n• Total population: 194,302,963\n\n• Birth rate: 19 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Lisa\n\n1966\n\n• Births: 3,606,274\n\n• Total population: 196,560,338\n\n• Birth rate: 18 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Lisa\n\n1967\n\n• Births: 3,520,959\n\n• Total population: 198,712,056\n\n• Birth rate: 18 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Lisa\n\n1968\n\n• Births: 3,501,564\n\n• Total population: 200,706,052\n\n• Birth rate: 18 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Lisa\n\n1969\n\n• Births: 3,600,206\n\n• Total population: 202,676,946\n\n• Birth rate: 18 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Lisa\n\n• Births: 3,731,386\n\n• Total population: 205,052,174\n\n• Birth rate: 18 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1971\n\n• Births: 3,555,970\n\n• Total population: 207,660,677\n\n• Birth rate: 17 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1972\n\n• Births: 3,258,411\n\n• Total population: 209,896,021\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1973\n\n• Births: 3,136,965\n\n• Total population: 211,908,788\n\n• Birth rate: 15 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1974\n\n• Births: 3,159,958\n\n• Total population: 213,853,928\n\n• Birth rate: 15 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1975\n\n• Births: 3,144,198\n\n• Total population: 215,973,199\n\n• Birth rate: 15 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1976\n\n• Births: 3,167,788\n\n• Total population: 218,035,164\n\n• Birth rate: 15 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1977\n\n• Births: 3,326,632\n\n• Total population: 220,239,425\n\n• Birth rate: 15 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1978\n\n• Births: 3,333,279\n\n• Total population: 222,584,545\n\n• Birth rate: 15 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1979\n\n• Births: 3,494,398\n\n• Total population: 225,055,487\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n• Births: 3,612,258\n\n• Total population: 227,224,681\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1981\n\n• Births: 3,629,238\n\n• Total population: 229,465,714\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1982\n\n• Births: 3,680,537\n\n• Total population: 231,664,458\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1983\n\n• Births: 3,638,933\n\n• Total population: 233,791,994\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1984\n\n• Births: 3,669,141\n\n• Total population: 235,824,902\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jennifer\n\n1985\n\n• Births: 3,760,561\n\n• Total population: 237,923,795\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jessica\n\n1986\n\n• Births: 3,756,547\n\n• Total population: 240,132,887\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jessica\n\n1987\n\n• Births: 3,809,394\n\n• Total population: 242,288,918\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jessica\n\n1988\n\n• Births: 3,909,510\n\n• Total population: 244,498,982\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jessica\n\n1989\n\n• Births: 4,040,958\n\n• Total population: 246,819,230\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jessica\n\n• Births: 4,158,212\n\n• Total population: 249,464,396\n\n• Birth rate: 17 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Ashley\n\n1991\n\n• Births: 4,110,907\n\n• Total population: 252,153,092\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Ashley\n\n1992\n\n• Births: 4,065,014\n\n• Total population: 255,029,699\n\n• Birth rate: 16 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Ashley\n\n1993\n\n• Births: 4,000,240\n\n• Total population: 257,782,608\n\n• Birth rate: 15 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jessica\n\n1994\n\n• Births: 3,952,767\n\n• Total population: 260,327,021\n\n• Birth rate: 15 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jessica\n\n1995\n\n• Births: 3,899,589\n\n• Total population: 262,803,276\n\n• Birth rate: 15 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Jessica\n\n1996\n\n• Births: 3,891,494\n\n• Total population: 265,228,572\n\n• Birth rate: 14 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emily\n\n1997\n\n• Births: 3,880,894\n\n• Total population: 267,783,607\n\n• Birth rate: 14 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emily\n\n1998\n\n• Births: 3,941,553\n\n• Total population: 270,248,003\n\n• Birth rate: 14 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Michael\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emily\n\n1999\n\n• Births: 3,959,417\n\n• Total population: 272,690,813\n\n• Birth rate: 14 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emily\n\n• Births: 4,058,814\n\n• Total population: 282,162,411\n\n• Birth rate: 14 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emily\n\n2001\n\n• Births: 4,025,933\n\n• Total population: 284,968,955\n\n• Birth rate: 14 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emily\n\n2002\n\n• Births: 4,021,726\n\n• Total population: 287,625,193\n\n• Birth rate: 14 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emily\n\n2003\n\n• Births: 4,089,950\n\n• Total population: 290,107,933\n\n• Birth rate: 14 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emily\n\n2004\n\n• Births: 4,112,052\n\n• Total population: 292,805,298\n\n• Birth rate: 14 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emily\n\n2005\n\n• Births: 4,138,349\n\n• Total population: 295,516,599\n\n• Birth rate: 14 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emily\n\n2006\n\n• Births: 4,265,555\n\n• Total population: 298,379,912\n\n• Birth rate: 14 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emily\n\n2007\n\n• Births: 4,316,233\n\n• Total population: 301,231,207\n\n• Birth rate: 14 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emily\n\n2008\n\n• Births: 4,247,694\n\n• Total population: 304,093,966\n\n• Birth rate: 14 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emma\n\n2009\n\n• Births: 4,130,665\n\n• Total population: 306,771,529\n\n• Birth rate: 13 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Isabella\n\n• Births: 3,999,386\n\n• Total population: 309,346,863\n\n• Birth rate: 13 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Isabella\n\n2011\n\n• Births: 3,953,590\n\n• Total population: 311,718,857\n\n• Birth rate: 13 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Sophia\n\n2012\n\n• Births: 3,952,841\n\n• Total population: 314,102,623\n\n• Birth rate: 13 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Jacob\n\n• Most popular girl name: Sophia\n\n2013\n\n• Births: 3,932,181\n\n• Total population: 316,427,395\n\n• Birth rate: 12 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Noah\n\n• Most popular girl name: Sophia\n\n2014\n\n• Births: 3,988,076\n\n• Total population: 318,907,401\n\n• Birth rate: 13 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Noah\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emma\n\n2015\n\n• Births: 3,978,497\n\n• Total population: 321,418,820\n\n• Birth rate: 12 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Noah\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emma\n\n2016\n\n• Births: 3,945,875\n\n• Total population: 323,071,342\n\n• Birth rate: 12 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Noah\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emma\n\n2017\n\n• Births: 3,855,500\n\n• Total population: 325,147,121\n\n• Birth rate: 12 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Liam\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emma\n\n• Births: 3,791,712\n\n• Total population: 327,167,439\n\n• Birth rate: 12 births per 1,000 people\n\n• Most popular boy name: Liam\n\n• Most popular girl name: Emma\n\n24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/06/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2021/09/09/cast-blues-wedding-dress-scare-rhino-escape-news-around-states/118789038/", "title": "Cast of Blues, wedding dress scare: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nHuntsville: The state attorney general’s office is trying to revive its lawsuit over the removal of a Confederate monument from outside a courthouse in the city. The state claimed in court documents that a judge shouldn’t have dismissed the suit just because someone anonymously paid a $25,000 fine that was owed by Madison County for removing the statue nearly a year ago, WHNT-TV reports. Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office contends the county should be required to pay the penalty itself. A judge scheduled a hearing for Friday afternoon on the state’s bid to reinstate the lawsuit. The state sued the county last year seeking a $25,000 penalty that’s mandated under a state law that makes it illegal to remove or alter monuments. Madison County asked a judge to end the state’s suit after someone deposited $25,000 into a court account to pay the fine Aug. 27. The county says the money isn’t from taxpayers or Madison County but hasn’t said where it came from. Circuit Judge Claude Hundley dismissed the suit, but the state argues it needs to know who paid the fine to end the case. It also says the judge still needs to rule on its claim that Madison County broke the law by moving the monument, erected in 1905 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, to a city-owned cemetery.\n\nAlaska\n\nNewtok: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the pace of moving residents from a community threatened by erosion to another village, officials said. Money also has been an issue. Nine homes in the new village of Mertarvik that were started last year remain unfinished, and no one has moved from Newtok to Mertarvik since 2019, KYUK Public Media reports. Newtok had an estimated 220 residents last year. “We couldn’t get any cabinets because of this COVID thing,” said Phillip Carl, Newtok acting tribal administrator. Patrick LeMay, who is leading the building effort in Mertarvik, said shortages for materials have persisted. “We got 48 lights that are trapped somewhere in Tennessee floods, to finish the lighting. There’s a shortage of fire extinguishers in the nation,” LeMay said. “The supply chain has been a disaster.” Many of the workers building homes in Mertarvik are Newtok residents. LeMay said three workers from Newtok contracted COVID-19 in August. Many remaining laborers chose to stop working due to concerns about an outbreak, KYUK reports. Newtok recently experienced its biggest outbreak since the pandemic began, with 32 residents testing positive for the coronavirus last month. About 42% of its population is vaccinated. Meanwhile, Carl said Newtok has lost over 100 feet of its coast since April.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: State Attorney General Mark Brnovich said Tuesday that Tucson’s vaccine mandate for its employees is illegal, giving the city 30 days to repeal it or risk losing millions of dollars in state funding. Democratic-led Tucson has repeatedly clashed with the state’s Republican leadership over the city’s aggressive efforts to control the spread of COVID-19. City Manager Michael Ortega said he put the mandate on hold while Tucson develops its legal position in response to the attorney general’s decision. Brnovich, who is running for U.S. Senate in a crowded Republican primary, cited a state law approved this summer that bans local governments from mandating vaccines for employees, though it doesn’t take effect until later this month. He also cited an August executive order signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. “Adhering to the rule of law in Arizona is not optional,” Katie Conner, a spokeswoman for Brnovich, told reporters. Tucson Mayor Regina Romero suggested Brnovich’s decision was motivated by his Senate campaign. “This report reads more as a campaign speech filled with political commentary rather than a fact-based legal opinion,” the Democratic mayor said in a statement. City officials are reviewing their options, Romero said, and the next step will have to be decided by her and City Council.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: The state reported 38 new deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday as the capital city launched a new incentive program to boost vaccinations. The Department of Health said the state’s death toll from the pandemic now totals 7,108. The state reported 583 new coronavirus cases, and COVID-19 hospitalizations rose by eight to 1,228. Arkansas ranks 10th in the country for new cases per capita, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The state’s top health official has warned he expects to see a surge in cases following the Labor Day weekend, and Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday said he expected an increase as well. “We have fewer cases from the Labor Day weekend, but we’ll see the effects of the holiday weekend later this week and into the next,” Hutchinson tweeted. Little Rock launched its incentive program tied to vaccination clinics it is holding, starting Saturday at the Southwest Community Center. Those who get shots at these clinics will receive a $50 VISA Rewards Card from U.S. Bank for both their first and second doses of vaccine received at a participating clinic. Those who provide proof of having gotten a first vaccine dose elsewhere and choose to get their second dose at a participating clinic, or those who receive a single-dose vaccine at a participating clinic, can receive a $100 Rewards Card.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSacramento: Lawmakers have moved to make the state the first to outlaw “stealthing,” which is removing a condom without permission during intercourse. Legislators sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a bill Tuesday adding the act to the state’s civil definition of sexual battery. It makes it illegal to remove the condom without obtaining verbal consent. But it doesn’t change the criminal code. Instead, it would amend the civil code so that a victim could sue the perpetrator for damages, including punitive damages. Democratic Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia has been pushing for the legislation since 2017, when a Yale University study said acts of stealthing were increasing against women and gay men alike. Her original bill attempted to make it a crime. But legislative analysts said at the time that the act could already be considered misdemeanor sexual battery, even if it isn’t specifically referenced in the criminal code. Even so, the analysts said it is rarely prosecuted, if only because of the difficulty in proving that a perpetrator acted intentionally instead of accidentally. Analysts this year said Garcia’s bill would remove any ambiguity in civil law. Garcia said the act can cause long-term physical and emotional harm to its victims.\n\nColorado\n\nDenver: The city has closed Civic Center Park, one of its historic landmarks that has become a hot spot for homeless people to camp, because of safety and public health concerns, city officials said in a statement Tuesday. City officials said the park and surrounding areas have become a “hotspot for violence, crime, drug sales and substance misuse, jeopardizing the public’s ability to safely enjoy one of Denver’s treasured outdoor spaces.” Officials cited concerns about rodents, disease spread, impacts on water quality, discarded needles and other drug paraphernalia in a statement in which Mayor Michael B. Hancock said conditions had reached a “tipping point.” “This cannot and will not be allowed to continue,” Hancock said. The park was closed to the public starting Wednesday. Officials called it temporary but did not provide an exact date for its reopening. The city said it plans to restore the park’s greenery and historical stone structures that have been damaged by graffiti and fires and will require professional restoration. The park faces the state’s Capitol building and Lincoln Park, which was fenced off last summer after the city cleared a large camp of homeless people who were living there. Officials had cited health and safety concerns for issuing Lincoln Park’s cleanup, also referred to as “homeless sweeps” by local housing advocates.\n\nConnecticut\n\nBridgeport: An independent investigator will look into allegations of racial discrimination within the police department including unfair discipline of Black officers and a hostile work environment, city officials said. The probe is in response to claims against acting Police Chief Rebeca Garcia made by the Bridgeport Guardians, a group that represents minority officers on the force, Hearst Connecticut Media reports. City Council President Aidee Nieves said Bridgeport will be hiring an outside attorney to review the allegations. The Guardians, however, are continuing to insist that federal government officials investigate the department. Davon Polite, president of the Guardians, said there are concerns that city officials will hire a lawyer who will produce the results they want. “A federal investigation is the only way to get an impartial, fair investigation,” Polite said. The Guardians and the local NAACP branch recently requested federal oversight of the department and an investigation, alleging a widespread pattern of racial discrimination within the agency. The Guardians accuse Garcia of subjecting minority officers to disparate treatment and a hostile work environment. The group has called for her removal. The city police union voted no confidence in Garcia in March.\n\nDelaware\n\nWilmington: A Chancery Court judge ruled protests may continue outside the house of Delaware Deputy Attorney General Mark Denney, denying the state’s request for a temporary restraining order. The proposed restrictions, made by the state Department of Justice after it perceived threats against the agency’s Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust head, sought to keep protesters 300 feet from Denney’s home. Demonstrators would also have to notify New Castle County Police at least 24 hours before they protested. In making her ruling Tuesday, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick said there was not enough for her to go on to issue a temporary restraining order. She attributed that to the speed at which the proceedings were brought to her on Sunday of Labor Day Weekend. But she said the motion to expedite the proceeding could move forward. A date for the next hearing was not provided. Keandra McDole Ray, one of the people targeted by the motion, viewed the ruling as a positive outcome for demonstrators, who have been protesting that Denney “do his job” in the matter of Lymond Moses – a 30-year-old man killed during a Jan. 13 interaction with New Castle County Police in Wilmington.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: One of the biggest rock bands in the world will take the stage at D.C.’s 9:30 Club on Thursday night as the final part of the venue’s reopening week celebration, WUSA-TV reports. The club, which had been teasing a surprise musical guest for a few weeks, posted on social media Wednesday that the Foo Fighters had been tapped to help welcome fans back. This won’t be the first venue Dave Grohl and company have helped to reopen from long pandemic-induced closures. Back in June, the band reopened New York’s Madison Square Garden with a little help from D.C. native Dave Chappelle. But the 9:30 Club has a special connection to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band’s leader. As a teenager, Grohl played drums in a band called Dane Bramage at the 9:30 Club. “As a kid growing up in the D.C. punk rock scene, your first show at the 9:30 Club might as well have been Royal Albert Hall or Madison Square Garden,” Grohl told the Washington Post in a 2010 article celebrating the venue’s 30th anniversary. The 9:30 Club is one of several D.C. venues requiring proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative coronavirus test within 72 hours of an event.\n\nFlorida\n\nIslamorada: A 148-year-old Florida Keys lighthouse could get a new life now that a community organization is poised to take ownership and begin a massive preservation project. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has approved a recommendation from the National Park Service that Islamorada-based Friends of the Pool Inc. be granted ownership of Alligator Reef Lighthouse under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act. The nonprofit announced the approval Tuesday. “Alligator Reef Lighthouse has stood since 1873,” project organizer Rob Dixon said. “It’s an important part of Islamorada’s local history. It’s our Statue of Liberty and needs to be saved.” Dixon said the restoration project is likely to take five to seven years and cost up to $9 million. “We’re going to need a lot of fundraising help and a lot of technical help,” he said. Friends of the Pool hosts an annual 8-mile swimming race to the offshore lighthouse and back to fund collegiate scholarships. The effort to save the lighthouse and start the “Swim for Alligator Lighthouse” event was conceived by Larry Herlth, a local metal artisan who created detailed replicas of Alligator Reef Lighthouse and other Keys lighthouses. “The six lighthouses off the Florida Keys are the biggest collection of iron piling lighthouses anywhere in the world,” Herlth said. “The history is just phenomenal.”\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: A metro-area school district is switching to virtual learning, after two school bus drivers and a bus monitor died from COVID-19 in recent weeks. The 9,700-student Griffin-Spalding County school system, on the southern fringe of suburban Atlanta, made the announcement late Monday, citing a disruption in student transportation. Districts across Georgia are struggling to line up enough drivers and monitors to keep buses running. In Savannah, some bus drivers staged a sickout for the second day Tuesday after a similar protest Friday. At least 210,000 Georgia students in 54 districts and charter networks have had their school schedules disrupted because of COVID-19. Some districts have taken days off, some shifted to every-other-day schedules, and some sent home individual schools or grades. That’s over 12% of Georgia’s 1.7 million public school students. The number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals remains above 6,000, the highest level since the start of the pandemic. The number of newly reported deaths continues to rise sharply, with Georgia currently averaging more than 80 deaths a day, totaling more than 23,000 since the pandemic began. More than 34,000 coronavirus cases have been reported among children ages 5-17 in the two weeks ended Sept. 2, state Department of Public Health data shows.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: A resort in the famed tourist mecca of Waikiki will be the first in the state to require proof of COVID-19 vaccination for all employees and guests. Starting Oct. 15, ’Alohilani Resort will require its employees, patrons and guests to show proof they’re fully inoculated. The requirement will also apply to the six other Waikiki properties owned or operated by Highgate, a real estate investment and hospitality management company. It’s the right thing to do as Hawaii grapples with a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations because of the highly contagious delta variant, said Kelly Sanders, senior vice president of operations at Highgate Hawaii. There were an average of 706 newly confirmed infection cases per day across Hawaii between Aug. 30 and Sept. 5 across Hawaii, according to the state Department of Health. Hawaii’s vaccination rate was 64%. “So I think we will be the safest hotel in Hawaii, at least for now,” Sanders said Wednesday. “And hopefully that helps our business and doesn’t hurt our business.” John De Fries, president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, called the move a step in a the right direction and said he hopes other hotels follow suit.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: The state’s move to “crisis standards of care” is allowing some hospitals to ration health care as they struggle with an onslaught of coronavirus patients, and officials are warning the procedures could spread statewide. But the main hospital affected by the designation was already operating under extreme conditions, officials said. “Unfortunately we haven’t been really at our normal standards for some time,” said Dr. Robert Scoggins, the chief of staff for Kootenai Health, the largest hospital system in the northern half of the state. The Coeur d’Alene facility has had to move patients into a conference center, “doing things that were not normal – way outside of normal – at times,” Scoggins said. Newly confimed coronavirus infection cases are surging, and Idaho has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the U.S. At Kootenai Health, some patients are treated in converted lobbies and hallways. Urgent surgeries are on hold, and critical patients must often wait long periods of time for intensive care beds, Scoggins said. “Almost every day at this point we are having cardiac arrest from patients when their oxygen levels dip too low, and we can’t supply them with enough oxygen,” he said. An entire floor of the hospital has been turned into a COVID-19 ward, meaning medical staffers must put on full protective gear before they enter the floor.\n\nIllinois\n\nChicago: Former U.S. Sen. Adlai Stevenson III has died at his home on Chicago’s North Side. He was 90. His son Adlai Stevenson IV, who confirmed the Illinois Democrat died Monday, said his father had dementia. Before his health declined, Stevenson kept active organizing presentations and speakers for the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy in Libertyville, Illinois. He also worked on the family farm in Hanover, Illinois, raising cattle, growing corn and hay for their feed, and chopping wood. “He just faded away,” his son said. Stevenson ran for governor of Illinois twice, losing his 1982 run by just 5,074 votes to Republican Gov. Jim Thompson – the closest election for governor in modern Illinois history. Stevenson was the great-grandson of former Vice President Adlai Stevenson, who served in the role for the second of President Grover Cleveland’s nonconsecutive terms. His father, Adlai Stevenson II, was a former Illinois governor and two-time presidential candidate. When running for the Senate, where he was first elected in 1970 to serve out the remainder of the late Sen. Everett Dirksen’s term, the third Stevenson asked then-Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley for advice. “My advice to you is don’t change your name,” Daley told him, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Stevenson was reelected in 1974 but decided not to run again in 1980.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: The Indiana Secured School Safety Board has approved more than $19 million in state grants, marking a third consecutive year the General Assembly has allocated funds for school safety investments. The awards will allow the board to fund projects proposed by 392 schools in their applications to the Secured School Safety Grant program. The program issues matching grants for school resource officers and law enforcement officers in schools, active event warning systems, firearms training for teachers and staff, threat assessments, and other safety technology and support services. Schools then match those funds at a certain level, based on average daily membership of the school district, the total amount of the project or what the request covers. “Hoosier students and staff should be able to go to school with the confidence and comfort of knowing they are safe and protected from harm. This program represents the state’s commitment to that mission,” Gov. Eric Holcomb said in a statement. The allocation of funds for the fiscal year includes roughly $13.4 million for school resource officers, $4.9 million for safety equipment, $642,000 for student and parent support services programs, $43,000 for active event warning services, and $6,200 for training.\n\nIowa\n\nMarshalltown: The city’s public schools will become the new owners of the historic Orpheum Theater for the basement-bargain price of $1. Marshalltown Community School District Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved a letter of intent to buy the theater on Main Street, the Times-Republican reports. The school district will pay the current owners, Iowa Valley Community College District, $1 for the building at closing. The closing date has been set for June 16 or sooner. The school board also approved a $20,000 purchase of a parking lot immediately east of the theater. The Orpheum closed last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Iowa Valley Community College District Chancellor Kristie Fisher said her school views the sale as more of a transfer of property from one school to another, and she’s proud the theater will remain an educational facility. “We knew it was a great community asset and so important to the greater Marshall County community that we wanted to make sure we were maximizing it,” Fisher said. She said that while the $1 sale doesn’t appear to be a money-maker for the community college district, it will save the institution the costs of operating the theater, freeing up funds for other priorities. The downtown Orpheum Theater was built in 1948.\n\nKansas\n\nWichita: After months of advocacy by activists, the City Council has voted to establish a board to advise the council and city staff on environmental concerns, climate change and economic vitality. The council voted unanimously Tuesday to support Wichita’s Sustainability Integration Board, which will advise in such areas as reducing emissions and finding economic growth that is environmentally friendly. The council had listened to 27 Wichita citizens during the past six months who spoke about climate change concerns, The Wichita Eagle reports. As currently planned, the board will have 14 members and meet quarterly. Some of the advocates and some council members said the board was too big and should meet more often. The board will be able to create its own bylaws and procedures, including determining how often members meet. “I think this is a great first step forward, and I don’t think we should let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Mayor Brandon Whipple said.\n\nKentucky\n\nFrankfort: Republican lawmakers took initial steps Tuesday to block statewide mask mandates, showing their preference for local decision-making on the issue as they reconvened for a special session to assert their dominance in shaping Kentucky’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a daylong burst of action, a Senate committee advanced a measure to nullify the state school board’s requirement that anyone in a public K-12 school wear a mask. The bill would leave it up to local school boards to decide face-covering policies for their districts. A House panel advanced another bill to prevent the governor from issuing any new statewide orders requiring mask-wearing. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear previously used a mask mandate to combat the coronavirus’ spread. He lifted it but has said he would have reinstituted a requirement to counter a recent COVID-19 surge if he still had the authority. The session marks a dramatic power shift in coronavirus-related policymaking in the Bluegrass State. Since the pandemic hit Kentucky, Beshear mostly acted unilaterally in setting statewide virus policies, but the state Supreme Court shifted those decisions to the Legislature in a landmark ruling. Dozens of school districts have paused in-person learning because of virus outbreaks as the state sets records for new cases and hospitalizations.\n\nLouisiana\n\nBaton Rouge: State health officials said Tuesday that they are revoking the licenses of nursing homes that evacuated residents to a warehouse where seven died amid deteriorating conditions deemed too squalid to be safe after Hurricane Ida. The seven homes – all owned by one person – “clearly failed to execute their emergency preparedness plans to provide essential care and services to their residents,” Department of Health Secretary Courtney Phillips said in a statement. Authorities found some nursing home residents lying on mattresses on the floor, without food or clean clothes, and detected strong odors of urine and feces throughout the warehouse, located in the town of Independence. Piles of trash were on the floor. Water entered the building, and generators at least temporarily failed, according to officials. Health department lawyer Stephen Russo called the conditions “inhumane.” State health officials and Attorney General Jeff Landry have launched investigations into the deaths. A police official said the Tangipahoa Parish warehouse was equipped to handle 300 to 500 people but ultimately took in more than 800. Officials said the owner, Bob Dean, failed to contact them for help and threw inspectors from the agency off the property when they arrived to review the conditions onsite after receiving reports of problems.\n\nMaine\n\nAugusta: The late founder of the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center has become the first Black Mainer to be inducted in the state’s Franco-American Hall of Fame. Alain Jean Claude Nahimana, who died at age 49 last year, was one of three people inducted posthumously during the ceremony Tuesday at the Maine State House. The son of a Burundi ambassador who fled political turmoil, Nahimana was educated in Burundi and Switzerland before moving to Maine in 2010. He served as the president of the Burundi Community Association and as coordinator of the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition before launching the immigrant welcome center. There were a dozen inductees, including former House Speaker John Martin, of Eagle Lake, and state Sen. Susan Deschambault, of Biddeford. Dignitaries who attended the event included the French ambassador to the United States, Phillippe Etienne, along with Senate President Troy Jackson and House Speaker Ryan Fecteau. Gov. Janet Mills, who studied abroad for a year in Paris as a college student, delivered remarks in both French and English. She noted that more than a third of Maine residents have a Franco heritage.\n\nMaryland\n\nAnnapolis: A commission on congressional and state legislative redistricting has announced 12 public hearings. Ten of the hearings will be held in different parts of the state. The first will be Sept. 20, and the last is scheduled for Nov. 18. There also will be two statewide virtual hearings. The panel, which includes leading Democrats who control the General Assembly as well as two Republican legislative leaders, will draw maps for the state’s eight congressional districts as well as the 188 seats in the Legislature, based on new census data. Maryland’s current congressional map has been criticized as having some of the most gerrymandered and oddly-shaped districts in the nation. In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1, Democrats hold a 7-1 advantage in its U.S. House delegation. Karl Aro, the former executive director of the Maryland Department of Legislative Services who is chairing the commission, said the geography should look “prettier” this time in how the maps are drawn. He noted that in the past “things have gotten pretty free-hand-drawing like.” Aro said he’s hopeful people will not feel like their communities have been “carved 16 different ways.”\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: A shortage of bus drivers in the city’s public schools has been raising concern among parents who fear some students could be left behind when the district starts a new year Thursday. Acting Mayor Kim Janey and Superintendent Brenda Cassellius have told families to expect significant delays or bus cancellations, but details were not being provided to families until Thursday morning, The Boston Globe reports. The shortage is so severe that a union for bus drivers last week urged the district to postpone the start of classes. The district’s bus fleet was short more than 60 drivers at the time, and few had been added by this week. Families and advocates worry some students could end up stranded at home or at bus stops Thursday. The Boston Special Education Parent Advisory Council has raised concerns about students who need special education services including door-to-door transportation or individual bus monitors. “I honestly don’t know what to expect now and am concerned for families that don’t have the work flexibility, income, or resources to secure alternative transportation,” said Roxi Harvey, who chairs the council.\n\nMichigan\n\nLansing: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday proposed spending $200 million in federal pandemic relief funding to replace lead water pipes across the state, where aging underground infrastructure was exposed by Flint’s disaster. The plan, if approved by the Legislature, would set aside $20 million to replace all the lines in Benton Harbor in five years. The majority-Black city in the state’s southwestern corner has been exceeding the federal lead limit since 2018. That year, Michigan began enforcing the nation’s strictest rules for lead in drinking water in the wake of the crisis in Flint, another impoverished city with a majority-Black population. The regulations will result in replacing every lead service pipe statewide by 2041 unless a utility can show regulators it will take longer. The proposal would expand upon a water plan Whitmer announced nearly a year ago, including $102 million to replace lead service lines in disadvantaged communities. In June, Republicans who control the Senate unveiled a $2.5 billion water infrastructure proposal that would be funded primarily with federal COVID-19 aid. Their plan includes $600 million for pipe replacements, triple what the governor is seeking. Whitmer said more money is needed to replace all pipes but noted an infrastructure agenda pending in Congress.\n\nMinnesota\n\nMinneapolis: A prominent GOP donor who is charged with multiple counts of sex trafficking is now being sued by an underage girl who says he used her for sex acts, then offered her money to keep her from talking about it. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court alleges that Anton Lazzaro’s attorneys offered $1,000 in hush money to the girl and her parents to keep them quiet and asked them to sign a nondisclosure agreement. The girl’s father refused and instead went to law enforcement, said their attorney, Jeff Anderson. The lawsuit, which also lists the girl’s parents as plaintiffs, alleges Lazzaro used his “power, wealth, influence, connections, and resources to recruit children … so that he could prey on them. When it became clear that Lazzaro had committed serious crimes, he attempted to coerce his victims and their families into keeping silent.” Lazzaro, 30, was charged in August with five counts of sex trafficking of minors, one count of attempted sex trafficking of a minor, one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors and three counts of obstruction. His attorney has said he is being falsely accused. St. Thomas University student Gisela Castro Medina, 19, the former chairwoman of the school’s Republican Party chapter, also faces criminal charges for allegedly recruiting girls for Lazzaro.\n\nMississippi\n\nHattiesburg: An exhibit about blues legends and juke joints is opening soon, designed to appeal to the eyes, hands and ears. A Cast of Blues will be on display starting Saturday and running through Oct. 9 at the Historic Eureka School in Hattiesburg. It features 15 resin-cast masks of blues legends and photographs of blues performers and juke joints made by Mississippi artists. Sharon McConnell-Dickerson created the resin-cast masks, and the photographs were taken by Ken Murphy. McConnell-Dickerson, who is visually impaired, said the casts are like 3-D photographs for people who are blind. “It captures the flesh, muscle, bone, hair and subtle expressions of emotion,” she said. “I wanted to discover the faces behind the music I love, so I went to Mississippi to map out the visages of the real Delta blues men and women.” The exhibit features Braille labels, a music playlist and a closed-captioned film about the Cast of Blues project. Visitors are encouraged to touch the masks, McConnell-Dickerson said. Among the artists spotlighted are Bo Diddley and Bobby Rush. The exhibit is also accompanied by the 2008 documentary film “M for Mississippi: A Road Trip through the Birthplace of the Blues.”\n\nMissouri\n\nSt. Louis: Several people have been treated in emergency rooms after taking the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, even as experts warn of dangerous side effects and a lack of proof that it helps treat COVID-19. Dr. Steven Brown told KMOV-TV that cases of ivermectin toxicity have occurred at Mercy hospitals across the state. “People who are relying upon ivermectin and remaining unvaccinated are under a tremendous false sense of security,” Brown said. “I have seen people with ivermectin toxicity in the emergency room from taking the animal formulation. I’ve seen people who relied on ivermectin to prevent themselves from getting COVID who are on ventilators and who have died.” This week, the American Medical Association and two pharmacist groups urged physicians, pharmacists and other prescribers to warn patients against using ivermectin, a decades-old drug used to killed worms and other parasites in humans and animals. Large studies are underway in the U.S. and overseas to determine if the drug has any effect on preventing or reducing the effects of COVID-19. Ivermectin has been promoted by GOP lawmakers, conservative talk show hosts and some doctors, amplified via social media to millions still resistant to vacines. It has also been widely used in some other countries such as India and Brazil.\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: The state’s Republican attorney general is asking a court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood last month seeking to block four new laws that would restrict access to abortion in the state. The laws, set to take effect Oct. 1, would ban abortion after 20 weeks of gestation; restrict access to abortion pills; require abortion providers to ask patients if they would like to view an ultrasound; and prohibit insurance plans that cover abortion procedures from being offered on the federal exchange. The lawsuit filed in Yellowstone District Court names Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen as a defendant. The state is represented in the case by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group. The state asked Tuesday for the court to reject Planned Parenthood’s request to block the laws before they take effect, saying the laws will “help minimize the medical risks” during pregnancy. But medical experts and abortion advocates broadly dispute that the new laws would make the procedure safer. The suit claims the laws violate the Montana Constitution, which protects access to abortion before the fetus is viable, generally at 24 weeks gestation. It says the laws will reduce the number of locations where abortion services are offered and threaten providers with civil and criminal penalties.\n\nNebraska\n\nOmaha: A segment of the Henry Doorly Zoo was cleared out and visitors were warned to remain inside buildings after a 5,000-pound rhinoceros briefly escaped its enclosure, officials there confirmed. The incident happened Tuesday afternoon, when zookeepers spotted an Indian rhino named Jontu outside his enclosure grazing on grass in an area adjacent to the rhino barn that’s not open to the public, the Omaha World-Herald reports. Visitors were asked to leave the area or shelter in buildings, and the zoo’s carousel and aviary were cleared of guests as a precaution. Dan Cassidy, the zoo’s vice president of animal management, said staff quickly pulled in trucks to serve as a barricade around the area to keep the rhino from wandering and used apples and leafy greens to lure him back in the barn. In all, the rhino was outside the enclosure for about 40 minutes, Cassidy said. The animal never showed any signs of aggression while outside the barn, and the public was not in danger, Cassidy said. Vets were on hand with tranquilizer guns to be used as a last resort if needed. Zoo officials believe Jontu used his nose to push open a latch on a door that wasn’t locked properly. Cassidy said staff will critique the process of corralling the rhino and are considering changing the lock on the door from which he escaped.\n\nNevada\n\nLas Vegas: The president of the school board for metro Las Vegas says she’s received death threats since the district approved a requirement for employees to get COVID-19 vaccinations. Clark County School District Board of Trustees President Linda Cavazos said on Twitter that the threats had “very disturbing images” but that she and her colleagues were continuing to do their jobs, KVVU-TV reports. “We have no time for hate,” she said. The district board voted Sept. 1 for a vaccination requirement that the district superintendent will draft and implement. The district hasn’t yet released details of the mandate. As approved by the board, the plan will include a process for requesting accommodations for medical conditions or for sincerely held religious beliefs. Amid talk of a protest against the mandate, the district said Tuesday that staff member absences were about double from the day after Labor Day in 2019. The district said the callouts accounted for less than 5% of the CCSD workforce and noted that staff could have called out for a variety of reasons.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nStratham: A family that lost a nearly 185-year-old barn on their farm that’s been the backdrop for political events for Republican politicians has sunflowers in the spot for now and recently celebrated a grand reopening. The fire burned down a four-story, 80-foot-long barn at the Scamman Farm in Stratham in May. “It’s just so beautiful, and we’ve been getting a lot of phone calls through the summer asking if they can come take photos in the sunflower patch,” farm manager Sue Fernholz said. “It shows that there’s beauty in life after tragedy.” Fernholz said the sunflowers were planted to pay tribute to the sister of a family friend who died last year. The farm, which reopened last week, also features corn mazes, hayrides, pumpkin patch and other attractions. The family still plans to rebuild the barn once two other buildings are repaired. “We’re going to take the winter to figure out what our needs are (for the new barn),” Kirk Scamman said. Former Presidents George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, had visited the farm. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, launched his campaign there, and Republican Scott Brown announced his U.S. Senate run there in 2014.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nFair Lawn: One school district is getting creative with ways to allow students to get mask-free fresh air during the day. The Fair Lawn district has set up 32 tents at its 10 schools for outdoor lunch, and at Fair Lawn High School, two additional tents are available for outdoor classes, said Superintendent Nicholas Norcia. The first day of school last Friday had a delayed start because of flooding, and the schools have been closed this week until Thursday for the Rosh Hashana holiday. The principals will be working with teachers to determine a schedule for outdoor classrooms so that everyone can get a chance to use them, Norcia said. On Friday, Norcia visited a few schools. “The students were excited to be outside in beautiful weather, eating lunch,” he said. “They were having the best time ever, and it was so great to see.” As of now, the schedule will allow for half the students to eat lunch outside while the other half are inside, and they will rotate. While in the tents, students don’t need to wear masks, Norcia said. Meanwhile, some school districts along the Jersey shore have been lifting mask mandates, citing excessive heat and insufficient air conditioning in classrooms.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: An expansion of nonmerit scholarships to college and greater spending to safeguard abandoned oil wells in the state are among the governor’s new spending priorities, amid a windfall in income linked to federal pandemic relief and petroleum production. September marks the outset of the Legislature’s grueling budget-writing process for the year beginning July 1, 2022. Several executive agencies overseen by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham are making the case for expanded services. Lujan Grisham spokesman Tripp Stelnicki said Tuesday that the inclination is to “aim high” and “make the most of the opportunity we have to finish the work of rebuilding state government services after so many years of forced austerity.” The Human Services Department is suggesting a $100 million spending increase on Medicaid and related mental health services alone, for total annual general fund spending of $1.26 billion on the program. State income for the coming fiscal year is expected to outpace routine annual spending obligations by $1.4 billion, or 19% of annual general fund spending obligations. That leaves lawmakers more money than ever before to spend on education, roads, public safety and other government programs.\n\nNew York\n\nNew York: The remains of two people who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack at the World Trade Center were positively identified this week, as officials continued the difficult and heart-wrenching task of returning victims to their families. The announcement came days before the 20th anniversary of an attack that killed nearly 3,000 people when hijacked commercial jets flew into the twin towers, struck the Pentagon and crashed into a Pennsylvania meadow. “No matter how much time passes since Sept. 11, 2001, we will never forget, and we pledge to use all the tools at our disposal to make sure all those who were lost can be reunited with their families,” said Dr. Barbara A. Sampson, the chief medical examiner of the city of New York. Technicians in the medical examiner’s office have been working for years to match thousands of body fragments recovered from the World Trade Center rubble with known victims but haven’t been able to extract useable DNA in many cases. The identifications announced Tuesday were the first since October 2019. One set of remains was linked to Dorothy Morgan, of Hempstead, New York, who was a broker for Marsh & McLennan. Officials also matched remains recovered in 2001, 2002 and 2006 to a single victim, whose family asked that his name be withheld.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: President Joe Biden approved a request Wednesday for federal funds to be made available to residents of western North Carolina who saw major flooding last month due to Tropical Storm Fred. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper sought the emergency declaration for federal assistance to seven counties nearly two weeks ago. “This federal disaster declaration will help provide assistance for Western North Carolina communities to rebuild stronger and smarter, and I appreciate the president’s approval of our request,” Cooper said in a statement. The storm claimed the lives of six people in Haywood County, caused major damage to more than 200 homes and led to nearly $19 million in estimated damages to public infrastructure. The Cruso community was among those hardest-hit by the flooding. Wednesday’s approval from Biden and the Federal Emergency Management Agency frees up money to residents of Buncombe, Haywood and Transylvania counties. State, tribal and eligible local governments and certain nonprofit organizations also qualify for federal funds on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work performed in the three areas, as well as Avery, Madison, Watauga and Yancey counties.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nFargo: State health officials took to an internet town hall Tuesday to promote certain treatments for COVID-19 and discourage use of an anti-parasitic medicine. Ivermectin has a limited scope for human treatment, sometimes prescribed for worms, scabies and head lice. It is more popular in veterinary form as a treatment for parasitic infections and infestations in cows and horses. North Dakota health officials say data on ivermectin sickness is limited, and poison control has only documented a couple of such cases. But Dr. Joshua Ranum of West River Regional Medical Center said the stories are out there. “The ivermectin issue is interesting,” Ranum said. “We of course live out in farm and ranch country. I’ve had a lot of people tell me that the cows didn’t get their full dose of ivermectin because some of it accidentally went down the hatch.” The veterinary form of ivermectin has high concentrations of the drug because of the high body mass of horses and cows. Adverse effects in humans include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, decreased consciousness, confusion, hallucinations, seizures, coma and death. There are better and safer options, according to Ranum and state Health Department spokesman Kirby Kruger. They pointed to monoclonal antibody drugs, steroids and antivirals like remdesivir.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: Republican lawmakers plan to unveil their version of a newly drawn map of legislative districts Thursday morning, with a vote planned later in the day on a final version, the state Senate president said. The Ohio Redistricting Commission, charged with drawing a map good for as long as 10 years, missed its Sept. 1 deadline, triggering an extension until the middle of the month. Senate Democrats submitted their proposed map last week. The map to be presented Thursday morning was created by House and Senate Republicans, said Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima. Some of the GOP map is almost identical to the Senate Democrats’ version, he said. The commission will vote on a final version of its proposed map Thursday afternoon, Huffman said. The commission held nine public hearings around the state earlier this month looking for input on a new map, which is meant to end the current gerrymandered maps. Voters approved constitutional amendments in 2015 and 2018 that created a new process for drawing both state legislative and congressional district maps this year and set up the independent commission. Creating a 10-year map requires a majority vote of the commission, including both Democrats. Creating a four-year map requires a simple majority without both Democrats.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: Gov. Kevin Stitt has removed the only two physicians from the board that oversees the state’s Medicaid agency, just a week after the board voted 7-1 to delay implementing rules on Stitt’s plan to privatize some Medicaid services. Dr. Jean Hausheer said Tuesday that both she and Dr. Laura Shamblin, an Oklahoma City pediatrician, were informed Saturday by a staffer in the governor’s office that they were being removed from the governing board of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. Hausheer, an ophthalmologist from Lawton, said neither she nor Shamblin was told why they were being removed, and Stitt spokeswoman Carly Atchison didn’t immediately respond to questions about his decision. “The governor has my cellphone number … it is kind of odd that he didn’t contact me himself,” Hausheer said. “I’m going to presume it was because of our last board meeting.” Hausheer and Shamblin were among seven members of the board who voted last week to delay implementing rules on Stitt’s plan to outsource case management for some Medicaid recipients to private insurance companies. Stitt’s managed care proposal has faced bipartisan opposition in the Legislature and was ruled unconstitutional in June by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: Because of new guidance, city officials may need to exempt the police bureau from an order that all employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk losing their jobs. The city attorney’s office said Tuesday that the order requiring police to be inoculated is now legally dubious because of new guidance from the Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. Under state law, local municipalities can only issue vaccine mandates for police officers if a federal or state rule requires it. The city believed Gov. Kate Brown’s vaccination mandate issued last month for state health care workers covered officers because they receive some medical training. But the new guidance related to Brown’s vaccine mandate said law enforcement was “probably not” subject to the governor’s orders, as providing medical care was “likely not a fundamental part of their job.” The city’s police union previously said a vaccine requirement would lead to mass resignations. The Portland Police Bureau has said it does not track vaccination rates for its officers. The city as of Tuesday had not publicly announced any change in policy regarding the vaccination mandate. Multnomah County, like Portland, has ordered all employees to be vaccinated by Oct. 18, including the sheriff’s office.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: A statewide mask mandate for schools went into effect Tuesday, with some districts in open defiance of the Wolf administration, while GOP leaders in the state House planned to come back to Harrisburg early to mount a legislative response. The state health secretary’s order that students, staff and visitors at K-12 schools and child care facilities are required to wear masks while indoors, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status, has provoked outrage from some parents, students and school board members who say the decision should remain local. Some districts faced anti-mask protests as students returned to class after the long Labor Day weekend. Meanwhile, the Tamaqua Area School Board in Schuylkill County flouted the mask mandate by voting to keep face coverings optional. The superintendent of Hamburg Area School District in Berks County said masks would remain optional pending the outcome of a special school board meeting to discuss the statewide mandate. Late Tuesday, the board voted 5-3 to adhere to the Department of Health order and require masks, WFMZ reports. In central Pennsylvania, the Central York School Board expressed disdain for the mask mandate and said it would give a “grace period” for students to come into compliance.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: Local police organizations are questioning Mayor Jorge O. Elorza’s judgment after he hired a civilian with no experience in law enforcement to be the city’s first-ever police major instead of considering the Black officers who applied for the position. Elorza chose Michael Stephens, who has no experience in law enforcement, aside from graduating from the citizens academy in 2016. Stephens was a recreation director and NCAA referee before his appointment as police major, The Boston Globe reports. The National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers Chairman Charles Wilson said the mayor’s decision in appointing a civilian without experience over qualified Black law enforcement officers was demeaning. Stephens is also Black. Stephens will manage oversight on police training and be responsible for the recruitment and training of police recruits. According to Wilson, three Black officers applied for the major’s position. The mayor chose Elorza instead. Providence City Council President John Igliozzi proposed that the mayor change the job title from police major to public safety community-police liaison because of the backlash from the police organizations.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nCharleston: Authorities shut down a road for more than an hour Tuesday to investigate a bomb threat that turned out to be a wedding dress, Charleston Police said. Someone who saw a woman cram an oversized package into a mailbox called 911, Charleston Police spokesman Charles Francis said in a statement. Officers responded and determined the package contained a wedding dress that a woman was trying to return by mail, Francis said. The road was reopened after more than an hour. The statement did not say if the wedding dress was damaged.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: The City Council has capped the number of retail stores that can sell medical marijuana at five. The council signed off Tuesday night on a proposal coming from Mayor Paul TenHaken’s office. But council members halved the $100,000 license fee that City Hall wanted and will allow the licenses to be sold on the secondary market. “The Sioux Falls City Council, by making a license worth $50,000 and transferrable, has just made dispensary licenses into liquor licenses,” Drew Duncan, a Sioux Falls attorney and lobbyist for clients in South Dakota’s gambling and alcohol industry, said via social media following the 7-1 vote. A new liquor license in Sioux Falls costs about $200,000, but a state-set cap on the number of them has driven up the price on the secondary market to $300,000 or higher. TenHaken and supporters of barring the transfer of dispensary licenses worry that allowing them to be sold on the secondary market will give them an artificial value, just as has happened with liquor licenses. But the majority of the council decided without allowing a license to be owned outright, the city’s medical marijuana rules would unduly restrict a retailer’s ability to grow their business.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: A panel has approved $65 million in state incentives for Oracle Corp. as the company plans to bring 8,500 jobs and an investment topping $1 billion to the fast-growing capital city over the coming decade. The State Funding Board’s approval of the FastTrack grant came during a meeting Tuesday. In April, Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s office announced that the Austin, Texas-based computer technology company plans to build the new campus with 1.2 million square feet of office space. Documents show the jobs will have an average salary of $110,000. Oracle paid $254 million for 60 acres and is offering $175 million upfront for public infrastructure, including a pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland River, environmental cleanup, a sewer pump station and a riverfront park, the mayor’s office has said. Half of Oracle’s future property taxes – which the company estimates will be roughly $18 million annually when the project is fully built – would reimburse the company for the upfront investment, without interest payments, with the other half going into the city’s general operating fund, Cooper’s office has said. The move would surpass the expansion of Amazon, which in 2018 announced it would bring 5,000 jobs through a $230 million investment.\n\nTexas\n\nDallas: Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday defended a new state law banning most abortions that also does not provide exceptions for cases of rape or incest, saying it does not force victims to give birth – even though it prohibits abortions before many women know they’re pregnant. Abbott, a Republican, said Texas would strive to “eliminate all rapists from the streets” while taking questions during his first press conference since the law took effect last week. The comments drew new criticism from opponents of the biggest curb on abortion in the U.S. since the medical procedure was legalized a half-century ago. The Texas law prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, which is usually about six weeks into a pregnancy. Though abortion providers in Texas say the law is unconstitutional, they say they are abiding by it. “His comments are confusing to me because they certainly do not seem to reflect the realities of this law,” said Amy Jones, the chief executive officer of the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center. Recent surveys by the U.S. Department of Justice found that most rapes go unreported to police. “Certainly it is in our mission statement to work to end sexual violence – that is why we exist – but we are also very aware that that is an aspirational goal that yes, we do believe that this is a preventable crime, but it if it were that easy, rape would no longer exist,” Jones said.\n\nUtah\n\nBrian Head: In the midst of record tourism statewide, Gov. Spencer Cox helped park staff and charity partners break ground Tuesday on a new visitor center at Cedar Breaks National Monument. The center has been a decade in the making, built with a combined $6 million in funds from fees, donations, and funding from Iron County, the National Park Service, the Zion Forever Project charity and organizations. Superintendent Kathleen Gondor did a “happy dance” as she opened the groundbreaking ceremony near the popular Point Supreme overlook, which is currently closed to the public because of the construction. “It’s just going to give us that sense of place instead of a bunch of pullouts along the road,” she said, echoing a sentiment that Cedar Breaks is a “drive-thru” park. Cox said there was “every right to be excited,” and he was glad to see partnerships work as visitation soars in the lesser-known park. “So many people even in Utah don’t know about it, still,” he said. “Americans are rediscovering America, and Utahns are rediscovering Utah.” But with increased visitors comes an increased responsibility to make sure those visitors have a good experience and recreate responsibly, something Cox said he hopes the visitor center will help people to do.\n\nVermont\n\nWaterbury: Three state troopers who are accused of being involved in a scheme to create fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination cards have resigned, state police said Tuesday. Troopers Shawn Sommers and Raymond Witkowski resigned Aug. 10, a day after a fellow trooper told supervisors about the alleged scheme. Trooper David Pfindel resigned Sept. 3 following further investigation, according to a state police news release. The three ex-troopers are suspected of having varying roles in the making of fraudulent vaccination cards, according to the release. “The accusations in this case involve an extraordinary level of misconduct – a criminal violation of the law – and I could not be more upset and disappointed,” Col. Matthew T. Birmingham, director of the Vermont State Police, said in the release. “If these allegations are proved to be true, it is reprehensible that state troopers would manipulate vaccination cards in the midst of a pandemic, when being vaccinated is one of the most important steps anyone can take to keep their community safe from COVID-19.” Sommers and Witkowski both joined the Vermont State Police in July 2016. Pfindel was hired in January 2014, police said. Federal authorities are investigating the allegations.\n\nVirginia\n\nDanville: A part of southside Virginia that has relatively lower rates of vaccination against COVID-19 is seeing increasing interest in the shots. The Danville Register & Bee reports that it appears the most recent surge in infections has spurred more residents to roll up their sleeves in the Pittsylvania-Danville Health District. Data from the Virginia Department of Health shows that inoculations jumped about 50% in August compared to July. Nearly two-thirds of the almost 5,700 shots were first doses. “Numbers of vaccinations are increasing as of late, which we welcome and consider a positive step by the community,” Dr. Scott Spillmann, director of the local health district, told the newspaper. “We ask everyone who is not yet fully vaccinated to do so as soon as possible.” Southside Virginia trails the rest of the state when it comes to vaccination rates. As of Friday, 51% of adults in Danville were fully inoculated. In Pittsylvania County, 47% of adults were fully vaccinated. Statewide, more than two-thirds of adults have received a full COVID-19 vaccine series. Meanwhile, Danville and Pittsylvania County combined are seeing about 52 new coronavirus infections a day because of the delta variant.\n\nWashington\n\nLongview: A recent increase in COVID-19 deaths has overwhelmed a southwest Washington county’s storage capacity, prompting the coroner to ask the commissioners to declare an emergency to allow the county to bring in a refrigeration trailer. Cowlitz County commissioners agreed Tuesday to the request to help expand capacity until the new morgue is ready for staff to move into in about a month. The Daily News reports Cowlitz County Health and Human Services data for the past week is incomplete, but at least eight county residents died due to COVID-19 between Aug. 31 and Sept. 6. The residents ranged in age from their 40s to 90s, and seven of the residents had been hospitalized. Coroner Tim Davidson said the morgue and the county’s funeral homes are maxed out on capacity, and they are “being creative” to maintain cold storage. All together, the facilities can typically hold 45 bodies and right now have about 65, he said. “We’re just doing our best that we can to preserve the dignity of the deceased from this point forward until they can be processed for their families,” Davidson said. The morgue can hold 10 bodies but is currently “way above that,” using gurney tables in the cooling rooms to handle the increase, he said. The new morgue under construction will be able to hold 50 in cold storage.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nFayetteville: The state’s largest annual festival will require most people in attendance to wear masks when Bridge Day is held this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic in America’s newest national park. Tens of thousands of people typically show up on the third Saturday of October to watch parachutists, zip liners and rappellers on the 876-foot-high New River Gorge Bridge in Fayetteville. Masks will be required at the festival regardless of vaccination status, and social distancing must be observed whenever possible, the Bridge Day Commission said in a statement. People come from across the world to attend the event. Festivalgoers typically line the center of the 3,000-foot-long bridge shoulder-to-shoulder trying to get a good look at parachutists catapulting themselves off the nation’s third-highest bridge. Exceptions to the mask mandate include those at the time of their participation – be it in the air, during a 5-kilometer run, while rafting in the New River or on a zip line. But they’ll have to mask up before and after, the statement said. Social distancing will be next to impossible on the crowded bridge itself, but organizers said it will be required on the festival’s perimeters. Bridge Day is the only day of the year the bridge is open to pedestrian traffic. The pandemic forced last year’s event to be canceled.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: A new report suggests people are buying dramatically more alcohol as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on. Revenue from state excise taxes on alcohol during the fiscal year that ended June 30 totaled $73.8 million, up almost 17% from $63.3 million the previous year, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Revenue cited in the report from the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum. If the preliminary data holds, the increase would be the biggest proportional increase the state has seen since 1972, the report said. The rise in alcohol tax collection exceeded 2.4% in only one year between 2009 and 2020, the report said. Alcohol excise taxes in Wisconsin are based on the volume sold, not price. Beer is taxed at about 6.5 cents per gallon. Wine is taxed at 25 cents per gallon if it has an alcohol content of 14% or less. The report did not examine sales tax revenue on alcohol. Most states have seen a bump in alcohol tax revenues during fiscal year 2021. The report said increased alcohol consumption is “perhaps unsurprising” given rising stress related to personal health, job losses, school challenges and a lack of leisure activities during the pandemic.\n\nWyoming\n\nCheyenne: Wyoming Supreme Court Justice Michael K. Davis plans to retire in January, opening the way for Gov. Mark Gordon to make his first appointment to the high court. Davis plans to retire Jan. 16 after a decade on the state’s highest court, Chief Justice Kate M. Fox said in a statement Tuesday. Davis served as chief justice for three years, stepping down from that role July 1. He was a state district judge for four years before being named to the Supreme Court. He previously was an attorney in private practice. He graduated with honors from the University of Wyoming law school in 1980. Former Gov. Matt Mead, a Republican, named all five current justices over his two terms in office. Gordon, also a Republican, will choose the next justice from a list of three names submitted to him by the state Judicial Nominating Commission. The commission plans to accept expressions of interest from qualified people through Oct. 1. Wyoming requires Supreme Court justices to be at least 30, “learned in the law,” a judge or attorney for at least nine years, a U.S. citizen and a Wyoming resident for at least three years.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/08/17/what-it-costs-to-retire-comfortably-in-every-state/42209705/", "title": "What It Costs to Retire Comfortably in Every State – 24/7 Wall St.", "text": "Michael B. Sauter\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nOne of the reasons that many Americans get up and go to work every day is to put some money away for retirement. While Social Security payments can be a helpful financial foundation in retirement, it is often not enough to cover anything but the most basic expenditures, especially in the uncertain financial times wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nBased on average annual spending for American seniors and the national average life expectancy at age 65 of 19.4 years, the average American will spend about $987,000 from retirement age on. And those hoping for a more comfortable and financially secure retirement should plan on saving a little more.\n\nOf course, both cost of living and life expectancy vary considerably by state – and so, too, does the cost of retirement. Using the average annual spending of Americans 65 and older – adjusted at the state level for cost of living and life expectancy – 24/7 Wall St. calculated what it will cost to retire comfortably in each state. All data used in the ranking came from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, an independent global health research center at the University of Washington.\n\nInvesting for retirement?:From a diverse portfolio to automating investments, here are 5 tips to prepare\n\nRetirement savers:Worried about stock market bubble? You might not have to do anything\n\nOne of the best ways to prepare financially is through retirement-specific accounts, such as IRAs or 401(k)s. These types of funds offer special tax benefits and often come with employer matches. Those who fail to save enough and take advantage of options like these – or draw from them before they hit retirement age – may have to work past age 65 in order to pay the bills. Here is what you can do if COVID-19 is threatening your retirement.\n\nJust how much one needs to save to comfortably meet expected spending from age 65 on depends on a number of factors. Many who work in the public sector, for example, may benefit in retirement from regular pension payments, in addition to Social Security. The amount of these pension payments vary by state and employer. Even in some of the most expensive places to retire, state subsidies can help finance the cost of retirement. These are the states spending the most to fund their residents' retirement.\n\n1. Alabama\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $894,461 (3rd least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 13.6% less than avg. (3rd lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $357 (6th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 17.0% (18th highest)\n\nIn Alabama, residents need an average of about $894,000 to live out their retirement years in relative comfort – below the national average of about $1.1 million. Retirees in Alabama need less retirement savings because of both lower average life expectancy and lower cost of living.\n\nLife expectancy at age 65 in the state is 17.7 years, nearly two years below the national average. Additionally, goods and services are about 14% less expensive on average in Alabama than they are nationwide.\n\n2. Alaska\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,170,763 (13th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +4.8% more than avg. (10th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $504 (19th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 11.9% (2nd lowest)\n\nRetirees need to save an estimated average of nearly $1.2 million to live out their years in comfort in Alaska. The estimated need for retirement savings in the state is higher than in most states due in large part to the high cost of living in the state. Goods and services are 4.8% more expensive across Alaska on average than they are nationwide. Even without a mortgage, home ownership costs an average of $504 a month among the retirement age population, more than in all but a handful of states.\n\n3. Arizona\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,134,482 (18th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 3.5% less than avg. (25th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $410 (15th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 17.6% (11th highest)\n\nWith a warm climate and a relatively low cost of living, Arizona is an ideal state for many Americans to retire. Of the state's population, 17.6% of residents are 65 or older, compared to 16.0% of the total U.S. population.\n\nThe estimated average savings necessary for a comfortable retirement in Arizona is $1.1 million, more than in most states. This is due in large part to the high life expectancy in the state. Those who are 65 years old in Arizona are expected to live an additional 20 years on average, almost a year longer than the national average.\n\n4. Arkansas\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $893,051 (2nd least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 14.7% less than avg. (the lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $355 (4th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 16.8% (22nd highest)\n\nArkansas is one of only 13 states where residents can retire and live comfortably while spending less than $1 million. This is due to the state's low cost of living and low life expectancy. Goods and services in Arkansas are 14.7% less expensive than they are nationwide, on average, and those who are 65 can expect to live to 82.9, on average, below the 84.4 year national average life expectancy at 65.\n\n5. California\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,397,174 (3rd most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +15.4% more than avg. (3rd highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $567 (11th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 14.3% (6th lowest)\n\nCalifornia has one of the highest costs of living of any state in the country – as well as one of the highest life expectancies. Goods and services are 15.4% more expensive in California on average than they are nationwide, and average life expectancy at age 65 in the state is 85.7 years, nearly a year and a half longer than national average.\n\nAs a result, for a comfortable retirement in the state, residents would need an average of about $1.4 million in savings, more than in every other state apart from Hawaii and New York.\n\n6. Colorado\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,192,006 (11th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +1.9% more than avg. (13th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $459 (23rd lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 14.2% (5th lowest)\n\nThe average Colorado retiree would need about $1.2 million in savings to live comfortably, which is higher than in 39 states. The relatively high cost of living in the state may help explain why so many Colorado senior citizens continue to work after the traditional retirement age. Among the state's senior households, 41.5% have wage earnings, compared to the national share of 38.0% of senior households.\n\n7. Connecticut\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,265,959 (6th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +6.1% more than avg. (8th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $870 (2nd highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 17.2% (15th highest)\n\nHousing costs are high for senior citizens living in Connecticut. The average monthly cost of homeownership among the 65 and older population is $870 without a mortgage and $1,481 with – the second and 13th highest costs, respectively, among states.\n\nPartially as a result, retirement is more expensive in Connecticut than in most other states. Living comfortably for the 20.4 years Connecticut residents live, on average, after age 65, costs an estimated $1.3 million average, more than in all but five other states.\n\n8. Delaware\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,121,070 (19th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 1.2% less than avg. (18th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $451 (20th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 18.7% (6th highest)\n\nFor those who reach age 65 in Delaware, the average life expectancy is 84.4 years. Living out those years in relative comfort will cost an estimated $1.1 million on average – roughly in line with the national average cost of retirement.\n\n9. Florida\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,194,451 (9th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +0.6% more than avg. (15th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $494 (21st highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 20.5% (2nd highest)\n\nFlorida's warm climate makes it an ideal location for many Americans to retire. In fact, more than one in every five residents of the Sunshine State are 65 or older, the second largest share of any state in the country. Residents who are 65 in the state are expected to live to an average of just over 85, about a year longer than the national average.\n\nDue in part to the higher life expectancy, the estimated retirement costs in Florida are $1,194,451, greater than the $1,134,687 national average.\n\nCoronavirus pandemic peak:Most states haven't hit the peak. Here's projected dates for every state\n\nStates reopening:Face masks, social distancing are among the rules as businesses reopen\n\n10. Georgia\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,006,303 (15th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 7.0% less than avg. (24th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $400 (12th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 13.8% (4th lowest)\n\nThe average life expectancy for Georgia residents at age 65 is 83.5 years, about a year shy of the national average. Additionally, goods and services are 7.0% less expensive in Georgia than they are nationwide. As a result, the average estimated cost of a comfortable retirement in the state is just over $1 million – slightly below the $1.1 million average nationwide.\n\n11. Hawaii\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,485,123 (the most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +18.1% more than avg. (the highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $518 (16th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 18.4% (7th highest)\n\nWhile Hawaii's warm climate may make it an ideal state for many Americans to retire in, it is also the most expensive state in the country in which to retire. Goods and services in Hawaii are 18.1% more expensive than they are nationwide, on average. Life expectancy at 65 is also longer than average in Hawaii. As a result, retirees in the state can expect to need about $1.5 million to live out their golden years in comfort, well above the $1.1 million national average.\n\n12. Idaho\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,049,585 (23rd least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 7.5% less than avg. (22nd lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $364 (7th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.9% (20th lowest)\n\nThose who retire in Idaho can expect to spend less to live comfortably than those who retire in most other states. Due in part to Idaho's lower than average cost of living – particularly the state's low housing costs – retirees will spend an estimated average of $1,049,585 to live comfortably. That is about $85,000 less than the national average, even though life expectancy at age 65 in Idaho is the same as it is nationwide.\n\n13. Illinois\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,118,865 (20th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 1.9% less than avg. (19th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $609 (9th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.6% (12th lowest)\n\nRetiring comfortably in Illinois today would require an estimated $1.1 million, in line with the national average. Though the overall cost of living across the state is less than average, housing costs are relatively high. The average monthly cost of homeownership for state residents of retirement age is $609 without a mortgage and $1,458 with a mortgage, ninth highest and 14th highest among states, respectively.\n\n14. Indiana\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $961,044 (10th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 10.7% less than avg. (12th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $399 (11th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.7% (15th lowest)\n\nLike many states in the Midwest, Indiana has a low cost of living. Goods and services in the state are 10.7% less expensive than they are on average nationwide. Partially as a result, a comfortable retirement is relatively inexpensive in the state.\n\nIndiana residents who are 65 are expected to live, on average, about 18 and a half years longer, roughly in line with the national figure. And to live comfortably throughout those years will cost an estimated $961,044, which is less than retirement costs in most parts of the country.\n\n15. Iowa\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,017,358 (19th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 10.8% less than avg. (11th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $473 (25th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 17.0% (18th highest)\n\nA comfortable retirement in Iowa will cost an estimated $1,017,35, less than in most states and below the national average of $1,134,687. The typical retirement age household in the state earns $47,784 a year, below the national median earnings nationwide for households in that age group of $61,559.\n\n16. Kansas\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,000,162 (14th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 10.0% less than avg. (15th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $510 (17th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.9% (20th lowest)\n\nThose who retire in Kansas can reasonably expect to spend just over a million dollars to live a relatively comfortable lifestyle after age 65. Retirement cost in Kansas is lower than in most states as a result of the state's relatively low cost of living. Goods and services are 10% less expensive than they are, on average, nationwide.\n\n17. Kentucky\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $898,683 (5th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 12.2% less than avg. (5th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $372 (8th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 16.4% (25th lowest)\n\nKentucky is one of only five states where a comfortable retirement costs an average of less than $900,000. In addition to the state's relatively low cost of living, another reason retirement costs are low is due to a lower than average life expectancy. Kentucky residents are expected to live an average of about 17 and a half years past 65, about two years less than the national average.\n\n18. Louisiana\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $943,258 (8th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 10.9% less than avg. (10th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $340 (2nd lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.5% (11th lowest)\n\nAdjusted for the state's relatively low cost of living, Louisiana residents spend an average of about $45,316 a year after age 65. And the average life expectancy for those who are 65 in the state is just over 18 years to 83.1 years. On average, retirees in the state can expect to spend about $943,000 – including an additional 15% to live comfortably – throughout their golden years, less than in most other states.\n\n19. Maine\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,093,744 (22nd most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +0.0% more than avg. (16th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $501 (20th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 20.6% (the highest)\n\nRetirement-age residents account for 20.6% of Maine's total population, the largest share of any state in the country. Accounting for the state's slightly lower than average life expectancy at 65, a comfortable retirement in Maine will cost an estimated $1,093,744, compared to the national estimate average of $1,134,687.\n\n20. Maryland\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,242,681 (8th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +8.4% more than avg. (6th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $615 (8th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.4% (9th lowest)\n\nMaryland is one of the most expensive states in the country – and partially as a result, it is not an inexpensive place to retire. Life expectancy in Maryland after age 65 is nearly 20 years on average, and living comfortably over those years – based on average annual spending of 65 and older households – will cost an estimated total of $1,242,681. Nationwide, retirement costs an estimated $1,134,687 on average.\n\n21. Massachusetts\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,276,832 (5th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +9.7% more than avg. (5th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $794 (3rd highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 16.5% (25th highest)\n\nThe total estimated cost of living comfortably in retirement years in Massachusetts is about $1.3 million, more than in all but four other states. The higher expenses in retirement are attributable in part to the higher cost of living in the state. Median homeownership costs in Massachusetts for 65 and older households without a mortgage are $794 and $1,842 with a mortgage, the third and fourth highest among states, respectively. Overall, goods and services are 9.7% more expensive across Massachusetts than they are, on average, nationwide.\n\n22. Michigan\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,021,429 (20th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 7.6% less than avg. (21st lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $477 (23rd highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 17.2% (15th highest)\n\nThe average estimated cost of retirement in Michigan is $1,021,429, slightly less than the national average of $1,134,687. The lower retirement cost is driven by lower living expenses as goods and services in Michigan are 7.6% less expensive than the national average.\n\nMichigan residents are also less likely to have to work into retirement age. Just 33.5% of state residents 65 and older are earning a wage or salary, nearly the lowest share of any state.\n\n23. Minnesota\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,157,644 (15th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 2.5% less than avg. (20th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $524 (15th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.8% (17th lowest)\n\nMinnesota's cost of living is slightly above that of the nation as a whole. The state also has one of the longest life expectancies at 65, at just over 20 years to about 85 years, which means seniors retiring there should expect to spend more throughout their retirement years than the national average. Comfortable retirement in Minnesota will cost about $1.2 million, more than the $1.1 million national estimate.\n\n24. Mississippi\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $885,290 (the least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 14.0% less than avg. (2nd lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $342 (3rd lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.9% (20th lowest)\n\nWith the nation's second lowest cost of living, and third lowest old-age life expectancy, Mississippi is the least expensive state in which to retire. Life expectancy in Mississippi at age 65 is over 17 years to 82.6 years, and living comfortably over those years – based on average annual spending of 65 and older households – will cost an estimated total of $885,290. Average housing costs for 65 and older households with a mortgage in Mississippi are $968 a month, less than housing costs for the same age group without a mortgage in a more expensive state, like New Jersey.\n\n25. Missouri\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $966,051 (11th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 11.2% less than avg. (9th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $452 (21st lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 16.9% (21st highest)\n\nMissouri is one of only 13 states where a comfortable life in retirement age will cost an estimated total of less than $1 million. The relatively low cost is due both to a low cost of living and a low average life expectancy in the state. Goods and services are 11.2% less expensive in Missouri than they are on average nationwide, and life expectancy at age 65 is over 18 years to 83.6, below the over 19 years, to 84.4 years, national average life expectancy at age 65.\n\n26. Montana\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,009,549 (16th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 6.7% less than avg. (25th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $441 (19th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 18.8% (5th highest)\n\nMontana has a relatively large elderly population. Some 18.8% of state residents are 65 or older, the fifth largest share among states. Based on the average spending of Americans in that age group, adjusted for Montana's cost of living, and accounting for life expectancy, state residents can expect to spend about $1 million to through retirement to live comfortably – slightly less than average.\n\nFor many however, Social Security and savings are not enough to live comfortably into old age. In Montana, about 38.1% of retirement age households are still earning a wage or salary.\n\n27. Nebraska\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,015,545 (18th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 10.5% less than avg. (13th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $509 (18th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.8% (17th lowest)\n\nThanks in part to a low cost of living – 10.5% less than the national average – retirement is less expensive in Nebraska than it is in most other states. The average life expectancy in Nebraska past age 65 is 19.4 years to 84.4, in line with the national average. Living comfortably in the state over that period will cost an estimated $1,015,545, compared to a national average of $1,134,687. Despite the lower retirement cost, just 15.8% of Nebraska's population are 65 and older, a smaller share than in most states.\n\n28. Nevada\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,077,806 (25th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 2.5% less than avg. (20th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $412 (16th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.7% (15th lowest)\n\nWith a warm climate, Nevada may be an ideal destination for many Americans to retire. Retirement is also somewhat less expensive in the state than it is on average across the United States. Based on Nevada's average life expectancy at age 65 of nearly 19 years to 83.9 years and a lower than average cost of living, state retirees would need to spend $1,077,806 from age 65 onward to live comfortably, about $57,000 less than the national average.\n\nStill, just 15.7% of Nevada residents are of retirement age, a smaller share than in most states.\n\n29. New Hampshire\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,190,368 (12th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +6.0% more than avg. (9th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $784 (4th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 18.1% (9th highest)\n\nNew Hampshire has a higher cost of living than most states, notably due to higher costs for housing and services. But seniors in the state appear to be more likely than most to be relatively financially secure, as just 5.5% of residents 65 and older live in poverty, compared to the national poverty rate for the age group of 9.4%. This is at least partially due to the fact that a relatively high 42.6% of households 65 and older continue to earn wages.\n\n30. New Jersey\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,367,800 (4th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +15.2% more than avg. (4th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $986 (the highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 16.1% (21st lowest)\n\nLife expectancy at age 65 in New Jersey is over 20 years to 85.3 years, nearly a year longer than average. Additionally, goods and services are about 15.2% more expensive than they are on average nationwide. As a result, retirement is expensive in the Garden State. New Jersey residents looking to live comfortably should expect to spend about $1.4 million after age 65, more than in all but three states.\n\nThe high costs likely help explain why so many retirement-age New Jersey residents continue to work. Among 65 and older households in the state, 42.1% are still earning salaries or wages, well above the national average of 38.0%.\n\n31. New Mexico\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,049,685 (24th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 8.9% less than avg. (18th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $357 (6th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 17.6% (11th highest)\n\nNew Mexico falls roughly in the middle of all states in terms of the total expected lifetime expenditure for a retiree, at about $1.0 million. Life expectancy at 65 in the state is slightly higher than average, and cost of living in the state is slightly below average. It appears retirees in the state are among the least likely to be able to afford these expenses, as New Mexico has the highest poverty rate among residents 65 or older, at 13.3%, compared to a national 65+ poverty rate of 9.4%.\n\n32. New York\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,402,473 (2nd most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +16.4% more than avg. (2nd highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $768 (5th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 16.4% (25th lowest)\n\nNew York is one of the most expensive states to live in the country. It also has the third longest life expectancy at 65. As a result, the state has the second highest estimated total spending for a comfortable retirement, at nearly $1.4 million over 20.6 years.\n\n33. North Carolina\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,014,796 (17th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 8.2% less than avg. (19th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $405 (14th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 16.3% (23rd lowest)\n\nNorth Carolina has both below average cost of living and below average life expectancy, and so it ranks among the bottom third of states for expected retirement spending, at just over $1 million.\n\nOwning a house in North Carolina is relatively inexpensive for senior citizens, with the typical home owned by seniors valued at $171,500, compared to the national median value of senior-owned homes of $217,000.\n\n34. North Dakota\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,033,325 (21st least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 9.4% less than avg. (16th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $456 (22nd lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.3% (7th lowest)\n\nGoods and services are about 9.0% less expensive in North Dakota than they are, on average, nationwide. Partially as a result, at $1,033,325, the estimated cost to live comfortably in the state from age 65 on is about $101,000 less than the estimate for the nation.\n\nLikely due in part to the lower retirement costs, North Dakota residents are less likely to have to work into retirement age. Just 37.5% of 65 and older households are earning wages or salaries, below the 38.0% national average.\n\n35. Ohio\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $941,018 (7th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 11.6% less than avg. (8th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $464 (25th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 17.1% (17th highest)\n\nAccounting for Ohio's cost of living, which is 11.6% lower than the national average, state residents 65 and older spend an estimated $44,960 a year. That means that 65-year-olds in Ohio who live to be 83.2 years old – Ohio's average life expectancy for those age 65 – can expect to spend $941,018 to live comfortably throughout the rest of their lives.\n\nFor many in the state, those expenses can be, at least partially, met through retirement savings and Social Security. Still, 36.0% of Ohio residents age 65 and up are still working.\n\n36. Oklahoma\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $925,507 (6th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 11.6% less than avg. (8th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $401 (13th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.7% (15th lowest)\n\nOklahoma is both one of the least expensive states to live and one of the states with the shortest life expectancies at 65, at 17.9 years (to nearly 83), or 1.5 years less than the national life expectancy at 65. Homeownership for seniors in the state is relatively inexpensive, and the typical home owned by state residents 65 or older is worth $133,800, which is about $83,000 less than the national median home value for properties owned by residents 65 or older.\n\n37. Oregon\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,153,081 (16th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +1.1% more than avg. (14th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $531 (12th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 17.6% (11th highest)\n\nLiving out retirement in relative comfort will cost an estimated $1,153,081 in Oregon, almost exactly in line with the average cost nationwide. Oregon's estimated cost of living is in line with the national average, and the average life expectancy in the state at age 65 is over 19 years to 84.5, only slightly higher than the 84.4 year national average.\n\n38. Pennsylvania\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,083,509 (24th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 2.5% less than avg. (20th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $528 (14th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 18.2% (8th highest)\n\nIn Pennsylvania, 18.2% of residents are 65 or older, the eighth largest share of any state in the country. A comfortable retirement in the state will cost the average retiree a total of $1,083,509, about $51,000 less than the average cost nationwide.\n\nRetirement-age adults in Pennsylvania are less likely to struggle financially than older Americans nationwide. Just 8.3% of Pennsylvania residents 65 and older live below the poverty line, a smaller share than the 9.4% of older adults nationwide.\n\n39. Rhode Island\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,138,360 (17th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 0.7% less than avg. (17th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $699 (6th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 17.3% (14th highest)\n\nAdjusting for the state's cost of living, seniors living in Rhode Island can expect to spend just over $50,000 per year. Including a 15% financial cushion, a comfortable retirement will cost an estimated total of $1.1 million in Rhode Island. It appears that the state's 65 and older residents are among the least likely to be able to afford those expenses, as the state has the fifth highest poverty rate among senior citizens, at 11.2%, compared to the national 65 and over poverty rate of 9.4%.\n\n40. South Carolina\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $975,088 (12th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 8.9% less than avg. (18th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $376 (9th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 17.7% (10th highest)\n\nSouth Carolina has a relatively large elderly population, at 17.7% of its total population, the 10th largest share among states. It also has a relatively affordable housing market, with below average monthly ownership costs for seniors, with and without a mortgage. Likely partially as a result, about 85% of the state's 65 and over population owns the homes in which they live. With relatively low living costs for other goods and services as well, the total expected expenditure for retirees in the state is one of the lowest.\n\n41. South Dakota\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $997,390 (13th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 12.1% less than avg. (6th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $464 (25th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 16.6% (24th highest)\n\nSouth Dakota is one of the least expensive states in the country to live in. Goods and services are an average of 12.1% less expensive in South Dakota than they are nationwide. Partially as a result, the estimated total cost of a comfortable retirement is about $137,000 less than it is on average across the United States as a whole.\n\nStill, senior citizens in South Dakota are more likely than average to have to work into retirement age. Of state residents 65 and older, 44.6% are earning a wage or salary, a larger share than the 38.0% of retirement-age adults nationwide.\n\n42. Tennessee\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $951,727 (9th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 10.1% less than avg. (14th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $384 (10th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 16.3% (23rd lowest)\n\nTennessee has one of the nation's lower life expectancies at age 65, and it is also one of the least expensive states to live in. As a result, it is one of 13 states where the expected lifetime expenses in retirement for a comfortable living is less than $1 million.\n\nThe state's low cost of living might help explain why a below-average share of state residents are still working after reaching the traditional retirement age. Just 36.2% of retirement age households in Tennessee are still earning a wage or salary, below the 38.0% national share.\n\n43. Texas\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,087,053 (23rd most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 3.2% less than avg. (23rd highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $480 (22nd highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 12.5% (3rd lowest)\n\nThe estimated cost of comfortably living one's retirement years in Texas is $1,087,053 – about $48,000 less than the average cost nationwide. Still, Texas residents are more likely than average to have to work into retirement age. Of the state's 65 and older population, 42.6% are earning a wage or salary, the sixth highest share among states and well above the 38.0% national share.\n\nOlder Texans are also more likely than other elderly Americans to struggle financially. Of the state's retirement age population, 11.1% live below the poverty line, a higher poverty rate in the age group than in all but five states and well above the 9.4% national rate.\n\n44. Utah\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,101,757 (21st most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 3.4% less than avg. (24th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $413 (18th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 11.1% (the lowest)\n\nUtah has a slightly lower than average cost of living, but a slightly higher than average life expectancy at 65. While, overall, total lifetime expenses for retirees are somewhat higher in Utah than in the majority of states, a relatively high share of state seniors appear able to comfortably afford those costs. Just 6.1% of state residents 65 and older live in poverty, the third lowest share among states.\n\n45. Vermont\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,192,825 (10th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +3.0% more than avg. (11th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $650 (7th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 19.8% (4th highest)\n\nVermont has one of the largest retirement age populations of any state. Nearly 20% of the state's population are 65 or older, the fourth largest share among states. Life expectancy in the Green Mountain State is slightly higher than average, and so is the cost of living. As a result, a comfortable retirement in Vermont costs about $58,000 more than the national average.\n\nThe higher retirement costs may partially explain why Vermonters are more likely than most Americans to work past age 65. Of the state's retirement age households, 44.9% earn a wage or salary, well above the 38.0% national share.\n\n46. Virginia\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,163,346 (14th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +2.0% more than avg. (12th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $476 (24th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.5% (11th lowest)\n\nVirginia is a relatively expensive state to retire, with a total estimated spending for a comfortable retirement of $1.16 million. Despite this fact, a below-average share of state residents continue to work after reaching retirement age. Those who do tend to be paid relatively well – senior households earning wages in the state have an average income of $67,522, the eighth highest figure among states.\n\n47. Washington\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,254,718 (7th most)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: +7.8% more than avg. (7th highest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $594 (10th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 15.4% (9th lowest)\n\nThe estimated cost for a comfortable retirement in Washington state is $1,254,718, the seventh highest of any state. The higher retirement costs are attributable to both the state's higher average cost of living and higher life expectancy at age 65.\n\nDespite the higher retirement costs, savings and Social Security appear to be enough for a large share of the state's 65 and older population in retirement. Just 35.8% of the retirement-age demographic in the state are working, below the 38.0% national average.\n\n48. West Virginia\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $898,683 (5th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 12.2% less than avg. (5th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $317 (the lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 20.0% (3rd highest)\n\nA comfortable retirement in West Virginia will cost an estimated $898,683, the fifth least of any state and well below the $1.1 million national average. The state's low cost of living – 12.2% less than the national average – partially explains why. Still, the lower total retirement cost is also attributable to West Virginia's low life expectancy. Life expectancy for 65 year old residents in the state is just 17.5 years to 82.5 years, about two years below the national average.\n\n49. Wisconsin\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,058,902 (25th least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 8.1% less than avg. (20th lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $529 (13th highest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 17.0% (18th highest)\n\nGoods and services in Wisconsin are less expensive than in most other states, costing 8.1% less than the U.S. average. Life expectancy for state residents who reach 65 is 19.7 years to age 84.7, roughly in line with the national life expectancy at 65 of 19.4 years. The result is that the expected lifetime retirement costs in the state are slightly below that of the nation.\n\n50. Wyoming\n\n• Est. total retirement spending: $1,041,011 (22nd least)\n\n• Avg. cost of living: 7.3% less than avg. (23rd lowest)\n\n• Avg. monthly homeownership cost for senior citizens: $413 (18th lowest)\n\n• Pop. 65 and older: 16.7% (23rd highest)\n\nThe estimated cost of comfortably living one's retirement years in Wyoming is $1,041,011 – about $94,000 less than the average cost nationwide. Still, Wyoming residents are more likely than average to have to work into retirement age. Of the state's 65 and older population, 42.0% are earning a wage or salary, the 12th highest share among states and well above the 38.0% national rate.\n\nMethodology\n\nTo determine what it costs to retire comfortably in every state, 24/7 Wall St. calculated the amount of money needed to last the average retiree for the rest of his or her life using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Our calculation was based on the average annual expenditure for U.S. residents 65 years and older in 2018 – $50,860 – according to the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey. We adjusted that figure by local cost of living, using state-level data on regional price parity in 2017 from the BEA, and multiplied the result by 115% in order to reflect greater financial stability and comfort in retirement.\n\nFinally, to determine the amount needed to last the average retiree for the rest of his or her life, we multiplied the adjusted annual expenditure figure by the number of years residents are expected to live at age 65, using state-level data from the IMHE’s Global Health Data Exchange for 2017.\n\nData on the share of the population that is 65 and over, the mean annual earnings for 65+ households, the share of 65+ households with earnings, the 65+ homeownership rate, and homeownership costs came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 American Community Survey. All data are for the most recent period available.\n\n24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/08/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/09/26/best-worst-thing-every-state/37857241/", "title": "The Best and Worst Thing About Every State – 24/7 Wall St.", "text": "Michael B. Sauter\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nResidents of each state have at least one aspect of their home they can brag about, but also one they would probably rather forget.\n\nNew York state residents may gloat about the fact that the state has the highest-paid public school teachers, but probably wouldn’t want to broadcast that state workers have the longest average commutes. Alaskans are probably happy to live in a state with wide-open spaces, but they are likely less proud of the state’s nation-worst unemployment rate. Idahoans no doubt are proud of their potato production, but also are probably unhappy about their state’s high risk of wildfires.\n\nNot all states are created equal. Some are home to major metropolises rich with culture and commerce. Others are blessed with natural resources, beautiful natural monuments, parks, and waterways. Some states have healthy populations; in others, important historical events unfolded, while highly positive social or economic factors are the main attraction of others.\n\nThe other side of this coin is that some states are devoid of resources or culture. In some states, the populations are struggling due to poor economic conditions or pollution. The histories of some states include events residents would prefer to be forgotten.\n\n24/7 Wall Street reviewed many data sets and state facts to identify the best and worst features of every state:\n\nAlabama\n\nBest: America's best college football program\n\nThe University of Alabama has won 17 national football championships, including the 2017 title, and is No. 1 again this year.\n\nWorst: Nobody walks anywhere\n\nJust 1.2 percent of Alabamians walk to work, the lowest rate in the country, and less than half the national rate.\n\nAlaska\n\nBest: Wide open spaces\n\nThere are just 1.2 people per square mile in Alaska. The next lowest density state, Wyoming, has a density of 5.8 people per square mile, while the United States has 87.4 people per square mile.\n\nWorst: High unemployment\n\nAlaska's 2017 unemployment rate of 7.2 percent is well ahead of the 4.4 percent national rate and a full percentage point higher than the next highest state.\n\nArizona\n\nBest: The Grand Canyon\n\nWhat is 277 river miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and a mile deep? America's greatest natural wonder, the Grand Canyon.\n\nWorst: It is very hot\n\nIn Phoenix and Tucson, the nation’s hottest cities, normal mid-summer temperatures are at least 100 degrees.\n\nArkansas\n\nBest: Ozark Mountains\n\nThe picturesque Ozarks owe their name to French explorers. The name is derived from the French phrase \"aux arcs,\" the northernmost bend in the Mississippi River.\n\nWorst: Fewest broadband users\n\nJust 73 percent of Arkansas households have access to a broadband internet connection and all the resources it can connect them to.\n\nCalifornia\n\nBest: Lowest gender pay gap\n\nCalifornia women make 89 cents for every dollar a man makes -- certainly not perfect, but a higher rate than in any other state.\n\nWorst: Lowest high school attainment\n\nRoughly one in six Californians have not finished high school, the highest rate in the country.\n\nColorado\n\nBest: Least obese\n\nJust 20.5 percent of Colorado adults are considered obese. Most states have obesity rates well over 25 percent.\n\nWorst: Into thin air\n\nColorado has an average altitude close to 7,000 feet above sea level, which means that it can be harder to breathe for those who aren't acclimated. The \"Mile High City\" of Denver has an estimated 17 percent less oxygen.\n\nConnecticut\n\nBest: UConn basketball teams\n\nThe women's and men's basketball teams at the University of Connecticut have won 15 national championships between them. In March 2018, though, the women's team had its 36-game winning streak snapped by Notre Dame in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament.\n\nWorst: Most expensive electricity in lower 48\n\nConnecticut is the only mainland U.S. state in which residents pay, on average, over 20 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity.\n\nDelaware\n\nBest: Tax haven\n\nMore companies are incorporated in Delaware than in any other state. Over 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies are based in Delaware.\n\nWorst: Blink and you'll miss it\n\nDelaware has no real identity -- it has no major cities and is overshadowed by the sprawling metropolises of Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.\n\nFlorida\n\nBest: Not falling apart\n\nAccording to an index of structurally deficient bridges, hazardous dams, and unserviceable roads, Florida has the safest infrastructure in the nation.\n\nWorst: Fewest libraries per capita\n\nIt may be tough for Floridians, especially children, to become avid readers as the Sunshine State has fewer libraries per person than any other state.\n\nGeorgia\n\nBest: Birth of civil rights movement\n\nGeorgia is the birthplace of both the Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr.\n\nWorst: Bad traffic on highways, particularly Atlanta\n\nAtlanta's \"Spaghetti Junction\" was ranked worst by the American Transportation Research Institute in its listing of the Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks in the U.S.\n\nHawaii\n\nBest: Longest life expectancy\n\nThe island lifestyle may have unknown benefits, as Hawaii residents are the only ones in the country with an average life expectancy of 81 years.\n\nWorst: Least sleep\n\nExperts recommend that adults get at least seven hours of sleep per night, but 44.7 percent of Hawaiians fail to meet that threshold.\n\nIdaho\n\nBest: Potatoes\n\nIdaho’s soil is ideal for growing potatoes, and the state famously produces more of the crop than any other state.\n\nWorst: Most destruction due to wildfires\n\nBetween 2008 and 2017, most states had less than 1 percent of their land damaged by wildfires. In Idaho, 10.6 percent of the land was burned -- accounting for nearly 5.6 million acres.\n\nIllinois\n\nBest: Quality education\n\nIllinois is home to many of the country’s top-ranking public schools.\n\nWorst: City of rats\n\nChicago was rated as the rat capital of the world in 2017, with more than 50,000 complaints about rats filed.\n\nIndiana\n\nBest: A city that likes to go fast\n\nThe state capital of Indianapolis is arguably more connected with motorsport racing than anywhere in the country. The Indianapolis 500 race is considered one of the biggest single-day events in sports.\n\nWorst: A less-than-comfortable retirement\n\nIndiana is one of only two states with an average retirement income of less than $20,000.\n\nIowa\n\nBest: Recession-proof\n\nIowa has had a remarkably stable economy over the years. While national unemployment rose above 10 percent after the housing crisis, Iowa unemployment topped out at 6.6 percent. Since January 2008, the state's unemployment has averaged at 4.6 percent, one of the lowest of any state.\n\nWorst: A bad place to bike\n\nAccording to a recent report, Iowa is the least safe state to bike, as five of the 10 most dangerous cities to bike are in the state.\n\nKansas\n\nBest: Fewest roads in poor condition\n\nLess than 1 percent of Kansas roads are deemed unserviceable, the lowest share of any state.\n\nWorst: Perhaps the most geographically boring state\n\nKansas is flat and geographically homogeneous. Driving through the state can put many to sleep.\n\nKentucky\n\nBest: Horse breeding and racing\n\nHome to the Kentucky Derby, the state is known for breeding and raising horses. Its famous bluegrass is ideal for horse pasture because it is considered nutritious and palatable for the animals.\n\nWorst: Highest cancer mortality\n\nThere were 512 cancer diagnoses and 196 cancer deaths per 100,000 Kentucky residents in 2015 -- both are the highest rates in the nation.\n\nLouisiana\n\nBest: Least expensive electricity\n\nLouisiana residents pay less per kilowatt hour of electricity than those in all other states.\n\nWorst: Largest gender pay gap\n\nAmerican women make just over 80 cents for every dollar a man earns. In Louisiana, female workers make less than 69 cents on the dollar.\n\nMaine\n\nBest: Lowest violent crime rate\n\nMaine ranks as the safest state in the country, as there were just 124 violent crimes reported for every 100,000 residents -- less than a third of the national rate.\n\nWorst: Least diverse\n\nAccording to the latest Census data, 94.4 percent of Maine's population is white, beating out nearby Vermont and New Hampshire as the least diverse states.\n\nMaryland\n\nBest: Highest median household Income\n\nMaryland residents are the most affluent in the country, with a median household income of $80,776 -- more than $20,000 higher than the U.S. median.\n\nWorst: Murder in Baltimore\n\nThere were over 50 murders committed in Baltimore per 100,000 residents last year, the highest murder rate among cities with a population of at least 100,000.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBest: Highest health insurance coverage\n\nAt 97.2 percent, Massachusetts has a higher share of residents with health insurance than anywhere else in the country.\n\nWorst: Boston sports fans\n\nSome may find Boston sports fans insufferable because their professional teams win frequently. It's about to get worse. The Red Sox have already won 100 games and have their sights set on winning the World Series. The Patriots are primed to extend their streak of consecutive winning seasons to an NFL-record of 18 wins.\n\nMichigan\n\nBest: Great Lakes\n\nMichigan borders two of the Great Lakes, and has miles of beautiful shoreline to visit.\n\nWorst: Detroit and Flint, the two worst cities to live in\n\nAccording to a 24/7 Wall St. index of crime, economy, education, environment, health, housing, infrastructure, and leisure, Detroit and Flint are the worst cities in the U.S. to reside in.\n\nMinnesota\n\nBest: lowest premature mortality\n\nMinnesota residents are the most likely to live into old age, with a U.S.-low premature mortality rate. Just 263 state residents per 100,000 die before turning 75.\n\nWorst: lowest average winter temperatures\n\nIn the land of 10,000 lakes, you can bet almost all of them are frozen in winter. Minnesota has the lowest annual average temperature in the contiguous United States.\n\nMississippi\n\nBest: Mississippi Delta, birthplace of the blues\n\nMany American genres owe their origins to the blues, which were developed in the Mississippi River delta.\n\nWorst: highest poverty rate\n\nThose who live in Mississippi are more likely to be impoverished than residents of any other state. Some 19.8 percent of state residents earn incomes at or below the poverty line..\n\nMissouri\n\nBest: Kansas City and St. Louis Barbecue\n\nFolks in Kansas City and St. Louis will put their barbecue up against offerings from Texas or North Carolina.\n\nWorst: flooding\n\nAuthor Mark Twain immortalized life on the Mississippi River, but for MIssouri residents, the waterway can be deadly. Some of the worst floods in American history are due to the Mississippi's fury.\n\nMontana\n\nBest: High school attainment\n\nMontana has one of the highest high school attainment rates in the country among adults.\n\nWorst: Dangerous roads\n\nMontana has among the highest driving fatality rate in the country, likely in part due to long drives on dangerous, remote country roads.\n\nNebraska\n\nBest: Officially nonpartisan legislature\n\nNebraska has the only unicameral -- or single chamber -- legislature in the country.\n\nWorst: Lowest state pre-k spending\n\nAmong the states that offer pre-kindergarten programs, Nebraska is the only one that spends less than $2,000 per child in state funding.\n\nNevada\n\nBest: Lowest skin cancer rate\n\nEven though it is hot and sunny in Nevada, its residents are less likely to be diagnosed with skin cancer than those in any other state.\n\nWorst: Least Literate State\n\nAccording to a 24/7 Wall St. index of reading skills, educational attainment, and library prevalence, Nevada ranks as the least literate state in the U.S.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nBest: Healthiest senior citizens\n\nSome 83.2 percent of older adults in New Hampshire reported being in either good, very good, or excellent health -- a higher share than all other states.\n\nWorst: High property taxes\n\nNew Hampshire, which once had a reputation as among the most fiscally conservative states, assesses the second-highest property taxes in the nation.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nBest: Highest state Pre-K spending\n\nNew Jersey spends over $12,000 per child enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs. No other state spends even $10,000 per child for pre-k.\n\nWorst: Most hazardous waste sites\n\nAlthough New Jersey is one of the smaller states, it has 114 hazardous waste sites, the most of any in the country.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nBest: Lowest average monthly energy bill\n\nPower bills can be frustrating, but typically less so for New Mexico residents. The average state resident paid just $75.96 per month for energy in 2016.\n\nWorst: Worst chance for school success\n\nAccording to Education Week's Quality Counts 2018 report, New Mexico children have just a 67 percent chance at success, meaning education does poorly in promoting positive outcomes over the course of an individual's schooling.\n\nNew York\n\nBest: Highest paid public school teachers\n\nNew York public school teachers earn a U.S.-best median of $79,152, nearly $2,000 higher than the next state.\n\nWorst: Longest average commute\n\nThe typical New York resident who commutes to work every day spends 34 minutes in their vehicles, or in public transit, the longest commute of any state.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nBest: The Outer Banks\n\nThe Outer Banks, home to America's first colony and where the first manned flight took off, are a tourist mecca because of their beaches, state parks, and shipwreck diving sites.\n\nWorst: Evictions all too common\n\nNorth Carolina has one of the highest rates of evictions in the country.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBest: Oil boom\n\nNorth Dakota's economy has been through a boom period, thanks in part due to the development of the Bakken shale oil formation. Between 2011 and 2016, state GDP rose by roughly 25 percent.\n\nWorst: Recent GDP decline\n\nWhile GDP is up over five years, stalled oil prices have resulted in a recent decline in North Dakota's economy. In the last year, state GDP has declined by almost 5 percent, the largest GDP decline.\n\nOhio\n\nBest: Lowest projected Alzheimer's increase\n\nThe number of people with Alzheimer's is expected to increase by just 13.5 percent between 2018 and 2025, the smallest increase of any state.\n\nWorst: Horrible air pollution\n\nOhio has the highest average concentration of fine particulate pollution of any state.\n\nOklahoma\n\nBest: Excellent Pre-K\n\nOklahoma has one of the more comprehensive Pre-K programs in the country. It is one of only three states to mandate Pre-K for all four-year-olds.\n\nWorst: Smallest improvement in life expectancy\n\nLife expectancy has improved across the country over the past few decades, but Oklahoma had the smallest improvement. Life expectancy at birth in the state increased by just 3.8 percent since 1980. Oklahoma's current life expectancy is the fifth lowest among states.\n\nOregon\n\nBest: Most environmentally friendly\n\nAccording to a 24/7 Wall St. index, Oregon ranks as the most environmentally friendly in the country.\n\nWorst: Homelessness is a serious problem\n\nSoaring rents have contributed to Oregon's homelessness problem. In some counties, homelessness has risen by more than 100 percent.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nBest: Cheesesteak sandwich\n\nDebate raged about the best maker of the Philadelphia delicacy, but the sandwich is popular enough to be made all across the country.\n\nWorst: Highest gas tax\n\nPennsylvania has the highest gas tax in the country, at 58.7 cents per gallon.\n\nRhode Island\n\nBest: Mansions of the rich and famous\n\nYou can see vestiges of the Gilded Age at estates such as the Breakers in Newport.\n\nWorst: Falling apart\n\nIn 24/ Wall St.'s infrastructure index, Rhode Island rated the worst for the combined quality of its roads, bridges and other infrastructure.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nBest: Charleston one of best cities to travel\n\nTourists are beguiled by the antebellum charms of Charleston, annually ranked as one of the best U.S. cities according to Travel + Leisure magazine.\n\nWorst: Highest average monthly energy bill\n\nSouth Carolinians pay an estimated $146 on average on their monthly energy bill, the highest in the country and more than double that of some states.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nBest: Most sleep\n\nJust 28.8 percent of South Dakota adults report getting insufficient sleep every night, the lowest share of any state, and well below the 36.5 percent of Americans who do.\n\nWorst: Poorly paid teachers\n\nThe average salary for a public school teacher in the state is just $42,025 per year, the lowest of any state.\n\nTennessee\n\nBest: A city of music\n\nKnown as Music City, Nashville is home to one of the most vibrant music scenes of any city. And Elvis Presley himself called Memphis, which also has a strong music community, home.\n\nWorst: A violent crime problem\n\nTennessee has one of the highest violent crime rates of any state, and Memphis, the second largest city in the state, has the third highest violent crime rate in the country.\n\nTexas\n\nBest: Energy production\n\nOil produced in Texas accounts for about 30 percent of the nation's oil-refining capacity. A recent surge in oil prices is serving as a tailwind for the Texas economy.\n\nWorst: Lowest health insurance coverage\n\nJust 82.7 percent of Texas' population has health insurance coverage, the lowest share of any state. The national civilian health insurance coverage rate is 91.3 percent.\n\nUtah\n\nBest: Fewest smokers\n\nJust 8.8 percent of Utah adults report smoking, the lowest share of any state.\n\nWorst: Highest skin cancer rate\n\nUtah has by far the highest rate of reported new cases of skin cancer among both men and women.\n\nVermont\n\nBest: Most doctors per capita\n\nThere are 112 primary care physicians per capita in Vermont, the most of any state in the U.S.\n\nWorst: Opioid epidemic\n\nIn 2014, the opioid crisis became so bad in Vermont that the state declared an emergency.\n\nVirginia\n\nBest: Home of the most U.S. presidents\n\nVirginia is the birthplace of eight presidents -- George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson -- more than any other state.\n\nWorst: Bad state for sports fans\n\nVirginia is the 11th most populous state but does not have a single team in the NHL, NBA, MLB, or NFL.\n\nWashington\n\nBest: Highest one-year GDP growth\n\nWashington’s GDP grew by nearly 4 percent in 2016, higher growth than in any other state.\n\nWorst: Rain, rain, rain\n\nSeattle doesn't quite as much total rainfall as its reputation suggests compared with many other American cities, but it rains often -- 152 days a year.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nBest: Fewest excessive drinkers\n\nWhile some parts of West Virginia face addiction problems, that does not extend to alcohol. According to the latest CDC figures, less than 12% of state adults drink to excess, which is the lowest share among states.\n\nWorst: Most smokers\n\nAlmost one in four West Virginian adults smoke, the highest share in the country.\n\nWisconsin\n\nBest: Cheese\n\nIf you had any doubt that Wisconsin is the center of the cheese universe, this next fact should put it to rest. In August 2018, a cheese board with 4,437 pounds of dairy goodness graced a Madison, Wisconsin, street to set a Guinness World Record.\n\nWorst: Most excessive drinkers\n\nOver one in four Wisconsin adults drink to excess, which is the highest share of any state.\n\nWyoming\n\nBest: Yellowstone\n\nAlmost all of Yellowstone National Park, one of the most beautiful places in the country, can be found in the northwest corner of Wyoming.\n\nWorst: Unequal representation\n\nJust 11.1 percent of the state's senate and legislature seats are occupied by women, the smallest share of any state.\n\n24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/09/26"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_15", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:22", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/bigten/2022/06/30/ucla-usc-negotiations-join-big-ten-demolishing-pac-12/7779419001/", "title": "Pac-12 powerhouses UCLA, USC joining Big Ten Conference in 2024", "text": "Southern California and UCLA will leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, the schools officially announced via press releases Thursday evening.\n\nThe two schools reached out to the Big Ten and were not pursued, multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations told USA TODAY Sports. The move would occur for the 2024 season. The Big Ten may not be done expanding.\n\nThe people were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the negotiations.\n\nUSC and UCLA are the two dominant brands in the Pac-12 and the largest and most successful athletics departments on the West Coast.\n\nLosing the two schools to the Big Ten is devastating for the Pac-12 and will lead to another round of conference realignment impacting every league in the Power Five.\n\nIn a statement, the Big Ten confirmed all sports would shift over for the 2024-25 academic season and the move \"remains subject to negotiation of final terms.\"\n\nOPINION: Apocalypse, now! College sports has become another corporate proxy war\n\nFALLOUT: College football's future appears to be two super-conferences\n\nMORE: Look inside UCLA, USC trophy cases\n\nNEWSLETTER: Get the latest sports news straight to your inbox\n\n\"This is the most volatile and uncertain era in the history of American collegiate athletics,\" USC athletics director Mike Bohn said in a statement. \"USC must ensure it is best positioned and prepared for whatever happens next, and it is our responsibility to always evaluate potential opportunities and be willing to make changes when needed.\n\n\"Ultimately, the Big Ten is the best home for USC and Trojan athletics as we move into the new world of collegiate sports.\"\n\nAdding the two schools will bring the Big Ten membership to 16, equaling the number of schools set to be in the SEC once Texas and Oklahoma join the conference from the Big 12 in 2025.\n\nThe addition expands the league’s footprint well beyond its traditional Midwest roots and creates the first Football Bowl Subdivision “super conference” constructed largely without regard for geography.\n\nIn a statement, the Pac-12 Conference wrote that it was \"extremely surprised and disappointed by the news coming out of USC and UCLA today.\"\n\n\"We've long been known as the Conference of Champions, and we're unwavering in our commitment to extend that title. We will continue to develop new and innovative programs that directly benefit our member institutions, and we look forward to partnering with current and potential members to pioneer the future of college athletics together,\" the Pac-12 said.\n\nUCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block and athletics director Martin Jarmond wrote in a joint statement that \"seismic changes in collegiate athletics\" in recent years \"have made us evaluate how best to support our student-athletes as we move forward.\"\n\n\"For us, this move offers greater certainty in rapidly changing times and ensures that we remain a leader in college athletics for generations to come,\" they wrote.\n\nBlock and Jarmond also noted that a move to the Big Ten \"offers Bruins exciting new competitive opportunities and a broader national media platform for our student-athletes to compete and showcase their talents. Specifically, this move will enhance Name, Image and Likeness opportunities through greater exposure for our student-athletes and offer new partnerships with entities across the country.\"\n\nThe financial incentives for UCLA and USC to make this move are powerful.\n\nWhat UCLA, USC bring to Big Ten trophy case: Both programs have major hardware\n\nIn fiscal 2019, the last year unaffected by the pandemic, the Big Ten distributed about $55.6 million to each of its 12 longest-standing members (Maryland and Rutgers received smaller shares) while the Pac-12 distributed about $32.3 million, according to the conferences’ federal tax records.\n\nThe gap in per-school distributions was even wider in fiscal 2021, the most recent year for which the conferences’ tax records are available. The Big Ten’s basic distribution was about $48.9 million per school – and that was with Maryland and Rutgers receiving full shares for the first time – while the Pac-12’s was about $19.8 million.\n\nAs a private school, USC does not make public its annual athletics financial reports to the NCAA.\n\nUCLA’s recent reports have been bleak. After having balanced budgets for more than a decade, UCLA’s athletics program has faced significant financial problems in each of the past three fiscal years, racking up a combined operating deficit of more than $103 million according to data compiled by USA TODAY Sports in partnership with the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Data project at Syracuse University.\n\nIn 2019, it reported an annual operating deficit of $18.9 million. In 2020, that figure grew to $21.7 million. And in 2021 – the year in which college sports programs faced the height of the COVID-19 pandemic – the annual deficit ballooned to $62.5 million.\n\nIn 2020, The (San Jose) Mercury News reported that the 2019 deficit would be covered by an interest-bearing loan from the campus’ central fund. Although USA TODAY Sports asked in writing in 2021 how the 2020 deficit would be addressed, a school spokesperson did not provide that information.\n\nThis past January, when UCLA reported its financial figures for 2021, a school spokesman provided USA TODAY Sports a statement that pointed not only to the pandemic, but also a set of other factors, including the athletics department receiving far less money from the university and student fees than other schools – about $2.5 million to $2.7 million annually.\n\nThe University of California System’s other Pac-12 school, California-Berkeley, has received more than $18 million in such funding in each of the past two years. University and athletics department officials there have acknowledged that nearly $85 million in annual operating deficits from 2015 through 2019 weren’t treated as accumulated debt, to be repaid by the athletics department at some point. They were simply covered by the university.\n\nIn 2021, Arizona State provided its athletics department with $62.3 million in institutional funding to help with the effects of the pandemic, along with $11.3 million in student fee support (the athletics department reported transferring $6.2 million back to the university). But in a typical year, Arizona State’s athletics department has received net totals of more than $15 million in school and student-fee money.\n\nContributing: Dan Wolken and Steve Berkowitz\n\nFollow colleges reporter Paul Myerberg on Twitter @PaulMyerberg", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/30"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/pac12/2022/06/30/oregon-washington-ucla-southern-cal-pac-12-big-ten/7784194001/", "title": "If USC and UCLA are leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, Oregon ...", "text": "EUGENE, Ore. — On Thursday afternoon, a bit of seismic news was reported that could shake up the Pac-12 and Big Ten.\n\nUSC and UCLA are negotiating to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten conference, multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations told USA TODAY Sports. The people were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing negotiations.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/30"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2022/06/30/ucla-usc-big-ten-pac-12-future-conference-realignment/7780419001/", "title": "UCLA, USC to Big Ten: College football's future is 2 super ...", "text": "With Southern California and UCLA leaving the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten in 2024, college football is taking an irreversible step toward the construction of two major conferences at the expense of tradition and the remaining Power Five leagues.\n\nWhile viewed in administrative circles as a possibility since the first round of significant conference realignment a decade ago, the birth of these super leagues creates a chasm of space between the rest of the current Football Bowl Subdivision and the SEC and Big Ten.\n\nUSC and UCLA leaving the Pac-12 is the clearest signal yet that the top level of college football will center on dozens of teams married not by geography, rivalry or history but the chase for increasingly large media-rights payouts and broadcast deals.\n\nInstead of merely a possibility, these super-conferences are now here.\n\nNow that this latest conference realignment is official, the fallout will be swift and seismic.\n\nOPINION: Apocalypse, now! College sports has become another corporate proxy war\n\nMORE: Look inside UCLA, USC trophy cases\n\nARCH MANNING: Peyton weighs in on nephew's commitment\n\nNEWSLETTER: The biggest sports news straight to your inbox\n\nWhile the Big 12 was able to partially offset losing Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC by gobbling up the best teams from the American, the Pac-12 will have no options among the Group of Five ranks even remotely close to matching the reputation, success and television appeal of the two Los Angeles-based schools.\n\nThe Pac-12 could next lose Oregon and Washington, the next two members with the draw and support to be an option for further West Coast expansion.\n\nIn that scenario, the Pac-12 would need to dip deep in the Group of Five — for Boise State and San Diego State, to start — just to create a lineup of schools with enough relevance to simply maintain existence in the Football Bowl Subdivision.\n\nEven in the hypothetical where the Pac-12 and Big 12 merge, that league would still be miles behind the SEC and Big Ten in terms of overall competitiveness in the race for the national championship.\n\nThat leaves the Pac-12 with only one hope: That the Big Ten accepts the entire conference, warts and all, perhaps motivated by the longstanding relationship with the conference built through the Rose Bowl.\n\nBut doing so would dilute the Big Ten’s overall strength and do nothing to move the needle during the league’s current TV rights negotiations.\n\nInstead of going deeper into the Pac-12, both the Big Ten and SEC could take aim at the best available programs elsewhere: Clemson, Florida State, Miami and the top tier of the ACC, along with Notre Dame.\n\nWhile the Irish aren’t subject to the same concerns, the flagbearers in the ACC would be motivated to change conferences for the same reason USC and UCLA jumped ship: ACC schools will make millions less per year than the SEC and Big Ten schools, with the total set to grow dramatically when the Big Ten signs its new TV deal.\n\nUSC and UCLA are the tipping point for a new world order. Eventually, every school with designs on competing for the national championship will push and shove in an attempt to get to the front of the line and beat the crowd into one of the two super-conferences.\n\nThat may result in the second major shakeup in the divisional structure of college football in the past 50 years, following the creation of Division I and Division I-AA (later renamed the FBS and Football Championship Subdivision) in 1978. This time, the split will place the two super leagues in one tier and the rest of the current FBS in another.\n\nThe unofficial gap between the haves and have nots will have a clear line of demarcation. The future of college football is clear: two super-conferences will be centerstage.\n\nFollow colleges reporter Paul Myerberg on Twitter @PaulMyerberg", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/30"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2021/08/15/college-sports-hocutt-not-pleased-big-12-s-exclusion-other-conferences-talks/8141641002/", "title": "Hocutt 'not pleased' at Big 12's exclusion from other conferences ...", "text": "Texas Tech athletics director Kirby Hocutt expressed irritation this weekend about the Big 12 being left out of reported talks among three other power-five conferences who want to work together to counter the growing power of the Southeastern Conference.\n\nThe Athletic reported Friday that \"high-level discussions\" are going on among leaders of the Pac-12, the Big Ten and the Atlantic Coast Conference about forming an alliance and a voting bloc, one that would not include the Big 12 apparently.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2021/08/05/pac-12-big-12-merger-how-conferences-joining-forces-could-look/5499112001/", "title": "Pac-12, Big 12 merger: How conferences joining forces could look", "text": "PHOENIX — The Pac-12 has 12 schools. With Oklahoma and Texas set to leave the Big 12 for the SEC, that conference will soon have just eight.\n\nMight they merge to form a Pac-20 Conference or perhaps a Big 20? How about a Super Pac-20?\n\nAccording to multiple reports, the commissioners of the Pac-12 and Big 12 met Tuesday to discuss how the conferences might benefit from working together or maybe even merge.\n\nThe merging part has us very interested.\n\nA full merger of the Big 12 and Pac-12 would create a 20-team conference with schools in every major U.S. time zone, something no other conference has.\n\nThat would make it unique and potentially pretty valuable in the ever-important TV contract discussions for conferences.\n\nWhat could a Big 12 and Pac-12 merger look like?\n\nHere's some possibilities to split up the conference, should the Pac-12 and Big 12 decide it is in their best interests to join forces.\n\nMORE: Find out Tuesday who makes the preseason USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll Top 25\n\nBIG 12: AAC commissioner denies plotting with ESPN to add teams\n\nKeep the two-division model\n\nIt would not be hard for the Pac-12 to continue with a North and South division by just slotting in the Big 12 teams into one of those divisions.\n\nThe Pac-12 North could keep Washington, Washington State, Stanford, California, Oregon and Oregon State, and add Iowa State, West Virginia, Kansas and Kansas State.\n\nThe Pac-12 South could keep USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado and add Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma State.\n\nAnother option in the two division model?\n\nSplit the conference by West and East.\n\nThe old Pac-12 could be in one division and the conference could potentially put Utah and Colorado in the other division with the eight Big 12 schools.\n\nEither of these potential options would allow the conference to pit the winners of the two divisions against each other in the conference title game.\n\nHow about a four-division model?\n\nWould splitting a possible Big-12 and Pac-12 super-conference into four divisions work out better geographically?\n\nIt could keep regional rivalries intact, too.\n\nOne option in this format could be putting ASU and Arizona with the Texas schools: TCU, Baylor and Texas Tech.\n\nKansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Iowa State and West Virginia could be in another division, with Utah, Colorado, UCLA, USC and either Stanford or California.\n\nThe final division could pit Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State and either Stanford or California.\n\nIf the conference wanted to split up the Big 12 schools more it could realign the divisions to put Iowa State with the Washington and Oregon schools, West Virginia and Oklahoma State with Colorado and the Kansas schools and perhaps Arizona and ASU with the Texas schools.\n\nUtah could go with the four California schools.\n\nIn this situation, the conference could potentially have the four division winners face off in a mini-playoff to determine the conference champion.\n\nOther options\n\nPerhaps the Big 12 and Pac-12 decide it is not in their best interests to merge, or perhaps some teams (like West Virginia or Iowa State) decide to go to another conference closer to them geographically, making a possible Big 12/Pac-12 conference not as big after a potential merger.\n\nMaybe the Pac-12 decides it's best to just stand pat with its 12 teams or perhaps add schools like BYU or Boise State.\n\nBut thinking about potential conference expansion and realignment definitely adds some intrigue to the college football season.\n\nThose conferences and their member institutions have some decisions to make that will alter the college athletics landscape.\n\nFollow Jeremy Cluff on Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/asu/2020/03/05/pac-12-football-lose-asu-usc-oregon-washington-ucla-big-12/4964313002/", "title": "Pac-12 football lose ASU, USC, Oregon, Washington, UCLA to Big 12?", "text": "Before Colorado and Utah joined the Pac-10 to form the Pac-12, there was talk of the Pac-12 poaching Oklahoma, Texas and some other Big 12 schools to form a super-conference in what could have been known as the Pac-16.\n\nWell, what if the Big 12 returned the favor and poached some teams from the Pac-12?\n\nThe Athletic's Andy Staples discussed the topic on his latest podcast.\n\nHe brought up the idea of USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon and Washington joining the Big 12 (which actually only has 10 teams).\n\n\"The Big 12 is not as poorly run as people outside of Big 12 country think,\" Staples said on the Andy Staples Show podcast. \"The Big 12 is actually pretty well run and it has a pretty good set of TV deals, not as good as the SEC and the Big Ten, but pretty good and then the bigger you are the more you make off those third-tier rights. Texas has the Longhorn Network, Oklahoma has its deal with Fox. Even Kansas and Iowa State have pretty good deals, so, the Big 12 is just sitting there with 10 schools and a really good TV deal and they have a TV deal coming up. The year before the Big 12's TV deal expires, the Pac-12's TV deal expires.\n\nStaples said what the Big 12 needs to do is raid the Pac-12.\n\n\"The Big 12 needs to go to USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon and Washington and say, 'are you tired of not getting any money from your league? Are you tired of not getting any money out of your third-tier rights? Well, come join us because all together as 16-team league we would command a huge primary television package, we would command a huge secondary television package, you then would then be able to sell your third-tier for whatever you want,\" Staples said.\n\nThe Big 12 would be able to add the media markets of Los Angeles, Phoenix and Seattle.\n\n\"It would be doable, that's the thing. The Pac-12 is in such a weakened state right now,\" Staples said. \"This is something the Big 12 could pull off.\"\n\nMORE:There's a lull in conference-realignment talk, but another round could be coming\n\nCollege football realignment talk has cooled off in recent years. The Big 12 has been linked to programs like BYU and Boise State as possible future members, but that talk quieted. The last major conference realignment for Power 5 conferences happened when Rutgers and Maryland moved to the Big Ten in 2014.\n\nThe Pac-12's last move came when Colorado and Utah joined the conference in 2012.\n\nStaples wondered if the Big 12 could possibly shake up the college athletics landscape with a big move like adding those Pac-12 schools when the conference's TV deal expires in 2024.\n\n\"Think about that league: Texas, Oklahoma, TCU, Oklahoma State, Baylor, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, the Arizona schools, that's a pretty fun league,\" Staples said. \"You could divide it a couple of different ways … but from a television standpoint it would be great.\"\n\nIt wouldn't be good for the Pac-12 schools that weren't included, Staples said, but the move for the other Pac-12 schools would be a good one.\n\n\"They are the only safe harbor at this point, there's nowhere else to go,\" Staples said. \"So, I am very curious to see how aggressive the Big 12 would be in something like this because they really could gut the Pac-12 if they wanted to, and create a very strong league that would be, I don't know if it is the financial rival of the Big Ten or the SEC, but it would command a pretty good TV deal.\"\n\nStaples said that schools such as Oregon and USC could be attracted to the Big 12 by the possibility of having their own network, like Texas with the Longhorn Network.\n\nCrossroads for the Pac-12\n\nStaples' comments come at a time when the Pac-12 could be reaching a crossroads.\n\nThere appears to be some growing discord in commissioner Larry Scott and the lack of TV revenue for the conference compared to other conferences.\n\nCBS Sports' Dennis Dodd wrote that the latest estimates for Pac-12 Networks \"have the league at least $17 million per school annually behind the Big Ten, the revenue leader among conferences. At $33 million per school, the Pac-12 is fifth in the Power Five.\"\n\nThe Pac-12's TV agreement with ESPN and Fox expires in 2024.\n\nUSC athletic director Mike Bohn recently said that \"everything is on the table\" in terms of the Trojans' future conference affiliation.\n\nBohn later clarified his stance on the future of the Trojans to Dodd.\n\n\"It was not malicious,\" Bohn told CBS Sports referring to his comments.\n\n\"There's no talk of (leaving), but guess what? If it was on the table, we would certainly explore that,\" Bohn said. \"But I've got to be careful. The league is really tender. The context that I was talking about was whether it was league TV stuff, creative pieces with any other type of deliverable, it has to be on the table. Guess what? If that helps [the league] understand the importance of what our campuses are going through, so be it.\n\n\"I don't want to walk it back, but hopefully that gives it a little more context.\"\n\nSpeculation surrounding Pac-12's future\n\nSpeculation continues to surround the future of the conference.\n\nOregon Live's John Canzano recently wrote that Oregon should follow USC's example and put the Pac-12 conference on notice about its future.\n\n\"The Ducks have a wonderful and valuable brand,\" Canzano wrote. \"They’ve got a rabid fan base that connects nationally. Athletic director Rob Mullens is coming off being the chair of the College Football Playoff selection committee. Mario Cristobal’s football program is viewed as a contender. Kelly Graves’ women’s basketball program looks like a strong bet to reach the Final Four and is a huge national television draw. If he hasn’t already, University of Oregon President Michael Schill may look around and wonder why the Ducks are stuck in a sad-sack conference led by a commissioner who operates with his own self interests. Schill is an interesting part of the equation. He has a seat on the Pac-12 CEO Group, which means he’s one of Scott’s bosses. Also, he’s tuned into the issues. … This isn’t about UO leaving the Pac-12. It’s about Oregon being eyes-wide-open and increasing its leverage within the conference. Because if the financials don’t improve in the next cycle, something drastic may have to be done.\"\n\n247 Sports had a podcast wondering about whether Oregon should consider leaving the Pac-12.\n\nThe Salt Lake Tribune's Gordon Monson was critical of the state of the Pac-12 in a recent column.\n\n\"The Pac-12 is becoming a laughingstock among its so-called peers, a kind of Hot Dog On a Stick mid-major conference dressed out in a goofy hat and a striped uniform, masquerading as a P5, attempting to compete against fine dining,\" he wrote. \"It is a McDonalds to the SEC’s and the Big Ten’s Ruth’s Chris, the ACC’s and the Big 12’s Fleming’s. It is busy flipping and grilling cheeseburgers while the others are searing prime cuts of ribeye and filet mignon. … Bad decisions made by poor leadership in the Pac-12 have led to a decline in both revenue streams from and competitive success in the biggest sports. That’s why the best football coaches in the league — David Shaw at Stanford and Kyle Whittingham at Utah — gain only a fraction of the winning and the remuneration as the best coaches in the SEC — Nick Saban — and the ACC — Dabo Swinney.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2021/08/05/oklahoma-state-football-fans-angry-conference-realignment/5497102001/", "title": "Oklahoma State football fans angry about conference realignment", "text": "Conference realignment is an evergreen topic in the sports marketplace, and the OU/Texas move to the Southeastern Conference has many layers. Including the schools left behind in the Big 12.\n\nOn Wednesday, I shared a batch of emails from readers talking about the SEC. Today, I share a batch of emails talking about the Big 12 and what OSU should do or could have done.\n\nThe Thursday ScissorTales offer another Orange Beach travelblog and a Bill Hancock Olympic adventure, but we start with conference realignment.\n\nReaders chimed in on issues ranging from conference options to OU’s secrecy to OSU leadership.\n\nMore:Six players with the most to gain in Cowboys' preseason camp\n\nDanny: “If those that remain in the Big 12 could bring some teams in and possibly get rid of West Virginia, they should look at that as well as other options.” \n\nTramel: Well, I don’t think losing West Virginia is any kind of pathway to success. The Mountaineers are a solid TV draw, compared to most of the Big 12. But I do think it would be foolish to dismiss the Big 12 as a viable option. That might be the best plan B for most Big 12 schools, and Plan A for some. OSU must keep all its options open.\n\nKevin: “FYI, OSU is prohibited by Big 12 bylaws from negotiating with any other conference. Surprised you would encourage OSU to violate that trust.”\n\nTramel: Great point. Which is why OSU, in dealing with the Pac-12, should follow the OU/Texas plan. My people will call your people. Lawyers make the world go round.\n\nChris: “Hey, Berry, what if the Big 12 wanted to play hardball and told UT/OU that if you want out, then you’re out as of right now! Have fun playing football this year. It might bring them to the negotiating table. Thinking out loud.”\n\nTramel: Well, I think OU and Texas are at the negotiating table already. But either way, there are contracts to consider, and the biggest consideration would be the networks. They would drop holy hell on those eight schools, as well as dropping the current TV contract, which would be a death-knell to those eight schools. They would be ostracized for anything in the future concerning TV. I wouldn't recommend it. This is the time to make friends, not enemies.\n\nDavid: “Full disclosure. ‘72 alum, Sigma Chi and loved the OSU Experience. Retired and living in Virginia Beach and follow the Pokes religiously. Of course all options are open but are they? Are the Pokes limited? Reviving the conference is a non-starter. So what to do? Keep Holder/Hargis. Can’t allow rookies to negotiate the most important deal in the history of OSU.”\n\nTramel: I’m told Holder absolutely remains in the brain trust. Hargis, I’m not sure. Probably, but again, I don’t know that. It should be all hands on deck for the Cowboys.\n\nMore:Six Sooners with most to gain as preseason camp begins\n\nTerry: “Being an attorney whose first loyalty is to OSU, I have a different perspective. You say making OU and Texas wait out the four years cuts against the grain of history. That was precisely the purpose of the contract. To deter any school from doing what OU and Texas did. OU agreed to that and now they will apparently want leniency. By design, the contract had a punitive purpose. I disagree with you that if OU/Texas forces the Big 12 to dissolve that the dissolution somehow exonerates the schools who caused the dissolution. In fact, if the dissolution is caused by OU/Texas, then the conference and remaining schools will have an even better cause of action for actual damages. The assignment of TV rights is, in legal vernacular, a type of liquidated damage provision. So if dissolution is caused by OU/Texas, I don’t see a court giving them a free pass. I am reasonably sure they will work hard to negotiate their way out. And if the conference dissolves before four years is up and Big 12 schools find a decent new home, OU/Texas might get off if payout remains at $35 million year in a new conference.”\n\nTramel: Interesting. And I’m sure Terry knows what he’s talking about. But so few of these cases ever goes to court. There’s always anger and disagreement, followed by negotiation and settlement. I saw this week where the Ohio Valley is suing Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State for not paying a $1 million exit fee. But with the larger conferences, these things get worked out. Even with the Big East and Atlantic Coast conferences; ACC pilfering of the Big East led to the Big East basically splitting, its basketball schools leaving and taking the name, while the remaining football schools helped form the American Conference. So I don’t know. There is nothing to sue over yet. OU and Texas declared they are leaving after the 2024-25 season. They gave the Big 12 ample notice. Both will negotiate to leave. It might make financial sense for the Big 12 to say, no thanks. We’ll have to see.\n\nDoug: “Wow. Who would have ever thought that the Longhorn Network would ever payoff for the Sooners? Would Texas and Oklahoma keep the Big 12 logo on their uniforms and fields? That’s got to be contractual, too. But the more acrimony there is, the more petty it becomes. It only takes one more team to tip the balance. Could it be West Virginia to the ACC, which has about the same payout as the Big 12? Clemson sources say the Tigers and Florida State are putting out feelers to the SEC. Too late? Oklahoma State is in the strongest marketable position but they can’t wait on a dissolving Big 12. Kansas schools and Iowa State should already be talking to the Big Ten. As for Baylor, TCU, Tech does anyone care? Probably not. Prediction: This is the last year for the Big 12. Fifty years from now people will still be talking about July 30, 2021 in college football.”\n\nTramel: Maybe. But I doubt it. All those scenarios are possible, but none are probable. Keeping the Big 12 together might be the best play for the schools. Add a couple of marketable mid-majors like Brigham Young and Boise State, which to be viable no longer have to meet the TV-worth standard of a Big 12 that includes OU and Texas, but a Big 12 that does not include OU and Texas.\n\nMore:Surgery can wait, for now Jeremiah Hall making the most of his opportunity\n\nNim: I think we would call Shrum’s assertion, if it were a political campaign, ‘appealing to the base.’ I wonder what segment of her base sees her comments as disingenuous? Had OSU had similar opportunities, i.e. a fabulous prospect directed at them because of their brand, would they have acted differently? What, exactly would they have done, given the sensitivity of the discussions and the question of whether to share with their in-state rival? There is a negative here associated with strategic maneuvering for big money, but it is both pervasive and reasonably expected by all. I think Prez Shrum would have done the same had OSU been in OU’s place.”\n\nTramel: It would have been administrative malfeasance not to. I ought to write about this more. The simple fact is that OU and OSU were not the partners that OSU thought. Maybe that’s OU’s fault, through deception, maybe that’s OSU’s fault, through naivete. I don’t know which. And like I wrote, I don’t blame Shrum for kicking up dust. Cowboy Country is mad, and Shrum needs to use that emotion to OSU’s advantage. Just don’t pretend Pistol Pete is riding some high horse. Presented the same opportunity, OSU should have and would have done the same thing.\n\nNixon: “I understand the money. I personally think they could have gotten the same result if they had come out up front and said. ‘We (OU) don't think the Big 12 can keep up financially. Then opened up with SEC discussions, etc. and arrived at where they are today. What really pissed me off was the subterfuge with their sworn enemy (UT) to the detriment of OSU. Just seemed unnecessary to me and won't forgive them anytime soon. The Stoops article did not help. Truly, I believe the new OU prez (Joe Harroz) was the instigator. Hopefully Chad Weiberg & Kayse Shrum will forgo Bedlam for at least five years and maybe 10.”\n\nTramel: I think that’s just emotional talk. OSU would be no better off if it had been kept in the loop by OU. And the Sooners might be worse off, since OSU would have done what it did eight weeks ago when it discovered OU was not interested in extending the grant of rights — petition the governor to help stop it.\n\nTerry: “I take offense at you comparing dollar figures from different years. The $60M (for OU in the SEC) is planning when the most current release from SEC was $43M, Big 12 $37M. Either use an apples to apples comparison or leave the $$ talk to Stoops and his current superior at UT, Sarkisian. Remember \"Figures Don't Lie but Liars do Figure. My point is if you are using base year as 2025 and SEC forecast of $60M, the rate for comparison to the Big 12 should be $38m plus X. Not the current year. What does $60M or $73M mean? Where did it come from? If it was estimated, as I think it was, then let’s estimate what the Big 12 would have been if they stayed, then we can say the estimated IMPROVEMENT for OU would be $xxxM.”\n\nTramel: The problem is, OU feared the estimated change in the Big 12 contract would not go up. It would go down. That's what I wrote about last week. The early signs from the networks was that the Big 12's value was in decline. Or would stagnate. And the SEC numbers are astronomical. We’ve been estimating $60 million, but USA Today projected the per-school payout could be $73 million by 2025.\n\nTramel's ScissorTales:OSU must make itself attractive to TV networks as OU, Texas exit Big 12\n\nKen: “Your very thoughtful and rational work really covered this situation well. I’m not an OU fan, but being in the investment business, I understand why OU couldn’t resist the allure of an extra $22 million to play Alabama. But I also see why Dr. Shrum felt the pain caused by that move. You’re right — we just all need to take a deep breath and let all this work out, which it will. Also, don’t we need to remember that the No. 1 job of these schools is to educate our kids to make a living? (What an idea, huh?)”\n\nTramel: How dare you bring the A-word into the discussion. But in all seriousness, none of this is about academics. It’s all about big business. Big, serious business.\n\nRandy: “Here is what the remaining Big 12 teams should do. 1) Don’t panic. Nothing is gained and you will be manipulated, like ESPN inviting teams to join the AAC thereby saving ESPN from paying the bigger bucks to the Big 12; 2) No early exit. Force Texas and Oklahoma to play in the Big 12; 3) Stay together and take the $1 billion in TV contracts for the next four years; 4) Take the exit fee for the two teams out of the Big 12 revenue money; 5) Probably can’t do it, but refuse to play on the Longhorn Network; 6) Force a delay of things. They will come out ahead in three or four years.”\n\nTramel: That’s certainly a viable strategy. Hardly anyone tries it, but playing the long game certainly would make things uncomfortable for OU and Texas. Make the plan public, so as to affect the Sooners’ and Longhorns’ recruiting. Let 2022 freshmen know they will see very little of the SEC. Financially, that might be the best plan, either sticking with it or putting OU and Texas and ESPN into difficult negotiating situations. But it has long-term risks. More OU domination of the conference will only further ding the profiles of the Big 12 remnants. Sure, an OSU or Iowa State or Texas Christian championship, at OU’s expense, could raise their stock. But OSU and the rest of the conference need to be plotting their future. If there’s a parachute out there, they need to strap it on and not worry about exit fees. Maybe some kind of Big 12/Pac-12 alliance can stabilize things. But absolutely, the Big 12 can make things unpleasant on the Sooners and Longhorns, at least for awhile. And that’s good not for revenge purposes, but for negotiating purposes.\n\nLeo: “Sometimes the obvious can be very cruel. OSU's fearless leader is so completely outraged by OU's defection she leaps upon her high horse and shouts ‘FOUL. How dare an institution of higher learning be so greedy, self-centered and lacking empathy for those less fortunate.’ This coming from a woman whose university has named their most prized shrine after T. Boone Pickens. They have built a statute of this great man, billionaire, who had no match when it came to unbridled greed. She condemns OU for taking the money and running. T. Boone would take the money, and then buy all the other universities at a much discounted bargain price and sell their remaining parts off for scrap. This is shameless hypocrisy to the highest order.”\n\nTramel: I miss Boone. He treated me well and would call from time to time just to chat, see what was going on in Stillwater. I know a whole bunch of Texans view Boone the way Leo described him, but I liked him. And I wonder what he would say today. Would he be outraged at OU and Texas? Would he understand? Would he be able to help the Cowboys navigate the future? Fascinating to think about. I will investigate further.\n\nTyler: “OK, so I guess I am missing something here. I had the feeling that ESPN was the go-between with the SEC and UT/OU. To me it makes perfect sense for ESPN to throw their weight behind disbanding the Big 12. 1) They hold the rights to the SEC, ACC, AAC; 2) You get UT and OU in the SEC, it makes for better TV and eliminates the Longhorn Network (which seems like a win-win for them; 3) You make the ACC tougher by getting West Virginia; 4) You try to convince the other seven to go to the AAC (and most likely cut East Carolina, Tulane, and whoever else a check to go bye bye), which makes the AAC better. All that makes too much sense to me. I guess I must be crazy, because although they don't have great brands, it doesn't make a ton of sense to just let OSU athletics, Kansas basketball, Iowa State, K-State, Baylor and possibly Houston just walk without trying to keep them around. Understand I'm not complaining that they did it, I'm just saying why is it a shock that they would? It's in their best interest, is it not?”\n\nTramel: It’s in ESPN’s best interest to get OU and Texas away from the Big 12. That hurts Fox and gives ESPN an even bigger edge in the college football TV wars. But I fail to see why the demise of the Big 12 would be all that important to ESPN. I’m not saying it’s not true. I’m saying I don’t see why it would be. That talk of ESPN wanting the Big 12 to die so that OU and Texas wouldn’t have to pay buyout fees? What’s in it for ESPN? To me, the bigger question is what happens with ESPN and Texas, pertaining to the Longhorn Network. I know some have said ESPN will buy out Texas, and that money could be used to pay off the Big 12. Does ESPN and Texas have some kind of agreement that if UT doesn’t have to pay the Big 12, ESPN doesn’t have to pay Texas? Seems far-fetched to me. ESPN has contracts with literally every conference, so I don't see how they could care one way or the other. Why would ESPN care if Iowa State is in the Big 12 or the American? The only thing I could see is ESPN steering Big 12 schools to the American to keep them away from the Pac-12 and Fox. But that’s like trying to steer me to Brussell sprouts. Good luck. ESPN helped keep the Big 12 alive 11 years ago. Networks lose bargaining power the more conferences there are. The fewer the leagues, the less negotiating power for the networks.\n\nTramel:Why would OU, Texas explore a move from the Big 12 to the SEC? Money, money, money\n\nBrett: “I'm more optimistic than I was when this started that OSU might find a home in the Pac-12. The Pac 12 is broken as a business now, so there would seem to be some motivation on their part to improve the marketability of their football product to media partners. One obvious thing would be to have a presence in the middle of the country. The state of Texas is obviously a huge market and OSU is the probably the best football program of any expansion options they would have. I also think there is a benefit to not being geographically isolated. All of the other conferences have geographic overlap which breeds resentment/interest which breeds discussion and eyeballs. Overlapping with the SEC in Texas and Oklahoma would make the Pac-12 not geographically isolated. I think the best pitch for expansion to the Pac 12 would be OSU, Tech, TCU and Houston. I recognize the Pac-12 is picky with regards to academics, but they might have to put those feelings aside if they're interested in fixing their football problem. There are some well established relationships among some of the power brokers that would be at the center of this hypothetical move. Chad Weiberg worked for Kirby Hocutt at Tech. Tech is probably the other obvious option for the Pac 12 if they expand. Weiberg's uncle is former Pac 12 executive and former Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg.”\n\nTramel: I think it's possible. Not with three Texas schools. There's no reason to take Houston, and I doubt the Pac-12 would be interested in a private school. But OSU, Tech, K-State (or KU) and Iowa State would be workable. The Pac's networks indeed could use some new eyeballs and some Central Time Zone teams. The best quartet probably would be OSU, Tech, TCU and K-State, if the Pac could see its way to take the Horned Frogs.\n\nDonna: “Since OU is leaving because of football money, then should Bedlam resume, it can be in all sports except football. But my preference is not at all.”\n\nTramel: I will keep saying this until everyone gets it. If OSU quit playing football against OU, it would hurt OSU. Hurt OSU quite a bit. Having a Bedlam home game every other year is the most valuable asset the Cowboys currently can peddle to a network, in future contract negotiations. This is the time for OSU to beef up its schedule.\n\nKent: As an OSU alum, it’s a sad day for all our alumni and the Big 6/8/12. We are probably feeling how those of the Old Southwest Conference members felt when the four teams merged with the Big 12 and the other teams were left to fend for themselves. You mentioned that every other ‘power’ conference has the ‘oxen’ to carry the lower echelon teams, but of the eight Big 12 teams that are left, none are big enough to carry the rest onward. So say so long Big 12. I have a hard time seeing the Cowboys in the Big 10 (too academically inclined) or the ACC or the Pac-12 (too far removed). We just don’t add anything substantial that other universities geographically closer to each conference would add. So I’m guessing we’ll be with the AAC and try to become the Cinderella team of the future.”\n\nTramel: I think OSU's best bet for now is to keep with the Big 12, make it as strong as possible and see what happens. Don't add too much. Get BYU, which would help the television situation. The worst-case scenario is if the Big 12 starts splintering, with 4-5 schools joining a conference (good for them, of course), and the others don't find a spot.\n\nCarlson:The future of the Bedlam rivalry seems more uncertain than ever. Here's where things stand\n\nDon: “I suspect you (nor the Big 12 athletic directors) don't need another reader idea regarding the Big 12. I’m sorry, but I have one. Bring back the Big 8. Here's how it could work for Oklahoma State football. 1) Play all seven other member schools. 2) Play Oklahoma each year as you would your current (big- time) opponent. 3) Play two schools each year that are roughly equal to the lost games with Oklahoma and Texas. Notre Dame and Brigham Young; Auburn and North Carolina, etc. 4) Play your mid-major (Tulsa); 5) Play your I-AA opponent (North Dakota, etc.). What you have here is a possible Big Eight champion with a Big 12 level schedule.”\n\nTramel: The biggest problem — among many — is the lack of a conference title game, which can be a moneymaker, and in this case, a league that needs money. The scheduling is not bad, an improvement. But OSU and ISU and KSU and whoever still would have the I-AA game that is worthless and the mid-major that doesn’t appeal to TV. No matter what form the Big Eight takes, be it expanding or not, you've got to improve the schedules dramatically.\n\nMark: Here are some miscellaneous ramblings that will mostly just demonstrate my naivete about big time college football. It is fairly obvious the Big 12 has pretty much failed all of its members, not just OU and Texas. They obviously should have rebuilt to 12 teams years ago, and with the best schools they could possibly attract. It is probably too late to save the conference already. However, here are a couple of ideas that would require the conference to basically admit it is going to be stuck at a secondary level, at least for now. Texas A&M just might be willing to come back to the Big 12 if it means they can escape Texas. If Texas A&M were willing to return, perhaps Missouri, who hasn't had a lot of fun in the SEC, might also be willing to come back. Also, without Texas lording it over everybody, in spite of their current program quality, maybe Nebraska would reconsider its membership in the Big 10. Then one more decent school brings us back to 12 members. If we can go looking, seriously looking, there may be some schools ready to make us 14 or more; Louisville (whom we should have reached out to last time we lost schools), Cincinnati, Arkansas (probably not interested, but why not check), and Boise State to name a few. Like I said, I am probably showing how naïve I am about college football, but maybe?”\n\nTramel: No. No maybe. No nothing. A&M, Missouri and Nebraska are not coming back. Arkansas and Louisville aren’t switching. No one jumps onto a sinking ship, thinking, hey, this might be something different. The Big 12 is a sinking ship. If it survives, it will survive out of necessity. Expansion would have made little difference in the last 10 years. That would have meant two extra mouths for OU and Texas to feed, and their exit would have come more quickly. The economics are what they are. Outside of the Big Ten and SEC, two schools feed the rest of the Power 5 Conferences. Clemson and Florida State are analyzing their options today. Southern Cal and Oregon, too, to a lesser extent, since college football passion wanes west of the Panhandle.\n\nSam: The last Big 12 team added, the one that supposedly brought the least to the table, may now be the most attractive option for the others, as TCU keeps someone in the Metroplex on the almighty TV, puts a footprint in Texas for recruiting and has higher academics than the rest of us. The irony would be palpable.”\n\nTramel: TCU is an interesting case. But I think the Frogs are in trouble. Markets and cable households no longer matter. It's all about how many fans you have across the country and are they willing to watch and stream games? As a private school, TCU is anathema to the Pac-12. But the academics are solid. If the ACC for some reason decided to expand, the Frogs might be their top choice from the Big 12’s Oklahoma/Texas wing.\n\n\n\nOrange Beach travelblog: Catching rolls & water balls\n\nThe rolls flew past my head, into the hands of my son-in-law and granddaughters. Yes, rolls.\n\nIf bread is flying through the air, you know you’re at Lambert’s Cafe. “Home of the Throwed Rolls.”\n\nAnd Lambert’s made me think of Branson.\n\nFor decades, Oklahomans have been eating at Lambert’s in Ozark, Missouri, just south of Springfield and about 28 miles north of Branson. That’s because Oklahomans flock to Branson.\n\nThe tourism phenomenon of Gulf Shores/Orange Beach got me to thinking about the tourism phenomenon of Branson, in the Ozark Mountains of southwestern Missouri.\n\nSo I checked some numbers. Branson claims about nine million tourists a year. Gulf Shores/Orange Beach claims about 6.9 million. So more in Branson. But Gulf Shores/Orange Beach is concentrated in the summer months, with the beach being the obvious draw. Branson’s peak season is more spread out. Families go in the summer and spring breaks. Retirees hit Branson hard in the autumn. Everyone goes at Christmas, for a variety of holiday attractions.\n\nBranson doesn’t have a peak season. Branson has an off-peak season (January through mid-March).\n\nAll of which means Gulf Shores/Orange Beach has a more condensed calendar. More visitors in the summer than Branson has at any time. With many of the same transportation issues.\n\nFull disclosure: I haven’t visited Branson since the 1990s; I drove past it about 12 years ago. That’s it. But my daughter and her family go often.\n\nAnd I’m told Branson has done wonders in alleviating some of the traffic congestion that once made Highway 76 a parking lot for miles and miles through the mountains.\n\nGulf Shores and Orange Beach have some of the same snarl, since the Gulf of Mexico serves as quite a solid barrier for road construction south. And Wolf Bay and a variety of intracoastal waterways negates easy street expansion.\n\nLambert’s has a unique business model. Build in vacation meccas, but away from the big bustle.\n\nLambert’s, which opened in 1942 in the non-touristy town of Sikeston, Missouri, expanded to the Ozarks in 1994 and built north of Branson. The Foley Lambert’s opened in 1996, and it’s about eight miles down to the beach.\n\nBuilding off-campus, if you will, means the land is cheaper and the access easier. The “buses welcome” sign is a dead-giveaway.\n\nLambert’s has some sharp business advice. Both vacation destinations have soared since the 1990s. Lambert’s apparently saw it coming.\n\nLambert’s features Southern cooking, large portions and delicious hot rolls that literally are thrown to customers. Some of the tosses are short in distance; others range as much as 25 feet.\n\nThe first time I ate at Lambert’s, seemed like a bunch of bread landed on the floor. A hot roll is a terrible thing to waste. But I saw no drops Wednesday. At least not off the table. The roll throwers must be getting more accurate, sort of like NFL quarterbacks, and when you think about it, hot rolls are easy to catch. Soft to the touch.\n\nIt’s a fun place for kids and a fun place for us adults who sometimes don’t eat right.\n\nAlmost all the entrees are priced in the teens, or you can just order the pass-arounds for $10. The pass-arounds are fried okra, fried potatoes, macaroni-and-tomatoes and black-eyed peas, which are brought around by workers on a constant basis. It’s the Southern version of chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant.\n\nI ordered a hot beef sandwich, which was a favorite of my brothers and I when we were kids. I was torn between the hot beef sandwich and frog legs, because I haven’t eaten frog legs in at least 30 years. Alas, Lambert’s had run out of roast beef, so frog legs it was. Sometimes you make decisions; sometimes decisions are made for you.\n\nLooking back, I should have just had the pass arounds. I had plenty of leftover chicken and dumplings from Sadie and Trish the Dish, some chicken-fried steak from Tinley and I could have had some pork chops from J.J., had I had any room left.\n\nIt’s a fun place, unless you’re dieting.\n\nBut there’s a wait. There’s always a wait. You know how in LA they say you’re an hour from everything, no matter where you’re at? Well, at Lambert’s, the wait is always long, no matter what time you go. The other night we checked, and the wait was an hour-and-a-half. We called at 4 p.m. Wednesday, and the wait was 45 minutes to an hour. So we dropped the girls off at some shop they wanted to visit, and J.J. and I drove the five miles farther and put in our name at Lambert’s.\n\nWent back to Gulf Shores, got the girls, returned to Lambert’s and had about a 15-minute wait. Gameplanning works in things besides football.\n\nWednesday was a beach day, after the rain of Tuesday. My daughter, Haley, and 11-year-old Sadie are the beach bums. They could stay all day. They were there from about 8 a.m. to 12:30. The rest of us went in shifts. Sadie bought a ball somewhere that skips across the water, so we played ocean catch for more than an hour. The ball skips across the gulf like a flat rock on Saline Creek, it floats and it’s hardly affected by waves. Sort of sits where it lands. It’s the darndest thing.\n\nThe water is mostly warm, though anytime a boat floats by in the distance, it sends waves of cold water. Interesting place, the ocean.\n\nThe girls wanted to shop some, so J.J. and I dropped them off at a couple of stores, and we drove west on Highway 182 (Perdido Beach Boulevard).\n\nWhen you arrive in Gulf Shores from Foley, the real action begins at Perdido Beach Boulevard and Gulf Shores Parkway (Highway 59). And the action moves east, towards Florida. The condos and restaurants and attractions and hotels extend for miles, to and through Orange Beach, interrupted only by a stretch of Gulf State Park.\n\nBut if you go west at that 182/59 intersection, it’s a different Gulf Shores. An occasional condo or two, on the side of the road opposite the beach, and few commercial enterprises. Instead, it’s all beach houses. Some nice, some not so nice. Some big, some not so big.\n\nI don’t know if it’s a zoning issue or what, but the development has not spread west in Gulf Shores. We drove six or seven miles, to where the road ends at an opulent subdivision called Laguna Key. But that entire 6-7 miles was mostly beach houses.\n\nBeach houses have their allure. We stayed in one on Prince Edward Island in Canada. But they seem to be a bit riskier than the condo rentals. If you’re looking for a more laid-back atmosphere, fewer people on the beach, the beach-house rental might be the way to go. If you want more action for your kids, or the convenience of beach service with umbrellas and lounge chairs, the condos might be your best bet.\n\nThe costs can vary like crazy. That Laguna Key subdivision? Basically a bunch of opulent houses for rent. I looked one up for grins. Six bedrooms, six bathrooms: $14,000 for a week.\n\nOur $400 a night condo will do just fine.\n\nWe returned to the condo about 7 p.m. Some of us watched the Olympics and some settled in on the balcony, to enjoy the scene. They were rewarded with a beach marriage proposal, complete with candles and family and celebration. Many years ago, I proposed to Trish the Dish in a cemetery, so the beach proposal continued to chip away at my power rankings.\n\nOh well. Over the years, I’ve caught a few rolls for her. Maybe she’ll forgive me.\n\nBill Hancock’s Olympic adventure\n\nAnother Olympiad has arrived, and you know what that means – daily dispatches from everyone’s favorite Oklahoman, Bill Hancock.\n\nThe Hobart native who has carved a career as director of college sports’ biggest events – the Final Four for decades, now the College Football Playoff since its 2014 inception – is a long-time Olympic volunteer, going back to the 1984 (summer) and 2006 (winter) games.\n\nHancock writes a daily letter to family and friends, giving them an inside look at Olympic life. He and his wife, Nicki, are in Tokyo.\n\n“August 4, Wednesday: (Please excuse the typos and bad writing in this friendly message to family members. They are kind and so will not object to sloppiness. Must hurry, because there is a vast Olympics to explore.)\n\n“Commute on foot four miles through the thrilling city to the Main Press Center. It was a leisurely 90-minute stroll.\n\n“Yes, I repeated my Olympic tradition by walking from the hotel to the MPC. Bill Mallon joined me again, as he did in Rio. There’s no better way to FEEL a city than to walk through it. Here’s the history of my Olympics walks across town…or sometimes around the block!\n\n“1984 Los Angeles – One mile; 1996 Atlanta – Three miles; 2004 Athens – 200 yards; 2006 Torino – 400 yards; 2008 Beijing – Four miles; 2010 Vancouver – Seven miles; 2012 London – Six miles; 2014 Sochi – One mile; 2016 Rio – Nine miles; 2021 Tokyo – Four miles.\n\n“And the Games where I failed to do the walk: 1988 Seoul – Could have walked the five miles or so, but didn’t think of it; 1992 Barcelona – Ditto; 2000 Sydney – Ditto; 2018 PyeongChang – too far, maybe 25 miles.\n\n“Today’s walk was easy. The sidewalks are wide and so are the pedestrian walkways over the five or six bridges we crossed. When Bill and I left the Hotel Sunroute Ginza at 5:30 a.m. the sun was already up.\n\n“Nicki later said she wasn’t worried about me except when the earthquake hit. (She has sent me off on many adventurous runs and walks and bicycle rides during our nearly 53 years of marriage, so she’s used to it.) Bill and I didn’t even notice the ‘quake when we were walking.\n\n“We walked down Harumi Dori Avenue, which then becomes Ariake Dori Avenue.\n\n“Right off the bat, we strolled past the iconic Kabukiza Theater.\n\n“We did see the first ‘houseless’ person of our Tokyo trip, splayed on the sidewalk and speaking in I-don't-know-what tongues. I wanted to help him but had no idea what to do. Also, we spotted the first hint of city trash and sort of stained sidewalks like we’d see in a city back home. But that was in a very small area and soon we were back in the glistening Emerald city.\n\n“We passed a tiny bicycle-repair shop. It was basically the size of our hotel room; inside a little old man toiled away on an old machine, surely making someone happy.\n\n“We knew we would see a Denny’s restaurant. Down the road, I made Bill stop at one of the ubiquitous vending machines so I could purchase a Coke, but I couldn’t get it to take my credit card.\n\n“Pretty pedestrian paths carried us along on the four or five bridges which spanned a river and maybe fingers of Tokyo Bay. One shot us over an expressway.\n\n“We didn’t wear our Olympics apparel. Bill carried my Olympics credential in his bag; I had a credit card and 5,000 yen. No one said a word to us, although a few people bowed politely. I think we blended in.\n\n“Everyone wore masks. Well, except the dozen or so serious-looking joggers. I must admit that I popped my own mask down into the chinstrap position several times, to let the sweat roll off.\n\n“I am not proud to admit that I an incorrigible jaywalker. (You see, the traffic signals in Prairie Village are timed to change when a vehicle approaches. But pedestrians aren’t heavy enough to trigger then, although I will be close if I don’t stop eating these Oreos. So a walker could stand there for hours waiting for the light to change. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)\n\n“Anyway, Bill was the Angel on my shoulder who would not allow me to jaywalk. (Why do my fingers type ‘Jayhawk’ when my brain says, ‘jaywalk?’)\n\n“It was a warm morning, about 80, and I did some serious sweating which felt great because I was dressed for it. Nicki brought clean clothes to the office for me. It was another great Olympic moment – or 90 of them!\n\n“Breakfast: Frosted flakes at the office.\n\n“I’ll tell you about Bill Mallon, my walking companion. A proud Duke graduate (redundancy), he played on the PGA Tour, then became a renowned shoulder surgeon and now editor of the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery. Oh, and he is also one of the most renowned experts on Olympic history. You could ask Bill how many left-handed, one-eyed people have won gold medals on Thursday in the rain and he could probably tell you. He is uncanny. Bill is one of five volunteers in the USOPC press office, along with Nicki and me and Craig and Beverly Bohnert.\n\n“Craig may be the most awesome person at these Olympics besides Lester Holt. Every time a USA athlete or team does something, Craig produces a remarkably well written and informative ‘Breaking News’ blurb which gets emailed to reporters, board members and any other official who is lucky enough to receive it. It is truly one of the most amazing journalistic efforts you will ever see. Craig is scholarly and quiet and comes close to perfection, like Mary Lou Retton. Bill Mallon supplies tidbits for Craig for Breaking News, making Team Bohnert-Mallon worthy of the gold medal. Beverly is a type A person who walks as fast as a sprinter, is fluent in French and begins and ends each day talking; she has never met a stranger. She and Nicki sit at the front desk and help reporters.\n\n“Craig and Beverly, former owners of an inn in Kansas City, own and operate the Paradise Sweets ice cream shop at 709 Gulf Way, St. Petersburg Beach, FL. Shameless plug: Go there if you can! (You can read about the place at Paradise Sweet — singular — on Facebook. You will get good ice cream (another redundancy) and learn something while you’re at it.\n\nThe Olympics is a remarkable venue for bonding and teamwork. Folks are thrown together in a strange country for a month, with no choice but to work it out. A friendly smile can mean more than all of the chocolate sundaes in the world.\n\n“I try to make eye contact with the security people, bus drivers and volunteers. Hundreds of people sure pass them every day, grunting as they hurry on their way.\n\n\"I have invited at least 1,000 people to visit Nicki and me in Kansas City. Hope I remember to tell her.\n\n“You won’t be surprised to know that people mention Dorothy almost every time I tell a foreigner I’m from Kansas. Two folks brought up the Jayhawks. One woman told me about a soap opera character who has a big ranch in Kansas. Other times I say I’m from Oklahoma. That either draws a blank stare, or a reference to Indians, or a comment about Rodgers and Hammerstein if the person is older than 60.\n\n“And nobody cares about conference realignment except a dozen or so American journalists.\n\n“Volunteer du jour: Hitoshi. Soldier working at the PSA (Pedestrian Security Access.) Are soldiers allowed to be this friendly?\n\n“For what it’s worth, there are no Olympic traffic lanes, unlike Beijing, London, PyeongChang, et al. But except for rush hour, there’s not a lot of traffic. That’s what a pandemic do (sic). Royals fans will get it.\n\n“By the way, security is tight but not overbearing. A perimeter extends around the entire venue grounds. There’s only one way in and out, and if you wind up at the wrong place, you may have to walk several blocks to find your way in.\n\n“You don’t see many armed police officers. I’m sure they are in plain clothes.\n\n“To get into the Main Press Center each day, here’s what happens. It’s basically the same at the venues:\n\n“* You get in line, usually short, walk through a temperature-measuring area, then pass through an obligatory hand-sanitizing station. You pump the dispenser with your foot, like a car’s accelerator, and hold out your hands. A fine mist of germ-killing liquid sprays out.\n\n“* Unlike past games — Rio was the worst — the lines at the PSA (Pedestrian Screening Area) are not long; usually only one or two people are in front of me.\n\n“* Two young smiling women greet you at the hand-sanitizing station with a cheery ‘good morning.’ It’s easy to be friendly in any language. I always thank them with a bow and an equally cheery ‘Arigatto.’\n\n“*Then we get to the accreditation-confirmation station. We hold our accreditation in front of a reader and stoop so the machine can take our photo.\n\n“If the photo doesn’t match the accreditation, we are asked to try again. If that doesn’t work, you get escorted to a separate room where maybe you learn that your accreditation is invalid. This hasn’t happened to me, but it did to one friend and she had to get a new badge.\n\n“* Each accreditation station serves two x-ray machines. We put our backpacks in one white tray and empty our pockets into another white tray. They scoot through the x-ray, then we walk through ourselves.\n\n“I’ve been stopped six times to get wanded — never knew why — and always passed just fine.\n\n“* A police officer, leaning on a four-foot wooden cane, keeps watch, sternly refusing to allow photographs. He doesn’t smile, but I did see him use the cane as a faux baseball bat yesterday.\n\n“* Then we walk through a nice, shady breezeway into the MPC.\n\n“We wear these accreditations on lanyards around our neck all day. It’s not a problem. In a box in the basement, I have all my badges dating back to Los Angeles. Except one which is in my office in Irving. I suppose my great-grandchildren will sell them on eBay someday.\n\n“Covid Countermeasure of the day – There are plastic barriers between the drivers and passengers, on the buses and in taxis They’re like thick clear shower curtains. They’re taped to the sides, tops and bottoms so no little Covid droplets can get in or out. I don’t know whether they’re effective, but I also know I haven’t gotten breakthrough Covid.\n\n“Lunch: Chicken from the general store here in the MPC, plus Pringles, plus Oreos.\n\n“You know how American colleges have alma maters and fight songs like the ‘OU Chant’ and ‘Boomer Sooner.’ Well, a friend said today that the USA Olympics team also has an alma mater (‘The Star-Spangled Banner’) and a fight song (‘Stars and Stripes Forever.’) Makes good sense, except I might vote for ‘Tom Dooley,’ ‘The Sounds of Silence’ or ‘Big John’ instead.\n\n“I need to say this: even for those of us who love any meet at Hayward Field (the new one or the old one, doesn’t matter), the Olympics is the greatest sporting event in the world.\n\n“I love to stroll around the Main Press Center. Times have changed and fewer reporters are here, but the big papers have their own offices; everyone else works in the ‘bullpen’ which seats about 400. There’s a deadline every minute.\n\n“Remember, when it’s 7 a.m. Monday in Chickasha, it’s 9 p.m. in Tokyo.\n\n“Weather: High 93, low 79. A little hazy. Or is that smog?\n\n“Japan Fact that surely must be true because somebody told me: Only about two percent of Japan is Christian, but much of the population eats at KFC at Christmas. According to CNN, ‘Every year since the mid-1980s, life-size Colonel Sanders statues — dressed as Santa during the holiday — have welcomed droves of locals and tourists alike across the country. According to figures released by the American fast-food chain, KFC Japan pulled in 6.9 billion yen (roughly U.S. $63 million) from December 20 to 25 in 2018, with lines out the door starting on December 23.’\n\n“Dinner: Domino’s pizza at the MPC. Bill Mallon and I treated the staff. The real hero was Nicki, who figured out how to order American pizza in Japan by Uber Eats using little photos of pepperoni, cheese and beef, with five choices of crust. The driver brought the pizza to the lobby of the Washington Hotel across the street from the MPC.\n\n“As Bill, Nicki and I carried the eight pizzas back to the MPC, two Japanese women stopped us. They were sad that they had not been able to get into the Olympics, and were eager for a simple encounter with someone who had. Back home, you’d think they were selling life insurance. But not these people. They were REALLY nice and wanted to learn about America, where we live, how we feel about Japan, etc. They were thrilled to meet Americans and Olympics people. They gave a business card to Nick and a bag of ‘all natural’ cookies to me.\n\n“We watched Allyson Felix on television then got a car to the hotel. There we greeted Takahashi the security man who had clocked is in and out before our 14 days expired. He was born in 1954 in ... Hiroshima. He said none of his family had been killed in the bomb, but, of course, the city had not been completely rebuilt when he was a child. He made no political comment, and neither did we.\n\n“I did think about all those allied soldiers and Japanese citizens who would have been killed in an invasion. War is horrible. Ditto the people who start them. And perpetuate them.\n\n“Oh, boy, I lost my focus there! Anyway, this was Takahashi’s last night as the security guard at the Sunroute Ginza. We could tell that he was very happy to meet us, and sorry to see his Olympics ending, as he kept bowing and smiling.\n\n“Then Nicki and I walked around Ginza, encountering maybe 20 food-delivery people riding bicycles with little cooler bags on the backs. We took photos in front of the iconic Kabukiza Theater which is much more beautiful at night.\n\n“After poking around the Tokyo version of CVS — two stories, like in New York City – we bought bananas and Haagen Dasz at the Family Mart. We had accumulated about 147 Japanese coins of mysterious value (to me, anyhow) and I wanted to get rid of some. The clerk kindly fumbled around in the tray, took out 848 Yen, nearly penny-by-penny, and bowed. It was VERY nice of him. Now we have only about 93 Japanese coins.\n\n“What a privilege to be here! Every day is an adventure. Sayonara, for now.”\n\nBerry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2021/07/28/sec-expansion-force-power-5-conferences-make-moves-but-what/8072873002/", "title": "SEC expansion will force Power 5 conferences to make moves, but ...", "text": "With the SEC preparing to add Texas and Oklahoma, attention shifts to the three options at hand for each of the remaining Power Five conferences:\n\nExpand in an attempt to keep pace with the SEC from a competitive and financial perspective, with each move triggering a series of corresponding moves across the entire Football Bowl Subdivision;\n\nStand pat and batten down the hatches in an effort to prevent other conferences from raiding or poaching teams from its current lineup of members;\n\nOr, in the case of one league in particular, decide whether to remain a conference altogether.\n\nSeveral factors serve to complicate an already confounding issue.\n\nOne is the genuine lack of productive expansion targets outside of current members of Power Five conferences and a small handful of teams playing in the Group of Five. Even in that case, options left behind by the Big 12, for example, simply don't move the needle for the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12.\n\nAnother is the possibility that the SEC isn't done yet, and if so whether there is anything another conference can do to hold down the fort should one of its schools be extended an invitation — especially with the SEC on a path to rake in $1.3 billion in revenue during the 2024-25 fiscal year with the addition of the Longhorns and the Sooners.\n\nThe Pac-12 does not believe \"expansion is required to continue to compete and thrive,\" commissioner George Kliavkoff said Tuesday from the conference's media day.\n\n\"That said, the fallout from Texas and Oklahoma gives an opportunity to once again consider expansion,\" he added. \"We’ve already had significant inbound interest from other schools. We will work with our chancellors and presidents to evaluate these opportunities.”\n\nFor the Pac-12 and others, Kliavkoff's comments get to the heart of the issue: Like it or not, expansion is on the table. Here are the options at hand for each Power Five conference and what could be next for the FBS.\n\nBig 12\n\nThe conference is no longer viable as a national contender without Texas and Oklahoma, which has left a roster of eight teams — Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia — with nearly nonexistent coast-to-coast appeal and a worryingly dire future when it comes to negotiations for the next grants of media rights agreement.\n\nExpansion is the key to the league's long-term survival. But where, who, when? To start with, there's Central Florida, Cincinnati, Houston, SMU and South Florida from the American, which would expand the Big 12's map and might make the league slightly more appealing to potential broadcast partners.\n\nThat's if the Big 12 can even entice these teams from the American. These Group of Five programs may have long wanted a seat at the Power Five table, but would this reworked Big 12 really be any more appealing as a permanent destination than the American, especially with a reworked College Football Playoff format providing greater opportunity to teams outside the Power Five umbrella?\n\nBut there's an argument for the Big 12 standing pat for the immediate future. With a rights deal signed through 2025 that would be split eight ways with Texas and Oklahoma projected to leave early for the SEC, current Big 12 members are due for increased annual payouts for the next several years. That might be enough to temporarily keep the band together but it doesn't do anything to secure the conference's future in 2026 and beyond.\n\nBig Ten\n\nKansas and Iowa State are there for the taking, but how do these programs help the Big Ten add revenue and form a competent on-field challenge to the SEC's dominance? Neither provides needed help where it counts: first in dollars and cents, then in wins and losses. (Kansas mainly brings losses to the table.)\n\nTo keep pace with the SEC would take bold and decisive moves from a conference that no longer drives the national conversation on the issue of expansion. With no attractive option within the league's existing geographic footprint, the Big Ten's best option — should it decide to expand at all — would be to delve into the Pac-12, either by creating a partnership or by raiding that conference of its best members, beginning with Southern California and Oregon.\n\nThe second option would seem so distasteful to Big Ten leadership that it's difficult to imagine, especially given the longstanding ties and relationships between the two leagues rooted in the Rose Bowl.\n\nBut it would be the best way to stand up to the SEC given the league's projected 16-team membership and options to expand even further. A conference that adds several current Pac-12 members — let's say the Trojans, Ducks, UCLA, Washington, Utah and Colorado — could draw more eyeballs than the SEC and make a reasonable case for being as nationally relevant in the chase for the national championship.\n\nPac-12\n\nThe Pac-12 is on far, far surer footing than the Big 12. Still, the league faces a similar dilemma: What are the options for expansion? The pickings are slim, especially if the league wishes to remain in its current footprint.\n\nBoise State, Brigham Young and San Diego State are nearby options with flaws, though SDSU has made significant strides in facilities and plays in one of the largest cities in the country.\n\nCurrent Big 12 members would leap at a lifeline extended by the Pac-12, but why would the conference make such an offer? Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas Tech and others are strong, proud athletics programs with centuries of combined history at the highest level of college sports. And it doesn't matter one bit. If expansion does continue, these programs may be the biggest names left on the cutting-room floor.\n\nACC\n\nIt's all about Notre Dame for the ACC, which desperately needs to rework its existing rights deals, which run through 2036, and get its annual revenue more in line with the SEC and Big Ten. With the proposed 12-team playoff format built to accommodate Notre Dame's typical schedule, it won't be easy to convince the Fighting Irish to go back on 100 years of independent status. (Last year's pandemic season notwithstanding.)\n\nObviously, adding Notre Dame improves the league's on-field product while drawing in one of the biggest names in all of sports, college or otherwise. It would also be fantastic if the ACC could add one or more of Alabama, Ohio State, USC and the New York Yankees. Why not dream big?\n\nBut you have to ask. Reeling in Notre Dame would allow the ACC to add a 16th team, whether that's West Virginia, Cincinnati or another, and still have the leverage to renegotiate its media deals more in line with the top leagues in the FBS.\n\nAnd while the duration of the league's existing rights deal would make it complicated — and likely extremely expensive — for any team to leave the ACC, not putting its members on more solid financial footing may be equally costly. Would a sizable buyout really stop the SEC or Big Ten from reaching in and grabbing Clemson, North Carolina and others?\n\nSEC\n\nWhy stop at 16 teams? Why not 18, 20, 24, even 32?\n\nThe possibilities are endless for the SEC, which is set to seamlessly add two historic powerhouse programs to its roster and has the wherewithal to go even bigger. Expansion is driven by the survival of the richest, and the SEC currently has more money to offer a potential new member than any other league in the FBS.\n\nThe conference has several options within driving distance. One is Clemson, the closest thing to a true threat to Alabama's dynasty. Other options include Florida State, Miami and North Carolina. That would push the SEC's roster to 20 teams.\n\nWhether you believe the SEC is finished after bringing in Texas and Oklahoma depends on how much stock you put into Commissioner Greg Sankey's statement on Tuesday, when he said in part, \"the SEC has not proactively sought new members.\"\n\nEven if that's true and the conference had not initiated any conversations to that point, does that wait-and-see approach still hold given the possibility of expansion and realignment across the FBS? The rest of the Power Five would love to know the answer.\n\nFollow colleges reporter Paul Myerberg on Twitter @PaulMyerberg", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/06/30/ketanji-brown-jackson-usc-ucla-big-ten-filibuster-thursday-news/7753247001/", "title": "Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Big Ten and filibuster rules. It's ...", "text": "Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. President Joe Biden indicates he would support a change to filibuster rules. And two Pac-12 powerhouses appear poised to join the Big Ten.\n\n👋 Hello! It's Julius here with the news you need to know Thursday.\n\nBut first, a 'mystery rocket body.' 🚀 NASA officials are baffled by a rocket that crashed into the moon last year that left a \"double crater.\"\n\nThe Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.\n\nJudge Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes Supreme Court's first Black woman justice\n\nKetanji Brown Jackson made history Thursday when she was sworn in as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Jackson, a Harvard-trained lawyer who was confirmed by the Senate nearly three months ago, will take the seat occupied by Associate Justice Stephen Breyer for nearly three decades. \"I am truly grateful to be part of the promise of our great nation,\" Jackson said in a statement released by the court. Previously a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Jackson took the oath of office at a fraught moment for the high court, as its decisions to overturn Roe v. Wade and expand access to handguns have exacerbated tensions among the justices and underscored divisions among some Americans.\n\nBiden backs change to filibuster rules to codify abortion right\n\nPresident Joe Biden said Thursday that he would support changing filibuster rules in the Senate to make it easier to codify the right to abortion and the right to privacy following last week's Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. Biden called the ruling \"outrageous\" and said Congress must overturn it by writing Roe v. Wade into law. Because of the filibuster, 60 votes are needed in the Senate needed to pass most legislation. Changing the filibuster rules could allow senators to write the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision into law with a simple majority.\n\nWhat everyone's talking about\n\nThe Short List is free, but several stories we link to are subscriber-only. Consider supporting our journalism and become a USA TODAY digital subscriber today.\n\nSupreme Court makes decisions on power plant emission regulation, 'remain in Mexico' policy\n\nThe Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against an Environmental Protection Agency effort to regulate power plant emissions. Chief Justice John Roberts asserted it wasn't plausible that Congress intended to give the environmental agency the power to regulate those emissions without saying so in the law explicitly. The decision dealt a blow to the Biden administration in one of the most significant climate cases decided by the court in more than a decade.\n\nThe high court also allowed the Biden administration to end a Trump-era immigration policy that required migrants seeking asylum to remain in Mexico while their cases are reviewed. In the final opinion handed down in the 2021-2022 term, Roberts said that the lower court's ruling against the administration \"imposed a significant burden upon the executive’s ability to conduct diplomatic relations with Mexico.\" That's because, Roberts noted, the United States cannot unilaterally return migrants who are from Central America to Mexico.\n\nSupreme Court to hear redistricting suitwith deep implications for federal elections\n\nUCLA, USC in negotiations to join the Big Ten\n\nThe University of Southern California and UCLA are in negotiations to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations told USA TODAY Sports. The two schools reached out to the Big Ten and were not pursued by the conference. The move would occur for the 2024 season. The Big Ten may not be done expanding. USC and UCLA are the two dominant brands in the Pac-12 and the largest and most successful athletics departments on the West Coast. Losing the two schools to the Big Ten would be devastating for the Pac-12 and could lead to another round of conference realignment impacting every league in the Power Five.\n\nReal quick\n\n🌤 What's the weather up to in your neck of the woods? Check your local forecast here.\n\nBiden to announce $800 million in additional aid to Ukraine\n\nPresident Biden said Thursday that the U.S. would announce $800 million in additional military aid to Ukraine in the next few days. The assistance will include new advanced air defense systems, more artillery, counter-battery radars and more ammunition, Biden said. \"We are going to stick with Ukraine, and all of the alliance are going to stick with Ukraine as long as it takes to in fact make sure they are not defeated,'' he said. Earlier in the summit, NATO declared Russia the “most significant and direct threat” to its members’ peace and security, vowing to bolster support for Ukraine in the conflict.\n\nA July 4th break from the news", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/30"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2021/07/30/ou-texas-sec-move-lame-ducks-big-12/5431806001/", "title": "Will OU and Texas be lame ducks long in the Big 12 before SEC ...", "text": "Mike Gundy said some interesting things to ESPN’s Marty Smith on Thursday. Nothing more enlightening than the final quote Smith tweeted out from Gundy.\n\n“The goal, from what I hear, is that this league (the Big 12) stays intact to (20)’24.”\n\nIn the wake of OU and Texas leaving for the Southeastern Conference, the Big 12 is scrambling to maximize its leverage over the Sooners and Longhorns wanting an early departure. Contractually the Big 12 owns OU’s and UT’s media rights through the 2024-25. But if the Big 12 should dissolve, the Sooners and ‘Horns would in theory be free of financial responsibilities.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/30"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_16", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:22", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/06/28/jan-6-live-updates-cassidy-hutchinson/7747965001/", "title": "Jan. 6 hearing breakdown: Trump wanted to join Capitol rally", "text": "Hutchinson described Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and House Republicans holding strategy sessions.\n\nAt least five House Republicans sought pardons, according to Hutchinson.\n\nMeadows used encrypted Signal communications and reportedly burned documents after meetings.\n\nWASHINGTON – The House committee investigating the Capitol attack Jan. 6, 2021, is holding an abruptly scheduled hearing Tuesday with testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson and \"recently obtained evidence.\"\n\nTestimony concludes: Committee members came up to embrace Cassidy Hutchinson as she left the room. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., first, who hugged her, followed by Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.\n\nCommittee members came up to embrace Cassidy Hutchinson as she left the room. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., first, who hugged her, followed by Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. Trump's Jan. 6 speech: There was genuine concern in the White House over the 25th Amendment being invoked and removing Trump as president, which was part of how Trump was convinced to give a speech.\n\nThere was genuine concern in the White House over the 25th Amendment being invoked and removing Trump as president, which was part of how Trump was convinced to give a speech. Meadows, Stone and Flynn: Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows spoke with Roger Stone and Michael Flynn the night before the Capitol attack “regarding what would play out the next day,”\n\nFormer White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows spoke with Roger Stone and Michael Flynn the night before the Capitol attack “regarding what would play out the next day,” Trump reacts: Within the first half of her testimony, Trump reacted to Hutchinson on his Truth Social website. \"I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her,\" Trump said in a post.\n\nWithin the first half of her testimony, Trump reacted to Hutchinson on his Truth Social website. \"I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her,\" Trump said in a post. 'Mike deserves that': Hutchinson said she overheard Trump, Mark Meadows and Trump lawyers in the White House discuss the chants of “Hang Mike Pence” as rioters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. Meadows told White House attorney Pat Cipollone, who urged action, that Trump \"thinks Mike deserves that. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong.\"\n\nHutchinson said she overheard Trump, Mark Meadows and Trump lawyers in the White House discuss the chants of “Hang Mike Pence” as rioters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. Meadows told White House attorney Pat Cipollone, who urged action, that Trump \"thinks Mike deserves that. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong.\" Barr spurs Trump to throw his lunch. Furious after Attorney General Bill Barr announced in December 2020 he found no evidence of widespread voter fraud to the Associated Press, Trump threw his lunch against the wall, according to Hutchinson.\n\nFurious after Attorney General Bill Barr announced in December 2020 he found no evidence of widespread voter fraud to the Associated Press, Trump threw his lunch against the wall, according to Hutchinson. Weapons at the Ellipse. On the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, police said there were men within walking distance of the Ellipse armed with AR-15-style rifles and Glock-style pistols. Some hid out in trees.\n\nOn the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, police said there were men within walking distance of the Ellipse armed with AR-15-style rifles and Glock-style pistols. Some hid out in trees. Trump was warned not to march to Capitol. Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former President Donald Trump, said White House counsel Pat Cipollone voiced concerns repeatedly about Trump’s plan to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as potentially illegal. “Please make sure we don’t go up to the Capitol, Cassidy,” Hutchinson quoted Cipollone as telling her the morning of Jan. 6.\n\nCassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former President Donald Trump, said White House counsel Pat Cipollone voiced concerns repeatedly about Trump’s plan to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as potentially illegal. “Please make sure we don’t go up to the Capitol, Cassidy,” Hutchinson quoted Cipollone as telling her the morning of Jan. 6. 'Oathkeeper' and 'Proud Boys': Cassidy Hutchinson said that while in the White House, she heard the words “Oathkeeper” and “Proud Boys” as Jan. 6 drew closer.\n\nDay 6 of Jan. 6 hearings recap:Miss Day 6 of the Jan. 6 hearing? Trump knew mob was armed and dangerous, bombshell witness says\n\nMick Mulvaney, Trump's former acting chief of staff, on Cassidy Hutchinson: “I know her. I don’t think she is lying.”\n\nMick Mulvaney – the acting chief of staff under former Pres. Donald Trump from Jan. 2019 to March 2020 – tweeted during the committee hearing that there was “no one closer” to Trump than special assistant to the Chief of Staff Cassidy Hutchinson.\n\nHe said that as a top aide, Hutchinson would be covered by the same “executive privilege” as former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows or Assistant to the President Peter Navarro, and that “If she can testify, then so can they.”\n\nMulvaney said he expected to hear from former Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Tony Ornato, former Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel and Meadows before the hearings were concluded.\n\n“One thing is clear in my mind: Meadows will get indicted for his failure to appear. My guess is that ultimately he shows,” Mulvaney said.\n\n– Katherine Swartz\n\nThompson: 'Serious discussion' about Cipollone being interviewed or testifying\n\nSelect Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters that former special assistant to the chief of staff Cassidy Hutchinson had four separate interviews before testifying because “the legal advice she was receiving didn’t allow her to be as forthcoming as we thought.\"\n\nOnce Hutchinson changed attorneys – from the Trump White House chief ethics lawyer to Jody Hunt, a longtime ally of former Trump administration Attorney General Jeff Sessions – \"she began to open up more and more about what was happening around January 6,” Thompson said.\n\nFollowing Hutchinson’s testimony on Tuesday, Thompson said he expected there would be “serious discussion” in the committee about inviting former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to be interviewed or testify.\n\nHutchinson repeatedly mentioned Cipollone as one of the most outspoken in Trump’s inner circle, imploring Trump to speak out against the rioters on both Jan. 6 and 7.\n\n– Chelsey Cox, Katherine Swartz\n\nRaskin: Committee will look into witness tampering\n\nSpeaking to reporters after the hearing, U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin, R-Md, said the Jan. 6 committee looks to investigate further into tampering of witnesses, after two witnesses told the committee they had been pressured into testifying in favor of former President Donald Trump.\n\n“It's a crime to tamper with witnesses, it’s a form of obstructing justice,” Raskin said. “The committee won't tolerate it and we haven’t had a chance to fully investigate it or fully discuss it, but it's something we want to look into.”\n\nAs for looking into potential crimes – either tampering or by others involved in the Jan. 6 attack – Raskin said that falls under the Justice Department’s jurisdiction.\n\nHe said the committee plans to release a list of recommendations following the end of the hearings about how to “safeguard the integrity of our government and how to make sure that elections don't come under attack.”\n\n– Dylan Wells, Katherine Swartz\n\nMagnetometer:What are 'mags,' and why did ex-Meadows aide bring them up at the Jan. 6 hearings?\n\nThompson and Jan. 6 committee warn witnesses to tell truth\n\nOne apparent reason for this emergency hearing on Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony: Pressuring high-level Trump aides to testify about the president's Jan. 6 actions.\n\nIn a closing statement, committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told potential witnesses, \"if you've suddenly remembered things you forgot, or gained some courage ... our door is open.\"\n\nThompson did not use names, but was obviously referring to people like White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; Hutchinson testified at length about them and others involved with Trump's handling of Jan. 6.\n\nPraising Hutchinson, Thompson had a warning for others: \"Because of this courageous woman and others like her, your attempt to hide the truth from the American people will fail.\"\n\n– David Jackson\n\nWitnesses being told ‘Trump does read transcripts’\n\nWitnesses sitting for depositions in front of the Jan. 6 committee have received calls from former colleagues advising them about how they should testify before the committee, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said Tuesday, saying the practice raises “very serious concerns.\"\n\nOne witness described a caller talking about “protecting who I need to protect” and being a “team player,” according to written text of the exchange with the unnamed witness shared by the committee Tuesday. “They have reminded me a couple of times that Trump does read transcripts and just to keep that in mind as I proceed with my interviews.”\n\nAnother witness testified, “[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you nkoow that he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition,” according to the committee.\n\n– Erin Mansfield\n\nTrump urged to condemn Jan. 6 attack over concerns of 25th Amendment\n\nTrump was extremely reluctant to release a statement condemning the Capitol attack the day after Jan. 6. Former aide to Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson, told the committee a group of White House staffers had to convince him to give a speech.\n\n“Mark (Meadows), Ivanka (Trump), Jared Kushner, Eric Herschmann, Pat Cipollone, Pat Philbin, those are people I’m aware of,” said Hutchinson, recalling who was in the group that convinced Trump. “Kayleigh McEnany as well.”\n\nThere was genuine concern in the White House over the 25th Amendment being invoked and removing Trump as president, which was part of how Trump was convinced to give a speech.\n\n– Kenneth Tran\n\nGiuliani and Meadows both wanted presidential pardons related to Jan. 6\n\nFormer chief of staff Mark Meadows and President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani both sought pardons from Trump in relation to Jan. 6, said Cassidy Hutchinson, former assistant to Meadows.\n\nThe two are the latest in a growing list of Trump allies who Hutchinson knew sought pardons.\n\nIn last week’s hearing, Hutchinson testified that GOP lawmakers Mo Brooks, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Louie Gohmert and Scott Perry all sought pardons as well.\n\n– Katherine Swartz\n\nCheney: People spoke of invoking the 25th Amendment against Trump\n\nHutchinson and Cheney discussed post-Jan. 6 talk from prominent officials about invoking the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution against Trump, removing him from office for incapacity.\n\nThe 25th Amendment was \"a way of stripping the full power of the presidency from Donald Trump,\" Cheney said.\n\nHutchinson said officials discussed the amendment as a way to give themselves \"cover\" for their own actions. No one followed through on the 25th Amendment idea.\n\nInstead, the U.S. House voted to impeach Trump for a second time.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nFox News host and Trump Jr. texted Meadows\n\nFox News host Laura Ingraham and Donald Trump Jr. texted chief of staff Mark Meadows on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021 saying that the president needed to condemn the violence taking place at the Capitol.\n\n“Hey mark, the president needs to tell people in the capitol to go home,” Ingraham wrote at the beginning of a series of three tweets. “This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy and playing into every stereotype. We lose all credibility against the BLM/antifa crowd if things go south.”\n\n“He’s got to condemn this sh—,” Trump Jr. texted. “Asap. The capitol police tweet is not enough.”\n\n– Erin Mansfield\n\nIvanka Trump wanted her father to send people home\n\nIvanka Trump said on multiple occasions on Jan. 6 that she wanted her father to implore rioters to go home, following the same advice of White House counsel urging former President Donald Trump to take “swift action.”\n\n“She wanted her dad to tell them to go home peacefully and she wanted to include language that he necessarily wasn’t on board with at the time,” former special assistant Cassidy Hutchinson said.\n\n– Katherine Swartz\n\nHutchinson 'disgusted' at Trump's attack on Pence\n\nHutchinson said that, as a staff member, she was disappointed at a Trump tweet on Jan. 6 attacking Vice President Mike Pence, even as he was under threat of death by Trump rioters. Outside of her job, Hutchinson said she had a different reaction\n\n\"As an American, I was disgusted,\" Hutchinson said. \"It was unpatriotic. It was un-American.\"\n\nShe said Pence and the Capitol were under attack over a Trump lie about election fraud.\n\n– David Jackson\n\n‘I read that tweet and made a decision at that moment to resign’\n\nFormer Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger told the committee he made the immediate decision to resign after seeing Trump’s tweet that former Vice President Mike Pence didn’t have the “courage” to overturn the election.\n\nOn the day of the Capitol attack, as rioters breached the Capitol, a member of Pottinger’s staff handed him a printout of Trump’s tweet.\n\n“I read that tweet and made a decision at that moment to resign,” said Pottinger. “That’s where I knew I was leaving that day, once I had read that tweet.”\n\n– Kenneth Tran\n\n‘He doesn’t think they’re doing anything wrong,’ chief of staff said of Trump on threats to Pence\n\nHutchinson said she overheard Trump, Mark Meadows and Trump lawyers in the White House discuss the chants of “Hang Mike Pence” as rioters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6.\n\nShe recalled Trump White House attorney Pat Cipollone telling Meadows, “We need to do something.”\n\n“You heard it, Pat,” Meadows said, according to Hutchinson. “He thinks Mike deserves that. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong. To which Pat said something to the effect of, 'This is f---ing crazy.'\"\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nMeadows: Trump ‘doesn’t want to do anything’ about violence at Capitol\n\nChief of Staff Mark Meadows told White House lawyer Pat Cipollone on Jan. 6, 2021, that President Donald Trump didn’t want to do anything to stop the violence that was taking place at the Capitol, according to Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony.\n\nCipollone came “barrelling toward our office,” Hutchinson said, before opening the door, shaking his head, and telling Meadows that the rioters had made it to the Capitol. He urged Meadows to come with him to go speak to Trump.\n\n“He doesn’t want to do anything, Pat,” Hutchinson said Meadows said, and Hutchinson says Cipollone responded, “Mark, something needs to be done. People are going to die and the blood is going to be on your f---ing hands. This is out of control. I’m going down there.”\n\n– Erin Mansfield\n\nHutchinson: Meadows 'needs to snap out of this'\n\nWhen Cassidy Hutchinson, former special assistant to ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, saw the rioters were getting closer to the Capitol, she went into Meadows’ office to see if he was aware of what’s going on.\n\nShe found him “sitting on his couch on his cellphone,” not paying attention to the news.\n\nHutchinson said seeing the rioters get closer felt like watching “a bad car accident that’s about to happen where you can’t stop it, but you want to be able to do something.”\n\n“I remember thinking in that moment, “Mark needs to snap out of this, and I don’t know how to snap him out of this, but he needs to care,” Hutchinson said.\n\n– Katherine Swartz\n\nFlynn took the 5th when asked about peaceful transitions of power\n\nFormer White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows spoke with Roger Stone and Michael Flynn the night before the Capitol attack “regarding what would play out the next day,” according to Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.\n\nHutchinson confirmed to the committee that Meadows spoke with both Stone and Flynn, but was “not sure” the exact contents of the conversations.\n\nStone was at the Capitol attack and had “multiple members of the Oathkeepers who were allegedly serving as his security detail,” said Cheney. In deposition to the committee, Flynn exercised his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked if violence at the Capitol was justified.\n\n– Kenneth Tran\n\nTrump reacts to witness Cassidy Hutchinson, claims he barely knew her\n\nThe former president issued a number of statements during the hearing attacking Hutchinson.\n\n\"I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her,\" Trump said in a post on the Truth Social website.\n\nIn an initial statement, Trump did not address any specifics of Hutchinson's testimony. They included statements that he knew Jan. 6 protesters had weapons and that he lunged at a Secret Service agent in an effort to grab the steering wheel of the presidential SUV to drive to the U.S. Capitol.\n\nIn subsequent posts, Trump denied wanting to see protesters with weapons or trying to grab the wheel of his vehicle.\n\nSaid Trump: \"She is bad news!\"\n\nNote: Other Trump White House aides of Jan. 6 issued statements during the day defending Hutchinson, and praising her testimony.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nOn 'mags':What are 'mags,' and why did ex-Meadows aide bring them up at the Jan. 6 hearings?\n\nAlyssa Farah Griffin defends Cassidy Hutchinson\n\nA conservative commentator who previously worked as an assistant to President Donald Trump defended Cassidy Hutchinson, the former principal aide to chief of staff Mark Meadows who is testifying in front of the Jan. 6 committee.\n\n“People of sound mind don’t reach to try to grab a steering wheel, from the backseat, to drive to the Capitol to overturn a democratic election,” Farah Griffin tweeted, referencing Hutchinson’s testimony about Trump’s behavior that day.\n\n“Cassidy Hutchinson is 25 years old and has more courage than many elected members of Congress more than twice her age,” she also wrote.\n\n– Erin Mansfield\n\nArizona Rep. Ruben Gallego: Trump 'had insurrection on his mind'\n\n“Like a lot of insurrection leaders, he knew his insurgents, and he knew how to motivate them,” Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., told reporters during the hearing recess.\n\n“There's no such thing as this many coincidences in life. The fact that the Oathkeepers, the Proud Boys, they all showed up. They all had weaponry, that they happened to stick outside the magnetometers, the fact that he knew that they weren't dangerous,” Gallego said.\n\n“The fact that he was trying to get to the Capitol to basically lead them into the Capitol, you know, tells you that this president had insurrection on his mind, was trying to interfere with Congress's duty to certify the election,” Gallego said. “The question is, what happens next and where is (Attorney General) Merrick Garland in all of this?”\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nAngry Trump threw lunch against the wall after Barr announced there was no voter fraud\n\nFurious after Attorney General Bill Barr announced he found no evidence of widespread voter fraud to the Associated Press, Trump threw his lunch against the wall, according to Hutchinson.\n\nHutchinson said she saw a broken porcelain plate in the White House dining room following the Dec. 20, 2020, incident and \"ketchup dripping down the wall.\"\n\n“The valet had articulated that the president was extremely angry at the Attorney General's AP interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall,” Hutchinson said.\n\nSuch tantrums were not uncommon by Trump, she said.\n\n“There were several times throughout my tenure with the chief of staff that I was aware of either him throwing dishes or flipping the tablecloth to let all the contents of the table go onto the floor and likely break or go everywhere,” Hutchinson said.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nTrump grabbed steering wheel, lunged at aide\n\nFormer President Donald Trump was under the impression he was heading to the Capitol following his rally.\n\n\"I'm the f---ing president. Take me to the Capitol now,\" Trump said, according to Hutchinson.\n\nWhen he was told he wasn't going, Trump, sitting in the back of his SUV in the motorcade, reached forward and tried to grab the steering wheel in order to move the vehicle in the direction of the Capitol, even though aides said he had to go back to the White House. He later lunged at his security chief in an apparent attempt to choke him.\n\nHutchinson said she heard this story in the White House from Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Tony Ornato. She said Trump’s security chief Robert Engel, who had been in the car with Trump, was in the room with them. At no point did Engel correct the story, Hutchinson said.\n\n“Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, ‘Sir, you need to take your arm off the steering wheel,’” Hutchinson testified. “’We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.’ Mr Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel and when Mr. Ornato recounted this story for me, he had motioned towards his clavicles.”\n\nShe also said that White House lawyer Pat Cipollone warned her that if Trump went to the Capitol to follow his supporters on Jan.6, they \"would be charged with every crime.\"\n\n– Erin Mansfield and Merdie Nzang\n\nHutchinson: White House counsel warns of Trump being charged if he marched on Capitol\n\nHutchinson, an aide to former President Donald Trump, said White House counsel Pat Cipollone voiced concerns repeatedly about Trump’s plan to march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as potentially illegal.\n\n“Please make sure we don’t go up to the Capitol, Cassidy,” Hutchinson quoted Cipollone as telling her the morning of Jan. 6. “Keep in touch with me. We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen.”\n\nTrump never walked to the Capitol. But he said he would during his speech on the Ellipse that morning. Cipollone warned Hutchinson that Trump could be charged with obstructing justice or defrauding the count of Electoral College ballots if he did that.\n\n“We need to make sure that this doesn’t happen,” Hutchinson quoted Cipollone as telling her Jan. 3. “This would be legally a terrible idea for us. We have serious legal concerns if we go up to the Capitol that day.”\n\n– Bart Jansen\n\nTrump wanted to go to the Capitol with Jan. 6 protesters\n\nMultiple White House aides told the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack that Trump wanted to accompany the Jan. 6 rally attendees on their march to the Capitol.\n\nMax Miller, former White House aide, said Trump had a desire to drive down to the Capitol after his speech “came up” in conversation.\n\n“He brought it up. He said ‘I wanted to go down to the Capitol.’”\n\nAnother former White House aide, Nick Luna, said Trump wanted to “march” to the Capitol with the protestors. “I was aware of the desire of the president to potentially march, or accompany the rally attendees to the Capitol.”\n\n– Kenneth Tran\n\nHutchinson: Trump's lawyers were concerned he was inciting a riot\n\nHutchinson told the committee that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and other lawyers stressed to Trump and aides that marching to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could expose him to a number of criminal charges – including inciting a riot.\n\nIt would look like \"we were inciting a riot or were encouraging a riot,\" Hutchinson recalled the White House counsel saying.\n\nA riot is exactly what happened when Trump's supporters showed up at the Capitol after Trump's fiery rally speech.\n\nOther potential charges included obstruction of justice and defrauding the electoral vote count, Hutchinson said in quoting White House lawyers.\n\n– David Jackson\n\nTrump attorneys worried about legal ramifications of Trump’s speech on Jan. 6\n\nHutchinson said Trump lawyers had “many discussions” on the morning of Jan. 6 about their concerns of what Trump planned to say in his speech outside the White House.\n\nEric Herschmann, one of the attorneys, said Trump would be “foolish” to include language that the president requested in which the president would say, “We're gonna march the Capitol. I'll be there with you. Fight for me. Fight for what we're doing. Fight for the movement.”\n\nLater, Trump attorney Pat Cipollone said it would be a “legally terrible idea for us” if Trump followed through and marched to the Capitol while Congress counted electoral votes.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nMeadows had 'lack of reaction' to violence at the Capitol\n\nHutchinson, principal aide to chief of staff Mark Meadows, said she tried repeatedly to tell Meadows about violence at the Capitol while Capitol Police were being overrun by attackers.\n\nA couple of times before she was able to tell him, she opened a door to a car he was in, and he closed it. She said a backlog of information she needed to relay to him built up. When she was finally able to pass on information about violence at the Capitol, she said he barely reacted.\n\n“He almost had a lack of reaction,” Hutchinson said. “I remember him saying, ‘All right,’ something to the effect of, ‘How much longer does the president have left in his speech?’”\n\n– Erin Mansfield\n\nDespite threat of violence, Trump was 'furious' there was extra space at Ellipse\n\nIn text messages between former Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornado and former aide to Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson, Trump was “f—ing furious,” at there being extra space at the Ellipse prior to the Capitol attack.\n\n“He was furious because he wanted the area that we had on the Ellipse to be maxed out at capacity for all attendees.” Trump was told that everyone who wanted to attend was already there, but Hutchinson said he was still angry.\n\nWhen looking at photos of the crowd, Trump was “very concerned about the shot, meaning the photograph that we would get because the rally space wasn’t full.”\n\n– Kenneth Tran\n\nRally attendees had weapons\n\n\"People who willingly entered the enclosed area for President Trump's speech so they could attend the rally had weapons and other items that were confiscated,\" Rep. Liz Cheney said.\n\nPolice said they saw people armed with AR-15 walking toward the White House.\n\n– Merdie Nzanga\n\nMeadows stared at phone while told about weapons on Jan. 6\n\nHutchinson said Meadows did not look up from his phone when Tony Ornato, White House deputy chief of staff of operations, informed him that rioters who were gathered for a Trump rally outside the White House on Jan. 6 had weapons.\n\nShe recalled Meadows remained looking down at this phone for a few seconds. He then asked her what she was hearing.\n\n“And I looked at Tony and I was like, ‘Sorry, I just told you about what was happening.'\"\n\nTrump supporters with weapons later made their way down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nTrump didn't 'care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me'\n\nIn the backstage area of Trump’s rally held on Jan. 6, Hutchinson overheard Trump tell staff that he didn’t care whether people had weapons, to let them into the rally area because “they’re not here to hurt me.”\n\nHutchinson said Trump was upset at the size of his rally crowd and was primarily angry that staff wasn’t letting through his supporters that were carrying weapons.\n\n“Let the people in, take the f–ing mags away,” Trump said, referring to magnetrometers, or metal detectors.\n\n– Katherine Swartz\n\nHutchinson: Security chief briefed Trump about weapons in Ellipse crowd\n\nHutchinson said the deputy chief of staff, Tony Ornato, notified Trump before 10 a.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, about people on the Ellipse carrying weapons including flagpoles, sticks, spears, knives and guns including pistols and rifles.\n\nFormer chief of staff Mark Meadows didn’t react to his own briefing by Ornato. But then he looked up and said, ‘Have you talked to the president?’” according to Hutchinson. “Tony said, ‘Yes, sir. He’s aware too.’ He said, ‘All right, good.’”\n\nThe vice chair of the committee, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., asked Hutchinson to reinforce that Ornato had briefed the president about weapons at the location where he was about to give a speech.\n\n“That’s what Mr. Ornato relayed to me,” Hutchinson said.\n\n– Bart Jansen\n\nPolice saw men with rifles, handguns hiding in trees near Trump’s rally\n\nOn the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, police said there were men within walking distance of the ellipse armed with AR-15-style rifles and Glock-style pistols. Some hid out in trees.\n\nIn radio communication played by the Jan. 6 committee Tuesday, police said two complainants saw the stock of an AR-15 under one man’s jacket. Another police officer described three men in fatigues walking with AR-15 rifles.\n\n“Look for the don’t tread on me flag,” one officer said describing a man in a tree. “American flag face mask. Cowboy boots. Weapon on the right side hip.”\n\n– Erin Mansfield\n\nIntelligence reports showed potential for violence of Jan. 6\n\nHutchinson testified that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornado had received intelligence reports saying there was potential for violence on Jan. 6.\n\nAs deputy chief of staff, Ornado was responsible for security protocols between the White House and the Secret Service, which also received reports of violence and weapons in the leadup to Jan. 6.\n\n– Katherine Swartz\n\nAide recalled hearing 'Oathkeeper' and 'Proud Boys' during Jan. 6 planning\n\nCassidy Hutchinson said that while in the White House, she heard the words “Oathkeeper” and “Proud Boys” as Jan. 6 drew closer.\n\n“I recall hearing the words ‘Oathkeeper’ and the words ‘Proud Boys,’ closer to the planning of the January 6 rally when Mr. Giuliani would be around,” said Hutchinson, in deposition to the Jan. 6 committee.\n\nRep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., also revealed that on Jan. 3, U.S. Capitol Police issued a report noting “that the Proud Boys and other groups planned to be in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6,” and that they targeted Congress rather than counter-protestors.\n\n– Kenneth Tran\n\nLearn more:Cassidy Hutchinson to testify at Jan. 6 hearing. Who is the former aide to Mark Meadows?\n\nHutchinson: DNI Ratcliffe considered Trump fighting election results ‘dangerous’\n\nHutchinson said the director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, avoided involvement in the administration’s post-election agenda of fighting the results of the 2020 election.\n\nRatcliffe, a former Republican member of the House from Texas, thought searching for missing ballots and challenging election results in specific states would hurt former President Donald Trump’s legacy, according to Hutchinson.\n\n“He had expressed concern that it could spiral out of control and potentially be dangerous either for our democracy or the way that things were going for the Sixth,” Hutchinson said in videotaped testimony to the committee. “He felt that there could be dangerous repercussions.”\n\n– Bart Jansen\n\nHutchinson: Trump and top aides knew that Jan. 6 could get dangerous\n\nHutchinson recounted how a number of White House officials expressed fears that the Jan. 6, 2021, election protests could get violent because of extremist groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers - and that Trump had to know as well.\n\nOn tape, Hutchison talked about how national security adviser Robert O'Brien wanted to meet with Meadows about the potential for violence.\n\n\"I was apprehensive about the 6th,\" Hutchinson told the committee at one point.\n\nThe committee is trying to prove that Trump and his allies knew that Jan. 6 could get dangerous – yet egged on their supporters anyway.\n\n– David Jackson\n\n‘Scared and nervous’ after talking to Giuliani, Meadows\n\nCassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Mark Meadows, said she started feeling “scared and nervous” about what could happen on Jan. 6 after talking to Meadows about comments made by Rudy Giuliani.\n\nHutchinson relayed Giuliani’s comments to Meadows.\n\n“He didn't look up from his phone and said something to the effect of there's a lot going on … Things might get real, real bad on January 6,” Meadows said, according to Hutchinson.\n\n“That evening was the first moment that I remember feeling scared and nervous for what could happen on January 6,” Hutchinson said.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nMeadows told aide, ‘Things might get real, real bad’\n\nFormer President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows told his principal aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, that “Things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6,” according to Hutchinson’s testimony on Tuesday.\n\nHutchinson said went to Meadows after walking Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to his car on the evening of Jan. 2, 2021, four days before the insurrection attempt. Giuliani asked her, “Cass, are you excited for the sixth?” she testified. “It’s going to be a great day.”\n\nWhen Hutchinson asked Giuliani what was going to happen on Jan. 6, she says he told her, “We’re going to the Capitol. It’s going to be great. The president’s going to be there. He’s going to look powerful.” He also told her to go to Meadows: “Talk to the chief about it.”\n\n– Erin Mansfield\n\nWho is Cassidy Hutchinson?\n\nHutchinson was a special assistant to the president for legislative affairs and aide to Meadows. She told the panel she attended key meetings and often knew about meetings involving Trump and Meadows.\n\n“Almost all, if not all, meetings Mr. Trump had, I had insight on,” Hutchinson told the panel.\n\nHutchinson described White House strategy sessions where lawmakers discussed how to reject electors from specific states. She said how Meadows communicated with encrypted applications such as Signal. She said Meadows burned documents in his office fireplace after meeting with Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., according to reports in The New York Times and Politico.\n\nAnd Hutchinson said Meadows described Trump as speaking approvingly of rioters chanting \"Hang Mike Pence\" while ransacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump denied using the phrase. Meadows has defied a committee subpoena to testify, and the House cited him for contempt.\n\nWhat did Hutchinson say about White House meetings with lawmakers?\n\nHutchinson named the lawyers and lawmakers who met repeatedly with White House officials during December to challenge electors in several states Trump lost.\n\nShe said the strategy sessions in person and by phone included Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Jody Hice of Georgia, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Debbie Lesko of Arizona and Perry.\n\nWhat did Hutchinson say about fake electors?\n\nTrump's lawyer John Eastman proposed a scheme for seven states President Joe Biden won to submit alternate sets of electors to Congress, to potentially delay certification of the results or overturn the election.\n\nAfter White House officials met with advisers outside the executive branch, such as Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Hutchinson said the White House counsel's office called the strategy \"not legally sound,\" according to one of her depositions.\n\nShe said the counsel office's guidance ran along the lines of: \"That's not legal, we're not putting ourselves in that line of fire\" or \"Don't raise that to Mr. Trump, it's not appropriate, and it's not a legal theory we want to entertain right now.\"\n\nWhat has Hutchinson said about pardons?\n\nHutchinson described in videotaped testimony Thursday how lawmakers who attended the meeting Dec. 21, 2020, such as Biggs, Brooks, Gaetz, Gohmert and Perry, sought pardons.\n\nJohn McEntee, former director of the White House presidential personnel office, also described Trump as considering a blanket pardon. And Eric Herschmann, a former White House lawyer, said there was a general discussion of pardons for those who defended Trump.\n\n\"I guess Mr. Gaetz and Mr. Brooks, I know, have both advocated for there'd be a blanket pardon for members involved in that meeting,\" Hutchinson said. \"Mr. Gaetz was personally pushing for a pardon, and he was doing so since early December.\"\n\nEach of the lawmakers denied wrongdoing. Biggs, Gohmert and Perry denied asking for a pardon.\n\nGaetz called the investigation a witch hunt. Brooks defended his pardon request by saying Democrats could abuse the judicial process by prosecuting Republicans.\n\nWhat did we learn on Thursday?\n\nHere are three highlights from the committee's last hearing on Thursday:\n\nTrump wanted the DOJ to \"lend credibility\" to his claims of election fraud and told agency heads to \"leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen,\" according to evidence.\n\nTrump sought to replace then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Clark, an environmental lawyer. The committee presented a draft letter written by Clark addressed to Georgia legislative leaders which falsely alluded to possible voter fraud in key states.\n\nA roster of GOP lawmakers, including Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Andy Biggs of Arizona, asked for presidential pardons the day after Jan. 6, 2021, according to aides.\n\nHutchinson: Meadows traveled to Georgia to monitor vote count\n\nMeadows traveled Dec. 22, 2020, to Cobb County, Georgia, where he met without an appointment with Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs to visit a building where ballot signatures were being audited. Hutchinson said Meadows was visiting his son in Georgia for Christmas, so monitoring the ballot counting was convenient.\n\n\"He wanted to do more of a status check to see where they were at with things, if they had thoughts that they needed any more resources, if there was anything that the White House could do to help ease the process along,\" Hutchinson said.\n\nWhy is the panel holding this hastily called hearing?\n\nThe hearing, which was announced Monday after committee members said they wouldn't hold another until late July, will be the sixth in June.\n\nPrevious sessions featured testimony about police injuries during the riot, about former President Trump's aides telling him lost the election, and his pressure on state officials, Vice President Mike Pence and on Justice Department officials.\n\nThe chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Thursday the investigation continues and new information is pouring in.\n\n\"Those hearings have spurred an influx of new information that the committee and our investigators are working to assess,\" Thompson said.\n\nDocumentary evidence\n\nAmong the new evidence, a British documentarian provided the panel with previously unreleased recordings of exclusive interviews with Trump, his children and former Vice President Mike Pence before and after the Capitol attack.\n\nAlex Holder said in a tweeted statement he began the project in September 2020 and hadn’t expected the recordings to be subpoenaed. His lawyer said the Trump's had no editorial control over the video.\n\nThe recordings are scheduled to be part of a three-part series to be released this summer called, “Unprecedented.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/politics/trump-blindsided-january-6-hearing/index.html", "title": "Donald Trump aides left speechless by Cassidy Hutchinson ...", "text": "(CNN) Aides to former President Donald Trump were left speechless amid the first half of Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony on Tuesday , acknowledging to CNN that her testimony was \"a bombshell\" with potentially huge repercussions for Trump.\n\nTrump was already bracing for an explosive day of testimony from Hutchinson, who previously told the House select committee that the former President approved of rioters chanting violent threats against Vice President Mike Pence on January 6, 2021\n\n\"This is a bombshell. It's stunning. It's shocking. The story about 'The Beast' -- I don't have words. It's just stunning,\" said one Trump adviser, referring to the presidential limousine.\n\n\"This paints a picture of Trump completely unhinged and completely losing all control which, for his base, they think of him as someone who is in command at all times. This completely flies in the face of that,\" the adviser added.\n\nThe Trump adviser, who was in a group text chat with several other Trump aides and allies as the hearing played out, said that \"no one is taking this lightly.\"\n\n\"For the first time since the hearings started, no one is dismissing this,\" the adviser said.\n\nIn a statement to CNN, Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington sought to dismiss the stunned reactions from some allies of the former President.\n\n\"The only thing 'stunning' is that the Unselect Committee would run with such easily refutable and ridiculous falsehoods that are laughable on their face,\" Harrington said.\n\nAnother Trump ally told CNN the testimony from Hutchinson, a former top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, would seal Meadows' fate as \"persona non grata\" to the former President.\n\n\"This is one of the reasons [Trump] is furious with Meadows. He was already iced out but now he will be persona non grata,\" this person said.\n\nThe startling revelations from Hutchinson's testimony about Trump's erratic behavior and state of mind on January 6 could make it easier for Republican presidential hopefuls to challenge the former President in a primary should he run, the Trump ally added.\n\n\"This is basically a campaign commercial for (Florida Gov.) Ron DeSantis 2024,\" said the Trump ally.\n\nTrump claims he hardly knows Hutchinson\n\nTrump, as he often does with aides and allies with whom he was once close but later turned against him, claimed on Tuesday that he \"hardly know[s]\" Hutchinson and personally rejected a request she made to join his post-presidency staff at Mar-a-Lago.\n\n\"When she requested to go with certain others of my team to Florida after my having served a full term in office, I personally turned her request down,\" Trump said on Truth Social during Hutchinson's live testimony.\n\nTrump attempted to cast Hutchinson's testimony on Tuesday as revenge, claiming she was \"very upset and angry that I didn't want her\" at his Palm Beach residence.\n\nThe former President's attempt to distance himself from Hutchinson, whom he described as \"bad news\" on Tuesday, came after the committee showed renderings of the West Wing to demonstrate just how close she was to the Oval Office as an assistant to Meadows. Multiple former White House aides also publicly vouched for Hutchinson's proximity to Trump and his chief of staff before and during her appearance on Tuesday.\n\n\"Anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson's role or her access in the West Wing either doesn't understand how the Trump [White House] worked or is attempting to discredit her because they're scared of how damning this testimony is,\" former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews tweeted\n\nIn response to this, one former White House aide said, \"Everyone high up at the (White House) knew her. And even if Trump didn't know her name, he most certainly recognized her. She traveled on (Air Force One) with Mark for every trip.\" Additionally, this former aide told CNN that Tuesday's testimony was 100% believable given what the aide had experienced while working in the Trump White House.\n\nThe most surprising episode to some aides so far was when Hutchinson recounted an incident she testified to hearing about secondhand from Tony Ornato, a Secret Service agent who also served as White House deputy chief of staff, where Trump allegedly tried to lunge for the steering wheel of the presidential vehicle so he could be driven to the Capitol on January 6. Following her testimony, a Secret Service official familiar with the matter told CNN that Ornato denies telling Hutchinson the former President had grabbed the wheel or assaulted an agent on his detail. This official said the agency notified the committee Tuesday afternoon that it will make Ornato and Bobby Engel, another agent who was on Trump's detail on January 6, available to testify under oath. As previously reported by CNN, both agents are prepared to testify that neither incident inside the presidential vehicle occurred.\n\nUS Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement Tuesday that the agency planned \"to respond on the record to the Committee regarding the new allegations surfaced in\" Hutchinson's testimony.\n\nTrump allies and the former President quickly latched on to the news that Ornato and Engel were prepared to deny the incident under oath as part of their efforts to discredit Hutchinson's testimony -- and it appeared to be working to change perspectives inside the former President's orbit. One of the Trump advisers who was initially left speechless by Hutchinson's appearance on Tuesday later told CNN that Ornato's and Engel's willingness to dispute her testimony \"completely changed\" his own view and \"the dynamic of the hearings.\"\n\n\"They are probably risking their careers. Decorated careers,\" the adviser said.\n\nTrump was nervous about testimony\n\nJUST WATCHED Ex-aide was backstage with Trump at his Jan. 6 rally. Here's what she heard him say Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Ex-aide was backstage with Trump at his Jan. 6 rally. Here's what she heard him say 02:52\n\nTrump has previously denied reporting on Hutchinson's leaked testimony, claiming on his Truth Social platform earlier this month that he \"never said, or even thought of saying, 'Hang Mike Pence.'\"\n\n\"This is either a made up story by somebody looking to become a star, or fake news!\" he wrote at the time.\n\nBut a person close to Trump said he was nervous about Tuesday's hearing, which features live testimony from Hutchinson. Prior to the committee's announcement on Monday, this person said Trump was feeling triumphant amid back-to-back Supreme Court decisions protecting a right to conceal carry a gun and ending the constitutional right to abortion.\n\n\"He definitely wasn't expecting a twist like this,\" said the person close to Trump.\n\nThe former President and his allies are planning to cast Hutchinson as a junior aide who had little influence inside the West Wing, despite her proximity to both the then-President and his then-chief of staff. Hutchinson served in the Office of Legislative Affairs prior to becoming a top aide to Meadows and was an eyewitness to several key episodes leading up to January 6, in addition to witnessing some of Trump's real-time reactions that day.\n\nTrump was specifically concerned about what Hutchinson could say about his state of mind and response to the rioters on January 6, said a second person close to him.\n\nMeadows on high alert\n\nHutchinson's proximity to Meadows placed the former White House chief of staff on high alert ahead of Tuesday's hearing.\n\nHutchinson \"operated like an executive assistant to him,\" said a person familiar with their relationship and her insight into his day-to-day schedule, conversations, and interactions with Trump is unrivaled.\n\n\"I think the committee has held their fire on Meadows so far but today's going to be a Meadows day,\" the person said.\n\nMeadows personally promoted Hutchinson from the White House Office of Legislative Affairs to his West Wing office, where this person said \"she was given enormous access and enormous visibility\" into his relationship with Trump and several top GOP lawmakers.\n\nA second person familiar with the matter said Hutchinson received zero support from Meadows as she became entangled in the January 6 committee's investigation but has remained in touch with some of his other aides.\n\nNow, Meadows and his allies are worried that could come back to haunt him.\n\nThey are watching Tuesday's hearing closely to see what new information Hutchinson reveals in her sworn testimony, said the second source, who noted that Meadows is specifically concerned that her appearance could further strain his relationship with Trump.\n\nTrump has privately complained to allies in recent months about text messages that Meadows turned over to the House panel before halting his cooperation, and a book Meadows wrote that contained startling new details about the severity of Trump's battle with Covid-19 also angered the former president.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional reporting Wednesday.", "authors": ["Gaborr", "Pamela Brown"], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/13/politics/jan-6-hearing-takeaways-monday/index.html", "title": "Takeaways from Monday's January 6 hearing - CNNPolitics", "text": "(CNN) The House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol detailed Monday how those around then-President Donald Trump told him he lost the 2020 election -- but he refused to listen, turning instead to his attorney Rudy Giuliani to embrace false claims that the election was stolen.\n\nThe hearing Monday was one witness short from what was planned , but the panel heard testimony from a former Fox News digital politics editor, a conservative lawyer, a former US attorney and a former Republican election official -- who all said it was clear President Joe Biden won the election and Trump's claims of fraud were nonsense.\n\nHere are the key takeaways from the panel's second hearing this month about Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the violence in the Capitol on January 6.\n\nStepien surprise sets off a scramble -- but committee quickly adapts\n\nThe committee surprised many observers Sunday when it announced that Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien would be testifying in-person at Monday's hearing. But Stepien had a surprise of his own on Monday morning, when he found out that his wife went into labor, so he pulled out of the hearing.\n\nThis whirlwind of events forced the committee to scramble -- and they handled it deftly, albeit after a 45-minute delay.\n\nLawmakers and committee staff were obviously prepared with video clips from Stepien's private deposition. And they played a lot of footage from his testimony Monday, which revealed new details about his conversations with Trump and how he advised the President not to prematurely declare victory on election night.\n\nIn some ways, the outcome gave the Democratic-run committee more power to control what the public heard from Stepien. He wasn't in the room to say his piece, which could have included some defenses of Trump and some pushback against the committee. Instead, the panel could pick and choose which deposition clips it played, and they focused like a laser on the most damaging material for Trump.\n\nLengthy depositions take place of witness testimony\n\nStepien's testimony wasn't the committee's only use of depositions on Monday. The panel played lengthy portions of former Attorney General William Barr's deposition with the committee, where he described in detail why Trump's fraud claims were \"bogus\" and why he has seen nothing since to convince him there was fraud.\n\n\"There was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were,\" Barr said in video of his deposition played Monday. \"I was somewhat demoralized, because I thought, 'Boy, if he really believes this stuff, he has lost contact with -- he's become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff.' \"\n\nThe committee did not invite Barr to testify publicly for Monday's hearing, but the minutes of his deposition that played made it feel at times as though he was there.\n\nThe video depositions have also given the committee the chance to show testimony from others in Trump's inner circle -- including Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner -- without having to bring them in to testify. And by just showing video depositions, the committee controls which soundbites are aired.\n\nThe hearing is illustrating they key role played by Barr in setting the tone for \"Team Normal,\" the group of campaign and White House officials who were trying to advise Trump the fraud claims were bogus.\n\nIt's not for a lack of trying to find fraud. Barr had issued a controversial memo weeks earlier that allows prosecutors to look at election crime claims even before certification of the vote. Barr's move had prompted a top public integrity official at the Justice Department to resign. Barr looked for fraud and didn't find it.\n\nJUST WATCHED Trump trashes Jan 6. committee. Hear committee member's response Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Trump trashes Jan 6. committee. Hear committee member's response 01:57\n\nBarr becomes debunker-in-chief\n\nThe Democratic-run committee has featured clips from Barr's deposition more than any other witness so far, and they interviewed more than 1,000 people as part of their yearlong investigation. These clips have established Barr as the highest-ranking Trump administration official to affirm the legitimacy of the election results and disavow Trump's relentless effort to claim that the election was tainted by fraud.\n\nDuring Monday's hearing, Barr dismantled specific Trump-backed claims about illegal \"vote dumps\" in Detroit, nationwide vote-rigging by Dominion with its election machines, and other conspiracy theories.\n\nUnprompted, Barr even went out of his way to criticize \" 2,000 Mules ,\" the film created by right-wing activist Dinesh D'Souza, a convicted felon who claims that the 2020 election was stolen. (In a deposition clip played Monday, Barr laughed off the film and said it was \"completely lacking\" in evidence.)\n\nBarr said the theories Trump supported were \"idiotic\" and \"amateurish\" and \"detached from reality.\" This rhetoric is strikingly close to what top Democrats have said all along about Trump's fraud claims.\n\nTo be clear, Barr is still a hardline conservative. Just a few weeks ago, he made several false claims in a Fox News interview about the Trump-Russia investigation, and backed up Trump's baseless assertions that the entire probe was a fabricated \"hoax\" perpetrated by Democratic operatives and the FBI.\n\nCommittee argues Trump peddled fraud claims in bad faith after he was personally told were not legitimate\n\nOne of the primary areas of focus of Monday's hearing was to underscore the idea that Trump and some of his allies continued to peddle false claims of election fraud after they were personally told those claims were not legitimate.\n\nThe committee made the argument that Trump was repeatedly told by his own top officials, including Barr and Stepien, that the myriad of fraud claims he was pushing were groundless and were certainly not evidence that the election was stolen.\n\n\"I specifically raised the Dominion voting machines, which I found to be among the most disturbing allegations -- disturbing in the sense that I saw absolutely zero basis for the allegations, but they were made in such a sensational way that they obviously were influencing a lot of people, members of the public,\" Barr said during his deposition, according to a video played Monday.\n\nYet, Trump and some of his allies continued to push these false claims all the way through January in what the committee attempted to show was a bad faith effort to overturn the election despite consistently being told those claims were not valid.\n\nDuring their December 2020 Oval Office confrontation, Barr said that Trump gave him a report that claimed \"absolute proof\" the Dominion voting machines had been rigged. Barr said that the report \"looked very amateurish to me,\" and he \"didn't see any supporting information\" for the fraud claims.\n\nBarr would resign in December 2020 shortly after his last meeting with Trump and was replaced by acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who also faced a similar barrage of pressure from the former President to investigate the same unfounded election fraud claims that Barr had warned him were baseless.\n\nUltimately, Trump considered replacing Rosen with a relatively obscure environmental lawyer, Jeffrey Clark, who had demonstrated a willingness to pursue the fraud claims that other senior DOJ officials would not.\n\nClark drafted a \"Proof of Concept memo\" for overturning the 2020 election and sent it to top Justice Department officials on December 28, 2020, two weeks after Barr's resignation. That memo relied heavily on many of the same debunked fraud claims that Trump had already been told had no merit.\n\nAt the same time, Trump's allies were pushing the Justice Department to take Trump's false stolen election claims to the Supreme Court in an effort to prevent the outcome from several key swing states from being counted. The brief sent to Rosen and other top DOJ officials by Trump's personal assistant at the White House cited the same report on Michigan voting machine irregularities Barr had told Trump was \"amateurish\" and failed to include any supporting information.\n\nThe committee listens to a video clip of of former Attorney General William Barr as the House select committee meets to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation.\n\nCommittee focuses on 'Team Normal' vs Rudy standoff\n\nThe committee focused on testimony Monday that distinguished between two groups advising Trump in the days after the election: \"Team Normal\" and those who were with Rudy Giuliani pushing baseless claims of voter fraud.\n\n\"We called them kind of my team and Rudy's team,\" Stepien said in deposition video played by the committee. \"I didn't mind being characterized as being part of Team Normal.\"\n\nThe committee traced back the divide to election night, when Stepien and others were telling Trump it was too early to call the race, while Giuliani told him to declare victory.\n\n\"The President disagreed with that. I don't recall the particular words. He thought I was wrong. He told me so,\" Stepien said of a conversation with Trump on election night. \"And that he was going to go in a different direction.\"\n\nThe committee worked to undercut the wild claims Giuliani and Sidney Powell were making about votes being changed and foreign countries being involved -- all of which were untrue. They showed video from depositions Giuliani and Powell juxtaposed with officials like Barr and Stepien saying the claims were simply nonsense.\n\nThe committee even took a dig at Giuliani and his state of mind on Election Night, playing video from Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller's deposition where he said that Giuliani \"had too much to drink.\"\n\n\"I mean, the mayor was definitely intoxicated,\" Miller said. \"But I did not know his level of toxic intoxication when he spoke with the President, for example.\"\n\nCommittee reveals details of investigation into campaign's finances\n\nOne of the key details the January 6 committee revealed during Monday's hearing was how Trump's lies about the election turned into millions of dollars in fundraising for Trump's campaign and the political action committee he created after the election.\n\nThe panel made the case that Trump's false claims about voter fraud dovetailed with his campaign's fundraising effort -- resulting in $250 million being donated to Trump and his allies, including solicited requests for an \"official election defense fund,\" that did not exist.\n\n\"The 'Big Lie' was also a big rip-off,\" Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said during Monday's hearing.\n\nDuring the committee's investigation, went to court to try to pry loose financial documents like bank records that were connected to January 6. Monday's hearing was the first indication of how the panel plans to use those records in its hearings.\n\nStill, the committee didn't show a ton of detail about what financial documents it had obtained, and more could be unveiled in the hearings to come.\n\nCommittee connects fraud to the violence\n\nAfter a two-hour hearing focused on debunking Trump's lies about the election, the committee ended its second hearing by returning to the violence that occurred at the Capitol on January 6.\n\nCommittee Chairman Bennie Thompson introduced a video showing that those who went to Washington on January 6 and breached the Capitol did so believing the election lies.\n\n\"We know they were there because of Donald Trump. Now we hear some of the things they believed,\" Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, said.\n\nIn the video, Trump's supporters said they believed that the baseless claims about Dominion software and about how Trump's votes were not counted.\n\n\"I voted early, it went well except for you can't really trust the software, Dominion software all over,\" one person said.\n\nThe return to the violence at the Capitol is a theme that's likely to continue through the opening series of hearings detailing how Trump tried to overturn his election loss in the lead-up to January 6, including hearings planned for this week about Trump's pressure campaign against the Justice Department and his Vice President Mike Pence.\n\nAttorney General Merrick Garland said on Monday he plans to watch all of the hearings of the committee -- and that the prosecutors handling criminal cases stemming from the January 6 insurrection are watching, too. Garland has faced mounting pressure from Democrats to pursue a criminal case against Trump and his allies related to January 6.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional developments Monday.", "authors": ["Zachary Cohen", "Jeremy Herb", "Marshall Cohen"], "publish_date": "2022/06/13"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/05/politics/donald-trump-preparations-january-6-hearing/index.html", "title": "Trump mobilizing his MAGA allies to defend him ahead of January 6 ...", "text": "(CNN) Former President Donald Trump has made it clear he is looking for cover from his closest allies around the upcoming public hearings by the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection -- and some prominent names in Congress and the Republican Party are answering the call.\n\nTrump's team has communicated to some of his most loyal acolytes on Capitol Hill that the former President wants people vigorously defending him and pushing back on the select committee while the public hearings play out, according to GOP sources familiar with the request.\n\nCommittee members have teased that the hearings could be focused on Trump's direct role in undermining the election results. The committee has been working toward a thesis that Trump's obsession with losing the election and his peddling of false claims about the results is what laid the groundwork for the violent and deadly riot at the Capitol.\n\nTrump's insistence that his allies defend his honor has mobilized Republicans both on and off the Hill into action, with a broad range of plans to protect him. This despite the belief by some Republicans that they should draw attention away from January 6 and instead continue to beat the drum of the present day economic and cultural issues that have resonated with voters.\n\nIn Congress, the targeted response to the hearings will be overseen by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who has been coordinating the response effort with GOP members.\n\nThe California Republican is facing added pressure to show his support for Trump after he was caught on tape earlier this year criticizing the former President and some of his GOP colleagues in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol attack.\n\nJUST WATCHED See how the Capitol Riot on January 6 unfolded Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH See how the Capitol Riot on January 6 unfolded 04:49\n\nThe main player in keeping Republicans on message will be House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York, who emerged as one of Trump's loudest defenders during his first impeachment and replaced Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney in Republican leadership. Sources say Stefanik will be tasked with coordinating the party's messaging response and ensuring key allies and surrogates have talking points.\n\n\"Just like impeachment, at the urging of President Trump and his team, Stefanik is going to play an outsized role defending President Trump and House Republicans on the issue of election integrity,\" said a senior GOP source.\n\nTwo members whom House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected from serving on the select committee will also play a key part on the messaging front: Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee; and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who had a hand in the effort to overturn the 2020 election results.\n\n\"We're going to push back,\" Banks told CNN. \"There were serious failures that occurred on January 6 that have got to be fixed. This sham committee hasn't done anything to address them.\"\n\nBanks and other Republicans, including Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, have also been working on their own counter investigation into January 6 that focuses squarely on the security failures from that day. Banks said they are putting the \"finishing touches\" on a report outlining their findings and expect it to be released in \"a matter of weeks,\" which could coincide with the tail end of the select committee hearings.\n\nPart of the challenge for Republicans — especially after they decided to boycott the select committee — is that they have little insight into what the investigation has uncovered and what might be revealed in the public hearings, making it harder for them to settle on a precise strategy.\n\nAnother is the prospect that the committee will lean heavily on testimony from former aides of Vice President Mike Pence to help make their case -- a scenario that could force Republicans to choose sides in a more public way than they have done so previously.\n\nTrump allies and some Republican operatives are already expecting testimony from Pence's former aides to be featured prominently in the hearings -- only adding to the already simmering animosity between the two camps.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'Extraordinary': NYT reporter says Pence aide gave warning before January 6 Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'Extraordinary': NYT reporter says Pence aide gave warning before January 6 02:07\n\nWhile the Republican House Conference has its plans, there is a more specific challenge for the five members who have been subpoenaed by the committee as part of their investigation. McCarthy, Jordan, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama and Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona have all resisted attempts by the committee to sit for depositions and provide documents as part of their investigation.\n\nAll five run the risk that the committee has information about their role in the attempts to undermine the election results or the riot itself that could be revealed during the hearing.\n\nJordan and other lawmakers have attempted to pre-but that risk, by attempting to define the committee and its work as nothing more than a partisan political witch hunt. Jordan has outlined this argument during calls with conservative donors organized by Republican fundraising groups, including CPAC.\n\nBut those lawmakers and Republicans more broadly, are weighing whether they stand to benefit from a fulsome response -- especially considering they were given the chance to testify behind closed doors and have all refused to date.\n\nFrom outside of the Hill, the Republican National Committee and Matt Schlapp, the chairman of Conservative Political Action Conference, are expected to be major players in the GOP's counter-attack, sources said. It's unclear, however, if Trump himself will make an appearance or publicly weigh in as the hearings are unfolding.\n\nWhile the party's plans are still being fleshed out, the Republican pushback is likely to take the form of news conferences, op-eds, cable news appearances and social media posts, sources familiar with the discussions said. There's also been talk of a \"war room\" to better enable the GOP to unleash rapid, real-time responses to the hearings.\n\nTrump is scheduled to meet next week with many of the players where his personal strategy and demands could become clearer. He will host a fundraiser for Stefanik on Monday and then the next day, huddle with members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, which is home to some of his staunchest allies.\n\nPush back or change the subject\n\nBut while the Republicans are willing to do Trump's bidding, there is real anxiety that pushing back too much will take focus away from the areas they believe will help them the most in the fall elections.\n\n\"We just need to reinforce the narrative that the Democrats are obsessed with Trump and the past and they aren't interested in dealing with the problems of the present,\" said a senior Republican operative working on Senate races across the country. \"It's Biden, it's inflation, it's the border, it's gas prices. Most Americans aren't talking about January 6th.\"\n\nInstead, some operatives are offering their clients talking points to prepare them for the inevitable questions that will arise around the hearing, but with the goal of steering the conversation back to domestic issues.\n\n\"We need to deal with things as they come up, but the goal is to stay on message,\" the operative said. \"If we do our job right, we will show that we are focused the issues that most Americans are dealing with every single day.\"\n\nThat feeling is echoed by rank-and-file Republican members eager to reclaim the majority.\n\n\"Most Americans don't like what happened on January 6, but rate it pretty low on their importance list when compared to inflation, cost of gas, the border and crime,\" Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican who represents a Biden-won district, told CNN. \"Once Pelosi kicked off two members on GOP side, which prior to this Congress has never been done in the history of the House, the perceived legitimacy of the Select Committee by our side is zero.\"\n\nOthers within the party, including lawmakers and operatives, have suggested that the best course of action may be to do nothing because they believe most Republican voters are paying very little attention to the upcoming hearings and the presentations are considered unlikely to change the public opinion among the GOP base.\n\n\"A lot of people feel we should not even push back,\" a source said, adding the thinking is to just let the committee keep doing what it is doing because it is actually hurting members politically and having a very limited impact on Republicans.\n\n\"There may be no competing, no formal push back in any way and no organizational cost because our power base isn't watching,\" they added.\n\nBut as with anything in Republican politics, the best laid plans could easily be blown up by Trump who may insist that his supporters demonstrate their support vocally and without reservation.\n\nThis story and headline have been updated.", "authors": ["Melanie Zanona", "Zachary Cohen", "Ryan Nobles"], "publish_date": "2022/06/05"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/31/politics/mystery-call-gap-trump-jan-6-white-house-phone-logs/index.html", "title": "Official review of Trump phone logs from January 6 finds record is ...", "text": "Washington (CNN) In the seven hours during which White House records show no phone calls to or from then- President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, among the calls that are conspicuously absent is one Trump made to then-Vice President Mike Pence that morning from the Oval Office.\n\nWhile the call is not specifically noted in the presidential diary or the presidential call log, its existence has been corroborated by multiple sources who were with Trump and Pence that day, including former aides who testified before the House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack.\n\nAnd it's not the only call Trump is known to have made in that timeframe that is not reflected in the records.\n\nThe mystery of the seven-hour gap has fueled furious speculation as to why calls are missing. That includes allegations that Trump was using \"burner phones\" (which he has denied) or that the logs were purposely suppressed.\n\nBut the gap might have a less mysterious explanation.\n\nAccording to multiple sources familiar with Trump's phone behavior and the White House switchboard records, the January 6 log reflects Trump's typical phone habits. He mainly placed calls through the switchboard when he was in the residence but rarely used it when he was in the Oval Office. The fact the log does not show calls on January 6, 2021, from the Oval Office is not unusual, said the sources, because Trump typically had staff either place calls directly for him on landlines or cell phones. Those calls would not be noted on the switchboard log.\n\nThe six pages of White House switchboard logs for January 6, 2021, are complete based on an official review of White House records, according to a source familiar with the matter. There are no missing pages and the seven-hour gap is likely explained by use of White House landlines, White House cell phones and personal cell phones that do not go through the switchboard.\n\nThe missing calls also underscore something more endemic: the imperfect and antiquated system of tracking a president's communications.\n\nThe White House call log is generated by a switchboard system that dates back to the 1960s, according to the National Archives. The version installed in 1963 was already considered \"somewhat outdated\" just two decades later.\n\nAnd it's certainly not one suited for the era of cell phones and text messages or to a President well known for his efforts to circumvent official channels of communications.\n\nBypassing the call log\n\nThere could be various reasons that explain the gap in the call log itself.\n\nOne possibility is that Trump was speaking to people from a cell phone. As CNN has previously reported, Trump had a habit of using his and other people's phones to make or receive calls.\n\nAnother explanation could be that Trump had aides place direct calls from the Oval Office, bypassing the switchboard.\n\nA former White House staffer who served in the Obama administration told CNN that if then-President Barrack Obama wanted to make a call to someone from the Oval Office, he would normally ask an aide seated nearby to dial the person. The aide would then call the number and hit transfer to connect the caller to the President.\n\nThat call would not go through the White House switchboard and therefore would not be recorded on the White House switchboard log, the former staffer said.\n\nAnother factor seems to be where Trump was when he made certain calls. All the calls noted from the January 6 log indicate they were made from the White House residence, suggesting Trump relied on the switchboard to put those calls through. The missing calls appear to start when the diary notes Trump has moved from the residence to the Oval Office.\n\nTrump used the switchboard more often when he was in the private residence, according to multiple sources. But when he was in the Oval Office, the former President would often direct aides sitting outside his office to get certain lawmakers or allies of his on the phone.\n\nTwo former Trump officials believe this, plus the chaotic nature of the West Wing on January 6, is what led to the gaps in the call logs.\n\nCalls also should have been documented in the Presidential Daily Diary, which is compiled by an Archives employee detailed to the White House. While it's supposed to include \"impromptu moments such as staff member drop-ins and telephone calls,\" the diarist's account is only as good as the information he or she receives from the President's staff.\n\nThe former Obama staffer also acknowledged this process was more of an honor system and dependent on how meticulous aides serving in other administrations were or what instructions they were given.\n\nNo explanation has been given so far why calls known to have been made in the hours Trump was in the Oval Office are not documented in the presidential diary.\n\nChaotic record-keeping\n\nMultiple sources have described the record-keeping during the Trump administration as generally chaotic. Those sources, as well as witnesses who have testified as part of previous congressional investigations related to the former President's conduct described Trump as deeply suspicious of the White House switchboard and detailed various ways he sought to avoid having records of certain phone calls from being kept.\n\nA Senate Intelligence report from 2020 includes witness testimony from former aides saying that Trump regularly used the cellphone of his body man, Keith Schiller, to place calls to Republican operative Roger Stone because he did not want his to advisers to know they were talking.\n\n\"Trump hated people knowing who he spoke to, including from the residence at night when they went through the switchboard,\" one former Trump official told CNN.\n\nWhen John Kelly was Trump's chief of staff, he monitored the switchboard to see who Trump was talking to. Trump would often tell people to hang up and call him back on his cellphone if he didn't want it showing up on the switchboard call log.\n\nWhen Mark Meadows took over as chief of staff, sources said he restricted the number of White House officials who had access to the call logs, limiting the group to only a small number of top aides.\n\nFilling in the gaps\n\nDespite the gap in the call logs, the House select committee is relying on witness testimony, additional documents and phone records obtained via subpoena to begin piecing together who Trump spoke to that day.\n\nThis is especially true for the missing call to Pence. That call is a key point in the House's argument that Trump was taking part in criminal activity, as he kept pressuring Pence to block Congress from certifying the election. Trump has not been charged with any crime.\n\nPence's former national security adviser, Keith Kellogg, described the call in his testimony before the committee earlier this year, telling investigators that he and other top aides were in the Oval Office with Trump when it took place. He said he could only hear what Trump said, and not Pence's responses.\n\nKellogg's recounting of the conversation was cited in the committee's letter in late January to Trump's daughter, Ivanka, requesting that she too appear before the panel and cooperate in the probe.\n\n\"As January 6th approached, President Trump attempted on multiple occasions to persuade Vice President Pence to participate in his plan. One of the President's discussions with the Vice President occurred by phone on the morning of January 6th,\" the letter stated.\n\n\"You were present in the Oval Office and observed at least one side of that telephone conversation. General Keith Kellogg was also present in the Oval Office during that call, and has testified about that discussion,\" it added.\n\nCNN reported last month that Ivanka Trump was in discussions to voluntarily appear before the committee for an interview. Others who witnessed the call take place have already testified.\n\nCommittee members have said that witness testimony is not the only way they have been able to fill in some of the gaps in official records like the White House logs and daily diary.\n\n\"Whether it's a witness who is unwilling to cooperate with us or whether there are gaps in documentation that we have received, we will get that information some other way,\" Rep. Stephanie Murphy told CNN+'s Kasie Hunt on \"The Source\" on Wednesday. \"Those conversations weren't one-way conversations. There was somebody on the other side of those conversations and we'll get the information that way.\"\n\n\"We're triangulating basically from a lot of different angles and we are getting a fulsome picture of what happened in the run up to and on the day of January 6th,\" Murphy added.\n\nMississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the select committee, told CNN on Wednesday the panel has not received any vice presidential phone log records from the National Archives.\n\nBut earlier this month, Thompson told CNN the committee had \"started to receive\" vice presidential records, without specifying which ones. The Archives has turned over a tranche of vice presidential records, as well as documents chronicling calls to the vice president that were White House records.\n\nOne call is noted in the presidential diary even though it is not in the call log that day.\n\nA document obtained by the House is the President's private schedule, and it shows handwritten notes appearing to capture phone calls with Sen. Kelly Loeffler from 11:17-11:20 a.m., and with \"VPOTUS\" at 11:20 a.m. on January 6, 2021.\n\nThe presidential daily diary handed over to the panel does show Trump placed \"a phone call to an unidentified person\" at 11:17 a.m. on the morning of January 6 but does not make reference to the 11:20 a.m. call. Neither conversation is reflected in the White House call log.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional reporting.", "authors": ["Zachary Cohen", "Katelyn Polantz", "Jamie Gangel", "Ryan Nobles", "Annie Grayer", "Ashley Semler"], "publish_date": "2022/03/31"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/politics/mark-meadows-texts-2319/index.html", "title": "Mark Meadows' 2,319 text messages reveal Trump's inner circle ...", "text": "Washington (CNN) CNN has obtained 2,319 text messages that former President Donald Trump's White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sent and received between Election Day 2020 and President Joe Biden's January 20, 2021 inauguration.\n\nThe vast trove of texts offers the most revealing picture to date of how Trump's inner circle, supporters and Republican lawmakers worked behind the scenes to try to overturn the election results and then reacted to the violence that effort unleashed at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.\n\nThe logs, which Meadows selectively provided to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack, show how the former chief of staff was at the nexus of sprawling conspiracy theories baselessly claiming the election had been stolen. They also demonstrate how he played a key role in the attempts to stop Biden's certification on January 6.\n\nThe never-before-seen texts include messages from Trump's family -- daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner and son Donald Trump Jr. -- as well as White House and campaign officials, Cabinet members, Republican Party leaders, January 6 rally organizers, Rudy Giuliani, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, Sean Hannity and other Fox hosts. There are also text exchanges with more than 40 current and former Republican members of Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mo Brooks of Alabama and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.\n\nThe texts include everything from plans to fight the election results to surprising and unexpected reactions on January 6 from some of Trump's staunchest allies. At 2:28 p.m., Greene, the conservative firebrand who had helped to plan the congressional objections that day, texted Meadows with an urgent plea for help as the violence was unfolding at the Capitol.\n\n\"Mark I was just told there is an active shooter on the first floor of the Capitol Please tell the President to calm people This isn't the way to solve anything,\" Greene wrote. Meadows does not appear to reply.\n\nMore messages flooded in.\n\n\"Mark: he needs to stop this, now. Can I do anything to help?\" Mick Mulvaney, Trump's former acting White House chief of staff, texted Meadows.\n\n\"It's really bad up here on the hill. They have breached the Capitol,\" Georgia Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk wrote.\n\n\"The president needs to stop this ASAP,\" texted GOP Rep. William Timmons of South Carolina.\n\n\"POTUS is engaging,\" Meadows sent in response to Loudermilk. \"We are doing it,\" he texted to Timmons.\n\n\"Thanks. This doesn't help our cause,\" Loudermilk replied.\n\nShortly after, Donald Trump Jr. weighed in: \"This his(sic) one you go to the mattresses on. They will try to fuck his entire legacy on this if it gets worse.\"\n\n\"TELL THEM TO GO HOME !!!\" texted Trump's first chief of staff, Reince Priebus.\n\nHeated rhetoric and conspiracy theories\n\nThe text messages CNN obtained begin on Election Day, November 3, 2020. Even before the election was called, Meadows was inundated with conspiracy theories about election fraud , strategies to challenge the results and pleas for Trump to keep fighting. The messages -- from GOP activists, donors, Republican members of Congress and state party officials -- appear to act as an echo chamber affirming Trump's false claims that the election was stolen. For months leading up to Election Day, Trump had claimed the only way he could lose was if the election was rigged.\n\nPreviously disclosed text messages showed that former Trump administration Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr. , each texted Meadows on November 4 and 5 with ideas for overturning the election.\n\nOn November 7, hours before the election was called, Perry texted Meadows again: \"We have the data driven program that can clearly show where the fraud was committed. This is the silver bullet.\"\n\nWhile Perry has previously denied CNN reporting about his text messages to Meadows, CNN has confirmed it's his cell phone and he signed this text, \"Rick Perry,\" including his number.\n\nOther texts, however, include hints of doubt expressed by members of Trump's team and even Meadows himself about the veracity of conspiracy theories being spread by Trump's \"kraken\" team -- outside attorneys working for Trump that included Giuliani and Sidney Powell.\n\nSome key congressional allies who worked with Trump's campaign initially in its efforts to overturn the election, such as Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, ultimately soured on the approach as the January 6 congressional certification neared, CNN previously reported.\n\nThe texts also show how Trump allies were quick to deflect responsibility for the January 6 attack. Shortly after pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol, one of his top aides began crafting a counter-narrative.\n\nAt 3:45 p.m., Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller suggested to Meadows and Trump aide Dan Scavino that Trump should tweet: \"Call me crazy, but ideas for two tweets from POTUS: 1) Bad apples, likely ANTIFA or other crazed leftists, infiltrated today s peaceful protest over the fraudulent vote count. Violence is never acceptable! MAGA supporters embrace our police and the rule of law and should leave the Capitol now! 2) The fake news media who encouraged this summer s violent and radical riots are now trying to blame peaceful and innocent MAGA supporters for violent actions. This isn't who we are! Our people should head home and let the criminals suffer the consequences!\"\n\nTrump's allies in Congress appeared to get the message. At 3:52 p.m., Greene told Meadows: \"Mark we don't think these attackers are our people. We think they are Antifa. Dressed like Trump supporters.\"\n\nFive minutes later, Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican, texted Meadows: \"Cap Police told me last night they'd been warned that today there'd be a lot of Antifa dressed in red Trump shirts & hats & would likely get violent.\"\n\nIn the 16 months since January 6, hundreds of indictments have shown nearly all of those who breached the Capitol were in fact pro-Trump supporters.\n\nWhile Greene was alarmed on January 6, by the next day she was apologizing that the efforts to block Biden's certification had failed.\n\n\"Yesterday was a terrible day. We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I'm sorry nothing worked. I don't think that President Trump caused the attack on the Capitol. It's not his fault,\" she wrote the morning of January 7. \"Absolutely no excuse and I fully denounce all of it, but after shut downs all year and a stolen election, people are saying that they have no other choice.\"\n\nMeadows replied, \"Thanks Marjorie.\"\n\nRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wears a \"Trump Won\" face mask as she arrives on the floor of the House to take her oath of office as a newly elected member of the 117th House of Representatives in Washington, U.S., January 3, 2021.\n\nGreene is currently facing a legal challenge to disqualify her from running for Congress because of her alleged role in January 6. In court testimony Friday, the Georgia Republican repeatedly deflected or said she didn't remember what she had said around the events of January 6. The Meadows text logs offer a new glimpse into what she was telling the White House chief of staff in real time.\n\nOn December 31, Greene reached out to Meadows for advice about how to prepare for objections to certifying the election on January 6.\n\n\"Good morning Mark, I'm here in DC. We have to get organized for the 6th,\" Greene wrote. \"I would like to meet with Rudy Giuliani again. We didn't get to speak with him long. Also anyone who can help. We are getting a lot of members on board. And we need to lay out the best case for each state.\"\n\nMeadows does not appear to respond.\n\nBy January 17, Greene was suggesting ways to keep Trump in office, telling Meadows there were several Republicans in Congress who still wanted the then-President to declare martial law, which had been raised in a heated Oval Office meeting a month earlier.\n\nGreene texted: \"In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall (sic) law. I don't know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next. Please tell him to declassify as much as possible so we can go after Biden and anyone else!\"\n\nAgain, Meadows does not appear to respond.\n\nWhat Meadows turned over\n\nMeadows provided the cache of 2,319 messages to the January 6 committee in December 2021. But soon after, he stopped cooperating and refused to appear for a deposition. Ultimately, the House voted to hold the former White House chief of staff in contempt of Congress. The Justice Department has not yet announced whether it will charge Meadows.\n\nMeadows has sued the House committee in an attempt to block the congressional subpoenas. And in a late-night court filing on Friday, the committee responded with new details revealing Meadows was warned ahead of time that January 6 could turn violent, according to testimony from Cassidy Hutchison, one of Meadows' former White House aides.\n\nIn addition, the committee released text messages Meadows exchanged with Republican members of Congress, including texts with Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania about a scheme to replace Justice Department leaders who opposed Trump's claims of election fraud.\n\nIn late December, Perry reached out to Meadows, connecting him to then-DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, who was pushing unfounded claims of voter fraud inside the Justice Department. Trump was considering firing the acting attorney general and installing Clark instead. Clark invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times when he spoke to the January 6 committee in February.\n\nOn December 26, Perry texted Meadows, \"Mark, just checking in as time continues to count down. 11 days to 1/6 and 25 days to inauguration. We gotta get going!\"\n\n\"Mark, you should call Jeff,\" he continued. \"I just got off the phone with him and he explained to me why the principal deputy won't work especially with the FBI. They will view it as as (sic) not having the authority to enforce what needs to be done.\"\n\n\"I got it,\" Meadows responded. \"I think I understand. Let me work on the deputy position.\"\n\nOn December 28, Perry reached out again: \"Did you call Jeff Clark?\" Meadows does not appear to respond.\n\nMeadows withheld more than 1,000 messages from the committee on claims of privilege, the panel said in Friday's court filing. In his lawsuit, Meadows' attorney argued the former White House chief of staff \"has been put in the untenable position of choosing between conflicting privilege claims.\"\n\nHannity to Meadows: 'Yes sir'\n\nJUST WATCHED 'That's not OK': Bash reacts to Hannity's texts to Mark Meadows Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'That's not OK': Bash reacts to Hannity's texts to Mark Meadows 01:43\n\nIn addition to the texts the committee has released, CNN and other news organizations have previously published selections of text messages Meadows received from Lee, Roy, Trump Jr., Perry and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife, Ginni Thomas\n\nThe logs obtained by CNN include numerous messages from official White House cell phone numbers. Some have been identified by CNN, others are unknown.\n\nThere are also numerous group texts with Trump's inner circle. The various group chats include Meadows, Ivanka Trump, Trump Jr. and Kushner, as well as top advisers such as Hope Hicks, campaign manager Bill Stepien, Miller and Scavino, among others.\n\nSome texts only include links to news reports and social media. Others appear to contain content that was cut-and-pasted and forwarded. The logs do not contain images or attachments.\n\nSupporters of U.S. President Donald Trump watch a video featuring Fox host Sean Hannity ahead of Trump's arrival to a campaign rally in Michigan on October 30, 2020.\n\nMeadows' messages also include dozens of exchanges with Fox hosts, as well as journalists from the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Politico, Bloomberg, NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN.\n\nAmong Meadows' most frequent interactions were those with Fox's Sean Hannity, a well-known friend of Trump. Throughout the logs, Hannity both gives advice and asks for direction.\n\nOn the afternoon of Election Day, Hannity texted Meadows to ask about turnout in North Carolina.\n\nMeadows responded: \"Stress every vote matters. Get out and vote.\"\n\n\"Yes sir,\" Hannity replied. \"On it. Any place in particular we need a push.\"\n\n\"Pennsylvania. NC AZ,\" Meadows wrote. \"Nevada.\"\n\n\"Got it. Everywhere,\" Hannity said.\n\nFor the most part, Meadows' texts are short, and frequently he does not appear to reply at all. Some conversations include non sequiturs. It's unclear whether Meadows did not respond to the messages or if the logs are incomplete, because texts could also have been deleted or withheld for claims of privilege.\n\nCNN reached out for comment to all individuals who sent text messages quoted in this story. Meadows and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the January 6 committee declined to comment.\n\nThe fight to 'stop the steal'\n\nThe text messages provide a timeline showing how Trump's team searched all corners for evidence of election fraud and tried to overturn the election. Beginning on Election Day, Meadows was in the middle of it all, from connecting activists pushing conspiracy theories to strategizing with GOP lawmakers and rally organizers preparing for January 6.\n\nThe texts also show Meadows was dealing with everything from mediating a fight over who would be on the speaker's list for the January 6 rally to fielding requests to pay Giuliani's bills.\n\n\"Sir, we are airborne on the way to Michigan from Arizona. We're going to need a hotel for the team and two vehicles to pick us up,\" Bernie Kerik, a Giuliani associate, texted Meadows on December 1.\n\nReached for comment by CNN, Kerik confirmed the text was his and said that he never received a credit card for those travel expenses, paid for it himself and was later reimbursed.\n\nOther texts show Meadows coordinating with GOP activists in the immediate aftermath of the election.\n\n\"Pls get 4 or 5 killers in remaining counts. Need outsiders who will torch the place. Local folks won't do it. Lawyers and operators. Get us in these states,\" American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp texted Meadows on November 4.\n\n\"I may need to get you and mercy (sic) to go to PA,\" Meadows responded, referring to Schlapp's wife, Mercedes, who is a former Trump White House aide.\n\nOn a few occasions, Trump family members weighed in. Ivanka Trump sent a note on November 5 to a group that included Kushner, Hicks, Stepien, Miller and Meadows: \"You are all WARRIORS of epic proportions! Keep the faith and the fight.\"\n\nDozens of Republicans also offered support and advice to Meadows -- as well as perpetuated conspiracy theories that were gaining traction in right-wing media.\n\nFor instance, Rep. Ted Budd, a North Carolina Republican now running for Senate, suggested in a text on November 7 that Dominion Voting Systems could be connected to George Soros' company. Dominion has no corporate ties to Soros, a billionaire and frequent target of baseless conspiracy theories, according to a CNN fact check\n\nOn November 6, Rep. Andy Biggs, an Arizona Republican, appeared to suggest that state legislatures should appoint electors \"in the various states where there's been shenanigans,\" a move he acknowledged would be \"highly controversial.\" In his text, he wrote the legislatures could appoint \"a look doors,\" which is phonetically similar to electors.\n\nOn December 1, then-Attorney General William Barr infuriated Trump when he publicly stated that the Justice Department did not find widespread evidence of voter fraud. Nevertheless, Meadows received multiple texts pushing back, including from Schlapp later that day: \"Happy to walk ag through our evidence. Its (sic) overwhelming.\"\n\nThe texts also show Meadows reached out to GOP officials in multiple states to lobby for Trump's cause. On two occasions, Meadows attempted to contact Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was under attack from Trump for certifying Georgia's election for Biden.\n\n\"mr Secretary. Can you call the White House switchboard,\" Meadows wrote on December 5. \"Your voicemail is full.\"\n\nRaffensperger does not appear to reply to the messages.\n\nTrump's efforts to overturn the election results in Georgia are under investigation by a district attorney in the Atlanta area.\n\nMeadows also received text messages from GOP activists and local officials making outlandish claims, including allegations that \"traitors inside our intel agencies\" were committing election fraud, as well as baseless charges that voting equipment companies Dominion and Smartmatic had manipulated votes -- the same false claims being pushed by Giuliani and Powell.\n\nBoth companies have filed billion-dollar lawsuits over the false election claims, including against Fox News, right-wing media organizations, Giuliani, Powell and Lindell.\n\nThroughout the two months, Meadows received dozens of messages from Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward, who offered what she claimed were examples and sources of voter fraud.\n\nOn December 9, she sent a text to Meadows letting him know she'd already reached out to Trump's executive assistant: \"This guy says he's cracked the whole election fraud and wants to speak to someone. I sent his info to Molly Michael a few days ago, but I'm not sure it went anywhere.\"\n\n\"I will call him,\" Meadows responded.\n\nMyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell, speaks to reporters outside federal court in Washington, Thursday, June 24, 2021.\n\nAnother frequent texter was Lindell, one of the most vocal proponents of baseless election conspiracy theories. Even after courts had dismissed dozens of Trump's legal challenges, the My Pillow CEO was still pressing the White House.\n\n\"Everything Sidney has said is true! We have to get the machines and everything we already have proves the President won by millions of votes!\" Lindell texted Meadows on December 20. \"This is the biggest cover up of one of the worst crimes in history! I have spent over a million$ to help uncover this fraud and used my platform so people can get the word not to give up!\"\n\nMeadows replied, \"Thanks brother. Pray for a miracle.\"\n\n\n\nReached for comment by CNN, Lindell confirmed the text was his. He told CNN that he has not spoken to Meadows since before January 20, 2021, and that at the time he was \"just trying to get an appointment with the President.\"\n\nDoubts about election fraud\n\nWhile Trump and his allies publicly stuck by their claims that the election had been stolen, behind the scenes, Trump's inner circle -- including Meadows -- expressed some doubts. Trump's aides also questioned whether lawyers like Giuliani and Powell were doing more harm than good.\n\nOn November 6, Miller, Trump's campaign spokesman, texted a group, which included Ivanka Trump, Kushner, Hicks, Stepien, Scavino and Meadows, suggesting that the numbers in Philadelphia didn't back up claims about alleged election fraud there.\n\n\"One other key data point: In 2016, POTUS received 15.5% of the vote in Philadelphia County. Today he is currently at 18.3%. So he increased from his performance in 2016. In 2016, Philadelphia County made up 11.3% of the total vote in the state. As it currently stands, Philadelphia County only makes up 10.2% of the statewide vote tally. So POTUS performed better in a smaller share. Sen. (Rick) Santorum was just making this point on CNN - cuts hard against the urban vote stealing narrative,\" Miller wrote.\n\nJason Miller talks on the phone in a meeting room for lawyers of former President Donald Trump during his Senate Impeachment trial on Capitol Hill, February 12, 2021\n\nA week later, Miller wrote to Meadows again, this time saying that campaign research did not find any evidence of a conspiracy involving Soros, the Democratic donor. Miller also said he was concerned about sharing the findings with Trump.\n\n\"Lots there re: functionality problems, not much there on Dem/Soros conspiracy connections,\" Miller wrote on November 13. \"Will defer to you on whether or not to share full report with POTUS. POTUS is clearly hyped up on them, not just from his tweets, but he also called me and Justin separately last night to complain. JM.\"\n\nOn November 20, Meadows was asked by a Florida contact how confident he was about fraud related to Dominion. Meadows texted back: \"Dominion, not that confident. Other fraud. Very confident.\"\n\nTwo days later, Ginni Thomas messaged Meadows with apparent concerns, asking, \"Trying to understand the Sidney Powell distancing...\"\n\nMeadows responded: \"She doesn't have anything or at least she won't share it if she does.\"\n\n\"Wow!\" Ginni Thomas wrote back.\n\nIn one of the few messages Meadows received from Kushner, Trump's son-in-law shared a fact check on December 4 debunking one of the most prominent election fraud claims from Georgia. The article showed that despite inflammatory claims of poll workers stashing suitcases filled with ballots under a table, that did not, in fact, occur.\n\n'Hoping the VP sticks with us'\n\nAfter the Electoral College affirmed Biden's win on December 14, Trump's allies turned their attention to January 6: the congressional certification of the electors and the rally that Trump said on Twitter \"will be wild!\"\n\nOn December 21, Brooks, the Alabama congressman, wrote to Meadows and others in a group text asking whether he should engage with the media about the \"formulation of our January 6 strategies.\"\n\n\"Does the White House want me to reply or be mum?\" Brooks wrote. A staunch Trump ally running for Senate this year, Brooks gave an incendiary speech on January 6 but recently fell out of favor with Trump after suggesting Republicans should move on from 2020.\n\n\n\nIn response to CNN's request for comment, Brooks said he had \"no regrets\" about his speech on January 6 and that he was \"shocked\" by the violence. \"I had no inkling,\" Brooks added.\n\nCruz, a Texas Republican who pushed a plan inside the Senate that would have delayed certification of the election, exchanged just a few messages with Meadows -- links to his statements posted to social media.\n\nOn January 2, the senator sent Meadows his tweet proposing a 10-day audit of the election results.\n\n\"Here's the statement,\" Cruz wrote.\n\n\"Perfect,\" Meadows responded.\n\nThe texts also make frequent reference to then-Vice President Mike Pence, who refused to go along with Trump's plan to try to block the certification on January 6. On December 30, Rep. Brian Babin of Texas expressed concern that congressional leaders might try to short circuit their objections -- and that Pence was not on board.\n\n\"Dems and some Republicans may well try to shortstop our objection efforts. Hoping the VP sticks with us,\" Babin wrote.\n\nOn New Year's Eve, Miller shared a news article with Meadows that Pence opposed a lawsuit intended to help overturn the election. Miller warned that it could be used \"to drive a massive wedge between POTUS and everybody else in the party.\"\n\n\"He's absolutely going to blow his stack on this if he isn't already aware,\" Miller said of Trump. \"Oh boy I don't understand what the VP was thinking here.\"\n\nOn January 5, Jordan, the Ohio congressman and close GOP ally of Meadows, weighed in.\n\n\"On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all -- in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence,\" Jordan wrote.\n\nMeadows responded the morning of January 6: \"I have pushed for this. Not sure it is going to happen.\"\n\nThe January 6 committee included the text exchange in its Friday court filing as evidence of Meadows' alleged involvement in the effort to overturn the election.\n\nThe logs also show Meadows was involved with planning the rally on January 6 , helping to mediate a fight over the speakers list. Trump adviser Katrina Pierson was alarmed at some of the proposed fringe figures who wanted to speak.\n\nCrowds arrive for the \"Stop the Steal\" rally on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC.\n\nOn January 2 and 3, Pierson wrote to Meadows looking for help.\n\n\"Good afternoon, would you mind giving me a call re: this Jan 6th event. Things have gotten crazy and I desperately need some direction. Please,\" she asked on January 2.\n\nThe next day, she reached out again: \"Scratch that, Caroline Wren has decided to move forward with the original psycho list. Apparently Dan Scavino approved??\"\n\nShe continued: \"So, I'm done. I can't be a part of embarrassing POTUS any further.\"\n\nWren was a fundraiser for the Trump campaign and helped organize the January 6 rally. She has been subpoenaed by the January 6 committee\n\nLess than an hour later, Pierson wrote Meadows that she told Wren she was talking to the White House in order to get her to back down.\n\n\"I let her know that I was going to reach out to WH and her tone changed,\" Pierson wrote. \"So, I'll continue to build a proper event.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" Meadows responded.\n\n'As bad as this can get'\n\nIn the aftermath of the violence at the Capitol on January 6, Trump's inner circle discussed in a group text how to deal with the fallout -- and Trump's suspension from Twitter. At 10:10 p.m. on January 6, Kushner texted the group: \"Why don't we post on his Facebook page since he isn't locked out there.\"\n\nIn the final days of Trump's term, as he faced impeachment for a second time, Meadows received words of encouragement from staunch allies, as well as caution from advisers.\n\n\"I would like to pass to POTUS that we are still with him, I believe in him and I want to encourage him,\" Rep. Andrew Clyde, a freshman Georgia Republican, wrote on January 9. \"I truly hope he does create a new platform to complete (sic) with Twitter and I hope he calls it 'Trumpet' and then we can send out 'notes' to each other!\"\n\n\"I will share it with him. Thanks Andrew,\" Meadows responded.\n\nOn January 13, the day the House voted to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection at the Capitol -- with 10 Republicans joining Democrats -- Miller shared polling data in a group text with Meadows, Scavino and Kushner that showed \"2/3 of the MAGA base wants us to move on.\"\n\n\"I tried to walk the President through this earlier but he won't have any of it,\" Miller said.\n\nAs Trump prepared to leave power, he appeared to be a pariah in the Republican Party. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy had said during the House's January 13 impeachment debate that the outgoing President \"bears responsibility\" for the riot. Six days later, on January 19, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell denounced Trump from the floor of the Senate, saying the mob that attacked the Capitol was \"provoked by the President and other powerful people.\"\n\nNevertheless, Trump's standing in the Republican Party quickly recovered, especially after McCarthy's January 28 visit to Mar-a-Lago and the February 2021 acquittal of Trump in the Senate impeachment trial.\n\nBut before Trump left office, the Meadows text logs show some of Trump's staunchest allies were dejected. On January 19, in one of the final texts Meadows received as chief of staff, Fox's Sean Hannity shared a video of McConnell's floor speech.\n\nHannity texted Meadows: \"Well this is as bad as this can get.\"", "authors": ["Jamie Gangel", "Jeremy Herb", "Elizabeth Stuart"], "publish_date": "2022/04/25"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/politics/kamala-harris-dana-bash-cnntv/index.html", "title": "Harris says she 'never believed' Trump SCOTUS nominees who told ...", "text": "Washington (CNN) In her first interview since Roe v. Wade was overturned on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris told CNN's Dana Bash that she never believed former President Donald Trump's Supreme Court picks, whom she voted against in the Senate, would preserve the landmark abortion law.\n\n\"I never believed them. I didn't believe them. That's why I voted against them,\" the vice president said in an interview on Monday when Bash, pointing to Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch's previous statements underscoring Roe v. Wade's long-held precedent, asked Harris whether she believed the two justices intentionally misled the public and Congress during the confirmation process.\n\n\"It was clear to me when I was sitting in that chair as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that they were ... very likely to do what they just did. That was my perspective. That was my opinion. And that's why I voted like I did.\"\n\nHer comments come shortly after Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said publicly that she feels misled by Kavanaugh, who she says reassured her that he would not overturn Roe v. Wade.\n\nHarris, who was flying on Air Force Two from Washington to Illinois on Friday to unveil the administration's latest strategy to improve maternal health in the US when the decision came down, said she was shocked by the ruling.\n\n\"This is not over,\" she added, referring to how she sees the conservative court majority's intentions on other existing rights.\n\nConservative Justice Clarence Thomas indicated in a concurring opinion for the ruling that the court should revisit other cases of precedent that ensure rights related to same-sex marriage and contraception.\n\n\"I think he just said the quiet part out loud,\" Harris said about Thomas. \"And I think that is why we all must really understand the significance of what just happened. This is profound. And the way that this decision has come down, has been so driven, I think, by the politics of the issue versus what should be the values that we place on freedom and liberty in our country.\"\n\nHarris said the administration \"will do everything\" within its power to defend access to medication abortion. And she suggested the administration is looking at ways to provide women in states where the procedure is banned the resources they'd need, like child care and travel funding, to access it in other states.\n\nBut appearing to reject a growing request from Democratic lawmakers, Harris said the administration was not currently discussing using federal lands for abortion services in and around states that will ban the procedure.\n\n\"It's not right now what we are discussing,\" Harris said.\n\nCalls for Biden to allow abortion providers to work from federal property have raised concerns among some lawyers. And providing federal funding for women to travel out of state has the potential of running afoul of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortions in almost all cases.\n\nA White House official on Monday made a similar argument, saying: \"While this proposal is well-intentioned, it could put women and providers at risk. And importantly, in states where abortion is now illegal, women and providers who are not federal employees could be potentially be prosecuted.\"\n\nWhen pressed on what else a Democratic-controlled White House, Senate and House could do to protect abortion rights, Harris specifically pointed to Congress and the role the legislative branch could play in codifying abortion rights -- if Democrats had the votes. She repeatedly pointed to the importance of the 2022 midterms as an opportunity to elect more Democratic senators who support abortion rights.\n\nBut when asked whether Congress could do something sooner if the Senate filibuster were eliminated, she would not say whether she would support eliminating the 60-vote threshold in order to pass abortion protections.\n\n\"I think that (the President) has been clear about where we stand on this issue of reproductive health and what the President and our administration have within our toolkit to do and, so far, that's what we've been pursuing,\" Harris said.\n\nBiden told CNN's Anderson Cooper at a town hall last year that he would be open to altering the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation \"and maybe more.\"\n\nDuring Monday's wide-ranging interview, Harris emphasized that inflation remains a priority for the Biden administration. But she did not directly answer when asked whether she believes the United States is heading toward a recession or discuss any new tools the administration could use to address rising prices.\n\n\"I think that there can be no higher priority than what we have been clear is our highest priority, which is bringing down the costs and the prices as much as we possibly can -- and we will stay focused on that,\" the vice president responded.\n\nAs the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection gears up for an unexpected hearing on Tuesday, Bash asked Harris whether the hearings so far have changed her perceptions of her predecessor.\n\nHarris commended former Vice President Mike Pence \"for having the courage to do his job\" when he refused to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election despite pressure from Trump.\n\nThe vice president declined to say whether she would support bringing criminal charges against Trump based on the findings presented by the committee.\n\nHarris did not mince words when asked about 2024, as some critics have questioned whether the 79-year-old President will seek reelection. Bash asked her about comments from House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a Biden ally representing South Carolina, that if the President did not run, Clyburn would support Harris leading the ticket.\n\n\"Joe Biden is running for reelection, and I will be his ticket mate,\" Harris said. \"Full stop.\"\n\nThis story has been updated with more information.", "authors": ["Maegan Vazquez", "Jasmine Wright", "Devan Cole"], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/26/us/five-things-may-26-trnd/index.html/", "title": "5 things to know for May 26: School shooting, Ukraine, Jan. 6 ..."}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/26/politics/kevin-mccarthy-audio-january-6-republican-lawmakers/index.html", "title": "New York Times: Audio reveals McCarthy worried GOP lawmakers ...", "text": "(CNN) New audio of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, obtained and reported on by The New York Times on Tuesday, reveals he expressed concern about far-right House Republicans inciting violence against other lawmakers in the aftermath of January 6, 2021.\n\nIn the audio, the California Republican repeatedly lamented the inflammatory comments made by some GOP lawmakers following the US Capitol attack -- a far different posture than his efforts to downplay Republicans' role in January 6.\n\nOn January 10, 2021, McCarthy urged Republican leaders on a private call to monitor the public statements of lawmakers, such as Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama and Matt Gaetz of Florida, and alert him of any potentially dangerous messages.\n\n\"The country is too crazy,\" McCarthy said, according to audio obtained by two New York Times reporters for their upcoming book, \"This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America's Future.\"\n\n\"I do not want to look back and think we caused something or we missed something and someone got hurt. I don't want to play politics with any of that.\"\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Paul Leblanc"], "publish_date": "2022/04/26"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/24/politics/biden-calls-reporter/index.html", "title": "Biden caught on hot mic calling Fox reporter 'a stupid son of a bitch ...", "text": "(CNN) President Joe Biden was heard calling a reporter from the Fox channel a \"stupid son of a bitch\" on a hot microphone following a White House event Monday afternoon.\n\nThe President's profane remark came as reporters were shouting questions while exiting the East Room following a White House Competition Council meeting on efforts to lower prices.\n\nFox White House Correspondent Peter Doocy asked Biden, \"Would you take a question on inflation ... ? Do you think inflation is a political liability in the midterms?\"\n\n\"It's a great asset -- more inflation,\" Biden deadpanned. \"What a stupid son of a bitch.\"\n\nDoocy said on Fox late Monday evening that Biden called his phone shortly after their exchange to apologize for his remark. \"Within about an hour of that exchange, he called my cell phone and he said, 'It's nothing personal, pal,'\" Doocy said.", "authors": ["Maegan Vazquez"], "publish_date": "2022/01/24"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_17", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:22", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/06/23/gas-tax-holiday-save-states/7700634001/", "title": "Gas tax holiday: How much will drivers in different states save?", "text": "President Biden is calling on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax through the end of September.\n\nIt's not clear how much of the 18.4 cents in tax savings will be passed along to consumers.\n\nOne report that looked at state gas holidays found up to 72% of savings were passed on to consumers.\n\nPresident Joe Biden called on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax through the end of September “to give Americans a little extra breathing room” as they face soaring gas prices. If there is a gas tax \"holiday,\" how much would U.S. drivers see in savings?\n\nThe federal gas tax is imposed on refiners such as Exxon Mobile and Chevron, which means any savings from a tax holiday would trickle down to consumers instead of going into effect directly at the pump. The tax is 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon on diesel fuel.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/05/11/gas-prices-road-trip-save-money/9661056002/", "title": "Calculating costs for your summer road trip? Here's how to save ...", "text": "Experts stress that traveling light and planning ahead can save money.\n\nPlan routes and drive times to avoid congestion and wasting fuel idly in gridlock.\n\nIf you're crossing state lines, gas apps can compare varying prices.\n\nDrivers are facing record-high gas prices this year, but that isn’t stopping travelers like Jacob Becker from hitting the road.\n\nThe 21-year-old from Des Moines, Iowa, tries to do a major outing at least once a year. Last year’s road trip to Canada was canceled after Becker contracted COVID-19, and he was determined to not let another slip by. So despite the pain at the pump, Becker and a friend traveled more than 1,000 miles to Montreal in May.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/05/10/gas-price-record-high-inflation/9716049002/", "title": "Gas prices up: US average gasoline prices jump to record high ...", "text": "The average U.S. gas price hit a record high Tuesday – and then Wednesday, and again Thursday. Experts say these record-high prices won't last forever, but drivers shouldn't expect the pain at the pump to ease any time soon.\n\nThe average price for regular gas in the U.S. reached $4.42 per gallon on Thursday, according to AAA. Diesel prices also hit a record $5.56 per gallon.\n\nThis week's prices beat the previous record set in early March, after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Adjusted for inflation, however, gas prices have yet to surpass the 2008 record, which would be more than $5 per gallon today.\n\nThe rising prices at the pump are compounding inflationary pressures for U.S. consumers. Inflation rates hit a 40-year high in March after the consumer price index jumped 8.5% annually.\n\n“We should get used to higher gasoline prices,” Matt Smith, an analyst with data analytics firm Kpler, told USA TODAY. “We shouldn’t expect to see them dropping back to $2 a gallon. Those times seem to have passed.”\n\nOTHER PEAKS:It's not just gas prices rising: Expect an 'extremely volatile' year for natural gas\n\nSAVING PENNIES:Will driving my car in economy mode really help save money?\n\nWhen will gas prices go down?\n\nGas prices aren’t expected to ease back to pre-pandemic levels any time soon.\n\n“There’s little, if any, good news about fuel prices heading into summer,\" Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in a Tuesday news release.\n\nDe Haan added that prices \"could become worse\" if hurricane season, which starts next month in the Atlantic, hurts refinery capacity.\n\nINFLATION FOCUS:Biden calls inflation his top domestic priority, blaming Republicans for lacking a plan\n\nCOPING:As rates rise, inflation heats up and stocks plunge, you can still put your cash to work\n\nAre gas prices still rising?\n\nSmith of Kpler said prices will likely continue to hold above $4 per gallon, and noted that $5 per gallon is “by no means beyond the realms of possibility.”\n\n“Gasoline prices will remain high as long as oil prices remain in the triple digits,” he said. “It’s going to hit the pocketbook far harder.”\n\nClaudio Galimberti, senior vice president of analysis at research company Rystad Energy, said demand is keeping gas prices high, but that could change if inflationary pressures worsen.\n\n\"Even at these elevated levels, prices are somewhat sustainable. The problem that I see, really, is the inflation,\" he said. \"That can actually decrease demand and eventually prices.\"\n\nWhy did gas prices jump overnight?\n\nCrude oil prices began to spike last week after the European Union signaled that it was looking to sanction Russian oil. In response, West Texas Intermediate prices at times soared past $110 as the market factored in the risk of oil supplies tightening further.\n\n“We haven't seen oil prices that high since Russia first invaded Ukraine,” AAA spokesperson Devin Gladden said. “And so as a result of last week's crude price increases, we're now seeing pump prices follow suit this week.”\n\nThe benchmark oil price settled at $105.71 Wednesday.\n\nDe Haan said gasoline and diesel prices are \"spiraling out of control\" as demand continues to outpace supply.\n\n\"Liquid fuels have turned into liquid gold,\" he said in the release. \"Russia’s oil increasingly remains out of the market, crimping supply while demand rebounds ahead of the summer driving season.”\n\nWhere are the highest gas prices in the US?\n\nHere are the highest regular gas prices per gallon in the U.S. as of Thursday, per AAA:\n\nCalifornia: $5.85\n\nHawaii: $5.31\n\nNevada: $5.12\n\nWashington: $4.91\n\nOregon: $4.88\n\nAlaska: $4.81\n\nIllinois: $4.80\n\nArizona: $4.70\n\nWashington, D.C.: $4.70\n\nNew York: $4.66\n\nYou can follow USA TODAY reporter Bailey Schulz on Twitter @bailey_schulz and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter here for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2022/06/27/travel-july-fourth-weekend-flight-traffic/7744473001/", "title": "Travel July Fourth weekend could get ugly. Here are 5 ways to ...", "text": "Flight cancellations, high gas prices and inflation have already soured countless vacations this summer.\n\nWith no quick fixes in sight and nearly 48 million Americans planning to travel at least 50 miles from home this Independence Day weekend, according to AAA, the holiday weekend could feel extra long in more ways than one. Setting expectations now and planning ahead can help ease the blow of spending more time and money on the trip than planned months ago.\n\nHere are five things travelers should know before heading to the airport or hitting the road for the Fourth of July and beyond.\n\nPATRIOTIC PLACES:Inspiring destinations that touch America's past\n\nCOPING STRATEGIES FOR SUMMER 2022 TRAVEL:Take a breath and lower your expectations\n\n1. Arrive at the airport even earlier than usual\n\nThe Transportation Security Administration and airlines recommend passengers arrive at airports at least two hours early for domestic flights and three hours early for international flights on a regular basis.\n\nEven more time is needed to navigate airports and get through security around holidays, but that's especially true now that \"revenge travelers\" are finally taking trips they put off during the pandemic. TSA screened 2.45 million travelers last Friday. That's the most for any day since February 2020, before COVID-19 shut leisure travel down.\n\nCHECK YOUR TRAVEL VOUCHER:Airlines issued billions in credits during the pandemic. Here's why travelers need to use them ASAP.\n\n2. Know rights and benefits when flights are canceled or delayed\n\nTravelers should check their flight status well before leaving for the airport. If their flight is canceled for any reason or \"significantly delayed\" and they choose not to take a different flight, airline customers are entitled to full refunds per Department of Transportation guidelines.\n\nSome airlines may offer travelers who stick with them meal vouchers or hotel stays, depending on the circumstances of the disruption, but they're not required to refund incidental expenses.\n\nTickets purchased with a credit card may have some trip protection benefits built-in. Travelers should check with their credit card companies instead of assuming they have to eat all the costs out of pocket.\n\nTravel insurance also covers extra expenses due to cancellations and unexpected delays, but it may be too late to purchase last-minute coverage for this weekend.\n\nPILOT SHORTAGE:Low staffing causing airlines to cancel flights\n\n3. Pack essentials in carry-on luggage\n\nWhen flights are delayed or luggage gets lost, the last thing travelers need is to be without necessities like medication or even diapers and phone chargers. Pack essentials in carry-on bags in case waits at the airport go longer than planned.\n\n4. Plan to spend more money, especially on gas\n\nThe price of gasoline may be ticking down, but it's still high. Thursday's national average was $4.86 per gallon of regular unleaded, according to AAA. That's less than the $4.94 average a week earlier but significantly more than drivers paid over Memorial Day weekend, when the national average was $4.60.\n\nJust over 50% of respondents surveyed by the travel planning site The Vacationer say gas prices will affect their July Fourth travel plans. And gas prices aren't the only thing going up. Inflation is touching just about everything in travel and elsewhere.\n\nWhere to find cheap gas: Sheetz lowers gas prices to $3.99 a gallon through July 4\n\nPain at the pump:Federal gas tax holiday aims to ease prices, but how much would drivers save?\n\n5. Hit the road early\n\nRoads will be busiest Thursday and Friday afternoon and evening, as well as Saturday afternoon, according to transportation analysis provider INRIX and AAA.\n\nTraffic is expected to be light all day Sunday and Monday. Travelers who can't wait until then should aim to drive during off peak hours:\n\nThursday: Before 7 a.m. or after 8 p.m.\n\nFriday: Before 10 a.m. or after 9 p.m.\n\nSaturday: Before noon or after 7 p.m.\n\nJuly Fourth travel:The best and worst times to leave for your road trip", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/05/05/lyft-paused-ride-sharing-during-covid-offers-wait-and-save-discount-rides/3085610001/", "title": "Lyft paused ride-sharing during COVID; offers :'Wait and Save' rides", "text": "How much is your time worth?\n\nWould you be willing to wait an extra five or 10 minutes for a Lyft car to pick you up if you could save $3 to $8 on your fare?\n\nLyft, which paused its ride carpool program that bunched up riders to save on fares, due to COVID-19, announced a new program Tuesday, \"Wait & Save.\"\n\nIn the program, \"riders can opt for a longer wait time but pay a lower fare than for a Standard ride, while drivers earn the same as they do for a Standard ride,\" Lyft says.\n\nSafety:Grabbing an Uber? Buckle up and bring your face mask to combat coronavirus\n\nCompetition:Uber is offering 50,000 free rides, free food to shelters for domestic abuse victims\n\nWhat the company wouldn't answer were the two most obvious questions: How much will I save, and how much longer will it take for the car to arrive? A few minutes? An hour? A day?\n\nLyft spokesman Zachary Kizer declined all, saying the prices and times varied by market and time of day.\n\nSo we gave it a test ride in our Lyft app, typing in popular locations like the Los Angeles airport (3 miles from our home) and farther away places like the Hollywood Walk of Fame (25 miles), Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills (18 miles), the Santa Monica Pier (17 miles) and the San Pedro, California, boat terminal (17 miles).\n\nThe airport savings was $3, with $8 off the ride to Hollywood, $6 less for the rides to the Pier and Rodeo Drive, and $4 discount off driving to the boat terminal.\n\nThe average longer wait for the driver to arrive was six minutes, but then we didn't test during peak times, but instead on a Tuesday morning.\n\nOn the blog post, Lyft says that riders who choose Wait & Save \"will always pay less than they would for a standard Lyft ride, and typically the longer they need to wait, the more they will save. This allows for the rider to be matched with the best-located driver.\"\n\nLyft says the program is rolling out and should be in 90 cities within the week. However, that's just a fraction of the 644 cities Lyft operates in, in the United States and Canada.\n\nRival Uber also temporarily closed its shared-ride program, and a spot check of the app Tuesday shows no replacement for it with something like \"Wait & Save.\"\n\nSince the COVID crisis, Lyft says rides to and from essential locations like supermarkets, convenience stores, police stations, drugstores, pharmacies, laundromats and banks have increased over 100%.\n\nFollow USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham (@jeffersongraham) on Twitter", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/05/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2020/09/23/gas-tax-increases-california-new-jersey-virginia-pandemic/5855996002/", "title": "Gas tax hikes pile up: States like New Jersey need road repair ...", "text": "Americans who want to stay socially distant during the COVID-19 pandemic now have another reason to think twice before going out for gas.\n\nSeveral states have increased gas taxes in recent months to make up for sudden shortfalls in revenue devoted to road repairs. As Americans drive less during the pandemic due partly to social distancing and remote work arrangements, gasoline demand has fallen. That's one key factor triggering the tax increases as lawmakers seek to limit the impact of lower revenue on road repair budgets.\n\nINew Jersey drivers are the latest to spend more at the pump because of higher taxes. On Thursday, the state's fuel tax increases from 30.9 cents to 40.2 cents for gasoline and from 34.9 cents to 44.2 cents for diesel fuel — to generate enough money to support the state's Transportation Trust Fund under a 2016 law signed by former Gov. Chris Christie.\n\nSupporters say the increases, most of which were triggered automatically due to existing laws like New Jersey's, are necessary to keep transportation infrastructure in good shape.\n\nCritics say the gas-tax increases are poorly timed and will hurt low-income drivers at a time when they are more likely to be facing unemployment, reduced hours or pay cuts.\n\nGasoline demand is currently about 15% lower than usual, according to oil analysts.\n\nIs your Bed Bath & Beyond store closing?:See the full list of the 63 stores slated to close by the end of 2020\n\nA growing pedestrian safety crisis:Speed, short lights and SUVs are worsening a health epidemic\n\nThe good news for motorists is this: They’re currently saving at the pump because the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the economy to slow, pushing down demand and prices for petroleum and gasoline, which is made from crude oil. The national average price of gasoline was $2.18 a gallon on Tuesday, down 49 cents from a year earlier, according to AAA.\n\n“Gas prices are low, and so that presents a big opportunity for politicians that are looking at very grim (revenue) numbers,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy.\n\nNew York City resident Adam Librot, who used to fuel up his SUV when he drove across the river to go shopping in New Jersey, is upset about the state’s plan to increase its gas tax by 9.3 cents, not including the federal levy.\n\n“This is the latest in a string of disincentives to go to New Jersey,” he said.\n\nBut Librot said he does not expect many locals to notice the tax increase because people typically blame fuel increases on oil companies.\n\n“It’s embedded in the price,” Librot said of the gas tax. “It’s hidden from sight, so unless you’re aware of it when the flurry of articles come out, it’s gone from the headlines and you don’t feel the tax itself.”\n\nThe states averaged 36.4 cents per gallon in gas taxes and fees as of July 1, according to the American Petroleum Institute. The federal tax of 18.4 cents, which is added to the state taxes, hasn't changed since 1993.\n\nRecent increases have included Virginia (5 cents), Nebraska (3.9 cents), California (3.2 cents), South Carolina (2 cents) and Illinois (0.7 cents). Increases on Oct. 1 include Alabama (2 cents).\n\nOil Price Information Service analyst Tom Kloza predicted that more hikes will follow since gasoline demand will remain around 85% of normal demand for the foreseeable future.\n\n“We think there will be a ton of them,” Kloza said. “Most of them are going to come after the election, (taking effect) Jan. 1 or July 1 of next year.”\n\nThe problem is that while the gas tax increases are likely to fund tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in road repairs, they won’t make up for a projected $5 billion loss in revenue due to declining gasoline demand, DeHaan said.\n\n“It’s hard to quantify as a windfall because so many of these states have just been decimated,” he said. “It’s akin to putting a Band-Aid on a gaping bullet hole in the middle of your chest.”\n\nStill, lawmakers need to consider the economic burden of gas tax increases during the pandemic, said Ulrik C. Boesen, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, a Washington-based think tank.\n\n“That being said, gas taxes pay for our roads, and it is appropriate that the people who use the roads pay for the roads,” Boesen said in an email. “But even though 36 states have raised gas taxes over the last decade, currently, there are very few states that raise enough money from transportation-related taxes to cover transportation-related expenses.”\n\nAs a result, lawmakers are expected to look to other sources, such as general fund revenue, to help pay for road repairs.\n\n“If gas taxes aren’t raising enough revenue, taxpayers are simply funding the roads through other taxes,” Boesen said.\n\nContributing: Ashley Balcerzak, NorthJersey.com\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/09/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2021/05/06/chicken-shortage-2021-chicken-sandwich-war-chicken-wings-covid/4936554001/", "title": "Chicken shortage 2021: Chicken wings, breasts scarce at restaurants", "text": "Has chicken flown the coop?\n\nThe nation's chicken wars and cravings for comfort food during the pandemic have made poultry so scarce and expensive that some restaurants are limiting or running out of chicken sandwiches, wings and tenders. Others are considering changes to menus and promotions.\n\nHeavy winter storms took a larger bite out of supply. While some restaurants have not been able to meet demand, it's unclear if and how the low supplies will affect consumers in the grocery store.\n\nThe poultry industry is tamping down growing alarm over a chicken shortage with National Chicken Council spokesman Tom Super saying there was a “very tight supply but short of a shortage.”\n\nSave better, spend better: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nNurses Week 2021:National Nurses Week brings free Dunkin' coffee, Chipotle burritos to the nation's most-trusted profession\n\n“Yes, supply is somewhat tight, but the sky certainly isn’t falling,\" Super told USA TODAY. “Chicken producers are doing everything they can to overcome the devastating impact of Mother Nature when she inflicted the once-in-a-lifetime winter storm on Texas and nearby states – major chicken producing regions.”\n\nAccording to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, broilers – chickens raised for meat – slaughter was down 4% in the first quarter of 2021, with pounds produced down 3%. Production began picking back up in early April, Super said, and there's been an increase in production over the past month.\n\nBroilers slaughtered the week ending April 10 were up 4% compared to last year, the USDA data showed. They were up 7% for the week ending April 24 and the week ending May 1 was up 2%.\n\nSuper said the chicken sandwich wars led to an increased demand for breast meat –McDonald's, KFC, Wendy's and Chick-fil-A have recently added new sandwiches, and Burger King and Taco Bell plan to add new sandwiches later in the year. But he added the past year alone has shown the U.S. appetite for wings is \"pandemic proof.\"\n\n\"Wings travel well and hold up during delivery conditions. Plus, they aligned with consumer desire for comfort food during the pandemic,\" he said. \"Chicken production remained steady in 2020, and as long as people are sitting around watching TV and maybe drinking a beer, wings will remain in the game.\"\n\nWings, like any other food commodity, can fluctuate dramatically in price over the course of the year. Typically, wing prices reach their highest point in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, then decline thereafter.\n\nSuper said producers are working to meet the growing demand for chicken products. But with demand so high, even small gaps in the supply of wings can cause big fluctuations in price.\n\nMenu changes and higher prices\n\nSome restaurants across the country have had to cut wings and certain specials from the menu or adjust prices higher to meet the market.\n\nBuffalo Wild Wings said on Twitter Thursday that many of its sports bars have a limited supply.\n\n\"We’re working to get more in stock and encourage you to try some of our other items like boneless wings, hand-breaded chicken sandwiches or burgers,\" the chain said in a tweet responding to a customer who asked if it was out of chicken.\n\nLast week, Bojangles tweeted it was \"experiencing a system-wide shortage :( But they will be back soon!\" when one customer couldn't find Chicken Supremes. Bojangles didn't immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment Thursday for an update.\n\nAnd the high prices are causing some restaurants to make changes and plan for the future.\n\nO’Brien’s Pub in Newport, Rhode Island canceled its weekly Monday Night Wing Night until further notice because the unexpected shortfall in supply would cause the pub to sell the discounted wings at a loss.\n\n“We knew it was coming, but it was really abrupt. I mean Monday Night Wing Night is just a staple, and it's really a difficult pill to swallow,” Kerrie Philbin, the pub’s general manager, told Newport Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Network.\n\nDianne Dulac, co-owner of the Pub at 2 Mile Corner in Middletown, Rhode Island, said her pub could consider removing wings from their online and takeout menus if wing prices increase to a certain threshold so they can keep up with the cost through in-house beverage and other food sales.\n\n“It's definitely something that we're anticipating,” Dulac told the Newport Daily News. “There's just really no light at the end of the tunnel. Actually, as the weeks go by, it's progressively getting worse. It's getting tougher and tougher.”\n\nSuper said the industry produces tens of billions of wings annually, and producers are working to add millions more.\n\n“As chicken production begins to resume back to a more normal pace of output in the coming months, and there is a better supply/demand ratio, the market tightness should ease,” he said.\n\nChlorine shortage 2021:Shortage leads to price increases for swimming pool owners after factory fire\n\nBefore the pandemic ketchup squeeze:A year of COVID-19 product shortages and the items we struggled to find\n\nContributing: Kelly Powers, Salisbury Daily Times; Savana Dunning, Newport Daily News; Associated Press\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/05/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2021/05/14/mask-mandate-stores-change-fully-vaccinated-cdc-no-masks-indoors/5102169001/", "title": "Stores drop masks for fully vaccinated after CDC says no masks ...", "text": "Retailers started announcing changes to face mask policies for fully vaccinated customers a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new masking guidelines.\n\nTrader Joe's, Walmart, Sam's Club, Costco and Publix were among the first to confirm updates to mask requirements, leading the way for mask-free shopping, though customers who live in areas that have state or local mask requirements may still have to wear them – regardless of vaccination status. In some cases, vaccinated store employees can also go to work without a mask.\n\nSome retailers, including Apple, have said they are still evaluating the CDC guidance but say they could update policies.\n\nMcDonald's and Office Depot confirmed to USA TODAY Thursday that they were updating policies.\n\nMcDonald’s said restaurant crew and managers will still wear face coverings while working in restaurants, but starting Friday, May 21, \"masks will be optional for fully vaccinated customers unless required by local regulation, while social distancing and protective barriers in restaurants will remain in place.\"\n\nOffice Depot's update is for fully vaccinated customers and employees except where mandates still exist.\n\nSave better, spend better: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nSpring mask wars:As stores update COVID mask policies, are even more conflicts on the horizon?\n\nWalgreens and Dollar General updated their policies Wednesday.\n\n\"Following the latest CDC guidance, beginning today, May 19, Walgreens will no longer require fully vaccinated customers to wear face coverings inside of our stores, unless mandated by state or local regulations,\" Walgreens spokesperson Emily Hartwig-Mekstan said in a statement to USA TODAY. \"Customers who are not fully vaccinated are asked to continue wearing face coverings, and our team members will continue to wear them while working.\"\n\nExcept in areas with mask mandates, Dollar General said it \"will not require fully-vaccinated employees, customers and vendors to wear facial coverings or masks\" but added that all others are \"encouraged to continue wearing face coverings.\"\n\nMacy's said in a statement to USA TODAY Tuesday that \"facial coverings are recommended but not required for vaccinated customers in all Macy’s, Inc. store locations, except where state or local mandates require them.\"\n\nBest Buy updated its policy on face coverings Tuesday and said fully vaccinated customers and employees \"are no longer required to wear face coverings in our stores, except where otherwise mandated by state or local order.\" Fully vaccinated employees working in customers' homes still are required to wear masks.\n\nLowe's said starting Wednesday it \"will align with the CDC’s new guidance unless required differently by state or local ordinances.\" Home Depot updated its policy Monday.\n\nTarget announced Monday that it would no longer require vaccinated customers and employees to wear masks, effective immediately, except where required by local or state mandate. CVS and Kohl's also announced masks would not be required for vaccinated customers starting Monday.\n\nStarbucks updated its policy to make masks \"optional for vaccinated customers beginning Monday, May 17, unless local regulations require them by law.\"\n\nSo far, businesses have said proof of the vaccine won't need to be shown and will be on the honor system.\n\nPublix's mask update started Saturday and is for fully vaccinated shoppers and workers.\n\n\"In accordance with CDC guidelines, individuals who are not fully vaccinated are required to use face coverings over their noses and mouths while inside any Publix store,\" the grocery store chain said in a statement Friday.\n\nBloomberg reported Friday night that Apple stores would continue to require masks and follow other COVID-19 procedures as the company evaluates health and safety measures. Apple was one of the first retailers to require masks.\n\nThe CDC said Thursday that fully vaccinated Americans, for the most part, no longer need to wear masks indoors and don’t have to wear masks outdoors, even in crowded spaces.\n\nBut privately owned businesses can still require masks; most of the nation's largest retailers began mask mandates last summer. There are other exceptions for when the CDC recommends masks, such as in health care settings, transportation hubs such as airports and stations, planes and public transportation.\n\nRide-share riders and drivers still must adhere to the mask requirement, and Uber and Lyft told USA TODAY that their mask policies are still in effect.\n\n\"Uber's mask requirement remains in place. We continue to ask that riders and drivers wear a mask over their nose and mouth during the entire trip and that riders sit in the back seat,\" Andrew Hasbun, Uber's head of safety communications, said in a statement to USA TODAY. \"Drivers can still cancel the trip if a rider isn't wearing a mask.\"\n\nWill the honor system work?:Experts say the honor system, paper cards won't cut it for COVID vaccine verification. 'Vaccine passports' are coming.\n\nReviewed recommendations: Looking for a new mask? Here are the best masks\n\nConflicts at businesses and viral videos of shoppers' tirades erupted amid the coronavirus pandemic. The CDC advised stores not to argue with angry anti-mask customers.\n\nLisa LaBruno, senior executive vice president at the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said in a statement that the CDC guidance \"creates ambiguity for retailers because it fails to fully align with state and local orders.\"\n\nLaBruno urged customers to follow safety protocols, including wearing a mask and social distancing.\n\n\"Front-line workers deserve this respect. Retailers encourage customers that do not want to wear a mask to shop online or via curbside pickup offerings,\" LaBruno said.\n\nNo masks for vaccinated customers\n\nSome exceptions apply, including in states and cities that have local mandates.\n\nStores still requiring masks\n\nDon't forget your mask:Masks still required for now at Walgreens and more stores, but retailers review new CDC mask guidance\n\nAlbertsons\n\nApple\n\nJ.C. Penney\n\nWinn-Dixie\n\nThese lists will be updated as more retailers decide whether or not to update mask policies or share plans.\n\nMany of us are allowed to take off our masks:Why some of us don't want to\n\nFlorida theme parks change masking rules:Universal Orlando, Disney World drop mask requirement outdoors, but visitors still must wear them on rides, indoors\n\nContributing: Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY; Jane Musgrave, Palm Beach Post; Emily DeLetter, Cincinnati Enquirer\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/05/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/07/23/ascena-retail-bankruptcy-store-closures-coronavirus-chapter-11/5395103002/", "title": "Lane Bryant, Ann Taylor owner files for bankruptcy amid COVID-19 ...", "text": "The parent company of Lane Bryant, Ann Taylor and the Justice tween brand has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a move spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nNew Jersey-based Ascena Retail Group, which also operates Ann Taylor Loft, Catherines, Lou & Grey and Cacique, plans to \"reduce their store fleet from approximately 2,800 stores to approximately 1,200 stores,\" the company said in court records Thursday. The planned closures are a 56% \"reduction in the total store fleet.\"\n\nThe company said in the bankruptcy filing that it plans to shutter all of its Catherines plus-size stores and \"intends to transition Justice to a primarily online platform and continue Lou & Grey within go-forward LOFT stores.\"\n\nSave better, spend better: Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here\n\nLike other apparel retailers with a heavy commitment to shopping malls, Ascena was grappling with declining foot traffic long before the coronavirus pandemic. It joins a rapidly growing list of retailers that have stumbled into bankruptcy amid the wreckage of COVID-19, which temporarily shuttered non-essential stores due to health concerns.\n\nLane Bryant store closings 2020:Is your Lane Bryant or Lane Bryant Outlet closing? Here are the 150-plus locations slated to liquidate\n\nJustice store closures:600-plus locations to shutter as part of Ascena Retail Group bankruptcy. See the list\n\n“The meaningful progress we have made driving sustainable growth, improving our operating margins and strengthening our financial foundation has been severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic,\" Carrie Teffner, interim executive chair, said in the release. \"As a result, we took a strategic step forward today to protect the future of the business for all of our stakeholders.”\n\nThe company says it has nearly 40,000 employees.\n\nAccording to frequently asked questions posted on Ascena's restructuring website, the final number of store closings \"will be determined based on the ability of Ascena and our landlords to reach agreement on sustainable lease structures.\"\n\nThe closing sales are expected to last 30 to 60 days from \"the filing date depending on the store location,\" Ascena said.\n\nCatherines store closings:Plus-size retailer to permanently close all of its stores in bankruptcy. See the list.\n\nAnn Taylor and Loft store closings:These locations will shutter as part of Ascena bankruptcy\n\nCourt records show that SB360 Capital Partners will manage Catherines' going-out-of-business liquidation sales as well as the closing sales at its sister brands. SB360 managed Charlotte Russe's 2019 liquidation and is currently handling Modell's Sporting Goods' closing sales.\n\n“Because of the compelling discounts and the highly desirable merchandise, we expect this will be a short sale across all stores,” said Aaron Miller, SB360 executive vice president, in a statement. “Customers are encouraged to shop early while quantities last as many of their favorite styles may go quickly.”\n\nAs many as 25,000 stores could shutter this year as businesses continue to feel the impacts of the pandemic, according to a recent report from Coresight Research.\n\nBrooks Brothers, Lucky Brand, J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, Sur La Table and J. Crew have all filed for Chapter 11 since May.\n\nOther retailers that haven't filed for bankruptcy also plan to shutter locations, including Victoria's Secret, Nordstrom and Signet Jewelers, parent company of Kay, Zales and Jared. This week, Tailored Brands, parent company of Men's Wearhouse, said it will close up to 500 stores.\n\nAscena started a \"fleet optimization\" program in 2017 and closed nearly 900 stores. In 2019, the company closed its nearly 650 Dressbarn stores and also sold Maurices, its other value brand.\n\nTeffner said in a May 28 business update, that COVID-19 \"significantly disrupted our business\" and reduced earnings.\n\n\"With retail stores making up the majority of our revenue and cash flow, the uncertainty created by COVID-19 requires us to evaluate all options available to protect the business and its stakeholders,” Teffner said in May.\n\nCall shopping malls survive?:Coronavirus pandemic calls experiential model into question\n\nTailored Brands store closings:Up to 500 store closures planned by Men's Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank owner\n\nContributing: Nathan Bomey.\n\nFollow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/03/02/gas-prices-biden-russia-ukraine/6973896001/", "title": "Gas prices are high and rising. What can Biden do to lower costs?", "text": "Editor's note: This story was originally published on March 2 and was updated Wednesday with new information.\n\nPresident Joe Biden has warned that defending freedom in Ukraine will cost Americans, and many are starting to feel the pinch at the pump.\n\nThe national average price for gasoline hit $4.252 a gallon on Wednesday, up from $3.656 March 2, according to AAA. The average nationwide price Wednesday was up 52% from a year ago.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/02"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_18", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:22", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/06/28/old-ex-guard-nazi-camp-convicted-german-court/7753959001/", "title": "101-year-old ex-guard from Nazi camp convicted by German court", "text": "A 101-year-old man believed to be a former concentration camp guard was convicted by a German court of being an accessory to 3,518 counts of murder.\n\nThe man, identified only as Josef S. due to Germany’s strict privacy laws, was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison by The Neuruppin Regional Court, according to The New York Times. He's believed to be the oldest living person to be tried on charges from the Holocaust era.\n\nJosef S denied the allegations that he worked as an SS guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, north of Berlin, from 1942 to 1945. Despite being convicted, prosecutors were unable to directly link him to the deaths of the prisoners.\n\nA lawyer for the man said he would appeal the decision if the authorities attempt to send him to prison, according to The New York Times. It is also unclear if he'd get a medical commission clearing for his health that'd allow him to face confinement. The man claimed he worked as a farm laborer during the time convicted but it was determined that he aided in the murder machinery of the Nazis.\n\nOur grandmother lived 100 years.:Her legacy of saving Jewish children from Nazis lives on.\n\n\"You willingly supported this mass extermination with your activity,\" presiding Judge Udo Lechtermann said. \"The court has come to the conclusion that, contrary to what you claim, you worked in the concentration camp as a guard for about three years.\"\n\nThe man's conviction comes as a byproduct of two recent developments. One is that Germany's highest criminal court ruled this year that people who worked as guards at concentration camps could still be convicted, even if no specific crimes can be proven. The other is that in 2018, concentration camp records by the Red Army were examined in Moscow, which is how Mr. S's name was discovered.\n\n\"We go by the simple principle that murder does not have a statute of limitations,\" Thomas Will, a leader for the German government office who investigates Nazi-era crimes, told The Times. \"It is what’s right and of course it would have been what was right 70 years ago.\"\n\nSachsenhausen was established in 1936 just north of Berlin as the first new camp after Adolf Hitler gave the SS full control of the Nazi concentration camp system. It was intended to be a model facility and training camp for the labyrinthine network that the Nazis built across Germany, Austria and occupied territories.\n\nMore than 200,000 people were held there between 1936 and 1945. Tens of thousands of inmates died of starvation, disease, forced labor and other causes, as well as through medical experiments and systematic SS extermination operations including shootings, hangings and gassing.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/02/10/germany-former-wwii-nazi-ss-guard-charged-3518-counts/6708687002/", "title": "Germany prosecutors charge former WWII Nazi SS guard with 3,518 ...", "text": "David Rising\n\nAssociated Press\n\nBERLIN – German prosecutors have charged a 100-year-old man with 3,518 counts of being an accessory to murder on allegations he served during World War II as a Nazi SS guard at a concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin, authorities said Tuesday.\n\nThe man is alleged to have worked at the Sachsenhausen camp between 1942 and 1945 as an enlisted member of the Nazi Party’s paramilitary wing, said Cyrill Klement, who led the investigation of the centenarian for the Neuruppin prosecutors’ office.\n\nThe man’s name wasn’t released in line with German privacy laws. Despite his age, the suspect is considered fit enough to stand trial, though accommodations may have to be made to limit how many hours a day the court is in session, Klement told The Associated Press.\n\nThe Neuruppin office was handed the case in 2019 by the special federal prosecutors’ office in Ludwigsburg tasked with investigating Nazi-era war crimes, Klement said.\n\nIt comes after prosecutors in the northern town of Itzehoe announced charges of accessory to murder last week against a 95-year-old woman who worked during the war as the secretary of the SS commandant of the Stutthof concentration camp. That case and the charges against the 100-year-old man rely on recent legal precedent in Germany establishing that anyone who helped a Nazi camp function can be prosecuted for the murders committed there.\n\nPreviously:Nazi concentration camp secretary charged with 10,000 counts of accessory to murder\n\nEfraim Zuroff, chief Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the two new cases serve as “vital reminders to the dangers of anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia.”\n\n“The advanced age of the defendants is no excuse to ignore them and allow them to live in the peace and tranquility they denied their victims,” he said.\n\nThe new legal precedent was established in 2011 with the conviction of former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk as an accessory to murder on allegations that he was a guard at the Sobibor death camp in German-occupied Poland. Demjanjuk, who steadfastly denied the allegations, died before his appeal could be heard.\n\nA federal court subsequently upheld the 2015 conviction of former Auschwitz guard Oskar Groening achieved with the same line of reasoning, solidifying the precedent.\n\nBefore that, German courts had required prosecutors to justify charges by presenting evidence of a former guard’s participation in a specific killing, often a near-impossible task given the anonymity of most guards to the prisoners, coupled with the paucity of witnesses and the passage of time.\n\n“The core of this case follows the decision of Demjanjuk and Groening, that being part of the functioning of this machinery of death is sufficient for an accessory to murder conviction,” Klement said.\n\nThe state court in Neuruppin, northwest of the town of Oranienburg, where Sachsenhausen was located, now needs to evaluate the case and the fitness of the defendant, then set a trial date, Klement said.\n\nSachsenhausen was established in 1936 just north of Berlin as the first new camp after Adolf Hitler gave the SS full control of the Nazi concentration camp system.\n\nIt was intended to be a model facility and training camp for the labyrinthine network that the Nazis built across Germany, Austria and occupied territories.\n\nMore than 200,000 people were held there between 1936 and 1945, and tens of thousands died of starvation, disease, forced labor and other causes, as well as through medical experiments and systematic SS extermination operations including shootings, hangings and gassing.\n\nExact numbers on those killed vary. Upper estimates are 100,000, though scholars suggest 40,000 to 50,000 is likely more accurate.\n\nIn its early years, most prisoners were either political prisoners or criminal prisoners, but they included some Jehovah’s Witnesses and homosexuals. The first large group of Jewish prisoners was brought there in 1938 after the Night of Broken Glass, or Kristallnacht, an anti-Semitic pogrom.\n\nDuring the war, it was expanded to include Soviet prisoners of war – who were shot by the thousands – and others.\n\nIt had special facilities for politically prominent prisoners, including former Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg, who opposed Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria, anti-Nazi pastor Martin Niemoeller, and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s eldest son, who died there in 1943.\n\nAs in other camps, Jewish prisoners were singled out at Sachsenhausen for particularly harsh treatment, and most who remained alive by 1942 were sent to the Auschwitz death camp.\n\nThousands of Jews were brought back in later in 1944 to address labor shortages for work details that included clearing the streets of rubble in the German capital, as well as in war production in regional factories.\n\nSachsenhausen was liberated in April 1945 by the Soviets, who turned it into a brutal camp of their own.\n\nLive impeachment updates:Democrats argue lawsuits show it was Trump trying to steal election\n\nTrump's impeachment:Explicit language in footage shown at trial forces TV networks to make a 'tough choice'", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/02/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/08/02/accused-nazi-ss-guard-age-100-faces-german-trial-sachsenhausen/5455413001/", "title": "Accused Nazi SS guard, age 100, faces German trial on 3,518 counts", "text": "Kirsten Grieshaber\n\nAssociated Press\n\nBERLIN – A German court has set a trial date for a 100-year-old man who is charged with 3,518 counts of accessory to murder on allegations he served as a Nazi SS guard at a concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin during World War II.\n\nA spokeswoman for the Neuruppin state court said Monday that the trial is set to begin in early October. The centenarian's name wasn't released in line with German privacy laws.\n\nThe suspect is alleged to have worked at the Sachsenhausen camp between 1942 and 1945 as an enlisted member of the Nazi Party's paramilitary wing.\n\nAuthorities say that despite his advanced age, the suspect is considered fit enough to stand trial, though the number of hours per day the court is in session may have to be limited.\n\n\"A medical evaluation confirms that he is fit to stand trial in a limited way,\" court spokeswoman Iris le Claire said.\n\nThe Neuruppin office was handed the case in 2019 by the special federal prosecutors' office in Ludwigsburg tasked with investigating Nazi-era war crimes. The state court in Neuruppin is based northwest of the town of Oranienburg, where Sachsenhausen was located.\n\nThe defendant is said to live in the state of Brandenburg outside of Berlin, local media reported.\n\nWhat was Sachsenhausen?\n\nSachsenhausen was established in 1936, just north of Berlin, as the first new camp after Adolf Hitler gave the SS full control of the Nazi concentration camp system. It was intended to be a model facility and training camp for the labyrinthine network that the Nazis built across Germany, Austria and occupied territories.\n\nMore than 200,000 people were held there between 1936 and 1945. Tens of thousands of inmates there died of starvation, disease, forced labor and other causes, as well as through medical experiments and systematic SS extermination operations including shootings, hangings and gassing.\n\nExact numbers on those killed vary, with upper estimates of some 100,000, though scholars suggest figures of 40,000 to 50,000 are likely more accurate.\n\nIn its early years, most prisoners were either political prisoners or criminal prisoners, but also included some Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals. The first large group of Jewish prisoners was brought there in 1938 after the Night of Broken Glass, or Kristallnacht, an antisemitic pogrom.\n\nDuring the war, Sachsenhausen was expanded to include Soviet prisoners of war – who were shot by the thousands – as well as others.\n\nLike in other camps, Jewish prisoners were singled out at Sachsenhausen for particularly harsh treatment, and most who remained alive by 1942 were sent to the Auschwitz death camp.\n\nSachsenhausen was liberated in April 1945 by the Soviets, who turned it into a brutal camp of their own.\n\nIn a different case, a 96-year-old woman will go on trial in late September in the northern German town of Itzehoe. The woman, who allegedly worked during the war as the secretary for the SS commandant of the Stutthof concentration camp, has been charged with over 10,000 counts of accessory to murder earlier this year.\n\nHer case and the charges against the 100-year-old suspect both rely on recent legal precedent in Germany establishing that anyone who helped a Nazi camp function can be prosecuted for accessory to the murders committed there.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/02"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/europe/nazi-holocaust-camp-guard-sentencing-intl/index.html", "title": "Former Nazi camp guard sentenced to 5 years for Holocaust ...", "text": "Berlin (CNN) A 101-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard has been sentenced to five years in prison by a German court for aiding and abetting the murder of 3,518 people during the Holocaust.\n\nThe man had been charged in 2021 with \"knowingly and willfully\" aiding and abetting the killing of prisoners at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg, north of Berlin, from January 1942 to February 1945, according to the prosecutor's office in Neuruppin, in the northeastern state of Brandenburg.\n\nHe was sentenced by the Neuruppin Regional Court on Tuesday, court spokeswoman Iris le Claire told CNN.\n\nLe Claire said the trial was a complex process. \"It was extraordinarily difficult to find an appropriate punishment because the acts took place a very long time ago, and the perpetrator is already very old. All of this had a mitigating effect on the sentence,\" she said.\n\nThe vast number of people who died under the guard's watch was also taken into account, Le Claire suggested. Under German law, people found guilty of murder are typically sentenced to between three and 15 years in prison.\n\nAround 100,000 prisoners are thought to have died at the Sachsenhausen camp.\n\n\"The verdict is a late compensation for the relatives and a very important sign from Germany,\" Christoph Heubner of the International Auschwitz Committee told CNN on Tuesday.\n\nHeubner, who followed the trial, criticized the number of years it had taken the German courts to press charges. \"Now the wound of the relatives can be taken care of,\" he said.\n\nThe convicted man had always denied being active in the concentration camp, according to Heubner.\n\nThe Central Council of Jews in Germany acknowledged the ruling. \"Even if the defendant will probably not serve the full prison term due to his advanced age, the verdict is to be welcomed,\" Josef Schuster, the council's president, told CNN.\n\n\"The thousands of people who worked in the concentration camps kept the murder machinery running. They were part of the system, therefore they should also take responsibility for it,\" Schuster said. \"It is bitter that the defendant has denied his activities at that time until the end and has shown no remorse.\"\n\nThe man's name has not been made public, in accordance with Germany's privacy laws. The charges included involvement in the shooting of Soviet prisoners of war in 1942, and aiding and abetting the murder of prisoners through the use of poisonous gas, as well as other shootings and the killing of prisoners by creating and maintaining hostile conditions in the Sachsenhausen camp.\n\nSachsenhausen was built by prisoners and opened in 1936. Of the roughly 200,000 prisoners who passed through it, around 100,000 are thought to have died there. During World War II, the camp's inmate population fluctuated between about 11,000 and 48,000 people.\n\nAn estimated 6 million Jews were killed in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Also killed were hundreds of thousands of Roma people, political opponents, homosexuals, and people with physical or learning disabilities.", "authors": ["Inke Kappeler", "Ben Brown"], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/10/07/former-nazi-concentration-camp-guard-on-trial/6042235001/", "title": "Germany: 100-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard on trial", "text": "Associated Press\n\nBERLIN — A 100-year-old man went on trial in Germany Thursday, accused of being an accessory to murder for serving as a Nazi SS guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin during World War II.\n\nThe trial of the defendant, who is charged with 3,518 counts of accessory to murder, was held at the Neuruppin state court, which moved the proceedings to a prison sport hall in Brandenburg for organizational reasons.\n\nThe suspect, who was identified only as Josef S. in keeping with German privacy rules, is alleged to have worked at Sachsenhausen between 1942 and 1945 as an enlisted member of the Nazi Party’s paramilitary wing.\n\nThe suspect's lawyer, Stefan Waterkamp, told the court that his client did not want to comment on the allegations, German news agency dpa reported. There are no formal pleas in the German legal system.\n\nAuthorities say the defendant is considered fit enough to stand trial despite his advanced age, though the number of hours per day the court is in session will be limited.\n\nMore than 200,000 people were held at Sachsenhausen between 1936 and 1945. Tens of thousands of inmates died of starvation, disease, exhaustion from forced labor and other causes, as well as through medical experiments and systematic SS extermination operations including shootings, hangings and gassing.\n\nExact numbers on those killed vary, with upper estimates of some 100,000, though scholars suggest figures of 40,000 to 50,000 are likely more accurate.\n\nWorld:Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp vandalized with antisemitic graffiti in 'outrageous attack'\n\nAP:96-year-old concentration camp secretary who fled Nazi war crimes trial is released\n\n“The defendant knowingly and willingly aided and abetted this at least by conscientiously performing guard duty, which was seamlessly integrated into the killing system,” prosecutor Cyrill Klement told the court.\n\nA survivor of Sachsenhausen, 100-year-old Leon Schwarzbaum, attended the trial as a visitor.\n\n“This is the last trial for my friends, acquaintances and my loved ones, who were murdered, in which the last guilty person can still be sentenced — hopefully” Schwarzbaum, who also survived the Auschwitz death camp and Buchenwald concentration camp, told dpa.\n\nThe executive vice president of the Auschwitz Committee expressed disappointment at the lawyer's announcement that the suspect would not comment on the allegations.\n\n“I found him surprisingly robust and present. He would have the strength to make an apology and he would also have the strength to remember,” Christoph Heubner told reporters outside the building.\n\n“Obviously, however, he does not want to muster the strength to remember, and for the survivors of the camps and for the relatives of the murdered who have come here to hear some truth spoken, this means once again a rejection, a disparagement and a confrontation with the continued silence of the SS.”\n\nThe opening of the trial comes a week after the opening of another elderly concentration camp suspect's trial was disrupted.\n\nA 96-year-old former secretary for the Stutthof camp’s SS commander skipped the opening of her trial at the Itzehoe state court in northern Germany. She was tracked down within hours and proceedings are to resume on Oct. 19.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/10/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/06/28/trump-jan-6-ghislaine-maxwell-texas-tractor-trailer-deaths-its-tuesdays-news/7739833001/", "title": "Trump on Jan. 6, Ghislaine Maxwell, Texas tractor-trailer deaths. It's ...", "text": "A former White House aide testified about former President Donald Trump's furious outbursts as rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Fifty people are dead after being found in an abandoned trailer in Texas. And a 101-year-old Nazi concentration camp guard was sentenced to prison.\n\n👋 Hey! Laura Davis here. It's Tuesday. I'll be off for the next few days, but my friend Julius Lasin will be taking care of y'all while I'm out. In the meantime, let's talk news, shall we?\n\nBut first, planning traveling for July Fourth? Safe travels! Here are 5 things you should know before flying or driving this weekend.\n\nThe Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.\n\nFormer White House aide offers explosive testimony on Jan. 6 attack\n\nTrump knew there was an armed mob at his \"Stop the Steal\" rally on Jan. 6, 2021, and he directed that mob to the U.S. Capitol, according to the explosive testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Hutchinson's role gave her a close-up view of the events on Jan. 6, and she testified about what she heard from others during that time, including Trump's growing fury during his final days as president. Told he wasn't going to the Capitol following his rally on Jan. 6, Trump, sitting in the back of his SUV, reached forward and tried to grab the steering wheel. He later lunged at his security chief in an apparent attempt to choke him. \"I'm the f---ing president. Take me to the Capitol now,\" Trump said, according to Hutchinson. More details from Hutchinson's testimony.\n\nWhat happened today?\n\nTrump's Jan. 6 speech: There was genuine concern in the White House over the 25th Amendment being invoked and removing Trump as president, which was part of how Trump was convinced to give a speech.\n\nThere was genuine concern in the White House over the 25th Amendment being invoked and removing Trump as president, which was part of how Trump was convinced to give a speech. Trump threw his lunch. Furious after Attorney General Bill Barr announced in December 2020 that he found no evidence of widespread voter fraud, Trump threw his lunch against the wall, according to Hutchinson.\n\nFurious after Attorney General Bill Barr announced in December 2020 that he found no evidence of widespread voter fraud, Trump threw his lunch against the wall, according to Hutchinson. Witnesses sitting for depositions for the Jan. 6 committee have received calls from former colleagues advising them about how they should testify before the committee, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said, adding that the practice raises \"very serious concerns.\"\n\n👉 Miss Day 6? Trump knew mob was armed and dangerous, bombshell witness says. Trump reacts on Truth Social. Catch up here.\n\nWhat everyone's talking about\n\nThe Short List is free, but several stories we link to are subscriber-only. Consider supporting our journalism and become a USA TODAY digital subscriber today.\n\nDeath toll rises to 51 after abandoned trailer found in Texas\n\nAt least 51 people are dead and several others remained hospitalized Tuesday after an abandoned tractor-trailer that was part of a suspected human smuggling operation was found in San Antonio, Texas, amid sweltering heat. Forty-six bodies initially were found in the trailer Monday and 16 people were hospitalized, authorities said. By Tuesday afternoon, the death toll had risen to 51. The passengers of the truck were suffering from heat stroke and heat exhaustion, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said. There were no signs of water or working air conditioning in the truck. Keep reading.\n\nJudge hands down 20 years in prison for Ghislaine Maxwell\n\nGhislaine Maxwell, the jet-setting socialite who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. The sentencing in New York was the culmination of a prosecution that detailed how the power couple flaunted their riches and prominent connections to lure vulnerable girls as young as 14, and then exploit them. Prosecutors said Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial, sexually abused children hundreds of times, and couldn't have done so without the help of Maxwell, his longtime companion and onetime girlfriend. Keep reading.\n\nReal quick\n\n🌀 Hurricane season is here. There are 21 possible storms forecast in the Atlantic this year. Here's the list of storm names. What's the weather up to in your neck of the woods? Check your local forecast here.\n\n101-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard jailed\n\nA 101-year-old man believed to be a former concentration camp guard was convicted by a German court of being an accessory to 3,518 counts of murder. The man, identified only as Josef S., was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison, according to The New York Times. He's believed to be the oldest living person to be tried on charges from the Holocaust era. Josef S. denied working as an SS guard at the camp and aiding and abetting the murder of thousands of prisoners. Keep reading.\n\nA break from the news\n\nThis is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Want this news roundup in your inbox every night? Sign up for The Short List newsletter here.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/28"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_19", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:22", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/01/entertainment/will-smith-resigns-from-academy/index.html", "title": "Will Smith resigns from the Academy - CNN", "text": "(CNN) After slapping presenter Chris Rock on stage at last weekend's Academy Awards, Will Smith announced in a statement Friday that he has resigned from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.\n\n\"I am resigning from membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and will accept any further consequences the Board deems appropriate,\" Smith said in a statement shared with CNN by his publicist.\n\nSmith's statement concluded, \"Change takes time and I am committed to doing the work to ensure that I never again allow violence to overtake reason.\"\n\nAfter the embarrassing episode at Sunday night's Oscars, The Academy announced on Wednesday that it had \"initiated disciplinary proceedings\" against Smith.\n\nDavid Rubin, President, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said in a statement Friday that the organization has received and accepted Smith's \"immediate resignation.\"\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Brian Stelter", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/04/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/2016/01/21/screen-cant-we-do-better/79122688/", "title": "Screen: Can't we do better?", "text": "Todd Hill\n\nReporter\n\nThroughout history, groups of people deprived of their rights — woman seeking the privilege of voting, same-sex couples who just wanted to get married, blacks in search of a whole laundry list of civil rights — have had to make a lot of noise to get what they deserved. It has rarely happened quickly, but eventually the method works.\n\nAs of this writing, it remains to be seen whether the #OscarsSoWhite movement and the decision by some in Hollywood to boycott next month's Academy Awards in protest of the lack of any people of color among the acting nominees for the second straight year is still building or about to blow over. I certainly can't tell from this vantage point, and my feelings on the boycott are still evolving. But I have a growing sense that it's misguided.\n\nLack of diversity in Hollywood is a problem, but you know what? It's a problem just about everywhere, and it's hardly limited to black under-representation. Hispanics, despite their rank now as the largest minority in America, are significantly more marginalized in our culture. And women, who make up half our population, aren't even paid the same amount of money as men for doing the same job. If we're going to talk about lack of diversity, we need to expand the net, by about a mile.\n\nBut today the issue is just the 88th Academy Awards, set to be hosted by comedian Chris Rock on Feb. 28. Should he join the boycott and back out of his hosting duties, as some celebrities are calling for, the movement will truly have legs (as of this writing he's made no comment). But will that result in more quality motion pictures about the African-American experience being greenlit by the Hollywood studios? Of course not.\n\nWhat could very well result, as soon as next year (and maybe only next year), is the bestowing of Oscar nominations upon so-so motion pictures with a majority black cast, as well as for the people of color appearing in them, just to placate people such as filmmaker Spike Lee, who got this boycott business started earlier this month.\n\nThe Oscars, however, are intended as awards of merit. Clearly, the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have gotten it wrong nearly as often as not, going back to the first Academy Awards in 1929. But once they start handing out Oscars just to look politically correct, they'll become less relevant to the lives of ordinary Americans than they are already.\n\nSpike Lee, Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, George Clooney, Lupita Nyong'o, Mark Ruffalo — these aren't ordinary Americans.\n\nWill Smith, star of the December film \"Concussion,\" said his decision to join his wife in boycotting the Oscars is \"deeply not about me.\"\n\nYeah, well, I'd be more likely to believe that if Smith's performance in \"Concussion\" hadn't been overlooked by Oscar voters. Frankly, they overlooked it because it wasn't an exemplary achievement, not because he's black. For the same reason, I discount Jada's decision to join the boycott.\n\nFor more years than I can remember, Spike Lee has been the angriest man in Hollywood, and I stopped paying attention to anything he had to say a long time ago. But plenty of far more rational voices have spoken up about these lily-white Academy Awards, and they've made some very cogent points.\n\nLupita Nyong'o, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar two years ago for her work in the film \"12 Years a Slave,\" has correctly stated that there's room for more stories about minority lives to be told, and I don't think she's talking about those patronizing \"urban\" movies. Actor George Clooney observed, again correctly, that just a few short years ago members of the Academy had a better track record of recognizing the work of minorities, which has me thinking these two most recent years of all-white acting nominees are more an anomaly than a trend.\n\nAnd Ruffalo, who is up for a Best Supporting Actor this year and said he is considering not attending the ceremony (and who is white, as if that should matter), put it best when he said, \"If you look at Martin Luther King's legacy, what he was saying was that the good people who don't act are much worse than the wrongdoers who are purposefully not acting.\"\n\nAmen to that.\n\nAMPAS president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who happens to be black, has noted that the Academy is working to diversify its membership, but it's already made progress on that front. It should also be noted that for several decades now the membership has skewed older. Hollywood denizens are famously liberal, they're not known for harboring racist views, but just like all of us, they do age as the years go by.\n\nThe film \"Straight Outta Compton,\" about the rise and fall of the gangsta rap group N.W.A., missed out on a Best Picture nomination this year, although it was never better than a long shot. This is just a theory of mine, but I don't know a lot of 75-year-olds, whatever their ethnicity, who have a deep-seated appreciation for gangsta rap. Could that be why it wasn't nominated?\n\nSure, maybe the black actor Idris Elba was snubbed for his performance in \"Beasts of No Nation,\" along with Michael B. Jordan for his performance in \"Creed.\" Well, join the crowd. The white filmmaker Ridley Scott should've gotten a nomination for directing \"The Martian,\" but he didn't. The lesbian drama \"Carol\" deserved a Best Picture nod, but it was overlooked as well.\n\nPicking on the Oscars is a waste of time.\n\nthill3@nncogannett.com\n\n419-563-9225\n\nTwitter: @ToddHillMNJ", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/01/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/08/entertainment/will-smith-academy-sanctions-decision/index.html", "title": "Will Smith barred from Academy events for 10 years, including the ...", "text": "(CNN) Will Smith will not be allowed to attend the Academy Awards for the next 10 years, as a result of his slapping comedian Chris Rock on stage during this year's Oscar ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced in a statement obtained by CNN.\n\n\"The Board has decided, for a period of 10 years from April 8, 2022, Mr. Smith shall not be permitted to attend any Academy events or programs, in person or virtually, including but not limited to the Academy Awards,\" Academy President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson said in a statement on Friday.\n\nThe decision was made during a Board of Governors meeting held earlier in the day in Los Angeles. The meeting, initially scheduled for April 18, was expedited after Smith announced his resignation from the Academy last week.\n\nSmith issued a quick, concise statement on his ban from the Oscars for the next decade.\n\n\"I accept and respect the Academy's decision,\" the actor said in a statement to CNN.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Chloe Melas", "Lisa Respers France"], "publish_date": "2022/04/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2016/02/02/oscars-academy-award-nominations-diversity/79645542/", "title": "#OscarsSoWhite controversy: What you need to know", "text": "Patrick Ryan\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nThis month's Academy Awards are more about who won't take home a golden statue rather than who will.\n\nIn the weeks since the Oscar nominations were announced, conversation in Hollywood has been dominated by the lack of diversity in this year's field, prompting swift backlash and historic changes within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.\n\nHere's what you need to know about the #OscarsSoWhite controversy:\n\nOscar experts on 'whiteout' boycott: Academy needs to fix itself\n\nQ: What sparked the backlash?\n\nA: For the second year in a row, all 20 actors nominated in the lead and supporting acting categories are white (which, before 2015, hadn't happened since 1998). In response to last year's omissions, BroadwayBlack.com managing editor April Reign created the trending Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, which was revived when this year's contenders were announced.\n\nQ: What films were overlooked?\n\nA: Creed and Straight Outta Compton each picked up a slew of critics' prizes and guild awards but received only one Oscar nomination apiece (for supporting actor Sylvester Stallone and screenwriters Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff, respectively, all of whom are white). Beasts of No Nation was shut out entirely, despite being considered a supporting-actor lock for Idris Elba (who won a Screen Actors Guild Award).\n\nQ: How diverse have past years been?\n\nA: In the Academy Awards' 88-year history, only 14 black actors have won acting Oscars — the first was Hattie McDaniel for Gone With the Wind in 1940, and the last was Lupita Nyong'o (who was born in Mexico) for 12 Years a Slave in 2014. The winners' pool is even shallower for other minorities. A mere five Latino actors have won prizes (most recently, Benicio Del Toro for Traffic in 2001), as have just three actors of Asian descent (the last was Haing S. Ngor in 1985 for The Killing Fields). Similarly, the only indigenous acting winner in history is Cherokee-Irish actor Ben Johnson (for The Last Picture Show in 1972).\n\nJesse Jackson: Hollywood, it's time to flip the script on diversity\n\nQ: Who is planning to boycott?\n\nA: Days after the nominations were announced, honorary Oscar recipient Spike Lee wrote on Instagram that he and his wife would not attend the Academy Awards because they \"cannot support it.\" Will Smith and his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, each announced they would be boycotting, in an interview with Good Morning America and a Facebook video. Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore told TheWrap he would boycott, and Oscar-nominated Spotlight star Mark Ruffalo let the BBC know he'd consider it, but later tweeted that he would be there \"to support the victims of clergy sexual abuse and good journalism.\"\n\nQ: Who else has spoken out?\n\nA: Hollywood A-listers including George Clooney, Reese Witherspoon, Don Cheadle and Nyong'o have called for greater representation in front of and behind the camera. Among others to support the outcry: President Obama, filmmaker Ava DuVernay, and TV stars Viola Davis, Gina Rodriguez and Laura Prepon. Appearing to dismiss the diversity issue, Oscar best-actress nominee Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) received blowback after telling a French journalist that \"perhaps the black actors did not deserve\" nominations. Michael Caine and Julie Delpy each got similar criticism for their comments downplaying the controversy.\n\nQ: What changes are being made?\n\nA: A week after the nominations, the governing board of the academy unanimously voted to double female and minority members by 2020. Changes are also in store for those who are no longer active in the industry. Beginning later this year, each member’s voting status will last 10 years and will be renewed if that member has stayed active in movies during that decade. Members will receive lifetime voting rights after three 10-year terms, or if they have won or been nominated for an Oscar.\n\nQ: What is the makeup of the academy?\n\nA: According to a 2012 report by the Los Angeles Times, Oscar voters were 94% Caucasian and 77% male. The numbers are on par with film studio heads, who are 94% white and 100% male, according to the 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report published by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.\n\nDiversity changes could target Oscar voting, categories\n\nQ: What's next?\n\nA: Although celebrities such as Tyrese Gibson and 50 Cent have called for host Chris Rock to boycott the Oscars, the comedian is still scheduled to emcee, Oscar producer Reginald Hudlin told Entertainment Tonight, adding that Rock has chosen to rewrite his opening monologue to reflect the controversy. A diverse lineup of presenters have been announced for the ceremony Feb. 28, including Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Hart, Kerry Washington, Priyanka Chopra and Byung-hun Lee.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/02/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2016/01/22/academy-takes-historic-steps-increase-diversity/79183500/", "title": "Academy takes 'historic' steps to increase diversity", "text": "Bryan Alexander\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nThe board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved dramatic changes to alter its membership to increase diversity in a unanimous vote Thursday night.\n\nThe board which oversees the Oscars released Friday what it called \"historic\" goals to counter an explosion of criticism over minority representation. In their biggest step, the governors committed to doubling the number of women and diverse academy members by 2020.\n\nOscars: Acting races are an all-white field\n\n“The academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up,” said academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs in a statement. “These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition.”\n\nA 2012 report by the Los Angeles Times showed that Oscar voters were made up of 94% Caucasian and 77% male members. The academy did not list specific numbers for the new membership goals.\n\nThe diversity issue has dominated discussion after an all-white slate emerged in the acting categories for the second year in a row at the Academy Award nominations.\n\nThe ignominiously-dubbed #AllWhiteOscars has led to outcry as well as director Spike Lee, actress Jada Pinkett Smith and her husband Will Smith to boycott the February 28 Oscars hosted by Chris Rock.\n\nHere are some of the other diversity enhancing steps the academy announced Friday:\n\nMark Ruffalo will attend Oscars, praises boycott\n\nPotential limits for existing members: The academy set out to limit the voting powers of members not active in the film industry.\n\nBeginning later this year, each new academy member’s voting status will last 10 years, and will be renewed if that new member has been active in movies during that decade. Members will receive lifetime voting rights after three ten-year terms; or if they have won or been nominated for an Academy Award.\n\n\"Those who do not qualify for active status will be moved to emeritus status (who) enjoy all the privileges of membership, except voting,\" according to the academy release.\n\nShawn Edwards, co-founder of the African-American Film Critics Association, said this change was crucial to gradually change the academy make-up.\n\nSpike Lee, Jada Pinkett Smith to boycott this year's Oscars\n\nLimiting the terms of inactive or retired members means they will be replaced by new, diverse voters.\n\n\"Right now the academy is too top-heavy old,\" says Edwards. \"This change means that academy members can’t necessarily be like a Supreme Court judge and ride this out for life. This will bring a whole different ball game and bring a whole different attitude and generational dynamic, a different appreciation of pop culture.\"\n\nBringing in new members: The academy will supplement the \"traditional process in which members sponsor new members\" by launching an \"ambitious, global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity,\" according to the academy release.\n\nAddressing diversity on the board of governors: The academy will establish three new governor seats that will be nominated by the president. This will increase diversity on the board \"where key decisions about membership and governance are made,\" according to the release.\n\nCurrently, Isaacs is the only African-American on the board of governors which is predominantly white.\n\n\"Cheryl has been this lone voice there in terms of diversity on the board,\" says Pete Hammond, awards columnists for Deadline.com. \"That will change now.\"\n\nThe surprise Friday release led to immediate response from Selma director Ava DuVernay who tweeted, \"Just received from @TheAcademy. One good step in a long, complicated journey for people of color + women artists.\"\n\nEdwards also expressed excitement about the new steps.\n\n\"This is a great first, and I need to underscore first,step,\" says Edwards. \"Change is still not going to happen overnight. But this is really the first serious attempt at diversifying the academy. And they had to do it.\"\n\nHammond says future board of governors meetings will address additional changes, including to Oscar voting procedure, to aid diversity in Oscar voting.\n\n\"These initial changes are just part one,\" says Hammond. \"But (the academy) needed to get something out right away.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/01/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2016/01/25/academy-addresses-membership-changes-were-widening-our-net/79328256/", "title": "Academy on membership changes: 'We're widening our net'", "text": "Bryan Alexander\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has addressed membership questions which have arisen following sweeping changes announced Friday by its board of governors.\n\nThe group has vowed to double female and minority members by 2020 and also changed membership criteria for those no longer active in the industry. Those members will receive an emeritus status and no longer have the right to vote.\n\nIn a Frequently Asked Questions section posted Monday on the Academy website, Lorenza Muñoz, managing director of membership, addresses concerns that the group is lowering standards to recruit new members.\n\n\"A lot of highly qualified potential members were falling outside our radar,\" the post says. \"We are not lowering any standards, we’re widening our net.\"\n\nHere's the FAQ section in its entirety:\n\nWhy is the Academy excluding older members from voting?\n\nWe’re not excluding older members. Everyone will retain membership.\n\n\n\nBut won’t older members lose their opportunity to vote for the Oscars?\n\nThese rules are not about age. In fact, under the new rules many veteran Academy members will retain voting rights.\n\n\n\nI thought you had to work in the last 10 years in order to vote.\n\nWorking in the last 10 years is one way to ensure you have voting privileges. Another way is to have been nominated for an Oscar. And a third way is to show that since you were admitted as a member you’ve worked in motion pictures during three 10-year periods. This means that the longer your career, the more likely you’ll qualify for voting.\n\n\n\nSo we have to have worked for 30 years to keep the vote?\n\nNo. Let’s say you were admitted to the Academy in 1980 and you worked on one film in 1989. That covers you for your first 10 years. Then you worked once in the ’90s, which covers you for your second 10-year term, and once again in 2001 for your third 10-year term. That’s only a 12-year period, but you have worked in the three ten-year terms of your membership, so you’d qualify as an active member with voting status.\n\n\n\nDo these 10-year terms have to be consecutive?\n\nNo, they do not.\n\n\n\nHow do you define “active in motion pictures?”\n\nYou must be employed in the same kinds of quality films that got you into the Academy in the first place. Your status will be assessed by your peers in your branch — the people who best understand the intricacies of the motion picture industry and your field. The intention is to be inclusive.\n\n\n\nWhat about some of us — such as writers and producers — who work steadily but without screen credit?\n\nAchievement is achievement, regardless of whether or not there is a screen credit. Additionally, members will have an opportunity to appeal their situation.\n\n\n\nWhat if the work I’ve done is not in my branch?\n\nIf an editor becomes a director, or a director becomes a producer, or an actor sells a screenplay, that’s all employment in the movie industry, and it still qualifies.\n\n\n\nWhat happens if I don’t qualify?\n\nYou move to emeritus status, which means you have all the benefits of membership except voting. You continue to receive screeners and you are still invited to Academy membership screenings and programs, but you no longer pay dues.\n\n\n\nAnd what happens if I become active again after having been moved to emeritus status?\n\nUpon review of your request, you can be reinstated as an active member with voting rights.\n\n\n\nIf I’m moved to emeritus status, does that mean I’ll no longer get screeners?\n\nYou are still eligible to receive screeners. The Academy does not distribute screeners. Production companies and studios do. We will ask our members who run these companies not to make an issue of it. Rest assured, your status — whether active or emeritus — will not be shared with any other outside entity.\n\n\n\nSo why make these changes at all?\n\nWe want the Oscars to be voted on by people who are currently working in motion pictures, or who have been active for a long time. There are a number of Academy members, however, who had brief careers and left the business. We want to strengthen, uphold, and maintain the credibility of the Oscars with these new criteria.\n\nVoting for the Oscars is a privilege of membership, not a right.\n\n\n\nWhat about all the other changes you announced?\n\nThe other changes are aimed at increasing diversity in our membership and governance.\n\nUnder our bylaws, the board is directed to periodically review our criteria for voting status and membership. This has happened in the past and this is one of those times. Diversity has been an ongoing discussion for many years.\n\n\n\nWhat about the changes on the board?\n\nWe’ve created three new governor seats, to be nominated by the president, and voted on by the board. These three seats will be filled by women and people of color, and the changes will take place in February.\n\n\n\nWhat is the plan for new recruitment?\n\nWe will be actively recruiting new members. We’re also adding non-governor seats to the six board committees that oversee all Academy activity. And we’re reforming the executive committees by which each branch conducts its business; these are the committees that decide whom to invite for membership.\n\nWe will maintain high standards and continue to admit only those with substantial achievements. The concern has been that a lot of highly qualified potential members were falling outside our radar. Many thought they had to wait to be invited, and didn’t know they could apply for membership, through a sponsorship process.\n\n\n\nBut why lower standards to get new members?\n\nWe are not lowering any standards, we’re widening our net.\n\nAll of these are substantive changes that will open up our governance to a wider range of members and have a significant and positive impact on the Academy. The result will be a membership that is more inclusive of the motion picture community, governance that is more representative of our membership, and a stronger Academy overall.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/01/25"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/28/entertainment/academy-members-discuss-will-smith-oscars-slap/index.html", "title": "Academy 'condemns' actions of Will Smith at Oscars, starts 'formal ...", "text": "(CNN) The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in a statement issued on Monday condemned the actions of best actor winner Will Smith after the \"King Richard\" star stormed the stage and slapped presenter Chris Rock in the face during Sunday's Oscars ceremony.\n\n\"The Academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night's show,\" the statement said. \"We have officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law.\"\n\nEarlier on Monday, CNN learned that Academy leadership \"strongly considered\" removing Smith from the Oscars telecast after the incident, according to a source close to the situation.\n\n\"Academy leadership strongly considered removing Will Smith from last night's broadcast following the incident. There were immediate discussions but the Academy decision makers were seated in various spots in the Dolby Theater and couldn't mobilize to make a decision before he won best actor,\" the source said.\n\nSmith apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees during his best actor acceptance speech.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Chloe Melas"], "publish_date": "2022/03/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2021/03/23/award-shows-honor-diverse-groups-underrepresented-oscars-golden-globes/6965395002/", "title": "Award shows honor groups underrepresented at Oscars, Golden ...", "text": "Six years ago, April Reign unknowingly ignited a movement with one tweet: \"#OscarsSoWhite they asked to touch my hair.\"\n\nThe hashtag trended on Twitter as high-profile celebrities and activists joined Reign in calling attention to that year's all-white acting nominees.\n\nThe Oscars improved in that area this year: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, who selects Oscar honorees, announced the first-ever woman of color nominated for Best Director, Chloé Zhao for the film \"Nomadland.\"Steven Yeun made history as the first Asian American person to land a Best Actor nomination, and his \"Minari\" costar Yuh-Jung Youn is the first Korean person nominated for an acting Oscar.\n\nThe Golden Globes, on the other hand, faced backlash for their racial makeup at this year's ceremony. The award selection group, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, is \"made up of around 90 international — no Black — journalists who attend movie junkets each year in search of a better life,\" co-host Tina Fey said in her opening monologue. Several presenters and award recipients quipped about the lack of diversity behind the scenes and onstage.\n\nPressure has mounted to address the homogeneity of nominees and nominators in mainstream award shows in recent years. From 1980 to 2015, white actors won 84% of Oscars' men's categories and 89% of women's acting awards, according to data scientist Eugene Woo.\n\nGolden Globes reaction:Golden Globes viewers deserved more accountability from the HFPA after membership scandal\n\nBut a lack of diversity is not the case for every media award show.\n\nAward programs outside these two prominent shows dedicate their awards to honoring populations often overlooked by mainstream award shows. They recognize the quality of films and television, and how marginalized groups are represented. The shows foster a space where communities can celebrate themselves and their art.\n\n\"All of us that are advocating for underrepresented groups, we all have an award event,\" said Deborah Calla, chairperson of the Media Access Awards, which honors films and TV that feature people with disabilities. \"They're spectacular because it tells the people who are winning that we are watching and appreciating what they're doing. For those not doing that, it reminds them there's another way to work and it can be just as exciting and successful.\"\n\nHere's a look at award shows that celebrate underrepresented creators, and use their platforms to draw attention to issues facing diverse populations.\n\nMedia Access Awards\n\nPeople with disabilities make up 25% of the population, but they are represented in less than 3% of onscreen roles, according to The Disability List, which the Media Access Awards created in collaboration with several other organizations. The Media Access Awards recognizes people with disabilities on screen, how they portray disability narratives and who fills roles behind the scenes.\n\nCalla had to dig to find writers, directors, actors and more to honor with Media Access Awards after she took over in 2010.\n\n\"Two minutes on a TV show was enough to give an award because there was nothing,\" Calla said. \"But these days it's like 'what about this person, that show, that person?' There are a lot more but still nowhere what we need to reflect this huge group of people.\"\n\nCreators may shy away from portraying disabilities out of fear or lack of knowledge about people with disabilities, Calla believes. She said it's important to hold an award show that honors this population to address people's misconceptions.\n\n\"I really hope that content creators continue to create stories that involve people with disabilities because television and film teaches society how to interact with each other,\" Calla said. \"With content we can change the world.\"\n\nWatch it: Catch the 2021 Media Access Awards at 9 p.m. EST Nov. 18. Check its website for updates on where to watch.\n\nGLAAD Media Awards\n\nBlockbusters that told stories about an LGBTQ person's experience won major awards in recent years — \"Moonlight,\" a film that follows a Black gay man's life from childhood to adulthood, won Best Picture at the Oscars in 2017.\n\nMainstream media shows are heading in the right direction, but still have a lot to learn, said GLAAD Media Awards Executive Producer Rich Ferraro. GLAAD is an LGBTQ media organization that combats misinformation about the community and advocates for LGBTQ rights.\n\nGLAAD Media Awards, which began in 1990, celebrate LGBTQ narratives in film, television, journalism, theater and other media that showcase the community \"in fair, accurate and inclusive ways would inspire more media outlets to do the same,\" Ferraro said.\n\n\"We know that what people see in the media has a huge affect in the decisions that are made in schools, in classrooms, in the ballot box, in offices around the country,\" Ferraro said. \"The founders of GLAAD knew that if we were able to get queer stories in the media … we would be able to change hearts and minds and start to grow acceptance and pave the way for legal equality.\"\n\nAlong with recognizing media creator's accomplishments, GLAAD uses its award show stage to shed a global spotlight on LGBTQ issues, moments that are not typically seen in mainstream award shows. They invite household names to speak to key issues facing the community, like actress Betty White who spoke in support of marriage equality at the 2013 GLAAD Media Awards. Madonna presented at the same ceremony dressed in a Boy Scout uniform on stage to protest the organization's ban on gay members.\n\nWatch it: Stream the 2021 GLAAD Media Awards at 8 p.m. EST April 8 live on GLAAD's YouTube channel or stream later in the evening on Hulu.\n\nRed Nation International Film Festival\n\nThe first Native American to win an Oscar, Wes Studi, accepted his golden statue just two years ago. But Native American filmmakers and actors have produced work for decades. Joanelle Romero landed the first leading role played by a Native American actor in the 1977 film \"The Girl Called Hatter Fox.\" Romero is now president, CEO and director of the Red Nation International Film Festival and Awards.\n\nRomero founded Red Nation Celebration Institute 25 years ago to celebrate Native American stories and people in movies. Along with the international festival and awards, the institute puts on a Native Women in Film festival during the week prior to the Oscars \"so that we're in front of the industry in one of the most important weeks,\" Romero said. Zhao, the director who made Oscar history this year, has shown several films and won awards at previous Red Nation festivals.\n\nThe institute also manages Red Nation Television Network, which has been available to stream for 15 years.\n\nHollywood institutions, like the Academy, that put on mainstream award shows have made \"baby steps\" toward Native American inclusion with moves like recognizing Studi, but those small movements \"no longer hold weight,\" Romero said.\n\nRomero is a one of few Native filmmakers to be an Academy member. The Hollywood Foreign Press has even fewer Native American decision-makers, Romero said. The Red Nation Celebration Institute has repeatedly asked to partner with the Academy, to get Native films on mainstream screens and awards. The Academy says \"no\" each time.\n\n\"Our institute and our board of directors have created programs, initiatives, award ceremonies and festivals to amplify our contemporary voices in pop culture now. That’s what's relevant,\" Romero said. \"These [other] institutes should be looking at the Native organizations that have done the work for years.\"\n\nWatch it: The 2021 Red Nation International Film Festivals will run from Nov. 1-30 on Red Nation Television Network and its website, where you can find out more.\n\nA look at the Oscar nominations this year:Female directors triumph in Oscar nominations, but why is 'Judas' the only Black-led film in the best picture race?\n\nArab Film Fest Collab\n\nRepresentation of Arab cultures in film has gotten better, said Arab Film and Media Institute Executive Director Serge Bakalian. If you asked him five years ago, though, he would have shared a different opinion.\n\nViewership of screenings sent to voters and responses to films from Arab states have improved, Bakalian said. Historically, though, media has represented Arab people in \"atrocious\" stereotypes.\n\nLike Calla, Bakalian believes showcasing Arab narratives is \"transformative\" for how people understand the array of Arab cultures.\n\n\"We use the word ‘Arab’ in the most inclusive manner,\" Bakalian said. \"It's so diverse in terms of race, identity, faith. Within that spectrum you're not looking at a monolithic people. That's what we’re trying to show in all of our programming and our films.\"\n\nEgypt submitted the first Arab film the Oscars considered in 1959, \"Cairo Station.\" It did not receive a nomination, but the following decade the Academy nominated the first Arabic-language film, \"The Battle of Algiers\" for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Screenplay and Best Director. By 2010 to 2019, the Academy nominated from six Arab countries they had not selected content from before.\n\nBakalian grew up in Beirut, and when he moved to the U.S. he saw film after film set in his birth city told stories that perpetuated Arab stereotypes. He didn't see himself on the screen.\n\n\"When you're raised, especially for young Arabs, where Arabs are the bad guys, all these stereotypes, when that’s all you see and then you see a film ... one that you relate with, that you see a more authentic representation of you and your family and your culture, I think that’s really empowering,\" Bakalian said.\n\nWatch it: Organizers have not chosen a final date, but expect to hold the Arab Film Festival in October or November. Check the Arab Film and Media Institute's website for updates.\n\nBlack Reel Awards\n\nWhether it's a good or bad year for Black representation in film, TV or award shows, \"there's always a place for Black creatives, filmmakers and performers to have their work acknowledged,\" Tim Gordon said. That place: the Black Reel Awards, founded in 1999 and led by Gordon.\n\nThe Black Reel Awards recognizes independent and international films that span the African diaspora, in English or not, and looks for works by filmmakers who have been in the business for years but never earned awards.\n\n\"I think the days of wondering whether or not stories about Black people or stories told through a Black perspective are ... going to be told, I don't worry about anymore because of the influx of directors and new visionaries like Barry Jenkins and Ava DuVernay,\" Gordon said. \"The next frontier is that we've got to pull more women, whether it's women of color, whether it's just women in general.\"\n\nGordon believes the Black Reel Awards pick diverse films because the more than 100 members select nominees for the show's 24 categories.\n\n\"There's no lobbying, there's not studios calling up our voters trying to get them to change votes,\" Gordon said. \"People vote their conscience. Year in and year out, we see how that results in things that people feel are the best of a particular year are the things that are honored.\"\n\nWatch it: Catch the 2021 Black Reel Awards virtually on April 11 at 8 p.m. EST. Check its website and social media for updates on where to find the show.\n\nOscar nomination snubs:Jodie Foster, Jared Leto, Tom Hanks, Spike Lee, 'Da 5 Bloods'\n\nSpirit Awards\n\nDiversity runs in the DNA of Film Independent, the nonprofit that organizes the Spirit Awards, said President Josh Welsh.\n\nThat's in part because anyone passionate about film can become a member for a $95 annual fee and help select the show's nominees. Black, Indigenous and people of color made up 51% of the Spirit Awards nominations committee in 2020, according to a Film Independent Impact Report.\n\nIn contrast, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences must receive invitations to join the voting body, and Hollywood Foreign Press Association applicants must be sponsored by two current members and have several years of entertainment journalism experience.\n\nSpirit Awards leader plan \"a ton of outreach and turn every stone to make sure filmmakers know they're eligible\" to make the process \"inherently inclusive,\" said Associate Director of Nominations Setu Raval.\n\n\"[The Spirit Awards are] so much about inspiring audiences and inspiring future artists and filmmakers and storytellers,\" Raval said. \"The more representation we have, the more young people will choose to be creators and tell their stories.\"\n\nIt's important for people to see themselves on screen, and films and TV with the ability to reach millions of viewers are such powerful mediums, Welsh said.\n\n\"Knowing there are segments of the population that don’t get to see themselves on screen is just not good,\" Welsh said. \"That carries over to award shows. It matters who the host is, who the presenters are. Some years we’re better at it than others, we are still committed to working on.\"\n\nWatch it: Catch the 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards at 10 p.m. EST April 22 on IFC.\n\nAsian American International Film Festival\n\nAfter a successful debut film, marginalized filmmakers face obstacles to create films to follow it, said Wynton Wong, the programming manager for the Asian American International Film Festival. That's where the film festival steps in.\n\n\"We're trying our hardest to find not only the first-time filmmakers that we think are doing good work and deserve additional resources and time to have their second and third film, but also the filmmakers that have been grinding in the indie scene for decades,\" Wong said. \"We want to provide name recognition for this film, this evolution of their career.\"\n\nThe AAIFF award categories this year expanded to honor storytelling. Wong said people of color are usually at the forefront of new formats, and award categories include short-form web, which recognize creations like TikTok videos and Instagram reels. The group also gives awards for video games and virtual reality. Wong said really great storytelling is happening by \"the next wave of storytellers\" in video game spaces.\n\n\"What if you really pushed the boundaries of what form and structure are?,\" Wong asked. \"Because that's what we haven't seen, and if we're talking about representation, that is much more interesting.\"\n\nWatch it: The 2021 Asian American International Film Festival will take place Aug. 11-22 in a hybrid format with primarily virtual and some limited in-person events in New York City. Check out AAIFF's event website for more information.\n\nNAACP Image Awards\n\nWhen people think of the NAACP, they likely envision 112 years of racial justice work to gain equity and inclusion for Black Americans — not an awards show.\n\nThe NAACP Image Awards are a manifestation of the organization's year-round efforts, said NAACP Hollywood Bureau Senior Vice President Kyle Bowser. The Hollywood Bureau launched in 2002 after almost no Black people received Oscar nominations.\n\nFollowing Reign's #OscarsSoWhite hashtag that drew attention to the Academy's whiteness, the NAACP still had a space where they had to push for Black inclusion.\n\n\"We put a lot of energy into lobbying the [film] industry, both the infrastructure — those who sort of monetize the art — and the artist community themselves,\" Bowser said.\n\nThe NAACP Image Awards, like the Black Reel Awards, show Black filmmakers they are appreciated by their own, Bowser said. They continue to press for mainstream recognition, but coming to the Image Awards is like coming home and \"getting a warm hug.\"\n\n\"There's something very positive, warm and welcoming about the Image Awards, because it's a community turning inward and saluting itself for things that were well done,\" Bowser said.\n\nWatch it: Catch the 2021 NAACP Image Awards on March 27 at 8 p.m. EST on BET\n\nOscar nominations 2021:'Mank' leads with 10 honors, Viola Davis makes history\n\nCinema Tropical\n\nLatin America has become an epicenter of world cinema, leading a generation of Latinx filmmakers to conquer Hollywood in recent years, said Cinema Tropical Executive Director Carlos Gutiérrez. But he believes the U.S. has been slow to assimilate, and Latinx creators’ projects cannot access funding as easily as their counterparts in Latin America.\n\nCinema Tropical works to promote and award filmmakers the organization feels are not getting the attention they deserve.\n\n“We are going to focus more on films that are pushing the envelope in terms of narrative,\" Gutiérrez said. “For the most part, looking back [at] the films that have won … they tend to be bolder.”\n\nCinema Tropical tries to “bridge the cultural experience between Latin America and Latinx people in the U.S.,” Gutiérrez said. The organization dedicates an award category to best Latinx film, along with a Latin American competition, but both showcase “a larger sense of what’s going on in Latin America and also here in the U.S.\"\n\nAlong with giving a platform to an underrepresented population, Cinema Tropical awards “validate” Latinx creators and fantastic work that many mainstream organizations do not showcase, Gutiérrez said.\n\nWatch it: Cinema Tropical's 2021 award show took place on Jan. 19, and they have not chosen a 2022 date, but say it will likely take place the second or third week of January 2022. Check its website for updates.\n\nContact Sammy Gibbons at (920) 737-6895 or sgibbons@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @sammykgibbons or Facebook at www.facebook.com/ReporterSammyGibbons/.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/03/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2022/03/23/oscars-smackdown-award-show-worth-saving-we-fight-out/7083934001/", "title": "Oscars smackdown: Is the award show worth saving? We fight it out", "text": "Books editor Barbara Vandenburgh says the Oscars are the escape we need, especially now.\n\nEntertainment reporter Rasha Ali sees the Oscars as an out-of-touch, boring and obsolete show\n\nBarbara sees the Oscars as the Super Bowl of pop culture.\n\nAs a Black woman, Rasha sees the Oscars as not her pop-culture.\n\nThe Oscars are at a crisis point.\n\nThe opulent awards ceremony, now in its 94th year, is flailing. Earlier this year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences controversially announced it was eliminating eight categories from the live telecast, including film editing, makeup and hairstyling, while adding an Oscars Fan Favorite category voted via Twitter in what reads as a desperate bid to get more popular films like \"Spider-Man: No Way Home\" into the mix (Thank you baby Jesus!)*.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/23"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/22/entertainment/oscars-2022-preview/index.html", "title": "Oscars 2022 preview: What to watch for at the show - CNN", "text": "(CNN) Despite cosmetic changes and experiments with hosts (or no host), the Oscars have remained largely rooted in tradition, producing a 20th-century TV show for a 21st-century audience. Coming off record-low ratings and with the film industry still reeling from a global pandemic, the burden for the 94th annual Academy Awards will be whether they can pivot to face present realities, and at this point how much good that will do.\n\nThose are some of the questions facing the producers of the Oscars, ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which has risked angering some of its members and endured criticism over plans to shake up the format by handing out eight awards during what amounts to a preshow, then editing those acceptance speeches into the telecast.\n\nYet other challenges loom over the March 27 presentation, which, despite an expansion to 10 best-picture nominees , has embraced streaming services but largely overlooked the kind of blockbusters that connect with the widest possible audience and, theoretically, might help entice those who aren't regular Oscar viewers to consider tuning in.\n\nThe issues surrounding this year's awards won't all be answered when the envelopes get opened on Oscar night. But here are six things to consider before, during and after:\n\nCan the ratings rebound?\n\nPhotos: The 2021 Academy Awards From left, producer Peter Spears, actress Frances McDormand, director Chloé Zhao, producer Mollye Asher and producer Dan Janvey pose with their Oscars in the press room after their film \"Nomadland\" won best picture on Sunday, April 25. Hide Caption 1 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards A trio of Oscar winners -- from left, Yuh-jung Youn, Daniel Kaluuya and Frances McDormand -- pose together in the press room. Youn won best supporting actress for her role in \"Minari.\" Kaluuya won best supporting actor for his role in \"Judas and the Black Messiah.\" And McDormand won best actress for \"Nomadland.\" Hide Caption 2 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Actor Bryan Cranston recognizes some of the vaccinated front-line workers who were at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night. Cranston was presenting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to the Motion Picture and Television Fund for the group's help and assistance to productions during the coronavirus pandemic. Hide Caption 3 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Yuh-jung Youn holds her best supporting actress Oscar as she stands next to presenter Brad Pitt in the press room. Hide Caption 4 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards People watch Youn's acceptance speech from a railway station in Seoul, South Korea. She's the first South Korean actress to win an Oscar. Hide Caption 5 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Actress Olivia Colman poses for a photo while attending an Oscars screening in London. Many of the nominees were in Los Angeles, but some appeared remotely because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Hide Caption 6 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Travon Free, left, and Martin Desmond Roe accept the Oscar for the short film \"Two Distant Strangers.\" Their shoes and the inside of their jackets carried the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other people killed by police violence. Hide Caption 7 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Nominees attend an Oscars screening in Paris. Hide Caption 8 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards From left, Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross enter the press room after winning the Oscar for best original score (\"Soul\"). Hide Caption 9 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Lakeith Stanfield, a best supporting actor nominee, is interviewed in London. Hide Caption 10 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Actress Reese Witherspoon enters the Oscars press room. She was one of the award presenters. Hide Caption 11 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Best actor nominee Gary Oldman was among those in London. Hide Caption 12 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Chloé Zhao accepts the best director Oscar for \"Nomadland.\" She is the first woman of color and the first woman of Asian descent to win best director. \"This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold out to the goodness in themselves and to hold out to the goodness in each other, no matter how difficult it is to do that,\" she said in her acceptance speech. \"You inspire me to keep going.\" Hide Caption 13 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Anders Hammer, director of the Oscar-nominated documentary \"Do Not Split,\" takes part in the show from Oslo, Norway. Hide Caption 14 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards From left, Mia Neal, Jamika Wilson and Sergio Lopez-Rivera pose with the Oscars they won for best makeup and hairstyling (\"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom\"). Hide Caption 15 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Director Thomas Vinterberg accepts the Oscar for best international feature film, which went to his film \"Another Round.\" He said this was \"beyond anything I could ever imagine -- except this is something I've always imagined, since I was 5.\" Hide Caption 16 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Phillip Bladh, holding the best sound Oscar for \"Sound of Metal,\" enters the press room in Los Angeles. Hide Caption 17 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Florian Zeller, speaking remotely from Paris, holds the Oscar he won for best adapted screenplay (\"The Father\"). Hide Caption 18 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Songwriters Fat Max Gsus, left, and Savan Kotecha appear on the show from Stockholm, Sweden. Hide Caption 19 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Daniel Kaluuya examines his best supporting actor Oscar, which he won for his role as Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in \"Judas and the Black Messiah.\" Hide Caption 20 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards \"Pinocchio\" makeup artist Dalia Colli and hair designer Francesco Pegoretti appear on the show from Rome. Hide Caption 21 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Emerald Fennell won the first Oscar of the night, for best original screenplay (\"Promising Young Woman\"). \"I'm trying very hard not to cry because, as an English person ... I don't cry ever,\" she joked. Hide Caption 22 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Actor Sacha Baron Cohen is cleaned up by his wife, Isla Fisher. They appeared on the show from Sydney. Hide Caption 23 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards People attend a drive-in Oscar party in West Hollywood. Hide Caption 24 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Actress and director Regina King opened the show at Union Station. She delivered a hopeful monologue and said that if things had gone differently in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, she probably would have been out marching instead of presenting. \"As a mother of a Black son, I know the fear that so many live with -- and no amount of fame or fortune changes that,\" she said. Hide Caption 25 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Attendees prepare for the beginning of the show at Union Station in Los Angeles. Hide Caption 26 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards From left, Nina Parker, Brad Goreski and Zanna Roberts Rassi were part of the panel for the E! channel's red-carpet show. Hide Caption 27 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Actress Laura Dern walks the red carpet before the show. Hide Caption 28 of 29 Photos: The 2021 Academy Awards Best actress nominee Viola Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon, are seen on the left after arriving on the red carpet. Hide Caption 29 of 29\n\nAnd if not, then what? After dropping to a mere 10 million viewers last year -- suffering a decline of more than 50% that mirrored other award shows during the pandemic -- the Oscars are surely hoping to rebound, at least a bit. But with broadcast ratings shrinking overall a major boost appears unlikely.\n\nThe Academy's decision to change the format to mollify ABC, which broadcasts the show, has created some buzz about finding a different TV home, one that will celebrate artistry without as much concern about ratings. But since the network's annual fee covers the organization's budget, such a shift would require a major investment by a new platform and potentially dilute the audience even further.\n\nWhat everyone appears reluctant to acknowledge, seemingly, is that media has become a fragmented world, and other than the Super Bowl, shared events -- which the Oscars once qualified as -- are increasingly becoming a thing of the past.\n\nWill time-crunching categories work?\n\nPhotos: Oscars winners 2021 Best picture: \"Nomadland\" Hide Caption 1 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best actor: Anthony Hopkins, \"The Father\" Hide Caption 2 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best actress: Frances McDormand, \"Nomadland\" Hide Caption 3 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best director: Chloé Zhao, \"Nomadland\" Hide Caption 4 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best supporting actor: Daniel Kaluuya, \"Judas and the Black Messiah\" Hide Caption 5 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best supporting actress: Yuh-jung Youn, \"Minari\" Hide Caption 6 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best original screenplay: \"Promising Young Woman\" Hide Caption 7 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best adapted screenplay: \"The Father\" Hide Caption 8 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best animated feature film: \"Soul\" Hide Caption 9 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best animated short film: \"If Anything Happens I Love You\" Hide Caption 10 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best live action short film: \"Two Distant Strangers\" Hide Caption 11 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best international feature film: \"Another Round\" (Denmark) Hide Caption 12 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best original score: \"Soul\" Hide Caption 13 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best original song: \"Fight for You,\" performed by H.E.R. for the film \"Judas and the Black Messiah\" Hide Caption 14 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best production design: \"Mank\" Hide Caption 15 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best cinematography: \"Mank\" Hide Caption 16 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best makeup and hairstyling: \"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom\" Hide Caption 17 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best costume design: \"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom\" Hide Caption 18 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best documentary feature: \"My Octopus Teacher\" Hide Caption 19 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best documentary, short subject: \"Colette\" Hide Caption 20 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best sound: \"Sound of Metal\" Hide Caption 21 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best film editing: \"Sound of Metal\" Hide Caption 22 of 23 Photos: Oscars winners 2021 Best visual effects: \"Tenet\" Hide Caption 23 of 23\n\nThe protests over moving awards in mostly technical categories was predictable, but it reflects a perhaps belated nod to a fact other award shows have long since recognized: People watch to see stars, not film editors or sound technicians.\n\nThat said, there's no clear evidence a faster-paced, more entertainment-oriented broadcast will jumpstart the ratings, in which case the Academy will have alienated members without a clear benefit.\n\nDoes Netflix fulfill its push for Oscar recognition?\n\n'The Power of the Dog' is among the films nominated for best picture.\n\nAfter conquering the Emmys, Netflix began a concerted push for Oscars -- starting with \"Roma\" in 2019, the first of its seven best-picture nominees including this year's -- despite resistance within the Academy to fully recognizing streaming movies alongside their theatrical brethren.\n\nTwo years of a pandemic and heightened at-home viewing has helped erase those barriers. Although Netflix has challenged with films like \"Roma,\" \"The Irishman\" and \"Mank,\" a win by perceived frontrunner \"The Power of the Dog\" would mark the culmination of that strategy. And just to add extra suspense, the main competition could be a film from another streamer, Apple TV+'s \"Coda,\" an uplifting crowd-pleaser that has the momentum of winning the Producers Guild and Screen Actors Guild awards, even if people didn't watch it with crowds.\n\nWill this be remembered as a weak movie year?\n\nSiân Heder directs Eugenio Derbez in \"CODA,\" nominated for best picture.\n\nSome Oscar years look better than others with the benefit of hindsight, as evidenced by those still grousing about \"Crash\" or \"The Shape of Water\" winning best picture.\n\nWill a year that anointed \"The Power of the Dog,\" a compelling but very slow-moving movie, or the small-boned \"Coda,\" be viewed charitably in the future? We'll see, although given the lack of consensus and the level of sniping directed at both films, there will be plenty of Monday-morning quarterbacking no matter which way voters go.\n\nPast vs. present: Finding the right balance\n\nOscars host Ellen DeGeneres took a selfie on stage in 2014.\n\nThe Oscars historically mix old and new, and this year will be no exception, with planned tributes to 60 years of the James Bond franchise and \"The Godfather's\" 50th anniversary.\n\nOlder viewers that saw the Corleones in theaters, however, aren't the audience that the Academy and ABC yearn to reach if they're going to plant the seeds for the future. And the younger demographics they're desperate to attract (in part because that's what advertisers covet) aren't seeing the movies that they're watching -- think \"Spider-Man: No Way Home\" -- heavily represented much among the nominees.\n\nWill a stunt with Twitter, allowing people to vote for a popular movie, help address that shortcoming? Or is it just symbolic of desperation, and a way to mount an end run on the Academy board shooting down a 2018 proposal for a \"popular film\" category?\n\nCan the show inspire people to go to the movies?\n\nMovie theaters have taken a hit during the pandemic.\n\nHistorically, a big part of the Oscars has been cheerleading for the movies, which has become more than just an academic exercise for studios and particularly theaters. Last year's show introduced the hashtag #TheBigScreenIsBack and promoted seeing movies \"the way you've always loved them.\"", "authors": ["Analysis Brian Lowry"], "publish_date": "2022/03/22"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_20", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:22", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20220701_21", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:22", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20220701_22", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:22", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2020/01/26/royal-family-how-much-does-cost-them-fly-official-trips/4563244002/", "title": "Royal family: How much does it cost for them to fly on official trips?", "text": "Richard Corrigan\n\nGoBankingRates.com\n\nTraveling like royalty comes with a king-sized price tag. GoBankingRates.com looked at how much it costs British taxpayers to send the British royal family overseas and around the United Kingdom on official trips in recent years.\n\nThe study did not drill down into the travel costs for official trips by Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan, who have made official visits to Ireland, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. But after stepping down as full-time working royals earlier this month, the couple will soon be traveling on their own dime – or on friends' private jets.\n\nBut here's a look at the cost of past trips by the queen and her family:\n\nIsrael\n\nTotal cost of trip: $96,958\n\nWho went: Prince Charles\n\nMethod of travel: Charter\n\nMembers of the royal family don’t often travel to Israel, but Prince Charles traveled there in late January for the fifth World Holocaust Forum. He also went there in September 2016 for the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres, alongside heads of state from other countries such as then-President Barack Obama.\n\nCharter flights from Aberdeen to Ben Gurion Airport and back made the trip a costly one. But it gave Prince Charles a rare opportunity to visit the grave of his paternal grandmother while in Jerusalem.\n\nFrance\n\nTotal cost of trip: $63,496\n\nWho went: Prince William and Duchess Kate, Prince Harry, Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla\n\nMethod of travel: Charter\n\nOn June 30, 2016, Prince William and Kate Middleton winged their way to France in the company of William’s brother, Prince Harry, on the eve of the Battle of the Somme Centenary commemorations.\n\nThe three young members of the royal family were among thousands who gathered at the Thiepval Memorial the following day to honor those who fell during one of the bloodiest battles of World War I. They were joined on July 1 by Prince Charles and Camilla, along with Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester.\n\nBlame separate charter flights for the two generations of royals for the high price tag on this short trip across the English Channel.\n\nVietnam\n\nTotal cost of trip: $49,383\n\nWho went: Prince William\n\nMethod of travel: Scheduled flight\n\nPrince William took the time to kick a soccer ball around with some local schoolchildren during his first official FCO visit to Vietnam, which is one of the most budget-friendly vacation spots. But the three-day trip was anything but a vacation.\n\nHis flight from London touched down in Hanoi on Nov. 15, 2016, and the visit focused on efforts to protect endangered wildlife. Prince William, who is president of United for Wildlife, met with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc before attending a two-day international conference on the illegal wildlife trade.\n\nOman, UAE and Bahrain\n\nTotal cost of trip: $96,224\n\nWho went: Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla\n\nMethod of travel: Charter\n\nPrince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had a packed schedule during their official FCO visit to the Middle East. The couple attended 50 engagements in Oman, the UAE and Bahrain between Nov. 4 and 11, 2016.\n\nChartered flights from Royal Air Force Brize Norton to Muscat, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Bahrain made it an expensive trip as well as a busy one. But Prince Charles and Camilla appeared to get the most out of their extended visit. Along the way, Camilla befriended a tiny owl, Prince Charles took part in a traditional Omani sword dance and both found time to do some shopping.\n\nLondon\n\nTotal cost of trip: $26,635\n\nWho went: The queen and the Duke of Edinburgh\n\nMethod of travel: Royal Train\n\nEven traveling within the United Kingdom can come with a hefty price tag, as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s trip to the National Vigil at Westminster Abbey goes to show.\n\nThe couple took the Royal Train to attend the service and vigil, during which Her Majesty the Queen placed a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior on the eve of June 30, 2016, marking the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. Afterward, the train rolled on, carrying the queen and Prince Philip to their Edinburgh residence at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.\n\nLancashire and Yorkshire, U.K.\n\nTotal cost of trip: $60,894\n\nWho went: Prince Charles\n\nMethod of travel: Royal Train\n\nPrince Charles hopped aboard the Royal Train to partake in two packed days of engagements on March 20 and 21, 2017, making numerous stops throughout Lancashire and Yorkshire.\n\nThe trip included visits to the D. Byrne & Co. Wine Shop and Cowmans Famous Sausage Shop in Clitheroe, along with a selection of retailers from the Clitheroe Annual Food Festival. The Prince of Wales then went on to visit BAE systems in Samlesbury and stopped in at Dewlay Ltd. to see the artisanal cheese-making process.\n\nThough the trip was strictly a domestic one, it was costly all the same. The Sunday Post was quick to skewer the journey’s high price tag, noting that the cost of the Royal Train voyage clocked in at roughly $126 per mile.\n\nDorchester, U.K.\n\nTotal cost of trip: $29,147\n\nWho went: Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla\n\nMethod of travel: Royal Train\n\nWhile the price tag might seem steep for a trip of less than 140 miles, the royal family’s visit to Dorchester on Oct. 26 to 27, 2016, was an emotional one. The queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, accompanied by Prince Charles and Camilla, took the Royal Train to Poundbury, an experimental new town of sorts that began construction in 1993, based on Prince Charles’s vision for a better-quality living environment.\n\nPrince Charles and Camilla officially opened The Duchess of Cornwall Inn, a pub for the new community in the aptly named Queen Mother Square. The Prince of Wales also gave a speech at the opening of Queen Mother Square, inviting the queen to unveil the square’s statue of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.\n\nRussia\n\nTotal cost of trip: $53,998\n\nHousehold: Princess Anne\n\nMethod of travel: Charter\n\nAccording to the Telegraph, no member of the royal family has made more trips to Russia than Anne, Princess Royal – the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II.\n\nHer official FCO visit on Aug. 30 to 31, 2016, took her to the northern city of Arkhangelsk to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the First Arctic Convoy, which carried essential supplies between Britain and the Soviet Union during World War II. Princess Anne was accompanied on the trip by her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/01/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/09/07/prince-harry-repays-3-million-taxpayer-money-uk-home-renovation-duchess-meghan/5739777002/", "title": "Prince Harry, Meghan Markle repay $3M in public funds for UK ...", "text": "Associated Press\n\nLONDON (AP) — Prince Harry has repaid 2.4 million pounds ($3.2 million) in British taxpayers’ money that was used to renovate the home in Windsor intended for him and his wife Meghan before they gave up royal duties and moved to California.\n\nA spokesman for the couple said Monday that Harry had made a contribution to the Sovereign Grant, the public money that goes to the royal family. He said the contribution “fully covered the necessary renovation costs of Frogmore Cottage,” near Queen Elizabeth II’s Windsor Castle home, west of London.\n\nHe said Frogmore Cottage will remain the home of Harry and Meghan, also known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, when they visit the U.K.\n\nRoyal accounts for 2019 show that 2.4 million pounds was spent renovating the house, including structural work, rewiring and new flooring. Harry and Meghan agreed to pay back the money and start paying rent as part of the plans drawn up when they quit as senior working royals in March.\n\nFrogmore Cottage:What we know about Harry and Meghan's previous U.K. home\n\nPreviously:Prince Harry, Meghan's Frogmore Cottage home renovations cost taxpayers $3 million\n\nThey recently bought a house in Santa Barbara, California and last week announced a deal with Netflix to produce a range of films and series for the streaming service.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/09/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/09/25/queen-elizabeth-royal-family-facing-45-million-hit-covid-19/3528717001/", "title": "Queen Elizabeth II to trim costs as royal family faces $45 million hit ...", "text": "Staff and wire reports\n\nLONDON — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and her family are facing a 35 million pound ($45 million) hit from the coronavirus pandemic, partly due to a shortage of tourists, the monarch’s money-manager said Friday.\n\nReleasing the royal household’s annual accounts, Keeper of the Privy Purse Michael Stevens said a lack of income from visitors to royal buildings was likely to bring a general funding shortfall of 15 million pounds ($19 million) over three years.\n\nHe said the impact of the pandemic is also likely to cause a 20 million-pound ($25.4 million) shortfall in a 10-year, 369-million-pound program to replace antiquated heating, plumbing and wiring at Buckingham Palace, the queen’s London home.\n\nOfficials have said the palace’s aging infrastructure, which had its last major upgrade after World War II, is at risk of a catastrophic failure if it’s not replaced.\n\nStevens said the royal household would not ask for more government money but would “look to manage the impact through our own efforts and efficiencies.”\n\nBuckingham Palace has already introduced a staff pay freeze and a halt to hiring.\n\nMore:Barbados announces plan to remove Queen Elizabeth as head of state next year\n\nMore:Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip departing remote Balmoral Castle, will return to England\n\nThe accounts show that the monarchy cost British taxpayers 69.4 million pounds ($88.2 million) in the year to the end of March, an increase of 2.4 million ($3.1 million) on the previous financial year.\n\nIn a statement released by the palace, Stevens said the majority of the year under review took place before the impact of the coronavirus pandemic set in. Among a variety of engagements, the queen hosted President Donald Trump on a state visit and led national commemorations for the 75th anniversary of D-Day and for Armistice Day.\n\n“Although COVID-19 has temporarily changed the format of engagements and events, it has not changed the sense of continuity, reassurance and recognition they provide,\" Stevens said. \"Her Majesty’s program, supported by her family, will continue to develop meaningful ways to lead the nation through this time.”\n\nDespite squabbles over money involving Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan of Sussex, and notwithstanding the anti-monarchy views of republicans, most Brits believe the queen and the monarchy in general give good value for money, says royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams.\n\nMore:It's been 6 months since Harry and Meghan moved to LA post-Megxit: Are they happy now?\n\n\"The monarchy is an invaluable symbol of national unity,\" Fitzwilliams said. \"The benefit to Britain through using it to further soft power in trips abroad, work for charity, having the headship of the Commonwealth, and tourism is enormous. It is worth bearing this in mind when considering the cost of monarchy.\"\n\nThe accounts confirm that Harry and Meghan paid an undisclosed sum to reimburse the public purse for rent and refurbishment of their Frogmore Cottage home on the Windsor Castle estate, which remains their base in Britain even though they are now living in California. The exact sum they paid will appear in next year’s accounts. The renovation costs alone for the home were 2.4 million pounds ($3.1 million.)\n\nHarry, 36 and the former Meghan Markle, 39, married at Windsor Castle in May 2018. The couple announced early this year they were quitting royal duties and moving to North America, citing what they said was the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media. They recently bought a house for more than $14 million in Santa Barbara County.\n\nHarry and Meghan signed a mega deal this month to produce nature series, documentaries and children’s programming for streaming service Netflix.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press; Maria Puente, USA TODAY\n\nMore:Princess Eugenie, husband Jack Brooksbank expecting first child\n\nMore:Prince Harry, Duchess Meghan draw criticism, disparaging Trump comments for video urging voting", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/09/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/30/fact-check-u-k-paid-off-debts-slave-owning-families-2015/3283908001/", "title": "Fact check: U.K. paid off debts to slave-owning families in 2015", "text": "The claim: The U.K. government only just finished paying its debts to slave owners in 2015\n\nRecent fatal police shootings in the United States have led to a global reckoning on the role of race and injustice in society. In the United Kingdom, this dispute has centered on the country's imperial history and legacy of slavery.\n\n“In 1833, Britain used 40% of its national budget to buy freedom for all slaves in the Empire. Britain borrowed such a large sum of money for the Slavery Abolition Act that it wasn’t paid off until 2015,” a graphic posted by the political activist Raheem Kassam reads.\n\n“This means that living British citizens helped pay for the end of the slave trade with their taxes,” the graphic continues. The post has been shared almost 20,000 times.\n\nThe story is echoed in an article by the website Your Black World.\n\nWhen the United Kingdom abolished slavery, the government compensated slave owners for the value lost from freeing enslaved people. It is true the Bank of England only recently paid off these debts.\n\nFact:Congress did not designate Confederate veterans as U.S. veterans\n\nSlavery and abolition in the British Empire\n\nThe British played an integral role in building the Atlantic slave trade, which enabled chattel slavery, the brutal practice that defined most societies in the Atlantic world.\n\n\"Portugal and Britain were the two most ‘successful’ slave-trading countries accounting for about 70% of all Africans transported to the Americas. Britain was the most dominant between 1640 and 1807 when the British slave trade was abolished,\" the British National Archives found.\n\nIn total, about 3.1 million African people were transported to British colonies across the Americas and Caribbean, though only 2.7 million people survived the harrowing \"middle passage\" in the confines of slave ships across the ocean.\n\nFact check:The Irish were indentured servants, not slaves\n\nAnti-slavery sentiment grew in the Britain during this same period, with many British and African abolitionists agitating for an end to the trade and abolition of slavery. In 1807, the British Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act, which outlawed the slave trade in the British Empire.\n\n\"Many, however, simply evaded its restrictions. Slave ships were regularly fitted out in British ports like Liverpool or Bristol. In fact, until 1811 carrying slaving equipment like shackles was not considered proof of involvement in the slave trade,\" Marika Sherwood found in her 2007 work \"After Abolition: Britain and the Slave Trade Since 1807.\"\n\nBritish slavers and capital were still involved in the trading of African people to plantations in major slave societies like Brazil, Cuba and the United States for years after the slave trade's official abolition.\n\nFact check:Yes, Kente cloths were historically worn by empire involved in West African slave trade\n\nIn 1834, the British government outlawed slavery in Britain and its American possessions, though not in its Asian colonies such as British India and what would become Sri Lanka.\n\nThe British government also paid 20 million pounds – the equivalent of around 17 billion pounds today – to compensate slave owners for the lost capital associated with freeing slaves. This payout was a massive 40% of the government's budget and required many bonds to slave owners to effectuate the law.\n\nThese obligations to slave owners and institutions are the debts that were paid off by the UK government only in 2015.\n\nMore:25 books for kids and adults to reflect on history of slavery\n\nCompensating slave owners after abolition\n\nThe UK Treasury continued to compensate the descendants of slave owners for decades after the abolition of slavery in the empire. The payments were not scrutinized until the British Treasury tweeted out the historical fact in 2018.\n\n\"The amount of money borrowed for the Slavery Abolition Act was so large that it wasn't paid off until 2015. Which means that living British citizens helped pay to end the slave trade,\" the tweet read.\n\nThe tweet was widely criticized at the time, with many outraged that current British tax dollars were compensating the descendants of slave owners. The Treasury later deleted the tweet.\n\nWhile the British government hasn't disclosed a complete list of the recipient individuals and firms of bonds related to compensation for slaves, researchers at University College London have compiled a list of over 46,000 current individuals and groups who have received government payouts related to the abolition of slavery. Many powerful British families, including current business and political elites in the United Kingdom, are among the recipients uncovered by the UCL team.\n\nYet not all recipients were already wealthy or became so due to the payouts; UCL records show many middle-class Britons also benefited from the bonds.\n\n\"Britain stood out among European states in its willingness to appease slave owners, and to burden future generations of its citizens with the responsibility of paying for it,\" Kris Manjapra wrote for The Guardian in 2018.\n\nRecently, economists and political scientists have debated whether the payouts were necessary for the successful abolition of slavery, some arguing that political will would have been better used to compensate Black slaves instead.\n\nOur ruling: True\n\nThe British government only paid off its obligations to former slave-owning families and organizations in 2015. When this fact gained public attention, it turned into a major controversy in the United Kingdom, which has since been reignited by international reckoning over anti-Black racism and social justice. We rate this claim TRUE because it is supported by our research.\n\nOur fact-check sources:\n\nThank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.\n\nOur fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/06/30"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/957206/ten-things-you-need-to-know-today-30-june-2022", "title": "Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 30 June 2022 | The Week UK", "text": "Meghan findings won’t be published\n\nBuckingham Palace has refused to release the findings of an investigation into bullying allegations made against the Duchess of Sussex. The review was launched in March 2021 to explore what “lessons could be learned” after it was alleged that she had driven out two personal assistants and “humiliated” staff. Although the palace initially said that any changes in policies or procedures recommended by the review would be published, a source has now said that those taking part needed to have “confidentiality”.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/30"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/955796/is-public-money-being-used-fund-prince-andrew-settlement", "title": "Is public money being used to fund Prince Andrew's sexual abuse ...", "text": "The disgraced duke had faced “increasing pressure” from the Royal Family to settle and bring the case to an end after it “threatened to overshadow the Queen’s jubilee celebrations ”, according to The Times . Prince Charles, his older brother, is thought to have been a particularly “prominent voice” on the matter.\n\nBut in reaching the settlement he agreed to make a “substantial donation” to Giuffre’s charity for victims of abuse, pledging to “demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein” by supporting the “fight against the evils of sex trafficking and by supporting its victims”.\n\nAndrew has always denied the allegations that he sexually abused Guiffre after she was “trafficked by his friend and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein”, said The Guardian.\n\n“I am going to take the opportunity to raise this issue in parliament because the issue isn’t going to go away until people have that information and receive assurances that public money is not going to be used to in any way contribute to the settlement.”\n\n“We don’t know the precise figure but there is a risk that this will be at the public’s expense so we need to have that resolved,” he warned. “We need to know exactly where this money is coming from.\n\nDuring an appearance on the BBC’s Newsnight McDonald described Prince Andrew as “a person of very high profile involved in a case where his position of authority and privilege has been allegedly abused and it is an enormous sum of money.\n\nThe deal means Prince Andrew will avoid a public trial and will not be forced into an “admission of guilt” over the allegations of sexual abuse against him, said The Guardian . Andy McDonald, Labour MP for Middlesbrough, said he would raise the issue in parliament next week when MPs return after the February recess.\n\nAn out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum, reportedly up to £12m, was announced by lawyers representing the Duke of York and Giuffre this week.\n\n​A Labour MP has demanded “assurances” that public money will not be used to fund Prince Andrew’s out-of-court settlement with Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre.\n\nOne legal source told the paper that the settlement would be “worth its weight in gold” to the Queen, as embarrassing trial proceedings are likely to have gone ahead amid planned celebrations marking her 70th year on the throne.\n\nWho’s paying?\n\nAndrew’s finances have “long been shrouded in mystery”, royal finances expert David McClure told The Sun.\n\nHe officially receives an allowance from the Queen worth about £248,000 a year, as well as a naval pension of around £20,000 annually. But he will have “other sources” to draw on to pay the settlement, McClure said.\n\nOne of those sources is likely to be the sale of a £17m Swiss ski chalet he bought with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson in 2014. But “he is not yet believed to have received any money for it”, The Sun said, and is likely only to receive a “fraction” of the total sum.\n\nHe “has made a few million from that”, said McClure. “But he will have to split that with Fergie, and had a mortgage to pay on it, so he is likely to have lost money on it.”\n\nHe also “likely has money left over” from the 2007 sale of Sunninghill Park, the home he formerly shared with Ferguson, the paper said, which sold to a “Kazakh oligarch for £15m, £3m over the asking price”.\n\nA source with knowledge of the settlement between Andrew and Giuffre told the Daily Mirror that it was only signed when Andrew was “able to provide proof” that any remaining funds from the sale of the ski chalet would be available.\n\nThe Daily Mail reported that a “bridging loan” was offered to Prince Andrew from Prince Charles and the Queen “so his US lawyers could do a quick deal” with Giuffre, but said it remained “unclear” how the duke would fund the settlement.\n\nMuch of the money is likely to come from the Queen, possibly from her Duchy of Lancaster estate or private funds from her considerable investment portfolio.\n\nBank of Mum & Dad\n\nThe Queen receives a taxpayer-funded sovereign grant, paid to her by the government every year, which last year totalled £51.5m.\n\nBut the grant must be spent “by the royal household in support of Her Majesty’s official duties” and so “clearly” does not include “paying out-of-court settlements”, said Craig Prescott, a lecturer in law at Bangor University, on The Conversation.\n\nThe Queen separately receives the surplus from the Duchy of Lancaster estate, which grew to a substantial £22.3m in 2020-21. But there is some argument to be had over whether funds derived from the estate should be considered “private or public” money, Prescott said.\n\nAt times acting like “a family trust” and at others like a “commercial business”, the Duchy of Lancaster estate has frequently left MPs who have tried to “scrutinise” its accounts “scratching their heads”, said Town & Country.\n\nThe Mirror said that the Queen has already given her “shamed son” £2m as a donation to Giuffre’s charity, agreeing to help him “as long as she was not connected to any personal payment to Giuffre”.\n\n“She could not be seen to be making a payment to a victim of sexual assault, who accused her son of being an abuser,” a royal source told the paper.\n\n“But a deal was structured in such a way to arrange a sizeable financial contribution to the settlement by way of a charitable donation instead.”", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2022/02/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2019/06/25/prince-harry-duchess-meghan-home-repairs-cost-taxpayers-3-million/1556952001/", "title": "Prince Harry, Duchess Meghan's home repairs cost taxpayers $3 ...", "text": "Danica Kirka\n\nAssociated Press\n\nLONDON (AP) — The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s home was renovated with 2.4 million pounds ($3.06 million) of taxpayers’ money, royal accounts revealed Tuesday.\n\nPrince Harry and his wife Meghan’s residence near Windsor Castle, called Frogmore Cottage, underwent major work to turn five properties back into a single home for the couple and their baby son Archie. Fixtures, fittings and furnishings at the Victorian-era structure were paid for by the royal couple.\n\nThe figures were part of the release of the royal family’s accounts, which showed that the British taxpayers spent 67 million pounds ($85.2 million) on the monarchy during 2018-19, a 41% increase on the previous financial year.\n\n“The property had not been the subject of work for some years and had already been earmarked for renovation in line with our responsibility to maintain the condition of the occupied royal palaces estate,” said Michael Stevens, the keeper of the Privy Purse, who is responsible for the monarchy’s accounts.\n\n“The building was returned to a single residence and outdated infrastructure was replaced to guarantee the long-term future of the property,” he said. “Substantially all fixtures and fittings were paid for by Their Royal Highnesses.”\n\nAnti-monarchy campaign group Republic questioned why so much money was spent on the renovations at a time when public services are under financial pressure.\n\n“It is particularly galling that they’re allowed to get away this whilst public services need money,” said group spokesman Graham Smith.\n\nOverall, spending rose primarily because of higher levels of expenditure devoted to critical renovations for Buckingham Palace in London. The iconic structure is in the second year of a 10-year project after a Treasury report concluded the building’s infrastructure was in danger of a catastrophic failure.\n\nThe total Sovereign Grant, which funds Queen Elizabeth II and her household’s official expenses, was 82.2 million pounds, or 1.24 pounds per person in the U.K. That figure includes 15.2 million pounds ($19.3 million) set aside for future phases of the palace renovation.\n\nThe palace says the royal family took on 3,200 official engagements during 2018-19 and welcomed 160,000 guests to royal palaces and events.\n\nMore:Duchess Meghan changed her engagement ring and we didn't even notice\n\nMore:Prince Harry to throw first pitch at London Series MLB game", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/06/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/09/23/meghan-prince-harry-post-megxit-happy-now-six-months-later/5697099002/", "title": "Meghan Markle, Prince Harry post-Megxit: Are they happy now?", "text": "It's been six months since Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan moved to Southern California to build a new kind of royal lifestyle, one bolstered by more independence, more control over their image and new Hollywood business partners.\n\nSo, Harry and Meg, how's it going so far?\n\nMeghan, the Los Angeles-born former actress, hinted about how she feels in recent online interviews. \"It's good to be home,\" she sighed contentedly.\n\nAnd that was before the news on Sept 2 that the couple signed a multiyear mega-deal with Netflix to become Hollywood producers of scripted series, docuseries, documentaries, features and children’s programming. For the first time, a British royal couple are set to become players in the global entertainment industry.\n\n\"This is a massive unparalleled historical deal,\" said Jonathan Shalit, chairman/founder of InterTalent Rights Group, who bills himself on Twitter as \"London's Most Influential Talent Manager.\" He says he knows Harry and Meghan because one of his clients, The Kingdom Choir, sang at their 2018 wedding. \"Meghan could not have been more warm and charming,\" he says, comparing her compassion and empathy to that of the late Princess Diana, whom he also knew.\n\nSo, time to take a look back at what's happened since \"Megxit,\" the tabloids' mocking epithet for the couple's shocking announcement in January that they were stepping back from their senior royal roles. Are Harry and Meghan happy now? Do they have agency over their new lives and their new purpose?\n\nUSA TODAY reached out to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's media reps, who declined to comment.\n\nOthers were more willing. \"Yes, independence and a role they clearly want in life has been achieved with the Netflix deal,\" says Shalit, who says he and many others in the U.K. think Harry and Meghan have \"a right to happiness and a right to carve their own path in life.\"\n\nMore:Prince Harry, Meghan Markle repay $3M to British taxpayers for renovations on their UK home\n\nBut the couple may never redeem themselves with some of their fiercest critics.\n\n\"Many resent and blame Meghan for the manner in which they feel she ‘crashed’ herself into the royal family and then tried to change an institution that has existed for 800 years,\" Shalit says. Their split from royal life seems inevitable in retrospect, he adds.\n\nHollywood royals:\n\nIn less than six months, Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, have morphed from second-tier royals to media moguls-in-waiting.\n\nMore:Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan sign multiyear Netflix deal to 'shine a light' on causes\n\n“Through our work with diverse communities and their environments, to shining a light on people and causes around the world, our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope,\" they said in a statement.\n\n“The deal will make Meghan and Harry prima donnas of Hollywood,\" predicts Eric Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management Consultants in Los Angeles. \"It’s the hottest power play of modern Tinseltown.”\n\nFinancial independence\n\nThe price tag of the Netflix deal was not disclosed, but it has already helped defuse one reason for lingering resentment: They paid off about $3.2 million in taxpayers' money spent to renovate their Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage, which remains their base when they are in the U.K. They had already said they would pay back the costs monthly over a few years, but their critics insisted that wasn't good enough. Now that issue is moot.\n\nThe couple's partnership with Netflix will help make it possible for them to live a grand lifestyle without help from Harry's father, Prince Charles, or British taxpayers. They were both millionaires anyway (he inherited many millions from his late mother, Princess Diana and from his great-grandmother, the Queen Mother, and she made a few million as an actress on cable show \"Suits\"), but their expensive requirements, especially security costs, meant they needed to up their game in America.\n\nStand and deliver\n\nHoward Bragman of La Brea Media says Harry and Meghan, as neophyte producers, still have a lot to prove. Now they have to put together an experienced Hollywood production team and some genuine quality projects, as their friends, former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, did when they signed a mega-production deal with Netflix after leaving the White House.\n\n\"People are not going to watch just because it’s them – they'll get a ton of promotion because it’s them, (viewers) might sample because it's them, but it could backfire; they could be more critical, too,\" the longtime Hollywood PR management expert says.\n\n\"The real challenge is to take their woke concepts and translate that into entertainment that is going to be compelling, because in the end if it's not good entertainment people are not going to watch it no matter how much promotion you give it.\"\n\nA new palatial estate\n\nThey moved in June to their \"new family home,\" as they described it, a 19,000-square foot Mediterranean-style villa in pricey Montecito in Santa Barbara County, near where their pal Oprah Winfrey lives, about an hour northwest of Los Angeles.\n\nIt was their fourth abode since January, and the price tag was just under $15 million, according to Variety and the Los Angeles Times.\n\nTheir new wealth means they can hire personal, professional and security staff loyal to them alone, unlike those employed in the royal palaces in Britain, some of whom have been known to leak to the media.\n\nMedia matters\n\nOne of the reasons Harry and Meghan were fed up with the royal life, according to a recent biography, \"Finding Freedom,\" by two sympathetic journalists, was the palace media operation, which they felt did not do enough to counter the negative, even racist coverage of the couple in British tabloids and on social media.\n\nNow they have a new media team, funded by the Sussexes and working out of the Sunshine Sachs PR firm, well-known in Hollywood. They are helping the couple set up their new non-profit organization, Archewell, and are working on building their new Twitter and Instagram social media platforms.\n\nThe Sussex media team is anonymous and totally under the couple's control. Now that Harry and Meghan are no longer working royals, they can set their own rules about how they present themselves to the public.\n\nMeanwhile, the standard media pools organized by the palace to cover royal engagements are gone; instead, the couple announce engagements only after they're over (to help foil paparazzi) and encourage whoever they're visiting to post positive sentiments on social media.\n\nMore:Duchess Meghan reveals Prince Harry calls himself a feminist, too, during Gloria Steinem chat\n\nMore freedom to speak out\n\nThe price of being royal is a constrained life; you can't say or do or wear anything you like whenever you like, and you can't talk about politics and other topics off limits for royals.\n\n\"When they left they were looking for fewer layers of palace interference in what they wanted to do. Now that can be (organized) without clearing it through 18 levels of palace sign-off,\" says Lainey Lui, a Canadian TV personality and founder of Toronto-based Laineygossip.com, who closely follows royal news.\n\nHarry and Meghan also have more freedom to speak up about causes they believe in. Since arriving in the USA, Harry has been campaigning publicly for reform of social media, while Meghan has been talking about empowering women and urging them to vote.\n\n\"We all know what's at stake\" in November, she warned in an online get-out-the vote appearance last month.\n\nMore:Harry, Meghan threaten legal action over published paparazzi pictures that show baby Archie\n\nPrivacy still elusive\n\nIt was one of the issues the couple cited in their reasons for seeking to build a new life in North America – their desire to control when and where they are left alone. So far, they've been \"paparazzied\" only a few times in Los Angeles.\n\n\"It's not just about where the paparazzi are, it's about the people around you who are selling you out,\" Lui says. \"It's when the people assigned to protect them or who are around them (as staff) are allegedly leaking to newspapers about their private business.\"\n\nStill, Los Angeles is the capital of the paparazzi. Only months after they moved into a borrowed mansion overlooking the Beverly Hills area, Harry and Meghan were alarmed to see low-flying drones buzzing the backyard for pictures of 16-month-old son, Archie.\n\nIn July, they filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles aimed at stopping the \"disgusting and wrong\" publication of a picture, taken by an unknown photographer, of baby Archie.\n\nCalifornia law bans photographers from invading people's privacy by peering into private homes. But it's yet another legal battle with the media – they are suing three tabloids in London in two separate lawsuits – that could end up being Pyrrhic legal victories.\n\nShalit points out that the Netflix deal could also challenge their much-desired privacy.\n\n\"The price they will have to pay is media and personal intrusion into their lives for so long as they live public lives in show business,\" Shalit says. \"They will need the fuel of publicity and media support to promote and maximize attention for what Netflix have paid for.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/09/23"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/954222/the-new-yacht-britannia", "title": "The new Yacht Britannia | The Week UK", "text": "What is being proposed?\n\nIn July, the Defence Secretary Ben Wallace formally announced plans for a new national flagship to “promote British businesses around the world”. Commissioned at a cost of £200m to £250m, it would be designed and built in the UK. Boris Johnson said it would reflect “the UK’s burgeoning status as a great, independent maritime trading nation”. The boat is to be a replacement for the Royal Yacht Britannia, which reached the end of its working life in 1997. The idea, first proposed in 2001, was taken up by Tory MPs in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, and has received vociferous backing from The Daily Telegraph. It was supported by Johnson after he became PM, and given the go-ahead in May. The Government said it would be used to host trade fairs, ministerial meetings and diplomatic summits. The vessel would be crewed by the Royal Navy, and is expected to be in service for about 30 years.\n\nWhy wasn’t the last one renewed?\n\nThe Royal Yacht Britannia was in service from 1954 until 1997, a period during which it travelled more than a million nautical miles across the globe. But in 1994, the Government announced its retirement, citing the estimated £17m cost of completing a major re-fit (just seven years after the last one), which would only prolong its life by five years. In January 1997, the Conservatives promised to replace the yacht if re-elected that year, but Tony Blair’s victory spelt the end of the plan. His Labour government declined to spend public money on renewing it, citing the fact that the Queen had “made clear” that a yacht wasn’t needed for royal travel. Today, the ship is a tourist attraction in Leith, Edinburgh, with some 300,000 visitors a year.\n\nWhat would a new one be like?\n\nThe details have yet to be fleshed out: the tendering process for design and construction began in July. However, the brief is to deliver “a vessel which reflects British design expertise and the latest innovations in green technology”. (Wallace said that it might have hybrid engines, or even a sail, like some modern superyachts.) The intention is to start building next year in a British shipyard, to create jobs and “help drive a renaissance in the UK’s shipbuilding industry”; at present, Britain has many top yacht designers and a thriving leisure boat industry, but most superyachts are built abroad. The yacht will have a “national security function”, too; Britannia was designed to double as a hospital ship. The ship’s name has yet to be announced: it was reported that the PM wanted to name it after the Duke of Edinburgh in tribute, but that the proposal was greeted with coolness in royal circles.\n\nWhat’s the point of it?\n\nAdvocates of the ship say it will glide gracefully into ports around the world, where it will be used to wine and dine officials, thereby smoothing the way for trade deals, defence agreements and the like. They cite the example of Britannia, which they say helped bring in an estimated £3bn of trade deals between 1991 and 1995. “The world’s top investors will fall over themselves to visit a new flagship for a new type of commercial diplomacy,” said Johnson. A report last year by the think tank the Henry Jackson Society said the yacht could help “project Britain’s image around the world”; Lord Digby Jones, the former head of the CBI, said it would give the nation a “morale boost” after the pandemic.\n\nIs everybody convinced?\n\nNo. Labour leader Keir Starmer labelled it a “vanity yacht” and called on the PM to spend the money tackling antisocial behaviour instead; the former Tory minister Ken Clarke called it “silly populist nonsense”. Many commentators are scathing. “I don’t think the world’s most successful exporting nations – Germany, Japan, China – ever needed a floating gin palace to get the world to buy their cars, steel or smartphones,” said Sean O’Grady in The Independent: quality, price, innovation and reliability, he argued, were more important. The ship doesn’t even enjoy the backing of senior members of the royal family, The Sunday Times reported. “No one wants this vessel at the Palace,” said a royal source. Courtiers, it seems, do not want it to be presented as a new “royal yacht”, which is regarded as “too grand” a symbol for the modern monarchy. They would not use it for their personal travel or holidays – though Wallace hopes it would be used for royal visits, to “showcase the royal family as one of our exports”.\n\nHow would it be paid for?\n\nWhen the idea was originally proposed, the cost was estimated at £100m and was to be covered by private donors, with no burden on the taxpayer. However, the Government has now confirmed that the ship would be paid for out of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) budget – despite insisting that it would be primarily “a trade ship”. The original invitation to tender in July put the budget at £150m. However, a week after that, it was raised to £200m-£250m. Hugo Andreae, editor of Motor Boat & Yachting, thinks that, knowing the economics of superyachts, the price will rise to around £600m – unless the national flagship is to risk being “overshadowed by a tasteless megayacht belonging to some shady despot”.\n\nWill it actually be built?\n\nThe project reportedly drew ire from the MoD, where officials asked No. 10 what they could scrap to pay for it. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is also said to be reluctant to pay for it. Johnson, however – a fan of statement projects – is said to “love the plan”. And Wallace is on board, too. He argues that the cost is a fraction of the MoD’s £42bn annual budget, and has dismissed criticism as “basket-weaving, leftie, Islington nonsense”. He insists construction will begin as soon as next year, and it will be “in the water by 2024 or 2025”.\n\nBritannia: the original national flagship\n\nThe Royal Yacht Britannia was a symbol of British prestige, said the FT – a “glamorous nod to a lost age of naval superiority and to a different era of deference”. Built in Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, it was used for a combination of “glittering state visits, official receptions, royal honeymoons and relaxing family holidays”, according to its official website.\n\nThe ship’s first official engagement was to carry Prince Charles and Princess Anne to Malta in 1954, where they met their parents at the end of a Commonwealth tour. It was the first of 968 state voyages that the ship carried out over its 44 years of service, during which every conceivable effort was made to ensure it was as comfortable and tranquil as possible for the royals: the crew wore soft-soled plimsolls and communicated using hand signals to reduce noise. An on-board garage housed the Queen’s Rolls-Royce and a 26-strong Royal Marines band was stationed on the ship at all times.\n\nPeople visiting it in Leith today will see that every clock on board has been stopped at 3.01pm – the time the Queen last disembarked following the ship’s 1997 decommissioning ceremony in Portsmouth. The Queen is said to have been at her happiest on the ship, and at that event, she famously shed a tear.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2021/09/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/01/15/meghan-markle-harry-show-how-families-struggle-financial-ties/4465341002/", "title": "Meghan Markle, Harry show how families struggle with financial ties", "text": "Aimee Picchi\n\nSpecial to USA TODAY\n\nCorrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story cited the wrong year for the Northwestern Mutual Planning & Progress study.\n\nPrince Harry and Duchess Meghan of Sussex have a lifestyle that’s beyond what most Americans can imagine. But their struggle to break away from their family – and its financial control – is close to home.\n\nNo matter a family’s income level, disagreements about money, independence and roles crop up.\n\nThat’s even more the case in family businesses, which John Davis of the MIT Sloan School of Management says account for half of U.S. publicly traded companies and two-thirds of the world’s businesses. The royal family's \"business\" is largely to provide ceremonial leadership in the U.K., which one brand consultancy estimates is worth $2.3 billion a year through its boost to tourism and other industries.\n\nFamilies not running a business together also get enmeshed in each other's financial lives. Older generations are increasingly tied up in younger generations’ finances, an issue that can come to a head at life junctures such as marriage or the birth of a child, financial experts say. Such events can cause adult children or their parents to reassess their priorities.\n\nTax season 2020:Most Americans don't understand how tax refunds work, and it might cost them\n\nMore:Millennials lag older generations in the amount of expected wealth they should have, a new study shows\n\nIn the case of Harry and Meghan, their decision to break away came eight months after the birth of their son, Archie. In their Instagram post last week announcing their decision, the couple cited their desire for \"geographic balance\" in raising their son between the U.K. and North America.\n\nFor members of family-owned businesses, “there are expectations of you, not just in your job but in your lifestyle,” such as which neighborhood you live in, says Davis, who is the faculty director of the Family Enterprise Programs at MIT’s Sloan School and advises multigenerational family businesses.\n\nThose expectations “can feel confining – not only to the blood family member but especially to the spouse,” Davis says. “It’s a bind.”\n\nIn announcing their decision, Meghan and Harry said they wish to become \"financially independent.\" That means they'll give up their share of the Sovereign Grant, the taxpayer-supplied fund for members of the royal family, which has covered 5% of their expenses. Their remaining income comes from Harry's father, Prince Charles, according to their website.\n\nWhile they live on a much grander scale, Meghan and Harry still share an experience that's increasingly common for millennials: relying on financial support from parents. And even if the royal family's wealth is hard to relate to, the tensions from such arrangements are increasingly felt by many American middle-class families.\n\nFamily funding\n\nAbout one in six Americans say they receive financial support from their family members, including one-third of millennials, according to Northwestern Mutual’s 2018 Planning & Progress study.\n\nAmericans' views on when young adults should gain financial independence have changed. Only a quarter believe adulthood begins at 18, while one-third says it starts at 25, according to a Country Financial survey last year.\n\n“It's often some sort of life event that gets them to trigger that independence,” such as getting married, says Troy Frerichs, vice president of investment services at Country Financial.\n\nThat can lead to discussions about financial goals and boundaries for a number of reasons, experts say. For instance, parents may decide that marriage signals an adult child's readiness for financial independence, while adult children may want to set goals for moving out of the parent's house if they find a better-paying job.\n\n“It's awkward for American families, and it's awkward for royals, too,” says Chantel Bonneau, wealth management adviser at Northwestern Mutual. “I have many clients who are 21, 30, 40 years old who say, ‘My parents still pay for my cellphone,’ or ‘My parents will give me a down payment for a house, but then they have a say in the location of the house and the style.’ It's a double-edged sword.”\n\nOf course, in the case of millennials who receive support from their parents, it’s frequently the older generation that’s looking to break things off – rather than the younger generation seeking to remove themselves from the situation – because of their concerns about saving for retirement.\n\nBut whatever the situation, experts point out guidelines that can help adult children and parents navigate discussions about finances, independence and expectations.\n\nBe clear on what you want to achieve\n\nTo avoid unwelcome surprises, tell your family what you want to discuss before the conversation, says Bonneau of Northwestern Mutual. “If a child is going in with the expectation to ask for help buying a house, and the parent didn't expect that, then all of a sudden they are fighting,” she says.\n\nUnderstand the intent\n\nLike Meghan and Harry, adult children may be “more emotional and drastic than their parents” as they try to find their own path, Bonneau says. And parents may try to give unwanted advice. But the key is to assume positive intent, she adds. For instance, the unwanted advice from parents is likely coming from a desire to help their children avoid pitfalls.\n\nDo your research\n\nIf you have a financial proposal, make sure you’ve run the numbers, Bonneau says. For instance, young adults asking their parents for help with a down payment on a house or car could show they can handle the monthly payments.\n\nSet up plans for family businesses\n\nFamilies with multigenerational businesses are often coping with diversity in views, geographic locations and careers, says MIT’s Davis. In that case, consider creating a formal family governance plan can help create a cohesive family culture, such as setting up annual family meetings. Says Davis, “Create good gatherings so the family stays together and enjoys each other.”\n\nAimee Picchi is a business journalist whose work appears in publications including USA TODAY, CBS News and Consumer Reports. She previously spent almost a decade covering tech and media for Bloomberg News. You can follow her on Twitter at @aimeepicchi.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/01/15"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_23", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:22", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/russia/957200/is-vladimir-putins-invasion-down-to-toxic-masculinity", "title": "Is Vladimir Putin's invasion down to 'toxic masculinity'? | The Week UK", "text": "Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a “perfect example of toxic masculinity” and wouldn’t have happened if the Russian president was a woman, Boris Johnson has said.\n\nThe prime minister was speaking at a Nato summit in Madrid when he described the invasion as a “crazy, macho war” and called for “more women in positions of power”.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace later supported this assessment by telling LBC Radio that Putin had “small man syndrome” and that a “macho” view of the world had caused the war.\n\n'Hypermasculine performances'\n\nIt is not the first time Putin has been denounced for his “hypermasculine performances of power”, as Alia E. Dastagir described them at USA Today; performances that have become “part of his persona and crucial to his brand”. Since the beginning of the war, a debate has emerged over whether “Putin’s brand of manhood” has been a causing factor in the invasion as he attempts to justify his motives.\n\nPast images of the Russian leader horse-riding shirtless, shooting guns, and competing in judo matches are all part of the “PR machine for toxic masculinity” wrote Brad Slager at conservative US blog Red State, making up for a lack of “charisma”.\n\nThis public persona of Putin has been starkly juxtaposed with his counterpart in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, since the war began. Putin is an example of masculinity the “modern world is trying to leave behind”, said Annalisa Merelli at Quartz, while Zelenskyy – who once appeared in a pink suit on the Ukrainian equivalent of Strictly Come Dancing – is unafraid to show “empathy and vulnerability”. Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s “oppression and authoritarianism” fits into a wider movement to “push back against and replace patriarchal values”.\n\nIt is what Ukraine stands for, “its assertion of autonomy”, that has been the causing factor in Putin’s “patriarchal belief that Ukraine’s proper ‘feminine’ role was to submit to the will of its stronger neighbour”, wrote four political science experts at The Conversation. Ukraine’s democracy, and adoption of more progressive gender rights, are a threat to Putin’s “cult of masculinity” and Russia’s reliance on “unequal gender roles”, said political science professors Valerie Sperling, Janet Elise Johnson, Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom and gender studies expert Alexandra Novitskaya.\n\n‘Blinkered’ by identity politics\n\nOf “all the ill-informed explanations” for why Putin invaded Ukraine, this is “perhaps the most absurd”, argued Jessa Crispin at UnHerd shortly after the war began. Viewing a geopolitical conflict through the lens of “the very Western, very modern framework of identity politics” is “shockingly irresponsible”, she said.", "authors": ["Richard Windsor"], "publish_date": "2022/06/29"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/957195/ten-things-you-need-to-know-today-29-june-2022", "title": "Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 29 June 2022 | The Week UK", "text": "Philippines to close news site\n\nAuthorities in the Philippines have ordered the closure of an investigative news site. Rappler, which was founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, is one of the country’s few media outlets that is critical of president Rodrigo Duterte, who is poised to be replaced by his ally, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. In a defiant statement, Rappler said it wouldn’t be closing and would challenge the order in court. “We will continue to work and to do business as usual,” said Ressa. “We will follow the legal process and continue to stand up for our rights. We will hold the line.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/29"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_24", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:22", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/science-health/956742/who-is-deborah-james-cancer-campaigner-damehood", "title": "Deborah James: tireless cancer campaigner dies aged 40 | The ...", "text": "Podcaster and cancer campaigner Deborah James, whose frank account of living life with bowel cancer raised millions for cancer research and saw her awarded a damehood, has died at home aged 40.\n\nJames had been receiving end-of-life care at her home since revealing she had stopped treatment for her bowel cancer in May.\n\nHer family announced her death in a post on her Instagram page, describing her as “the most amazing wife, daughter, sister, mummy”.\n\nThe host of the BBC’s You, Me and the Big C podcast had won plaudits for her “no-nonsense approach to talking about cancer”, having shared her experiences of living with the illness since her diagnosis in 2016, said the BBC.\n\nAfter announcing her treatment was to end, she launched the Bowelbabe fund which raised £1m in less than 24 hours, and has gone on to raise more than £7m for research into personalised medicine for cancer patients.\n\nHer family said James shared her experience of cancer to “raise awareness, break down barriers, challenge taboos and change the conversation around cancer”.\n\n“Even in her most challenging moments, her determination to raise money and awareness was inspiring,” they added.\n\nBowel Cancer UK, of which James was a patron, said she had turned her bowel cancer diagnosis “into an incredible force for good” and would save countless lives through her campaigning.\n\nSocial media star\n\nJames, a mother of two and former deputy headteacher, was diagnosed “late” with incurable bowel cancer in December 2016, said the Daily Mail. She then began to share her experiences of living with the disease on social media under the name “Bowel Babe”, before becoming one of the three hosts of Radio 5 Live’s You, Me and the Big C in 2018.\n\nThe hit show was the brainchild of its late co-host Rachael Bland, who died of terminal breast cancer aged 40, just six months after the show’s launch.\n\nJames was praised for her candid approach to discussing cancer on the show, which she continued to co-host after Bland’s death alongside Lauren Mahon and Steve Bland, Rachael’s husband.\n\nThe show, which has featured a string of celebrities, has won plaudits for its “frank discussion” of cancer and how to deal with practical matters such as hair loss, finances and telling loved ones about the illness, said the BBC.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2022/05/13"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_25", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:22", "search_result": [{"url": "http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/03/20/jehovahs-witnesses-shunning-disfellowship-suicides/438499002/", "title": "Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses break silence on shunning: 'My mother ...", "text": "Amber Sawyer was just 8 years old when it happened.\n\nShe was watching cartoons on the living room floor of her Mississippi home when she heard the bang.\n\nShe went to investigate and found her 21-year-old sister, Donna, dead in her bed. She had shot herself in the heart with their father’s hunting rifle weeks after their church excommunicated her for getting engaged to a man who was not a Jehovah’s Witness.\n\nFor Sawyer — who sat on the bedroom floor near her sister's body for hours that day, waiting for her mother to come home from her door-to-door missionary work — it was the beginning of a long, painful journey that would one day tear her family apart.\n\nYears later, Sawyer got excommunicated, too, after seeking a divorce from an abusive husband. She ended up leaving the husband — and the faith.\n\n► March 12:Kaylee Muthart explains what made her pull out her eyes\n\n► March 12:Oregon couple’s final days captured in intimate aid-in-dying video\n\n► Feb. 20:Did shunning from Jehovah's Witnesses drive mom to murder-suicide?\n\nHer family cut all ties.\n\n“Jehovah’s Witness kids grow up knowing that if they ever mess up, their parents will leave them — and that’s scary,” Sawyer, now 38, said in a recent interview from her home in Pascagoula, Miss. “The shunning is supposed to make us miss them so much that we’ll come back. … It didn’t work.”\n\nSawyer and many others like her now are denouncing the church's shunning practices in wake of a recent murder-suicide in Keego Harbor, Mich., that killed a family of four former Jehovah’s Witnesses who were ostracized after leaving the faith.\n\n► Feb. 11:As details of Burning Man suicide emerge, family grieves anew\n\n► Dec. 13: Lawmaker dies of suicide days after being accused of sexual abuse\n\nThe deaths sparked outrage among scores of ex-practitioners of the faith nationwide who took to Facebook, online forums, blogs and YouTube, arguing that the tragedy highlights a pervasive yet rarely publicized problem within the church: Shunning is pushing the most vulnerable people over the edge and tearing families apart, they say.\n\nIn the Michigan case, a distraught mother shot and killed her husband, her two grown children and herself in their home about 25 miles northwest of Detroit, shocking the small and quiet community.\n\nThey chose to leave\n\nThe shooter was Lauren Stuart, a part-time model and personal trainer who struggled with depression and spent much of her time working on her house, her friends said. She and her husband, Daniel Stuart, 47, left the Jehovah's Witnesses faith more than a decade ago over doctrinal and social issues.\n\nAmong them was their desire to send their kids to college, which many former Jehovah's Witnesses say the church frowns and views as spiritually dangerous.\n\n“University and college campuses are notorious for bad behavior​ — drug and alcohol abuse, immorality, cheating, hazing, and the list goes on,” read an Oct. 1, 2005, article in Watchtower, the church's official publication that is not available online until 2008 editions.\n\n► Nov. 20:How other countries can help us understand U.S. mass shooting crisis\n\n► Oct. 14:Mom kills 2 sons, herself. But why did she do it?\n\nThe Stuarts sent both their kids to college: Steven Stuart, 27, excelled in computers, just like his father, who was a data solutions architect for the University of Michigan Medical School. Bethany Stuart, 24, thrived in art and graphic design.\n\nAfter the parents left the faith, the Stuarts were ostracized by the members of the Kingdom Hall — the churches where Jehovah's Witnesses worship — in nearby Union Lake, Mich., and their families, friends said.\n\nLauren Stuart, whose mother died of cancer when she was 12, struggled with mental illness that went untreated, isolation and fears that the end was near, friends and officials familiar with the case said. One friend who requested anonymity said she believes the killing was the result of depression, not religion.\n\nLongtime family friend Joyce Taylor, 58, of White Lake, Mich., believes depression, shunning and religion-based doomsday fears all played a role. She said that about six weeks before the killings, Lauren Stuart started getting religiously preoccupied and telling her, \"It's the end times. I know it is.\"\n\nWeeks later, Taylor saw her friend again. Lauren Stuart had a vacant look in her eyes.\n\nShe was emotionally distressed.\n\nA week later, with her home decorated for Valentine's Day, Lauren Stuart killed her family. She left behind a suicide note.\n\n\"She said in the suicide note that she felt that by killing them it was the only way to save them,\" recalled Taylor, who said police let her read the letter. \"She said she's sorry that she has to do this, but it was the only way to save them all.\"\n\nTaylor, a former Jehovah's Witness herself who left the faith in 1986, explained: \"Jehovah's Witnesses believe that if you die on this side of Armageddon, you'll be resurrected in paradise.\"\n\n► June 1:Persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia intensifies\n\n► April 20:Russian court bans Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist group\n\nIn Lauren Stuart's case, Taylor believes her friend never deprogrammed after leaving the church — a state she describes as \"physically out, but mentally in.\" She believes that Lauren Stuart's indoctrinated doomsday fears never left her and that the shunning helped push her over the edge.\n\nIf her tight-knit community that once was her entire support system had not excommunicated her — and left her with no one to share her fears with — Lauren Stuart may not have done what she did, Taylor believes.\n\n\"People do things when they are desperate,\" Taylor said. \"And that was an extreme, desperate act.\"\n\nShunning \"can lead to great trauma among people because the Jehovah's Witnesses are a very tight-knit community,\" said Mathew Schmalz, a religious studies associate professor at the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.\n\n\"If you're separated out, you're really left to your own devices in ways that are very challenging and very painful,\" Schmalz said. \"Once you leave a group that's been your whole life, letting that go is a kind of death.\"\n\nPolice have not yet disclosed details about the death of the Stuart family except for calling it a murder-suicide.\n\nThe tragedy has emboldened many once-quiet ex-Jehovah's Witnesses to speak up. Many say they suffered quietly on their own for years until they discovered an online community full of isolated, ostracized people like themselves — people who had lost someone to suicide or attempted suicide themselves because their families, friends and church community had written them off for making mistakes, for being human.\n\nThe church calls it being \"disfellowshipped.\" Members can return if they repent, change the behavior and prove themselves worthy of being reinstated. But unless or until that happens, members are encouraged to avoid the sinners, especially those who leave the faith.\n\nMothers go years, even decades, without talking to their children.\n\nSiblings write off siblings.\n\nFriends shun friends.\n\nAn estimated 70,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses are disfellowshipped every year — roughly 1% of the church’s total population, according to data published by the Watchtower.\n\n► April 12:Body of judge on New York's highest court found in Hudson River\n\n► January 2017:Michigan officers stop suicide just in time\n\nTheir names are published at local Kingdom Halls. Of those, two-thirds never return.\n\nHowever, within a faith representing 8.4 million people worldwide, many members believe the religion is pure, good and loving. Those who are speaking against it are disgruntled and angry people who have an ax to grind because they were disfellowshipped, current members argue.\n\nOr, they are lost souls who have misinterpreted the meaning and love behind the faith. Members say they believe that the shunning accusations are exaggerated and the suicides are often more about mental illness than ostracism.\n\n► June 2016:Mom who stabbed self killed her three sons first, police say\n\n► June 2016:Is there a psychology of hate we need to understand better?\n\nMany of those who have left the religion disagree.\n\nIn the world of ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses, they maintain that the shunned are considered dead to their families, just like the suicide victims.\n\nThese are their stories.\n\n‘A dangerous cult’\n\nThe conversation was difficult to wrap her 8-year-old brain around.\n\n“You know your sister was being bad, right?“ Sawyer recalled her mother telling her after her sister's suicide.\n\n“And what she did was stupid, right?’ … To take your own life is very wrong,\" her mother continued.\n\n“I didn’t understand what was going on … and I said, ‘Oh. OK,’ “ Sawyer recalled. “In my 8-year-old brain, I was thinking, ‘When I mess up, my mom’s going to hate me.’ \"\n\nAnd so began her painful journey with the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith, the religion she was born into and grew up in in Pascagoula, Miss., where her fears of abandonment took hold at age 8.\n\n► March 2016:Former Army Reservist kills family, self\n\n► March 2016:Cannabis church founder says he was defamed\n\nSawyer believes that the shunning drove her sister to suicide. After the church disfellowshipped her for getting engaged to a non-Jehovah's Witness, the fiancé left, and her sister was thrown into depression.\n\nHer sister tried turning to her mother for consolation. But her mom would read scripture and tell her, \"Until you start acting right, you’re going to have these bad things happen to you.“\n\nBad things happened to Sawyer, too.\n\nAt 30, she sought a divorce from her husband because he was abusive and cheating on her, she said. But church elders and family pressured her to save her marriage.\n\n“I showed them the holes in my walls,” Sawyer said, referring to the damage her ex-husband did to the home during fights. “They told me to pray more … and sent me back home to him.”\n\nSawyer took up smoking to handle the stress, which got her disfellowshipped because smoking is not allowed.\n\nShe also went through with the divorce. She ended up losing her home to foreclosure and turned to her mother for help because she had two children to raise.\n\nHer mother took her in temporarily, but when church elders found out, they threatened to shun Sawyer’s mother. Her mother let the grandkids stay but not her daughter.\n\nSawyer ended up homeless for six months, living out of her car in a community college parking lot.\n\nShe landed on her feet with the help of a student loan. She got an apartment, a job as a hospice nurse and her children — now 10 and 18 — back.\n\nShe found herself but lost her family along the way.\n\n► January 2016:Dad likely torched home with gasoline\n\n► December 2015:Minister stripping away church knowledge gap on mental health\n\nHer mother doesn’t speak to her. Sawyer said she can’t recall the last time they spoke.\n\nHer sister in Alabama hasn’t spoken to her since Sawyer got divorced in 2010.\n\n“She was on my porch with my parents,\" Sawyer said. \"My sister looked at me and said, ‘You’re abandoning me just like Donna did’ and left. And that's the last thing she ever said to me.\"\n\nSawyer has kept silent about her pain for decades.\n\n“This is a dangerous cult,” she said of her former religion. “It’s important for people to realize. This is serious.”\n\nHe lost his daughter\n\nOn Feb. 3, 2011, the Utah church of Dave Gracey disfellowshipped him at age 61.\n\nBy then, he had been an elder three times — a job that troubled him as he often found himself judging and sanctioning people who had sinned in the eyes of the church: Smokers. Drug users. Adulterers. Homosexuals.\n\n“I had a terrible time with that,” Gracey said. “All we were doing was chasing people around and catching them in their sins and kicking them out.”\n\nBut then came the day the church judged his own children. That's when Gracey said he started rebelling.\n\nIn 2010, Gracey’s 38-year-old daughter, Laura, committed suicide after a fallout with church elders.\n\n► September 2015:Town comes together for funeral of family shot by dad\n\n► February 2015:Missouri candidate dies of self-inflicted gunshot wound\n\n“It put me in an absolute rage,” he recalled.\n\nGracey's daughter was rebellious growing up and suffered from mental illness, he said. She got into drugs and became homeless at one point but tried to get her life in order.\n\nAt 33, she was baptized as a Jehovah's Witness and over the next four years she was disfellowshipped twice and reinstated twice.\n\nBut in January 2010, following a meeting with church elders, Gracey's daughter fatally overdosed on prescription medication. She had been living in an apartment complex with other Jehovah's Witnesses in California and had a medical marijuana card for anxiety and stress.\n\nGracey suspects his daughter told the elders about the card.\n\n“The elders won’t tell me why they met with her,” Gracey said. “Obviously, she was distressed that night, and they left her alone. They knew how fragile my daughter was. … It’s my guess that they excommunicated her that night, but they won’t tell me. They failed to protect her in her most vulnerable state.”\n\nThat same year, Gracey would suffer more heartache at the hands of his church. His 14-year-old stepdaughter had been raped, but the elders didn’t believe her, he said.\n\nAn investigation followed and an administrative judge and child protective services made a finding that the Jehovah's Witnesses were guilty of child maltreatment.\n\nThe church mounted a campaign to oust the Graceys of Layton, Utah, who appealed to the Jehovah’s Witnesses' headquarters in Warwick, N.Y., in the New York City metro area, claiming the church had harmed their daughter.\n\nOn Feb. 3, 2011, the Graceys were excommunicated.\n\n“We were so indoctrinated. We had difficulty with it,” Gracey said, noting he and his wife officially left the faith in March 2013 after getting shunned repeatedly.\n\n► January 2015:Parents killed selves, kids fearing apocalypse\n\n► July 2013:Rick Warren returns to pulpit after son's suicide\n\n“I walked out and never came back,” Gracey said. “I started kind of waking up.”\n\nGracey, who considers himself agnostic now, is focused on helping all of his family escape the Jehovah's Witnesses organization.\n\n“I want to expose this religion for what they really are. It is a cult that splits up families and separates people from life. … They seem nice on Saturday morning when they are peddling their Watchtower, but they are insidious.”\n\n‘I’ve been sick over this'\n\nFor Californian Kerry Kaye, the Keego Harbor killings triggered a host of emotions: anger, pain, frustration.\n\nShe, too, is a former member of the Jehovah's Witnesses community and lost a very good friend to suicide more than 20 years ago.\n\n“I’ve just been sick over this. It brings back a lot of memories,” Kaye said of the Michigan killings in a recent telephone interview.\n\nKaye was in her early 20s when her friend committed suicide after being disfellowshipped for getting pregnant out of wedlock. The woman was 20 years old and seven months pregnant at the time.\n\nKaye said her friend tried to get back into the church, but the elders told her, “No, you need more time. You’re not qualified to come back.“\n\n► July 2013:Indiana mom, 2 kids' drowning deaths called accident\n\n► May 2013:Man commits suicide inside Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral\n\nThat day, the friend went home and shot herself in the heart, Kaye said.\n\n“If you’re in the organization, you understand the depression and despair,” said Kaye, who explained that when someone gets disfellowshipped, word spreads fast in the church. She admits that she once shunned her own father at the direction of the church.\n\n“The moment they make an announcement, you’re not allowed to have contact with them whatsoever. You have to pretend they’re dead,” Kaye said. “That’s how they control the people. It’s a fear tactic. It’s to keep them in the cult, under their control.”\n\nKaye was 24 when she left the church. Her father had left the faith a few years earlier after the church pressured him to leave his government job, telling him he had to choose the faith or his work.\n\nHe picked the job and disassociated himself.\n\nKaye was forced to shun her father or face consequences, she said.\n\n“I didn’t talk to my father for almost two years, and then I finally had enough,” Kaye said. “I started to try to make an escape.”\n\nIt wasn’t easy. After she left, she said she became suicidal.\n\nDoctors intervened and saved her life, she said. Eventually, she moved away from her hometown to the Los Angeles area to raise her three children on her own, outside the organization.\n\nThey are all college educated now and thriving, she said. And she has found peace as she has dedicated herself to helping others who feel trapped in the denomination.\n\n“I’m wonderful since I left,” Kaye said. “My mission is to help other people. When entire families are destroyed, it makes all of us who have been involved in this cult very angry. We want people to know what is really going on.”\n\n‘We love everyone’\n\nAlmost 8.5 million people are Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide, including 1.2 million in the United States, according to the JW.org website.\n\nWe come from hundreds of ethnic and language backgrounds, yet we are united by common goals. Above all, we want to honor Jehovah, the God of the Bible and the Creator of all things. We do our best to imitate Jesus Christ and are proud to be called Christians. Each of us regularly spends time helping people learn about the Bible and God’s Kingdom. Because we witness, or talk, about Jehovah God and his Kingdom, we are known as Jehovah’s Witnesses.\n\nThe Jehovah’s Witnesses national organization did not return calls and e-mails from the Free Press for comment on the subject of disfellowshipping. Multiple members and elders were contacted, but all declined to speak on the record, many saying they were not authorized to publicly comment on scripture and church teachings.\n\nHowever, following the Keego Harbor killings, numerous current Jehovah’s Witnesses contacted the Free Press to defend their religion, stressing it is about unconditional love, peace, helping people and having an unwavering commitment to God and Jesus Christ.\n\nBut like many religions, Jehovah's Witnesses have rules to follow — such as no stealing, killing, committing adultery, smoking or getting intoxicated on alcohol or drugs. If one commits any of these acts, they can be disfellowshipped, but they can get back in if they truly repent and change their behavior.\n\nThey, too, did not want to have their names published.\n\nMisunderstood denomination\n\nSchmalz, the religious studies professor, said mainstream Christians often misunderstand the Jehovah's Witnesses' faith. Their beliefs may seem \"unorthodox\" to other religious groups and their rules too strict or extreme.\n\nBut Jehovah's Witnesses, a Protestant denomination that began in the 1870s as a Bible study group in Pittsburgh, have rational reasons for much of what they believe and do, he said.\n\nJehovah's Witnesses believe in a \"great cataclysm,\" that \" 'the end is near' is continually imminent,\" he said. When you are brought up with that belief within a strong and tightly knit religious setting, it is hard to shake.\n\n► April 2013:Churches shed light on suicide, depression\n\n► April 2013:Pastor Rick Warren blames son's death on depression\n\n\"This belief in Armageddon, which is central to the Jehovah's Witness worldview, is something that still retains its power — even for people who have left,\" said Schmalz, who teaches a course in modern religious movements with discussions about Jehovah's Witnesses and Scientology. Author L. Ron Hubbard founded Scientology in the early 1950s in Los Angeles.\n\nJehovah's Witnesses aren't alone in the practice of shunning, Schmalz said. The Amish and other Mennonite groups ostracize those who leave the faith, too.\n\nHe said Jehovah's Witnesses have two goals in mind when they disfellowship someone:\n\n1. They need a mechanism to discipline people who don't abide by their tenets.\n\n2. They are trying to create a pure community whose members adhere to the group's beliefs and tenets.\n\nThis practice can be harmful, he said. But members have a rationale for the behavior.\n\n\"How is disfellowshipping really that different from tough love, where you hold people accountable for their actions? It's a complicated question,\" said Schmalz, who is opposed to using the word \"cult\" to describe the Jehovah's Witness church.\n\n\"We should look at the Jehovah's Witnesses not as a bizarre religious group but as a religion that has its own internal means of discipline,\" he said. \"They can be very harsh and have very unintended and tragic consequences.\"\n\nFollow Tresa Baldas on Twitter: @Tbaldas", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/03/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/12/14/12-days-of-giving-cape-coral-mom-needs-day-training-for-three-adult-children/4018573/", "title": "12 Days of Giving: Cape Coral mom needs day training for three ...", "text": "By Janine Zeitlin ;\n\njzeitlin@news-press.com ;\n\nLink:12 Days of Giving feature page\n\nFor the Coleman family, Christmas is wrapped with a tragic memory.\n\nOn Christmas Eve of 2008, not long after Karen and Ivan Coleman finished wrapping presents in their Cape Coral home, Ivan began to feel sick and vomit. He refused to go to the hospital. It would be too costly. When he lost consciousness due to a massive heart attack, Karen dialed 911 early Christmas morning. Their children, Brandi, Randy, and Sarah, woke as paramedics arrived to try to save him.\n\n“When they hauled my dad out, my mom fell to her knees,” said Randy, 35.\n\n“I knew he was gone,” said Karen.\n\nHe was 53.\n\nThis Christmas, it would be Karen Coleman’s wish for people to donate to the cost of sending her three adult children and other adults to Freida B. Smith Special Populations Center in Cape Coral. The city program helps adults with intellectual disabilities reach their goals and serves up to 100 people a day. It offers education and work and social skills. The center needs 21 scholarships, totaling $22,000, to meet the demand of needy families.\n\n“If we didn’t have Special Populations, they would just sit in the house and do nothing, and it’d be very lonely and hard and there’s a lot of handicapped people that have to do that,” she said. “It’s just so expensive, and we don’t get any help from the state. It’s just one day at a time.”\n\nIt costs $60 a day to send Brandi, Randy and Sarah to the center. Special Populations offered them scholarships to attend two more days than they can afford.\n\nBrandi, Randy and Sarah began attending adult day training about a decade ago, shortly after moving with their parents to Cape Coral from southern Illinois. It was the first time a family with three children with the same disability was in the program, said Sara Sansone, Special Populations supervisor. Brandi, Randy, and Sarah have thrived there and made friends.\n\n“They’re our second family, and I believe they think of us that way too,” Sansone said.\n\nKaren Coleman is grateful for her children, but being the mother of three children with disabilities has not been an easy journey. For decades, Karen Coleman felt angry at God.\n\nHe didn’t answer her prayers for her eldest daughter, Brandi, to walk. Her frustration grew when Randy couldn’t walk either. It wasn’t until she was five months pregnant with her third child that the young mother found out why her children didn’t move as other toddlers did. A geneticist told Karen and her husband, Ivan, their two children had Sjogren-Larsson syndrome. With it comes neurological and muscular problems and dry, scaly skin. There was a 25 percent chance the third child would not inherit it.\n\nBaby Sarah arrived into the world with the syndrome, too.\n\nKaren and Ivan followed a doctor’s advice to treat them like any other children. They took the children fishing, camping and taught them to clean their rooms.\n\nFinances have been tight since Ivan’s death. He had worked in construction. There was some life insurance, but that’s gone. The family receives his Social Security and Medicare, but once the bills are paid, there’s about $600 left for food and expenses.\n\nThe trio have been on a waiting list for 11 years for a Medicaid waiver through the state, which would cover the cost of Special Populations. There are about 22,000 Florida families on that waiting list, according to the state. At Special Populations, about 33 families are on that list.\n\nSince Ivan’s death, Coleman, now 58, has made peace with God. Her husband’s memory is a presence in the family’s home. Brandi, 39, a daddy’s girl, cries at the mention of his death. His pictures, the most recent one with his signature handlebar mustache, hang in the living room. The TV sits on a stand he and Randy built together. A tropical painting Karen and Ivan chose hangs above the couch.\n\nShe prays every night. She feels God in their lives when she recalls how often her children have fallen. Brandi uses a wheelchair and Randy and Sarah use crutches. Only once did a fall result in a broken bone: Brandi’s pinky finger.\n\n“I look back now, and God has been with me the whole time,” she said. “He watches over us.”\n\n12 Days of Giving\n\nThe holidays are a time for giving, and the needs in SW Florida are great. Each day until Dec. 24, The News-Press will feature the wishes of 12 families and people in hopes that neighbors can help their less fortunate neighbors.\n\nConnect with this reporter:\n\nJanine Zeitlin News-Press (Facebook) @Janinezeitlin (Twitter)\n\nHow to help\n\nTo help Karen Coleman with the cost of day training for three adult children with Sjogren-Larsson syndrome or other needy families, contact Freida B. Smith Special Populations Center in Cape Coral at 574-0574 or email specpops@capecoral.net. The center needs 21 scholarships, totaling $22,000, to provide adult day training services that families cannot afford.\n\nComing Sunday\n\nDay 3: Fresh out of a domestic violence shelter, Tina Ruwinski struggles to provide for her three children.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2013/12/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/04/08/the-goldbergs-honors-george-segal-in-late-actors-final-appearance/7116929002/", "title": "George Segal: How 'The Goldbergs' says goodbye in his final episode", "text": "George Segal's final appearance on ABC's \"The Goldbergs\" Wednesday was quintessential Pops: a mix of humor based on generational misunderstanding and folksy but legitimate wisdom, seasoned with plenty of heart.\n\nThe 1980s-set family comedy, now in Season 8, closed with a touching 48-second video tribute to the longtime film and TV star, who died at 87 March 23 due to complications from bypass surgery.\n\nAfter the episode ended, the screen shifted to a message: DEDICATED TO OUR FRIEND, GEORGE. That was followed by a series of clips featuring Segal in various scenes as grandfather Albert \"Pops\" Solomon, including some from his roles in the program's signature film and TV re-creations: Pops as Batman, Pops in a straitjacket, Pops as one of the Ghostbusters – where his amusing pop-culture cluelessness was on display.\n\n\"Who ya gonna telephone? The Ghost Fellas,\" he said, butchering the famed catchphrase.\n\nAccomplished life:George Segal, longtime movie star and grandfather on ABC's 'The Goldbergs,' dies at 87\n\nThe tribute also featured Segal on the banjo, an instrument he often played on late-night shows, along with his Pops offering loving hugs to family members and heartfelt advice: \"If you just believe in yourself, like I do, you can't lose.\" The segment closed with a simple on-screen message: We will miss you, George.\n\n\"The Goldbergs\" capped a long, successful film and TV career for Segal, who received an Academy Award nomination for \"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?\" and starred in such movies as \"The Hot Rock,\" \"Blume in Love,\" \"California Split\" and \"Fun with Dick and Jane.\" Before \"The Goldbergs,\" he enjoyed a six-season run on the NBC comedy \"Just Shoot Me!\"\n\nIn the episode that preceded the tribute, Segal's \"Pops\", the father of Beverly and grandfather of Erica, Barry and Adam, had a typically small role as measured in screen time, but size shouldn't be confused with significance. To the end, the character remained a charming co-conspirator to aspiring filmmaker Adam (Sean Giambrone) – the youthful alter ego of series creator Adam F. Goldberg – providing both comic relief and important life advice.\n\nWednesday's episode opened with Adam re-creating the innovative pencil-sketch animation of A-ha's 1985 \"Take On Me\" music video, with Pops and mom Beverly (Wendy McLendon-Covey) as his co-stars.\n\nPops, of course, didn't quite get the technology. \"I still don't understand why we have to be animated,\" he said.\n\n\"No, I do the animation after,\" Adam explained. \"It's called rotoscoping.\"\n\n\"Does it hurt?\" Pops replied.\n\n\"That's a wrap for Pops,\" Adam concluded.\n\nFor all the laugh potential, Segal's Pops has always been a sage presence, grounding a family of characters known for their flights of whimsy. That came into play later in the episode, as Pops served as both sounding board and counsel when Adam tried to figure out ways to show his much less privileged girlfriend, Brea, that he wasn't a coddled mama's boy.\n\n\"Instead of trying to convince Brea that you're not spoiled, why don't you show her by getting a (bleeping) job?\" Pops suggested.\n\nAdam listened, getting a job alongside Brea in an ice cream parlor, but he hated the hard work and concocted a scheme to get Beverly to interfere so he would be fired.\n\n\"This is a huge mistake,\" Pops said. He was right, as usual.\n\nBrea saw through the charade, leaving Adam without a job and (potentially) a girlfriend.\n\nPops was not pleased. \"You didn't like working so hard, so you took the easy way out. Brea doesn't like that. Frankly, I don't either,\" Pops said.\n\nIn the words of the narrator, grown-up Adam (Patton Oswalt), \"Pops' disappointment was a rude awakening.\" Chastened Adam listened this time, getting back both his job and Brea. Moral: Always listen to Pops.\n\nAt the end of the video tribute, Segal received one final honor, an appearance on executive producer Goldberg's production card. Goldberg, who based the series on his own upbringing and often features family members in the closing credits, closed with a black-and-white picture of Segal and him.\n\nIt was a deserved spot for a beloved member of the family, whether it's Goldberg's, \"The Goldbergs\" or the millions of fans who have enjoyed watching Segal over the decades in film and TV.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/04/08"}, {"url": "http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/09/paula-cooper-executioner-within/93650408/", "title": "Indiana killer Paula Cooper: The Executioner Within", "text": "Robert King\n\nrobert.king@indystar.com\n\nThis 13-chapter story, told as a real-life novel, raises questions about race, justice, poverty and abuse. But it is also the story about the human capacity for forgiveness and a young woman’s struggle to find peace.\n\nStill shrouded in darkness, she sat alone in her car, parked between night and day, between this world and the next.\n\nBehind her, a family of teddy bears sat strapped in by a seat belt. In the front seat next to her was a digital recorder. And a gun.\n\nShe picked up the recorder and clicked it on.\n\n\"This is Paula Cooper.\"\n\nA short introduction, a simple statement. Even though nothing had been simple about being Paula Cooper.\n\n\"I believe today is the 26th; 5:15 will be my death.\"\n\nShe saw it clearly now, even in the pre-dawn gloom. She'd spent so much of her life searching for peace. But early on the morning of May 26, 2015, the end was in sight. She would reach it before sunrise.\n\nShe just had a few things left to say.\n\n—\n\n\"My sister. My queen. My everything.\"\n\nEvery morning she spoke to Rhonda. Why should this morning be different?\n\n—\n\n\"My mother, I felt like you didn't love me. You didn't care about me. You cut me off. You judged me. You didn't want me at your church. You hurt me about the man I loved. But I still love you.\"\n\nOthers had forgiven Paula. Yet she never felt it from the woman who mattered most.\n\n—\n\n\"To Monica, I'm so sorry. This pain that I feel every day. I walk around. I'm so miserable inside. I can't deal with this reality.\"\n\nMonica had been like a godmother in the fairy tales — someone to fill the void in the absence of a mother's love.\n\n—\n\n\"LeShon, I love you. … You showed me how to love.You showed me how to be a woman.\"\n\nLeShon looked beyond Paula's past. As if it had never occurred.\n\n—\n\n\"Michael, I'm so proud of you. And thank you for apologizing.\"\n\nMichael was her first love. She wanted a life with him; he wanted something else.\n\n—\n\n\"Meshia … you helped me when I was down, but I explained to you better than anybody how I feel.\"\n\nMeshia knew Paula's pain; she'd just been unable to stop it.\n\n—\n\nThese were the people Paula loved most. And to each one she had revealed part of herself, but never the whole. It was a select list from a life populated by characters: Her brutal father and her innocent victim; the judge who condemned her and the man who forgave her. There were friars and a bishop and a pope; jailers and journalists; people who were zealous to save her life and people eager to end it. There were too many to consider, really. And the sun would be up soon. She could wait no longer.\n\n\"Forgive me,\" she said in a recording that would soon become part of a police investigation. \"I must go now.\"\n\nHer coda finished, Paula stepped out of the car and into the shadows. She took a seat against a blighted tree. She felt the breeze in her hair. She felt the gun in her hand.\n\nShe was familiar with death. She'd seen it up close. She'd been condemned to it, resigned to it and reprieved from it. She had debated its merits and come to terms with it. Never had she stopped thinking of it.\n\nBut the question that would vex those she was leaving behind was maddeningly simple.\n\nWhy, after all she had endured and all she had survived, after all she had done and seemed capable of doing, had she chosen to die now?\n\nTo empower the journalism behind IndyStar, please consider a subscription.\n\nThe garden spot in the woods — where her father grew vegetables and beat his daughters — was only an occasional venue of torture.\n\nMore often, for Paula Cooper, it happened at home.\n\nAs a child, Paula went to bed night after night next to her sister, listening to their parents argue, listening to her father make threats to come after them. Sometimes her mother would talk him out of it. Sometimes the man's wrath ebbed and they fell asleep. Sometimes they would be jarred awake at 3 o'clock in the morning, her father standing over them, ready to beat them.\n\nPaula believed there were other kinds of families out there. She watched the people on \"The Cosby Show,\" and they seemed to have such a nice family. But that was television. This was real. This was her family. And it looked as if there was no escaping it.\n\n—\n\nPaula was born in Chicago to Herman and Gloria Cooper on Aug. 25, 1969. Her sister, Rhonda, was three years older. Early on, the family lived in Michigan City, but by the time Paula was old enough for school they had moved to Gary.\n\nThe girls attended Bethune Grade School, a stone's throw from home. They went to nearby New Testament Baptist Church, where Paula sang in the choir and helped with the little children's Bible classes.\n\nBy the late 1970s, Gary's downward spiral from a midcentury boomtown was picking up speed. Manufacturing jobs were disappearing. White families were fleeing to the suburbs. Crime was rising. Like many black families still in the city, the Coopers were left in the wake of all this.\n\nGloria worked as a lab tech at a hospital. She had an assortment of health problems, none of them helped by the drugs and booze she added to the mixture.\n\n\"One day my mother be nice, the next day she be angry,\" Paula would tell Woman's Day, years later, when her story was national news. \"And the next day she be real strange-acting.\"\n\nHerman worked for U.S. Steel and worked construction, but his employment was sporadic. He had a girlfriend on the side and would be gone for long stretches. When he returned, chaos followed. Herman and Gloria were a volatile pair, drinking hard and arguing often, creating an atmosphere that was not just unstable, but dangerous.\n\nThe result, as Paula would say later, was that the girls had to \"fend for themselves.\" Sometimes, on evenings when Herman was gone and Gloria worked late, Paula took meals with the next-door neighbors, who allowed her to stick around and watch TV. Most of the time the girls had food and nice clothing. But, as Rhonda would say later, \"we hardly ever had any love.\"\n\nExcept from each other.\n\nIn the middle of all the darkness, Paula and Rhonda clung tightly to each other. They found moments to giggle together, play pranks together and share secrets.\n\nMore than just a sister, Rhonda became Paula's caregiver. Yet, through their early years, they were unaware of an important family secret: Rhonda was the child of a different father. It was a secret Gloria took great pains to hide, even though she allowed Rhonda's father, Ronald Williams, to visit occasionally. She said he was her uncle.\n\nBefore Herman came along, Ronald and Gloria were engaged. They broke it off, as Williams would later tell a courtroom, because he felt Gloria had a \"split personality.\" In short, he thought she was crazy.\n\nLiving with Herman Cooper didn't help.\n\nHerman beat everyone in the house. He beat Gloria in front of the girls. He beat the girls together. He beat them separately, sometimes in front of their mother. Sometimes Gloria seemed to egg on the violence.\n\n\"We did everything we was supposed to do, but it just wasn't never good enough for her,\" Paula told Woman's Day many years later. \"… She get mad at us and he'd beat us. 'Be a man,' she'd tell him. 'Take care of it,' she'd say. And he'd take care of it.\"\n\nThe girls grew up unable to remember a time before the abuse. When they were little, Paula would later say, Herman beat them \"for the things little kids do.\" When they were older, Rhonda remembered, he beat them for forgetting to take out the trash, for not doing the dishes and for skipping school.\n\nHerman employed an assortment of tools for punishment, whatever he could get his hands on — shoes, straps, sticks, a broom. Sometimes he used an electrical cord from an air conditioner.\n\n\"He'd triple it up and go to work,\" Paula would say later. \"It got to the point I was so used to it I didn't cry anymore.\"\n\nTo heighten the pain, Herman sometimes ordered the girls to remove their clothes before a beating. Questioned later, he denied that he ever abused the girls at all.\n\n—\n\nThis stark picture of Paula Cooper's childhood emerges from several sources; the courtroom testimony from Rhonda and her father; testimony from Dr. Frank Brogno, a clinical psychologist who discussed what he learned from examining Paula. Some of the glimpses into the darkness come from now-yellowed news clippings. Others come from anecdotes Paula shared with friends and loved ones and the few journalists she favored. Finally, there's the freshest source of insight into Paula's world — more than 100 personal letters she wrote to a treasured friend that were reviewed by IndyStar.\n\nTaken together, they amount to a catalog of horrors. Her father's beatings, Paula said, left her \"close to death so many times.\" With no apparent means of escape, she seemed to stop fearing death at all. \"I just cried,\" she wrote, \"until all my tears were gone away.\"\n\n—\n\nIn 1978, when Paula was 9, the tears were still flowing. Her parents separated, but it was often fuzzy as to when they were back together and when they were apart. Once, when Herman returned home to find the doors locked, he forced his way in. According to testimony Rhonda gave in court, Herman entered their home, beat up their mother and raped her in front of the two girls.\n\nThe incident seems to have been a tipping point. Not long after, Gloria began telling her daughters the world had nothing to offer them. Instead, she said, they'd all be better off going to heaven. On this point, Rhonda would say later, Gloria began pressuring her daughters. Eventually, the girls came to believe, like their mother, they had nothing to live for.\n\nGloria phoned Ronald Williams, Rhonda's father and steady friend. It was late. She'd been drinking and taking pills. She was crying. Herman had been giving her problems, she said, and things weren't good at work.\n\nShe was thinking of killing herself.\n\nWilliams had heard this kind of talk from Gloria before. Always, he had been able to console her, to talk her back from the precipice. He reminded her that she had Paula and Rhonda to think about. What would happen to them? His question made Gloria think. But only for an hour.\n\nShe called Williams back. Between her tears and her wailing, Gloria said: \"I finally found out what I'm going to do with the kids.\"\n\nWilliams was alarmed. He demanded to know what she meant.\n\n\"I'm going to take them with me,\" she replied. \"I'm going to let you speak to your daughter and Paula for the last time.\"\n\nThe girls took the phone in turns. They were crying, too. Rhonda said they were going to heaven with their mother.\n\n\"Don't do nothing drastic,\" Williams told them. \"Let me speak to your mother, OK.\"\n\nThe phone went dead.\n\nWilliams panicked. Gloria and the girls had recently moved. She hadn't shared their new address. He didn't know where to find them, how to stop her.\n\nHe called the operator and asked for his last call to be traced; it was no good. He called Gary police. Without an address, they could do nothing.\n\nThere was nothing anyone could do. Williams waited. For three weeks, he waited. He feared what had become of them.\n\nHad Gloria killed them all?\n\n—\n\nAfter she hung up the phone, Gloria decided not to act right away; she'd wait until morning. When she awoke, Gloria took the girls out to the car in the garage. She put them in the back seat and started the engine. The garage door remained closed.\n\nFrom there, accounts differ. Williams testified that a friend told him neighbors noticed something and called the fire department. Rhonda testified that, as the fumes gathered, the girls drifted off to sleep. They thought they were going to heaven; instead, they woke up in bed. How they got there isn't clear. Rhonda said Gloria had changed her mind. When the girls awoke, she said, their mother was coughing on the lawn.\n\nFrom then on, Williams tried to coax Gloria into letting him have the girls. Rhonda was his daughter, and he was fond of Paula, too. Gloria would have none of it.\n\n\"I'd rather see them both dead,\" she said.\n\n—\n\nThe girls survived their first brush with death. But Paula and her sister were being shaped in a world without hope. And now their mother had planted a seed: The ultimate escape was death.\n\nRhonda looked around at this nihilist world and began seeking a way out. Several times she tried to run. Soon, she began taking Paula with her. \"I couldn't take it no more in that house,\" she would say, \"and I didn't want her to, either.\"\n\nBy 1982, when both girls were teenagers, they made an unsuccessful attempt to run and were sent — together — to the Thelma Marshall Children's Home in Gary. Within a short time, they were returned to the Coopers. For Paula, it was the beginning of a cycle — of running and being returned home. For Rhonda, that cycle ended only when she learned Ronald Williams was her biological father. At her first opportunity, she left the Coopers to live with him.\n\nIf the move helped Rhonda, it had grievous consequences for Paula, then 13. Her sister had been the most stable person in her home. Now she was gone. Paula came to believe her parents blamed her for Rhonda's departure. Now that her father's anger had one less target, Paula's beatings grew more frequent and more brutal. Even as her parents divorced, Herman never quite left the picture. And his handiwork began to show.\n\nAt school, Paula revealed to an administrator a rash of injuries — a bruise on her thigh, a welt on her arm, a rug burn on her elbow.\n\nWhen a welfare caseworker visited the Cooper home, Herman and Gloria cursed at her. They blamed Paula's problems on interference from the courts, from the school psychologist and from the welfare department itself. When the caseworker recommended family counseling, Gloria said she'd rather go to jail.\n\nAt various times, Gloria and Herman seemed to vacillate between wanting Paula and considering her a curse. Paula began running away on her own. After one attempt, welfare officials wanted to send Paula home, but her mother objected. If Paula returned, Gloria vowed to leave.\n\nOn another occasion, when Rhonda made a rare visit to spend a weekend with Paula and her mother, arguments ensued and Williams returned for Rhonda. He couldn't find her there, but he found Paula. She was crying so loudly he heard her without going in. Gloria, who stood in front of the house fuming about Paula, simply said: \"I'm going to kill that bitch.\"\n\nPaula emerged and, seeing Williams, ran to him and jumped into his arms. He asked her if her mother would really hurt her.\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\nWilliams told her to get in the car. Gloria charged out toward them and began to threaten Paula. \"I'm going to kill you and if I don't (Herman) will.\"\n\nWilliams considered it serious business to take Paula. He lived in Illinois and assumed it would be a crime to take a child across the state line without permission of the parents. He took her anyway. Gloria and other family members threatened to phone the police.\n\nAt his home, Williams asked Paula what she wanted to do. They talked about the logistics of her staying with him without her mother's permission. It would be impossible for her to go to school. Then there was the trouble Williams might face. With tears, Paula looked at Williams and said, \"It's best for me to go home … I don't want to get you in no trouble.\" Paula's respite lasted only a few hours.\n\nEven though he wasn't keeping Paula, Williams couldn't fathom returning her home. Instead, he just let her walk away. She was young, no more than 13, but Williams believed she was safer on the streets of Chicago than at home. Under scrutiny for making such a choice, Williams later told a courtroom he thought Paula was in danger there. \"I would rather see her in the street as a slut than for her mother to blow her brains out.\"\n\nFor several days, Paula survived on her own. Inevitably, she wound up back home.\n\n—\n\nBy 1983, when Paula turned 14, she stayed away from home as much as possible. She was smoking cigarettes and drinking. She smoked marijuana almost daily. Tall, but heavy, she took speed to lose weight. She tried cocaine. She skipped school routinely. She was sexually active. Years later, she would warn others against making similar choices. But for the moment, it was her life.\n\nAnd it was a rootless life. She spent six months at a children's home in Mishawaka and three months in a juvenile detention center. She was removed from one home after only six days after she threatened a staff member and another resident — with a knife.\n\nWith each new address, Paula changed schools. She attended four high schools without ever finishing the 10th grade. Her schoolwork, decent at first, nosedived. She called a teacher \"crazy,\" resulting in a suspension. She struggled to keep friends. She developed a reputation as a bully. All the while, Paula struggled to wake up in the mornings. When she was evaluated for the problem, a doctor at a local hospital asked if she ever thought of killing herself.\n\n\"Yes,\" she replied.\n\nFor that answer, she was sent to a mental hospital. Released four days later, she returned home.\n\n\"I told people I needed help and to talk, but all they did was move me from home to home,\" Paula would write a few years later. \"I didn't care about life or trouble or consequences at all.\"\n\n—\n\nPerhaps the pinnacle of Paula's abuse came, ironically, after her father visited Gary police seeking advice on how to deal with a wayward child. Paula was 14, and Herman Cooper couldn't keep her reined in. Frustrated, he asked the police what he should do with her. It was a family matter, they said; he should do what he thought was right.\n\nFor Herman Cooper, that meant one thing: another beating. But for what he had in mind this time, he'd need some privacy. He took Paula to a woody patch near a spot where he kept a garden. Paula had been there before; so had Rhonda.\n\n\"If you scream where I take you,\" he told Paula, \"no one will hear you.\"\n\nSeveral times in her life, Paula thought her father was going to beat her to death. This was one of them. \"He just kept beating me and beating me,\" she would tell the clinical psychologist, for what seemed like half an hour. Instead of the cord or a broom or a stick, this time Herman beat her with his bare hands.\n\nWhen he was done, Herman put Paula in the car to take her home. But as they drove through the darkening streets of Gary, Paula knew she couldn't go back there. Not when the possibility of more punishment lay ahead in the Cooper house of horrors.\n\nAs Herman pulled the car up to the house, Paula jumped out and took off running into the night. Running and screaming. Herman gave chase, but porch lights began to click on. Up and down the street, neighbors stepped out to investigate the commotion. The neighbors had seen this show before; it never seemed to end. This time, though, Herman retreated.\n\nPaula ran until she wound up where the night had begun — at the police station. She told officers there about the beating, told them she couldn't go home. At least not while Herman was around. The state pulled her away from the Coopers. It isn't clear from the record where she was placed. But soon, she was sent back home.\n\n—\n\nIn the summer of 1984, when Paula turned 15, she felt as lonely as ever.\n\nAdrift, Paula briefly took up with a guy she hoped might offer her a haven. Later, she would tell others he was a rough character who dealt drugs and treated her poorly. The one thing he did for Paula was leave her pregnant.\n\nMany teenage girls would consider pregnancy a tragedy; Paula saw it as a blessing. She had almost forgotten how to care about anyone. She wanted a family, wanted someone to belong to. The child growing inside her represented someone she could love, someone who would love her in return.\n\nAnd then it was gone.\n\nGloria had been dead set against the pregnancy; she wanted Paula to end it. Paula refused and ran off — perhaps to seek help from a woman she knew in Chicago. Her mother tracked her down and, as Paula would write years later in a letter and tell friends, forced her to have an abortion.\n\nPaula was several months into the pregnancy; the procedure nearly killed her. \"She took something that would have completed my life,\" Paula would write later, \"and after that I felt I had no one.\"\n\nTo empower the journalism behind IndyStar, please consider a subscription.\n\nRuth Pelke was gentle, an old woman with silvery hair and horn-rimmed glasses. As her stepson Robert and his wife pleaded for her to leave Gary, she listened.\n\nRobert pledged to do everything necessary to make her house ready for sale — the legal stuff, the touch-up jobs, whatever. She listened as they talked to her about how dangerous her neighborhood had become.\n\nBut Ruth didn't really need reminding. Her Glen Park neighborhood was still one of the better places to live in Gary, although that wasn't saying much, given the city's downward lurch. There were abandoned houses now. There were burglaries. Her own home had been hit five times in recent years, including when her husband, Oscar, was still alive. Now, at 78, she was widowed and alone, and things were only getting worse. But Ruth had been in Glen Park for 41 years; it was home. She still had some good neighbors. Just as important, she had a mission.\n\nFor decades, she'd opened her home and heart to the neighborhood children. She'd taught them the Bible using felt cutouts of Bible characters that she stuck to a flannel board. She'd given the kids candy when they memorized Scripture. She'd driven them to church. She believed these were children who needed hope, and they could find it in Jesus. No, she finally said that night after her stepson's plea — she wouldn't be leaving the home in her neighborhood.\n\n\"I'll stay here until I go there,\" she said.\n\nRuth Pelke was pointing a finger to heaven.\n\n—\n\nThe next day, Tuesday, May 14, 1985, Ruth's doorbell rang.\n\nShe answered it and found three teenage girls standing on her porch. She didn't recognize them, but she opened her door. One of the girls said, \"My auntie would like to know about Bible classes. When do y'all hold them?\"\n\nRuth wasn't up to teaching anymore, but she wanted to help the girls. \"Come back on Saturday,\" she said. And closed the door.\n\n—\n\nThe girls — Karen Corder, Denise Thomas and Paula Cooper — walked back across the alley. Sitting on a porch, April Beverly was waiting.\n\nThe foursome — all ninth- and 10th-graders at Lew Wallace High School — left school at lunchtime that afternoon with no intention of going back. The girls walked the 10 blocks or so to an arcade near 45th and Broadway where they spent what little money they had on games and candy. When their money was gone, they headed back to the house where April was staying with her sister.\n\nThey were a ragtag bunch.\n\nAt 16, Karen Corder — known to her friends as \"Pooky\" — was the oldest. More than two years earlier, she'd given birth to a baby boy whom she'd delivered in a toilet. She'd managed to keep the pregnancy secret from her parents until the child was born, according to court records.\n\nAt 15, April Beverly was seven months pregnant. She was part of a divided family with 11 children, and she bounced between two homes, her father's and her sister's. Her mother was dead, her father had remarried. On occasion, April benefited from the kindness of the old lady across the alley. She'd listened to Ruth Pelke's Bible lessons. And the old woman had brought food over to April and her siblings when she was concerned they might be hungry.\n\nAt 14, Denise Thomas was the youngest of the four and the smallest. The others were mature young women — at different places on the spectrum of teen motherhood. Denise still looked very much like a little girl. In the context of this group, some would later describe her as a tag-along.\n\nAnd, of course, there was Paula Cooper. At 15, she was only months removed from an unwanted abortion that had nearly killed her. She was tall, somewhat heavy and had the bearing of a girl beyond her years. She would be described as the \"prime mover\" of the quartet — the ringleader. But it was a label she'd never cop to.\n\n—\n\nTo date, the sum total of their illicit behavior was strictly small-time. Karen had tried her hand at shoplifting. Paula, Karen and April had pulled off a burglary a few days before that netted them $90. Mostly, the girls were truants. And on this Tuesday afternoon away from school, their immediate priority was to raise some money so they could go back to the arcade.\n\nTheir first attempt was a harebrained scheme April cooked up to get some cash from a woman up the street. All four girls had gone to the woman's door. April introduced Denise, the small one, as her daughter. April claimed the woman's husband had taken $20 from Denise and they'd come to collect it. For added zest, April threw in this detail: The woman's husband had been naked when he stepped into the street to take Denise's money.\n\nThe woman didn't go for it.\n\nAfter that failure, April turned her focus to Ruth Pelke. She seemed to recall the lady keeping a jar of $2 bills. She thought the woman might even have some jewelry. The question was how to get to it all.\n\nAs they sat on the porch at her sister's house, April asked Paula to come inside — she might know where there was a gun. For the girls, a gun crime would be a considerable step up the criminal ladder. But the gun wasn't where April thought it was; she couldn't find it. Then it occurred to April: Something else might do.\n\n\"I have a knife you could scare the lady with,\" she said.\n\nSoon, April produced a 12-inch butcher knife. It was sharp and had a curving blade that graduated to a fine point. It was a cooking tool, but also a potentially lethal instrument. Paula took the knife and hid it in her light jacket. Out on the porch, she and April explained to the other girls: This was their new weapon of choice. And Karen came up with another approach to getting inside the old lady's home: They would ask her to write down the time and place where the Bible classes would be.\n\nIn all this planning, Paula and the other girls would forever swear, the subject of killing the old woman never came up. The most they would admit, according to Corder, was that they'd knock out the woman and rob her. Still, the reality of what they were planning — to con their way into her house, pull a knife and take the old woman's valuables — was fraught with danger.\n\nAs their scheme unfolded, April stayed back again, resting on her sister's porch; she didn't want the old woman to recognize her. Karen, Paula and Denise crossed the alley.\n\nThey rang the bell, and soon Ruth Pelke appeared at the door. This time, when she answered, Karen said: \"My auntie wants to know where the Bible classes are held at. Could you write it down for me?\"\n\nRuth said she no longer taught the classes, but she knew of a lady. \"I'll look up her telephone number for you.\" She invited the girls to come in. And she turned to walk to the desk on the far side of the room.\n\n—\n\nRuth Pelke looked for all the world like the kindly grandmother drawn up in children's books. She was also a woman whose Christian faith was essential to who she was. She went to church on Wednesday nights and twice on Sundays. She visited church members who were too old or too sick to get out. She sang in the choir. She hosted missionaries in her home on their trips back from foreign lands. She took her own missionary journeys, going deeper into the heart of Gary to share her faith with children.\n\nWhat followed — recorded in statements to police, testified to in court, reported in newspaper accounts and, in brief instances, described in letters Paula would write years later — was a scene that would shock Northwest Indiana and the rest of the state.\n\nAs Ruth Pelke crossed her living room to the desk where she kept phone numbers, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her neck.\n\nPaula had put her jacket on the couch and run up on Ruth, grabbing her from behind. For a moment, the teenager and the old woman struggled. Ruth still tended a garden and did a little work outside the house to keep fit, but she was in no shape for a chunky 15-year-old girl who now had her in a headlock.\n\nPaula threw Ruth to the floor.\n\nOn a table nearby sat an item some would describe as a vase but others likened more to a triangular snow globe. One of the girls picked it up and hit Ruth Pelke over the head. Prosecutors would allege it was Denise Thomas; Paula took the blame.\n\nPaula demanded to know where Ruth kept her valuables. She threatened to cut her with the knife. \"Give me the money, bitch,\" she said.\n\nRuth looked up and said simply: \"You aren't going to kill me.\" She began hollering for help. Paula's anger rose now. Then she looked at Ruth's head. Blood was streaming from the place where she'd been hit with the vase. Paula saw the blood and reacted in a way she would struggle to explain for the rest of her life.\n\nTo police investigators, she would say she entered \"a blackout stage.\"\n\nTo a judge, she would say, \"Something clicked in on me.\"\n\nTo a psychologist, she said the sight of the blood altered her perception of whom she was attacking: \"I saw somebody else inside of that body.\"\n\nSeveral friends and supporters who heard similar explanations from Paula concluded that, in this moment, Paula no longer saw the meek and mild Bible teacher in front of her. They believed Paula saw the woman who watched her suffer so many beatings and did nothing to stop them, the woman who took away the baby she'd wanted to love. They were convinced that, in the defenseless woman pinned to the floor, Paula saw her mother.\n\nWhatever she saw, Paula reached for the knife. She grabbed it by the handle and began slashing. She sliced open the old woman's cheek. She stabbed at her head, without deep penetration. Ruth fell back, flat on the floor. And Paula went to work, cutting her arms and legs.\n\nThe other girls stood by in disbelief.\n\nKaren Corder, the oldest, told Paula to stop.\n\nDenise Thomas, the youngest, cried and screamed for Paula to quit. Later, she would claim she yelled, \"I'm getting out of here,\" only to be met with a withering threat from Paula: \"Leave and you're dead.\"\n\nPaula's barrage was relentless. She stabbed the old woman in the belly and, finally, thrust the blade deep into the side of Ruth's chest. With that, Paula stopped; she pulled back from the carnage.\n\n\"I can't take it no more,\" she said.\n\nPaula looked at Denise; she told her to come hold the knife. But Denise refused. She looked at Karen, communicating the same message. Karen knelt beside the wounded woman. The blade remained lodged in her chest. And Karen held it in place.\n\nApril Beverly, who concocted the robbery scheme, initially held back. After the others went inside, she had come up to Ruth's porch and acted as lookout. Now she entered the house. The old woman was lying on her back, her dress covered in blood, her arms and legs still moving. Karen, she noticed, held the knife as it protruded from the woman's side. To April, it appeared that Karen wasn't just holding it: She was wiggling the knife back and forth. Out of some morbid curiosity, she would tell police later, Karen pushed the blade farther into the hole to see how deep it would go. At one point, she concluded, \"The bitch won't die.\"\n\nKaren estimated she held the knife in Ruth Pelke's side for upwards of 15 minutes; Paula thought it closer to 30.\n\nRuth Pelke moaned through most of this. The old woman's torn and tortured face was too much for the girls to bear. One of them went to the bathroom and got a towel to cover Ruth's face — and try to smother the last breaths of life from her. Paula and Denise said it was Karen; Karen said it was Paula.\n\nIn her dying moments, Ruth Pelke managed to share a few last words. Denise heard her saying the Lord's Prayer.\n\n\"Our Father, which art in heaven …\"\n\nPaula had stalked in and out of the room, and the last words she heard from Ruth were something else. Words that would haunt her the rest of her life.\n\n\"If you kill me,\" she heard Ruth say, \"you will be sorry.\"\n\nTo empower the journalism behind IndyStar, please consider a subscription.\n\nPaula and Denise began tearing the house apart, rifling through drawers, ripping items off shelves and upending furniture.\n\nFor Paula, it was a mad search for some reward for the awful business she'd just concluded. There had to be some money somewhere. Maybe some jewelry. But as she continued her desperate search, a nervousness began to grow inside her. Whether it was regret for the killing or the chilling final words of her victim, she felt uneasy. And she didn't like it. As they were going through the upstairs rooms, Paula tried to pull herself away. But the only place to go was back downstairs, where the source of her angst lay dead on the floor. She resumed the treasure hunt and soon managed to turn up some cash — all of $10. She came across a key and thought it might start the old woman's Plymouth in the garage. She ran out to give it a try. Nothing.\n\nApril joined in the search and quickly turned up another key. This time when Paula tried it, the engine stirred to life. April went inside to fetch the other girls.\n\nBy then, Karen and Denise were alone with Ruth Pelke's body. Karen had watched the rise and fall of the old woman's chest until it grew shallower. Finally, it stopped. Maybe April sensed some new panic; she sternly warned the other girls: \"If you tell anyone, I'll kill you.\"\n\nThe girls had spent roughly an hour in the old woman's house. They hadn't found a jar of $2 bills. They hadn't found a trove of jewelry. But it was time to go. Someone might come looking. Before they could leave, Karen grabbed one last item.\n\nShe knelt down again beside Ruth. The butcher knife was planted firmly in the left side of her chest, just below her breast. Karen grabbed the handle. She pulled it out. As they headed out to the car, Karen carried the knife at her side. She climbed into the back of the car and dropped it to the floor. The blade was still coated in blood.\n\n—\n\nPaula Cooper was 15. She was too young to drive. But with her three accomplices as passengers, she managed to steer Ruth's car out of the neighborhood and onto 45th Avenue. They were just down the street from Lew Wallace High School. School was out now and, almost immediately, they saw a classmate walking along the street. Almost reflexively, they waved to Beverly Byndum. And Beverly waved back.\n\nThis was the paradox they now faced. They were teenagers in possession of a car, the apex of adolescence. Yet they had acquired it in the most horrific way imaginable. Years later, Paula would say things just \"got out of control.\" But here she was — a killer. Now that the deed was done, now that they had a few bucks, Paula and the others seemed in no mood to enjoy it.\n\nBefore they arrived at the video arcade, Karen asked Paula to let her out of the car; she wanted to go back to April's house. Paula let her go, but not before asking her to perform a little task: Go back to the old lady's house and get the jacket Paula had left inside.\n\nNext, Denise said she wanted to go home. She asked Paula to let her out at a convenience store and she would make her way from there.\n\nWhen Paula and April pulled up to Candyland Arcade, they were alone. For a few minutes, they just sat there, talking about what they'd done. April hadn't witnessed everything that went on inside the house. It's not clear how many of the missing details Paula shared.\n\nPaula said she needed to use the restroom, and she ventured into the arcade. When she returned, five girls from school were standing around the car. One of them was Beverly Byndum, whom they had passed on the street. Her sister, Latesha, asked where they had come by the car. Paula said it was her sister's.\n\nWithin minutes, Karen walked up to the arcade out of breath, as if she had been running to catch up with the crew. Wherever she had been, she hadn't stayed long. Paula pulled her aside and asked if she'd gone back to the house, if she'd picked up the jacket. No, Karen replied. It was probably the last place on Earth she wanted to go. And she didn't hang around long enough to talk further about it. In a few minutes, she caught a bus for home.\n\nWhether Paula remembered it or not, she had left more than her jacket in the house. Inside one of its pockets was a newly filled prescription for birth control pills — her pills. She had picked them up earlier that morning before school. It was just one of the clues she had left for investigators to find.\n\nPaula and April looked around at the girls and asked if anyone wanted a ride home. Eagerly, their friends piled into the Plymouth. Latesha Byndum was among those who jumped into the back. As she did, she felt her foot brush across something on the floor. She reached down to pick it up. It was a knife. And there was blood on it. There was also blood on her shoe. Latesha looked at Paula and April in the front seat and asked, \"What you all do? Just kill somebody?\"\n\nThe girls looked back at Latesha.\n\nNo, they replied.\n\nAnd, in a response that would reverberate across the community, Paula and April laughed.\n\n—\n\nPaula and April dropped off their passengers at various addresses around Gary. But details about where and how they spent their next two days are choppy and imprecise.\n\nProsecutors would characterize their time in the car as a joy ride. But from this point on, Paula and April seemed to have a different sense of what to do next.\n\nApril wanted to go to a park in Hammond; she wanted to see her brother Tony; she wanted to see her boyfriend. When she found $40 in Ruth Pelke's glove box, she wanted to spend it. When they picked up April's boyfriend and he brought some alcohol, she drank it.\n\nPaula wanted to go to a girl's home where she had lived for a time; she wanted to pick up some friends there. But she quickly decided she and April needed some time to focus on what to do next. When April found the money, Paula thought they should save it for gas. While April got drunk, Paula wanted nothing to drink. She was too nervous.\n\nMost symbolic of their division, perhaps, is what happened to the money from Ruth's glove box. The girls wrestled over it, and one of the $20 bills was torn. Paula gave up the fight. April could keep the money and do with it what she wanted.\n\n—\n\nOn Wednesday morning, the day after the crime, Robert Pelke phoned Ruth's house to check up on her. She didn't pick up the phone, and he decided to check on her in person. Just three days before, he and a large portion of the extended Pelke family had taken Ruth out for a Mother's Day dinner. Just two days earlier, Robert and his wife had pushed Ruth to think about selling her house and leaving Gary. Robert rang the doorbell, with no idea how prescient that conversation had been.\n\nThere was no answer, so Robert opened the mail slot on the door and called inside. There was only silence. But through the mail slot, something caught Robert's eye: The dining room was torn apart. He went to fetch a spare key Ruth kept hidden outside. Looking around the place, he noticed Ruth's car was missing from the garage, and he assumed Ruth must be gone, too.\n\nHe found the key, unlocked the door and stepped into the house. The place appeared to have been ransacked. Pictures that had adorned the walls were now scattered about the floor. Cushions from the couch had been pulled up and cast about. And then his eyes turned to the dining room floor.\n\nThe cloaked figure of a woman lay there motionless. Her dress was caked in blood. Her arms were slashed. A towel masked her face.\n\nRobert knelt down next to her. He pulled the towel away and called her name. Still, there was no movement. He touched her, and the body was cold. He knew she was dead.\n\nRobert got up and went for the phone. In an age when every phone was a landline, Ruth's had been ripped from its place on the wall. He stepped outside and began going door to door, looking for someone who would let him use their phone. But at house after house, he found nobody. Finally, Robert looked farther up the street and saw a man and a woman getting out of a car. He approached them and asked them to call the police.\n\nHis stepmother had been murdered.\n\n—\n\nRobert's son, Bill Pelke, arrived home just after 3 o'clock from his shift at Bethlehem Steel and soon received a phone call. It was one of his uncles. Nana, he said, was dead.\n\nNana was the term of endearment everyone in the family used for Ruth. Bill had grown up listening to her Bible stories. He'd loved her flannel board tales of the three men in the fiery furnace, of Noah and the ark and his favorite — Joseph and the coat of many colors.\n\nEven as a 37-year-old man, he still loved to go to Nana's house for the holidays, to warm himself beside her fireplace and congregate there with the rest of the family. His grandfather had passed almost two years before, but Nana was still a magnet. She could still bring the family together. And now, suddenly, she was gone.\n\nAt such moments of shock, the brain's processor goes into hyperdrive. And some key facts rushed through Bill's head: Nana had been 78; she was the oldest Pelke; she'd had a good life; it must have been her time. But that instant of comfort evaporated quickly. He sensed something else in his uncle's voice that was borne out in his next words: There'd been a break-in at Nana's house. He didn't know if there was a connection.\n\nBill hung up and turned on the television, wondering if there might be some news about it. Sure enough, his father appeared on camera. He was saying something about it being a terrible murder. For Bill, everything else was a blur; he had to go. He had to be with his family.\n\nAs it turned out, Ruth Pelke had been dead for a full day.\n\n—\n\nBy that spring of 1985, crime was a painful reality in Gary. Its murder rate was among the highest in the country. It was on its way to becoming the murder capital of the United States.\n\nGary was a city in decline; poverty was growing like a cancer. But the violence was being spread through an influx of gangs with names such as The Family and the Black Gangster Disciples.\n\nYet as accustomed to crime as the city had become, the murder of Ruth Pelke shocked and angered people in a whole new way. There was the innocence of Ruth herself — the elderly Bible teacher. As one observer put it, she was a grandma to the neighborhood. The killing's effect also might have been amplified because it happened in Glen Park, which a prosecutor later described as a \"last bastion\" of the white population in a city from which white residents had disappeared.\n\nOn the day after the discovery of Ruth's body, The Post-Tribune in Gary devoted two front-page columns to the story: \"Bible teacher, 77, murdered in her home.\" It had her age wrong, but the dominant image on the page was a picture of Ruth — silver-haired and smiling behind her horn-rimmed glasses from another era.\n\nThe newspaper reported that neighborhood children \"were visibly upset and shaken by the murder.\" They spoke of Pelke as \"meek and mild,\" serving cookies during summer Bible classes and giving out boxes of candy to the children who memorized Scripture.\n\nAs for who might be responsible, the initial story carried some important nuggets: Police were searching for a 15-year-old girl who'd been seen driving Pelke's blue Plymouth. They weren't releasing her name, but the girl was a student at Lew Wallace High and lived in Gary's Marshalltown neighborhood.\n\n—\n\nPaula Cooper lived in Marshalltown.\n\nAs they combed through Ruth's house, police found the jacket with the prescription in the pocket. Eyewitnesses had seen Paula and the other girls in a car that matched the description of Ruth's missing Plymouth. And on the day Ruth's body was discovered, Gloria Cooper phoned police to report her 15-year-old daughter missing; she'd been missing since the day before.\n\nThe ink was barely dry on the newspaper stories when Karen Corder, walking around school on Thursday, two days after the crime, began looking for someone on whom she could unload her conscience. She had opted out of the joy ride and gone home and had a couple of restless nights' sleep. She found a gym teacher who'd been nice to her and said they needed to talk; she'd witnessed a murder. Soon, police were at the school. They took Karen and Denise into custody. And Karen was telling her story about the crime.\n\nIn the two days since the killing, Paula and April — with April's brother, Tony — had driven aimlessly from Gary to Hammond and to various parts of Chicago's South Side. They'd had no real sense of direction.\n\nTony pressed on in Ruth's Plymouth until the gas needle dropped well below empty. Then he pushed it some more. Finally, the car died. Their money gone, they found a phone and called April's sister. Thursday night, with the police dragnet closing around them, she took the girls to see the Gary police.\n\n—\n\nDetective William Kennedy Jr. had been looking for Paula Cooper and April Beverly for the better part of two days. When his phone rang around midnight, the news was good: They'd turned themselves in.\n\nIn addition to being a cop, Kennedy worked security at Lew Wallace High School. He'd seen Paula Cooper walking the halls. He never knew her name, but they'd exchanged hellos. Now, he was tidying up the loose ends of a case for murder against her.\n\nWhen he arrived at the station, Paula's parents were waiting. Kennedy asked Herman and Gloria Cooper if Paula could make a formal statement about the crime. Herman, speaking for everyone, declined. They were interested in talking to a lawyer, and he seemed annoyed at the article in the morning paper, which he felt pointed a finger at Paula even if it didn't name her.\n\nThe Coopers met briefly with Paula, then returned to the waiting room. Soon, Rhonda arrived at the station. She'd read the papers. She knew Paula was in jail. And she was upset. She wanted to see her sister.\n\nGloria was OK with that but urged her to persuade Paula to talk about what she'd done. When the police wouldn't let Rhonda see her sister without a parent, Gloria agreed to go with Rhonda.\n\nAfter so many years of turmoil and strife, Gloria and her two daughters were together again — for a moment alone in a police interrogation room. What they said isn't clear. But when Kennedy, the detective, rejoined them, Gloria gave Paula a nudge.\n\n\"Say something,\" she said.\n\nPaula hesitated. She said she didn't want anyone looking at her. So Kennedy turned 45 degrees and looked at a wall. Paula began to speak. She kept speaking for 15 minutes. She laid out the essential elements of Ruth Pelke's murder, described the girls' desire for money and a car, described how they came up with the Bible class as their way in. She described how she got the knife and stabbed the old woman more times than she could remember. She talked about the aftermath, when they took the car and gave rides to their friends. At one point, according to the account the detective would later make from his \"mental notes,\" Gloria Cooper asked Paula in front of the detective: Were you and Karen basically responsible for the lady's death?\n\nPaula's answer: \"Yeah, you could say that.\"\n\nWhen Paula was done, Kennedy left the room. Her mother and her sister left, too. As Paula stood alone in the interrogation room, April Beverly was giving a statement in a room nearby. When Kennedy returned to Paula, she was newly animated. She began unloading a rapid-fire addendum to her confession to the detective.\n\n\"April is lying. She's lying on me, so I'm going to tell you where the murder weapon is. It's at the McDonald's in Hammond on Calumet Avenue, next to the police station. Her brother threw it out the car right by the drive-thru window side. It was by a tree right there.\"\n\nFor Paula, this was the start of one of the great grievances of her life — her claim that the other girls lied. A few details aside, their stories largely matched up. But in the discrepancies, Paula saw injustice. And correcting the narrative to fit her exact version of the truth would become an obsession.\n\nThe legal ramifications of what she'd shared, in her two statements, were that Paula had essentially confessed to the key elements of the murder. She had gift-wrapped a case for the authorities. She also had put herself in the cross hairs of a zealous prosecutor. She had no idea just how precarious her own life had become.\n\nTo empower the journalism behind IndyStar, please consider a subscription.\n\nJack Crawford — with a swooping, blow-dried haircut that gave him an appearance not unlike the televangelists of the era — came before a bank of reporters with material certain to make a splash.\n\nA rising star in Indiana's Democratic Party, Crawford had swept into the Lake County prosecutor's job years before, having pledged to get tough on crime. Since then, he had pursued the death penalty more than any other prosecutor in the state. In the first five months of 1985, he'd already won four death penalty convictions.\n\nNow, flanked by a pair of cops, Crawford came before the gathered media with an announcement sure to make headlines: For the first time in Lake County, his office was charging four girls with murder. He would seek the death penalty against the oldest — 16-year-old Karen Corder — and if the other girls were moved out of juvenile court, he'd likely seek death for them, too.\n\n\"I've been a prosecutor for seven years,\" Crawford told the media, \"and we've never had a case like this before.\"\n\nAs zealous as he was, Crawford privately acknowledged that same day that his chance for death sentences had already taken a big hit. That's because the clerk's office announced that the judge handling the Ruth Pelke cases was Superior Court Judge James C. Kimbrough Jr.\n\nKimbrough was a former public defender and NAACP lawyer who'd grown up in the civil rights heartland of Selma, Ala. More important than all of that, everyone around the courts — from prosecutors and public defenders to reporters and clerks — knew Kimbrough hated the death penalty. Hated it for its unfairness. Hated it for its inability to deter crime. And in a county where other judges had shown themselves willing to brandish the ultimate weapon, Kimbrough hadn't sent anyone to the electric chair during 12 years on the bench. Only once had he come close: Kimbrough sentenced a man to death who had been convicted of a double murder. Soon, though, the judge reversed himself and gave the man a new trial. Eventually, he was set free.\n\nSo, at word of Kimbrough's assignment, Jack Crawford and his team murmured that the path to a death sentence was a steep one. \"We certainly thought we had an uphill climb,\" he would say later.\n\n—\n\nIn the Lake County Juvenile Detention Center, Paula Cooper's life behind bars was getting off to a rough start.\n\nShe was no stranger to jail, having spent three months in the same detention center two years earlier after she ran away from home. She was a bit weepy then, even tender, the guards remembered. But this 15-year-old version of Paula Cooper was angrier, explosive and cocky. She acted as if she owned the place. She was a handful.\n\nTwo weeks after the crime, Paula took a seat next to two of her friends in the jail during \"quiet hour.\" Soon they grew noisy. A guard told them to shut up and disperse; Paula refused. The guard ordered her back to her cell. But as she stepped into the hall, Paula struck the guard across the bridge of the nose. She fought until reinforcements arrived to pull Paula off. As they were dragging her away, Paula issued a warning: They'd better transfer the guard or she would get a knife and come after her.\n\nThe dust-up prompted a transfer for the girls — from the juvenile center to the Lake County Jail. It also made the local papers, which didn't help the cause of saving their lives.\n\nBy the end of July 1985, the cases against all four girls were formally moved to adult court. Crawford, after sifting through the ample evidence, made his purpose clear: He would seek the death penalty against all four.\n\nThe case had pricked the public's consciousness of crime at a new level.\n\nCrawford's decision made news on the Chicago television stations; it made headlines across Indiana. The public defender assigned to represent Paula, Kevin Relphorde, was incredulous. \"They must be the youngest females in the country facing the death penalty,\" he told reporters.\n\nBy then, Paula and Karen, sharing a cell in the Lake County Jail, had been locked up two months. They began telling jail staff they were considering suicide. On cards they were given to report health problems, they wrote things such as \"Give me the electric chair\" and \"Give me that shock. I want to die.\"\n\nAs a precaution, jail officers took their personal belongings and stripped them to their underwear; they were on suicide watch.\n\nPaula and Karen responded by banging on the bars and making noise. To calm them, a nurse broke out the oral sedatives. Karen took hers; Paula refused. The guards teamed up to hold down Paula so the nurse could give her a shot. But as they tried to restrain her, Paula jumped up and hit one guard in the shoulder.\n\n\"Oh you tough, huh?\" the guard replied. \"You stabbed an old lady.\" It was less than professional, but it was a gut reaction.\n\n\"Yeah, I stabbed an old lady,\" Paula replied. \"And I'd stab that bitch again. I'd stab your fucking grandmother.\"\n\nThe jail incidents were part of a pattern to be repeated in years to come. Paula didn't respond well to restraints; she bucked authority. In such instances, she could be aggressive and hostile. A psychologist noted her tendencies and something else plain to see: Battered and badgered as a girl, she was now mistrustful and suspicious.\n\nSoon, Paula's interaction with the jail staff would grow more complicated. By August 1985, about the time she turned 16, Paula began receiving a series of private visitors. Two were male corrections officers. Another was a male recreational therapist. They weren't visiting just because of their jobs.\n\nThey were coming for sex.\n\n—\n\nOutside the jail, the stories about the angry young prisoners seemed only to add to the public's contempt. And as the details of their crime emerged, they were already easy to hate. Especially the girl who had wielded the knife — Paula Cooper.\n\nPaula had not just killed Ruth Pelke; she had stabbed her 33 times, according to the coroner. Some of the cuts on her arms looked like saw marks, as if the knife had been pulled back and forth. In other instances, the 12-inch knife had been wielded with such ferocity that the tip of the blade went through Ruth's body, pierced the carpet on which she lay and chipped the wood flooring beneath. Worst of all, it appeared Ruth Pelke survived the torturous assault for more than 30 minutes. The Post-Tribune called it \"possibly the most brutal killing in Gary history.\"\n\nIf all that wasn't bad enough, two of the girls had bragged about the killing at school. As defendants go, they were about as unsympathetic as they come. With guilt hardly in doubt, letters began appearing in the Gary newspaper debating the punishment. Some asked for mercy; others wanted severe justice. One letter directed at Paula appeared under the headline, \"She should pay.\"\n\nAll of it left Kevin Relphorde, Paula's lawyer, searching for a viable strategy to save Paula's life. The evidence was overwhelming, and the prosecutor was determined, which made a plea deal unimaginable. Paula's childhood had been bad, but it didn't seem to add up to an insanity plea. Her youth and relatively clean prior record were assets, but they looked meager compared to the brutality of the crime. Then there was the jury. Any panel drawn from across Lake County would be mostly white. And Paula was a black teenager who had killed an old white woman. All of it added up to a grim outlook.\n\nAs best as Relphorde could figure, the only thing Paula had going for her was the judge. Relphorde knew of Kimbrough's opposition to the death penalty. Ultimately, he suggested to Paula a stomach-churning strategy: Plead guilty.\n\nRelphorde was a part-time public defender who'd never handled a death penalty case. But he figured Paula's chances were better in the hands of a liberal judge than with 12 angry jurors.\n\nAs risky as it sounded, Relphorde wasn't the only person who sized things up the same way. David Olson, who was Karen Corder's attorney, came to a similar conclusion. He'd had a nightmare about Karen, he told the Post-Tribune in March 1986, and awoke fearful of \"losing her.\" His fears were amplified when he attended the trial of Denise Thomas, the first suspect to answer for the death of Ruth Pelke.\n\nJust before the case against Thomas went to trial, in November 1985, prosecutors withdrew the death penalty charge, concluding she'd been more of a bystander to the crime.\n\nBut that didn't stop the jurors from reacting strongly to the horrific details of Pelke's death. They quickly found Denise guilty. Olson didn't want to risk that with death on the line for his client. So in March, 10 months after the crime, Karen went before Kimbrough with a guilty plea. Her sentencing would follow two months later.\n\nHow well Paula understood the risks of her plea — and how much say she had in it — is now a matter of dispute. Relphorde said he met with Paula regularly to talk strategy and that the plea was ultimately her decision. Years later, Paula would recall only three brief meetings with her attorney, who she said assured her the judge opposed the death penalty and would be sympathetic to a black girl. If she pleaded guilty, she said she was told, she wouldn't get a death sentence.\n\nOn April 21, 1986, Paula appeared in court to plead guilty to murder.\n\nHerman Cooper came to the courtroom that day; so did Paula's sister, Rhonda. But Gloria Cooper, Paula's mother, was nowhere to be found. She had moved to Georgia and stopped answering the calls of Paula's attorney.\n\nWhen the hearing began, Kimbrough asked Paula more than once if she knew she could be sentenced to death. Each time, Paula answered yes. To the most important question — How do you plead? — she never hesitated: Guilty.\n\nFor the record, Paula retold the story of the crime — the scheme to get into the house; what she did to Ruth; how the girls took the car.\n\n\"We went to commit a robbery, you know,\" she told the judge.\n\nWas there any discussion in advance about what you'd do with Mrs. Pelke? he asked.\n\n\"No. It wasn't a discussion to go and kill anyone, you know.\"\n\nKimbrough accepted the plea. Paula's life was now in his hands. But she would have to wait months for an answer. Relphorde left convinced Paula had made her best play: \"We were basically throwing ourselves on the mercy of the court.\"\n\nPaula's strategy seemed to appear sound when, in May 1986, Kimbrough spared Karen Corder's life, giving her 60 years in prison. In fact, three of the girls had escaped with their lives. Denise Thomas, found guilty at trial, received a 35-year sentence. April Beverly, who conceived the robbery but waited outside during the killing, pleaded guilty in exchange for a 25-year prison term.\n\nOnly Paula's fate remained unresolved.\n\nLost in the news of Corder's reprieve, perhaps, was some language the judge used in reference to Paula. It seemed ominous. Kimbrough said it had been \"conceded by all that Paula Cooper was the leader of this group of four young ladies. That Paula Cooper was the dominant factor in the crime.\" He said Corder was \"operating under the substantial domination of Paula Cooper.\" Despite such words, the prevailing view in legal circles was that Kimbrough would spare Paula's life.\n\n—\n\nAs her judgment approached, there were hints that Paula Cooper's case was starting to resonate beyond Indiana. Jack Crawford's first clue came when his secretary stepped into his office with an unusual message: \"There's a man outside who says he's from the Vatican. He's dressed like a monk and wants to talk to you about Paula Cooper's case.\"\n\nCrawford took a look. Sure enough, in a brown tunic bound at the waist with a cord, there stood a Franciscan friar. He told Crawford he was from Rome. He offered a letter validating his credentials. And he brought a simple message: Pope John Paul II and the Vatican weren't pleased with Crawford's decision to seek the death penalty.\n\nCrawford was Roman Catholic. He'd gone to Notre Dame. He knew the church's opposition to the death penalty. But, as he explained to the friar, this was a legal decision, not a religious one. The friar left unsatisfied. He would not be the last Franciscan to stand with Paula.\n\nMore surprising than the friar's appearance was the visit Crawford received in June 1986 from Paula's attorney, Kevin Relphorde.\n\nIt was just weeks before Paula's sentencing, and Relphorde had few cards to play in Paula's defense. This time, though, it appeared he might have a game changer.\n\n\"You can't execute Paula Cooper,\" he said.\n\n\"Well, why is that, Kevin?\" Crawford asked.\n\n\"She's pregnant.\"\n\n—\n\nThe sex scandal at the Lake County Jail erupted in June 1986.\n\nFor months, corrections officers Vernard Rouster, 25, and Parmaley Rainge, 27, had been coming to see Paula for sex, officials discovered. So, too, had Michael Dean Lampley, a recreational therapist from a mental health center. Their encounters occurred even as a 40-year-old female corrections officer and a police patrolman were supposed to be maintaining security for the state's highest-profile murder suspect.\n\n—\n\nOne of the guards admitted the sex began when Paula was still a week shy of 16 — the age of consent in Indiana. That people working in the jail were having sex with a captive wasn't illegal in Indiana in 1986. After the revelation, the jail workers resigned their jobs and the therapist was fired, but no one was prosecuted. Supervisors on the jail floor were suspended — for 15 days.\n\nFor all of its tawdriness, the scandal had the potential to affect Paula's case. State law prohibited the execution of a pregnant woman; punishment would have to wait. And while a death penalty appeal was certain to outlast a pregnancy, the strange episode raised the possibility of a sentencing delay.\n\nKimbrough ordered a medical exam for Paula. Quickly, the matter was put to rest: She wasn't pregnant. But, in a sign of the times, public discussion about the scandal seemed to focus less on the culpability of the jailers than on the promiscuity of the 16-year-old girl in jail.\n\nJames McNew, a deputy in Crawford's office who prosecuted the case, told the Post-Tribune he suspected Paula Cooper tried to get pregnant to stir up sympathy and avoid death.\n\nHowever it came about, the sex scandal prompted a change in state law: It became a crime for jailers to have sex with their prisoners. Soon, though, the jailhouse sex scandal would become little more than a footnote before a judgment heard around the world.\n\nTo empower the journalism behind IndyStar, please consider a subscription.\n\nBill Pelke sat on the wrong side of the courtroom.\n\nHis grandmother was the murder victim. Unwittingly, Bill took a seat on the side of the murderer. He was unfamiliar with the trappings of the courtroom. And unlike some in the community — in his own family — Bill carried no blood lust into the chamber. He thought people who committed murder should die. And Paula Cooper had killed his beloved Nana. But he wasn't fuming about it.\n\nBill had stayed away from the previous court hearings, but decided this was one he shouldn't miss. It was July 11, 1986. And for Paula Cooper, it was judgment day.\n\nCourtroom 3 of Lake Superior Court was a small space. The gallery, oriented outside a circle where the business of the court was conducted, had seats for just 43 onlookers. This day, it was packed to overflowing. People stood, straining to hear, just outside the public entrance. Lawyers and other court personnel did the same just outside the doors normally used by the judge and juries. All wanted to know the fate of a 16-year-old girl who faced a potential death sentence.\n\nInto this cauldron, Paula Cooper entered under the escort of a jail matron. She didn't need to look around to see she had few friends in the room. Her sister and her grandfather were there, but neither of her parents was present. Her mother had moved to Georgia, her father to Tennessee. As Paula entered, the matron said something that made the young defendant smile. The gesture surprised Bill Pelke; it struck him as unbefitting for the moment. When this day is done, he thought to himself, she's not going to be smiling.\n\nDeputy Prosecutor James McNew began the proceedings by calling Bill's father to testify. Robert Pelke hadn't missed a hearing — for Paula or any of the other girls. He had been the family spokesman, and he wanted a death sentence for Paula. He described going to Ruth Pelke's home when she hadn't answered the phone, finding her home in disarray and her body on the floor. He described her bloody dress and the towel wrapped around her head. When the attorneys finished questioning him, Robert asked to read a statement to the court.\n\nThis, Robert Pelke said, was a crime that deserved the maximum sentence the law would allow. He quoted the Bible about submitting to authorities and God's vengeance and punishing evildoers. He said Paula gave Ruth no second chance, and he saw no reason to give Paula one.\n\n\"Paula reveled in her doings and enjoyed it,\" he said. He spoke of ridding society of those who would prey upon the innocent. \"This is a tragedy that should never have happened,\" he said, \"and a tragedy that family and friends will never forget.\"\n\nNext, one of the girls from Lew Wallace High School testified about seeing Paula and the others on their joy ride and about finding the bloody knife on the floor of the car.\n\nA crime lab technician discussed grisly photos from the scene — pictures of Ruth Pelke, of the knife-torn carpet and the gouge marks in the hardwood floor.\n\nThe prosecution introduced into evidence the autopsy report, which expressed the damage done by the 33 stab wounds. There was also an anatomical diagram noting the points where Ruth had been wounded — so many it looked like a star chart.\n\nJailers who had been attacked and threatened by Paula detailed her bad behavior; they recounted her admission about stabbing \"an old lady.\"\n\nEntering into evidence the grisly details of the crime and the accounts of Paula's callous behavior was part of the prosecution's effort to build a case that the only just punishment was death.\n\nIn Paula's defense, only three witnesses spoke.\n\nRhonda Cooper gave a picture of how she and Paula grew up terrorized in the home of Herman Cooper. She testified to the beatings, to their father's raping their mother in front of them, to their mother's suicide attempt and to their attempts to run away.\n\nRonald Williams, Rhonda's biological father, testified that he wanted to take Paula away from the misery, but her mother refused. He spoke of Gloria's threats against Paula and of the suicide attempt.\n\nDr. Frank Brogno, a Gary psychologist who examined Paula, described how Paula's abuse left her angry and confused, depressed and hostile. He said she was prone to confusion and bizarre thinking, even drifting into fantasies. Still, he said, Paula knew right from wrong. There was still hope for her, but also a real danger she could become a sociopath.\n\nMcNew, on cross-examination, ripped into the doctor. He pointed out how Brogno had testified in Karen Corder's case that Paula was the \"prime mover\" in the crime.\n\n—\n\nRelphorde made a plea for Paula's life, saying she had gone to Ruth Pelke's home to rob, not kill. He said the other girls were intensely involved in the crime and their lives had been spared. The death penalty, he said, was applied at the whim of prosecutors. He said Ruth Pelke, a woman of faith, wouldn't want Paula to die. In the end, he said, Paula was the handiwork of an abusive home and a system that failed her.\n\n\"I don't think Paula was born violent,\" he said. \"I think Paula was a product of what was done to her.\"\n\nMcNew, closing the prosecution's case, checked all the boxes needed for a death sentence: Paula wasn't crazy. She wasn't doing someone else's bidding. She'd struck the death blows. She had a criminal record, as far as a juvenile goes, for skipping school and running away from home. And Paula's abusive childhood? To use that for an excuse, McNew said, was to insult everyone who has endured similar treatment and found a way to overcome the horrors. Giving Paula the death penalty, McNew said, would have a sobering effect on others who might be considering crime. But McNew said there was one reason, above all, for a death sentence.\n\n\"I am not seeking a deterrence to crime when I ask the death penalty on Paula Cooper. I seek justice for the family of Ruth Pelke.\"\n\n—\n\nWith the attorneys done, Kimbrough asked Paula if she had anything to say. And Paula did not shrink from the moment.\n\nShe hadn't wanted a trial, Paula began; she only wanted to tell the truth. \"Now my family life, it hasn't really been good. … Nobody understand how I feel.\"\n\n\"This man,\" she said, pointing to the prosecutor, \"sit here and say he want to take my life. Is that right? I didn't go to Mrs. Pelke's house to kill her. It wasn't planned. I didn't go there to take somebody's life. It happened. It just happened. Something. It wasn't planned. We didn't sit up and say we was going to go and kill this innocent old lady. I didn't even know the lady. But everybody put the blame on me.\"\n\nShe said Jack Crawford had described her in the newspaper as the ringleader. \"I wasn't the ringleader. I didn't make those girls go,\" she said. \"They went on their own.\"\n\nLooking around at the people in the courtroom, Paula seemed disgusted. \"Well, where was all these people at right here when I needed somebody? Where was they at? They turned their backs on me and took me through all this. All I can say is now, look where I am now, facing a possible death sentence.\"\n\nShe pointed at the Pelke family and repeated her plea that killing wasn't her intention. \"I hope you all could find some happiness in your hearts to forgive me. And I know your mother was a Christian lady, and she is in heaven right now. I read my Bible. How do you think I feel? I can't sit here and tell you I understand how you feel because I don't.\"\n\nShe acknowledged that \"sorry\" would never be good enough.\n\nPaula looked to Judge Kimbrough. But, as Bill Dolan would report in the Post-Tribune the next day, the judge \"didn't return her gaze.\" \"I don't know what the decision is going to be today, or whenever you make your decision. I know justice must be done. And whatever the circumstances, or whatever your decision is, I will accept it, even if it is death.\" She acknowledged she couldn't change what happened: She hoped to get out one day and start life over, maybe even finish school.\n\n\"Will I have a chance?\" she asked. \"Will I get a chance?\"\n\nFor a couple of minutes, Paula rambled. She repeated that she hadn't forced the other girls to act; she felt it important everyone know she wasn't a gang member. Then she reined it back in for one final thought: \"I am sorry for what I did. And I know my involvement in this case is very deep. But all I can ask you is not to take my life. That is all I can ask you. That is all I can ask is to spare my life.\"\n\nSuddenly, a commotion broke out in the courtroom. There was shouting in the gallery. \"My grandbaby, my grandbaby.\"\n\nBill Pelke looked at the wailing man near him and saw the tears run down his cheeks; the visage burned into Bill's memory. He watched the man as the bailiff escorted him out of the courtroom.\n\nIt was Paula's grandfather, making one final plea on Paula's behalf.\n\nNow it was up to the judge.\n\n—\n\nJudge James C. Kimbrough had been wading through the sordid details of Ruth Pelke's murder for more than a year. He'd parsed the depressing narrative, and people had speculated whether he had a death penalty in him, especially for a girl. Now they were about to get their answer.\n\nThere was no doubt about Paula Cooper's guilt. Kimbrough dispatched that with his first breath. The murder had been disturbing: Paula had inflicted the 33 stab wounds in the body of 78-year-old Ruth Pelke.\n\nThose were the strikes against her.\n\nBut the defendant had no prior criminal history, and she was 15 at the time of the crime.\n\nThose were factors to consider on her behalf.\n\nThe other requirements for the death penalty, Kimbrough said, didn't work in the defendant's favor. She acted of her own free will. She wasn't under the influence of drugs. Her mental problems didn't rise to the level of incompetence. But all those things, Kimbrough said, were legalities. Ultimately, he said, death penalty cases boil down to a \"political utterance.\"\n\n\"This case has received an unusual amount of publicity,\" Kimbrough said. \"There is worldwide interest in the outcome of these proceedings today. And the court is certainly aware of that interest.\"\n\nWhen he left law school in 1959, Kimbrough said, he had been \"totally against\" the death penalty — and most of the country shared the view.\n\nNearly 30 years later, he said, public sentiment had changed, perhaps because of the violent activities of people such as Paula Cooper. Now, the vast majority of the public favors the death penalty, Kimbrough said, Normally, he wrote out his sentences in advance. But this case had challenged him to the point he'd been unable to do so.\n\nKimbrough praised the deputy prosecutor for speaking \"eloquently\" — he said McNew brought the matters into focus \"better than all of the turmoil that I have been through in the last several months.\"\n\nHe criticized state law for being too general when it came to giving minors the death penalty. It left him unsure what to do on that fundamental question. \"I don't know what the right political answer to that question is.\"\n\nThen Kimbrough, in a moment of vulnerability judges don't always reveal, showed some insight into his restless mind. \"I don't believe I am ever going to be quite the same after these four cases. They have had a very profound effect on me. They have made me come to grips with the question of whether or not a judge can hold personal beliefs which are inconsistent at all with the law as they were sworn to uphold. And for those of you who have no appreciation of it, it is not a simple question. It is not a simple question for me.\"\n\nKimbrough interrupted his confessional to take issue with something Robert Pelke said: \"I do not believe the failure to impose the death penalty today would be unbiblical. … I don't profess to be an expert in religion. But I know the Bible has passages which are merciful, and do not demand or mandate an eye for an eye.\"\n\nReturning to his inner turmoil, Kimbrough said he'd concluded that a judge must decide a case based on facts, regardless of whether it satisfies him. \"I will tell you, very frankly now, on the record, that I do not believe in the death penalty.\"\n\nThis seemed to launch Kimbrough on a rant. \"Maybe in 20 years, after we have had our fill of executions, we will swing back the other way and think they are unconstitutional. Maybe.\"\n\nAt about this point, Jack Crawford, sitting at the prosecutor's table, was ready to give up hope for a death penalty. He turned to McNew, he remembered later, and whispered into his ear.\n\n\"He's not going to give it.\"\n\nThen Kimbrough directed his eyes to the girl awaiting his judgment.\n\n\"Stand up, Paula.\"\n\nShe had stabbed Ruth Pelke 33 times, he said. He was concerned about her background. She had been \"born into a household where your father abused you, and your mother either participated or allowed it to happen. And those seem to be explanations or some indication of why you may be this type of personality that you are.\"\n\n\"They are not excuses, however.\"\n\nHowever.\n\nThat word caught Crawford's attention. So did the fact that Kimbrough's shoulders seemed to slump, as if the weight of the moment was getting to the judge. Crawford leaned in and whispered again to McNew.\n\n\"I think he's going to give it. I think he's going to give it.\"\n\nKimbrough continued.\n\n\"You committed the act, and you must pay the penalty,\" Kimbrough said. Briefly, he trailed into some legalese about the charge. Then he gathered himself for the final judgment.\n\n\"The law requires me, and I do now impose, the death penalty.\"\n\n—\n\nThe courtroom erupted.\n\n\"What did he say?\"\n\nPaula Cooper looked at Kevin Relphorde for help; amid the chaos, she wasn't sure what had just happened. She looked back for the judge; he had already left the bench. She asked Relphorde what had happened. He delivered the verdict again: He gave you the death penalty.\n\nThe smile Paula wore into the courtroom was gone, indeed. Bill Pelke took note of that. Instead, he saw a river of tears streaming down her cheeks. As she was led from the courtroom, the tears soaked the top of her blouse.\n\nJust like that, Paula Cooper — at 16 years, 10 months and 16 days — became the youngest person ever sentenced to death in Indiana; she was now the youngest female on death row anywhere in the United States. In this age before the cellphone, news reporters from national outlets raced out of the courtroom to the nearest bank of pay telephones. It took a few hours, but the verdict soon circled the globe.\n\nIn the hallway outside the courtroom, Rhonda Cooper yelled in anguish at members of the Pelke family and the prosecutors nearby.\n\n\"Are you satisfied now?\"\n\nThey seemed satisfied.\n\nStrangely, one of the most unsatisfied people in the building was the source of the commotion: Judge Kimbrough.\n\nAfter delivering the verdict, he darted out of the courtroom and into the hallway leading to his chambers. There, between the two rooms, he spotted William Touchette, a public defender who handled appeals. Kimbrough told Touchette to follow him.\n\nTouchette (pronounced TOO-shay) had been among those outside the courtroom straining to hear the proceedings. Like so many local lawyers, he was friendly with the judge; they'd socialized outside of work. He followed Kimbrough into his chambers.\n\nThe judge was angry. As angry as Touchette had ever seen him. Angry that the defense hadn't given him enough to spare Paula Cooper's life. Then Kimbrough uttered seven words Touchette would never again hear from a judge.\n\n\"I want you to get me reversed.\"\n\nTo empower the journalism behind IndyStar, please consider a subscription.\n\nPaula Cooper's death sentence was one of Indiana's biggest news stories in 1986. It garnered network television news coverage. Once it hit the international news wires, it was picked up by newspapers in Europe, where it inspired protests.\n\nBut Monica Foster, working for a nonprofit death penalty defense group in Downtown Indianapolis, somehow missed all that. To her, it was as if the Paula Cooper case had never happened.\n\nIt wasn't that Foster was uninterested in current events or that she was dull. In fact, Foster was a wunderkind. She'd graduated from high school at 16, college at 19 and law school at 22. She'd come to work for the Indiana Public Defender Council, researching and offering advice to lawyers with death penalty cases, even before finishing her law degree. But at 27, she had a tendency to get absorbed in her work. And when that happened, the outside world ceased to exist.\n\nSo when William Touchette, the Lake County attorney preparing Paula Cooper's appeal, called the council looking for some help, Foster knew nothing of the case. Without hesitation, Foster agreed to be Touchette's local connection to Paula, who was being held at the Indiana Women's Prison on the city's east side. Foster even said she'd donate her time, seeing the client on evenings and weekends, as a sideline.\n\nFoster didn't realize she'd just signed on to the case that would become the most noteworthy of her career.\n\nWhen the case file arrived in her office, Foster began reading about Paula Cooper. Right away, she was puzzled.\n\nHere was a black girl from Gary who had been sentenced to death by a black judge whom even Foster knew to be one of the most liberal, anti-death penalty jurists in the state. The girl had brutally murdered an elderly woman during a robbery, but Foster told the people in her office that to get a death sentence from this judge Paula Cooper had to be some kind of rabid animal.\n\n\"She must be frothing at the mouth.\"\n\nFoster decided to go to the prison and see Paula Cooper for herself.\n\n—\n\nPaula had arrived at the Indiana Women's Prison — America's oldest women's prison — five days after her sentencing.\n\nEstablished shortly after the Civil War, it was originally in the countryside east of Indianapolis. Over time, brick storefronts and wood-frame houses sprang up around the prison's series of boxy brick buildings — situated around a grassy courtyard — and now the prison was landlocked in the middle of an urban neighborhood.\n\nAwaiting Paula was a cell tucked away on the second floor of the segregation unit. It was stark: block walls and tile floor; aluminum sink and toilet; a desk and a chair; all of it packaged in a space slightly bigger than a walk-in closet.\n\nShe had one window to the outside world. Depending on which side of the hallway she was assigned at the time, it featured either a view of the courtyard or, just beyond a fence topped by razor wire, the backside of a row of decaying houses.\n\nPaula's cell had two metal doors. One was made of bars, the other was solid. Most of the time, the solid door remained open, allowing her to talk through the bars to passing guards and nearby prisoners. But when the solid door was closed, it was as if she was locked in a vault. Worse, the prison had no air conditioning. As summer temperatures outside climbed into the 90s, the only air moving through the wing was pushed by a floor fan at the end of the hall. Most of the time, the place felt like the inside of a cook stove.\n\nHere, Paula Cooper spent 23 hours a day. In the remaining hour, she had 30 minutes to shower and 30 minutes for recreation, which meant a short walk to a larger room where she could play Ping-Pong or cards with other prisoners. Meals were delivered to her cell.\n\nShe was 16 years old and, in the grand scheme of things, set apart from the rest of the human race.\n\nThe treatment was harsher than what Paula's three co-defendants in the murder of Ruth Pelke faced. They were housed elsewhere in the prison, with the general population. They had greater freedom of movement, time outdoors and an ongoing interaction with other people. Paula was allotted 10 hours of visits per month, but she wasn't sure who would fill the time. Her sister had moved to Minnesota. Her mother had moved to Georgia. Her father had moved to Tennessee. Paula was as alone as she could be.\n\nYet she faced a struggle greater than isolation and heat. She lived in fear that the executioner was coming for her any minute. Whatever she'd been told about the appeals process hadn't registered. She thought she was about to be taken away and killed. She existed moment to moment, in dread the guards were about to drag her away to the electric chair. In letters, she would describe her situation in the bleakest of terms — \"a mental hell.\" Paula needed hope. She needed a friend. But who?\n\n—\n\nMonica Foster entered the security checkpoint at the Indiana Women's Prison and was shown to the glass-walled consultation room. In short order, she watched as a guard escorted her client in to meet her.\n\nPaula Cooper was nothing like she expected. Monica came looking for the heartless killer who had murdered an old woman in cold blood, fought the guards at the county jail and been given a ticket to the chair by the most liberal judge in Lake County.\n\nInstead, Foster found a girl, sobbing uncontrollably, who had been on suicide watch. Foster tried to calm her. After some questioning, she gathered the reason for the emotional meltdown: Paula thought they were coming any time now. To kill her.\n\nFoster's blood boiled. She realized that, since the sentencing, no one had explained to Paula the years of appeals; the good chance for a reprieve; and, should all else fail, the notice she would receive well ahead of an execution. Foster felt sorry for Paula. She explained the process. Above all, she told Paula she'd never be ambushed by the executioner.\n\nPaula went back to her cell in a little better shape, but Foster left the prison rattled. She couldn't believe how she had misjudged her client. She realized that her role in this case was about more than legal counsel. She would need to offer her client a shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen.\n\nFoster began going to the prison on weekends, sitting and talking with Paula for hours. She listened to Paula talk about being depressed, and she tried to buck her up. She listened to Paula's troubles with the prison administration and offered advice on ways to get along. She listened to Paula describe the abuses of her childhood, and Foster shared some of the tougher aspects of her own. The conversation wasn't always heavy. Sometimes they talked about places they dreamed of going and about men Foster was dating. Paula, in particular, was quick with a jab about Foster's romantic failures. Even in a maximum security prison, with one of them facing death, they spent a good deal of time laughing. And Foster found Paula's laugh to be infectious. That she could laugh at all impressed Foster. The girl seemed to have some kind of resiliency. After a while, Foster could deny it no longer: She liked Paula Cooper.\n\n—\n\nBill Pelke felt no such affection.\n\nIn the 18 months since Paula Cooper killed his grandmother, Bill had lost the ability to think of Ruth Pelke as the sweet person she'd been; he could only see the murder victim. He couldn't remember the warmth of Ruth's home; he could only think of it as a crime scene. When Paula Cooper received her sentence, Pelke felt justice had been served. His father, Robert Pelke, warned him that the justice wouldn't last. On a trip to Florida they took to get away from it all, Robert Pelke said Paula would probably never see the electric chair. \"Some do-gooder will probably come along and help get her off death row,\" he'd said. Bill struggled to imagine it; he just tried to get on with his life.\n\nBut moving on wasn't easy. And at 39, Bill already had other things on his mind that bothered him. He'd dropped out of college and wound up in Vietnam during the height of the war. As a radio operator, he was supposed to take cover during the fighting and call in air support. But he still carried shrapnel in his side from the wounds he suffered. Worse than that, he carried memories of the Army buddies who'd never come back. The experience left him sick of death. When he returned home, he'd married and started a family, but his marriage failed. So many things in his life hadn't gone as he'd planned. One afternoon in November 1986, all of this seemed to coalesce in Bill's mind.\n\nBill worked in a steel mill as a crane operator. He sat 50 feet above the manufacturing floor in the cab of his crane, moving heavy loads as the need arose. But on this Sunday night shift, things were slow; his mind began to drift. He wondered why life was so hard, why God had allowed Ruth to suffer such a horrendous death. He wondered why his family — his good family — was made to suffer in the wake of the crime. It was an unlikely perch for prayer, but Bill closed his eyes and began seeing images in his mind. He saw the courtroom where Paula had been sentenced to death. He remembered the outburst of her grandfather and the tears streaming down the man's face. He remembered Paula's reaction and the tears streaming down hers, how they soaked her blouse.\n\nA hard realization hit Bill: Ruth wouldn't have wanted these things. She had invited Paula and the girls into her home to help them find faith. It occurred to Bill that Ruth would be more interested in Paula's salvation than her execution. He was certain, too, that Ruth would have hated seeing Paula's grandfather in anguish.\n\nBill thought of the Bible stories Ruth had taught and the lessons he'd learned from a lifetime in church. He remembered Jesus taught that you shouldn't forgive someone just seven times, but 70 times seven — in other words, forgiveness should be a habit. He remembered being taught that the measure of forgiveness we show others is the measure by which we shall be judged. He remembered hearing about Jesus on the cross, offering salvation to the man dying next to him, offering grace to those who sought his death. \"Forgive them,\" Jesus had said, \"for they know not what they do.\"\n\nAnd then Bill realized something: Paula hadn't known what she was doing. Nobody in their right mind would take a 12-inch butcher knife and stab someone 33 times. It was crazy. Senseless.\n\nIn his mind, Bill began to see a new image: It was the picture of Ruth, the one published countless times since her death — silver hair, horn-rimmed glasses, sweet smile. Except now, he saw her face in the picture with tears running down her cheeks. Bill felt certain Ruth wanted someone from her family to show love to Paula and hers. Bill wasn't capable of it right then, but he thought he should try. He was a blue collar guy — a steelworker — and now he was at work crying a river of his own tears. From his seat in the cab of the crane, Bill prayed: \"God, give me love and compassion for Paula Cooper and her family.\" In return, he promised God two things. First, Bill would give credit to God for giving him the ability to forgive Paula whenever success came his way. Second, he'd walk through whatever door opened as a result of forgiving Paula.\n\nEventually, the sweet memories of Ruth would come back to Bill. He would be able to put aside the horror story. First, though, he felt he had to take a greater leap of faith. He had to get in touch with his grandmother's killer. He had to reach out to Paula Cooper.\n\nTo empower the journalism behind IndyStar, please consider a subscription.\n\nThe next day, Bill phoned Paula's attorney. He wanted her prison address, and he was willing to do whatever it took to help save Paula's life. Kevin Relphorde's response wasn't encouraging: \"It's kind of late for that.\"\n\nUndeterred, Bill took the address and sat down at a desk in his Portage home to write perhaps the most intense letter of his life. He told Paula he had forgiven her; he wanted to visit her; there were Bible verses his grandmother would want him to share. He also wanted to meet her grandfather, he of the tearful courtroom outburst.\n\nBill dropped the letter in his mailbox and, at some level, thought that would be the end of it. But in the days following, he found himself checking his mailbox almost daily. Ten days after he sent his letter, an envelope showed up. The return address said: \"Ms. Paula Cooper.\"\n\nThe envelope was thick. Inside, he found a letter dated Nov. 10, 1986, six pages of a teenage girl's loopy cursive, written in pencil, on pink stationery. The contents were far from a schoolgirl's bubble gum dreams. It was a snapshot of Paula's mind on death row. Her thoughts darted back and forth — between apologies and self-pity, between empathy for those who hated her and preachiness about why they should forgive her. Much of the letter was frenetic. Sentences ran on and on like the transcriptions of a nervous talker. Her misspellings and limited punctuation seemed to reflect the erratic schooling of someone who'd been on the run since eighth grade. But it also bore the hallmarks of a mind in overdrive, overloaded with conflicting emotions. Here are some excerpts. Periods have been added for clarity.\n\nBill 11/10/86\n\nHello how are you? fine I truly hope. me I'll survive, I received your letter today & it was nice of you to write me. one of Ms Pelkes friends wrote me also, I answered it back also. Im not the mean type of person your family thinks I am but I can except that. I really do. your cousin Robert was something else & what he said about not knowing if Ms Pelke would forgiving me. Ive read my bible & I know it says the way you judge others the Lord will judge you the same way. Ive prayed for your family. a lady in a wheel chair use to visit me at the jail. she said God would be pleased if I prayed for all of you, I am doing fine. They treat me ok & I am always isolated 23 hrs a day. thats how it is on death row, it is a mental hell because no one cares except for themselves. I am thankful to the Lord for them letting the others have a little time, because I've had hell all my life. so it really doesnt matter if I live or die because Im ready any time they come …\n\nIn his initial letter, Bill expressed a desire to save Paula from her death sentence. But in her reply, Paula told Bill he need not write, travel or speak on her behalf; she just wanted his forgiveness. She seemed proud of her performance in court — how she looked his family in the face and apologized. She seemed to excuse her parents for missing her sentencing. Although they had beaten and neglected her, Paula said, her actions affected them, too.\n\nAt various times, her words ranged from fatalistic to self-pitying:\n\nI cant stay here like this & I don't want to be here, I deserve a chance one that Ive never had before. but one day Ill be free even if its when Im dead…\n\nI cry every time I think of your grand mom. the others think it's a joke because you all let them be free. Im not an evil person, or what ever you think of me to be, Im just some one who is real angry, angry with life & all the people around me …\n\nIve never done anything wrong before except ask for help, I was turned away & introduced into a life of drugs, sex & crime, but now its too late for help. Im dying inside because of this but I only hope for the best for others.\n\nIn closing, she made it clear she wanted more interaction with Bill, even if she was passive about it. She would put him on her list of allowable prison visitors; she would write him whenever he wrote her; she offered her grandfather's phone number and address. In a dark world, it was as if she had seen a flicker of light.\n\nWell, Ill go now, Ill continue to pray for all of you.\n\nTake care\n\nPaula\n\nTheir first exchange was the start of a surprising correspondence that would span years and delve into the core themes of Paula's life — searching for forgiveness; grappling with remorse; her closeness with death; her search for peace.\n\nThe letters also chart the course of a relationship that many people would struggle to understand, especially Bill Pelke's father.\n\n—\n\nAfter a second exchange of letters with Paula, Bill felt compelled to share with his parents the news of his surprising correspondence: His father had once warned of a do-gooder who would get Paula off death row. Now it appeared Bill wanted to be that do-gooder.\n\nAt first, his parents were speechless. \"We don't understand why you are doing this,\" his mother, Lola, said. Surprisingly, his father acquiesced.\n\n\"Do what you got to do,\" Robert said.\n\nBill wrote Clarence Trigg, the superintendent of the Indiana Women's Prison, a letter that spent most of a page describing Ruth Pelke's faith and her commitment to sharing it. He concluded with a request:\n\nClarence, if Ruth Pelke could speak with you right now, I am sure she would say, \"Please let Billy see Paula.\"\n\nThank you for your consideration\n\nIn the name of Jesus and His Love\n\nWilliam R. Pelke\n\nBut the prison doors weren't about to open to Bill anytime soon. Corrections officials didn't know what to make of his request — a murder victim's grandson seeking an audience with her killer. They suspected he had another motive, such as revenge.\n\n—\n\nThe aftermath of Paula's case was confounding in other ways. Since giving Paula a death sentence, Judge James C. Kimbrough had been very public about his discomfort with his own ruling. Based on the law and the case in court, he said Paula qualified for the death penalty. But he hadn't been able to square it with his own opposition to capital punishment. The decision was costing him sleep. In an interview with the (Gary) Post-Tribune, published Aug. 4, 1986, a reporter noted the judge's nervous appearance.\n\nHe fidgeted in his chair. His gaze varied — at times less steady and slanted toward the desktop. He removed his glasses, toying with them.\n\nFriends who knew Kimbrough said the judge was different than he'd been before the Paula Cooper sentencing. The man they knew as friendly and jovial, even gregarious, was more reclusive, less outgoing. \"It weighed heavily on his mind,\" said Earline Rogers, a state legislator and a friend. \"That was something he felt legally he had to do but, personally, he would not have taken that path.\"\n\nSome in the legal community began to think there was a good chance Paula's death sentence would be overturned. But Kimbrough wouldn't live to find out.\n\nOn April 30, 1987, less than a year after his judgment of Paula, Kimbrough drove his car into the back of a semi and was killed. He had been drinking. The tragedy cast a pall over the Lake County courts, but it also landed hard at the Indiana Women's Prison. When Monica Foster told Paula her judge was dead, Paula was inconsolable. Days later, in a letter to Bill Pelke, she shared her thoughts about the judge.\n\n\"all I could do was cry, even though Kimbrough sentenced me to die. I felt a closeness to him as if he were my father. I have been sentenced to die many times by a lot of people and it's only words. We are all on Death Row and the last day of April his death sentence was completed & it should teach a lot of people we all have a date that is already planned & the way it will happen.\"\n\nPaula's own father had been cruel; at least Kimbrough had agonized over the punishment he gave.\n\nThe letter about Kimbrough was the 20th she'd written to Bill Pelke in less than six months. She was surprising herself at her output: \"I didn't even know I had a good handwriting or a great vocabulary until I was locked up.\"\n\nBy then, she was 17 and a condemned killer with hours to contemplate her past, present and future. Several themes recurred in her writing.\n\nLife on death row. She struggled to sleep, to breathe, to deal with the noise. \"To be on death row is worst than when I was in a mental hospital. At least it was quiet.\" She had ailments from toothaches to a bad back. Mostly, she was confused and on edge. Life on the row made her feel like \"a walking time bomb.\"\n\nMemories of the murder. Her thoughts were plagued by it. She described what she did to Ruth Pelke as \"awful.\" She wished she could erase it. \"Every day,\" she said, \"I see my nightmare.\"\n\nDeath. It was constantly on her mind, whether by execution or by her own hand. She alternated between dread of the electric chair — \"I hope it never happens to me\" ­— and anticipation of it — \"sometimes I wish they would just go ahead & do it. They continue to put this death threat on my life and I'm tired of it.\"\n\nSuicide. She seemed to ponder the merits of killing herself. She wasn't sure what it would solve but, in words that seemed to echo from her mother, she said, \"there isn't anything here for me.\" She talked about hanging herself but acknowledged she couldn't follow through. \"I know that if I do that I might go to hell (and) I don't want that to happen.\"\n\nMeanwhile, people from across the country wrote her. Some, including a death row inmate in North Carolina, wanted a romantic relationship. Some wanted answers to the plague of juvenile crime. Others sent her Bibles and tried to save her soul. Yet her faith — another frequent topic — had grown cold. As a child, she read her Bible often, she said, but \"my faith started to shatter because of a lot of feelings, hopes and unanswered prayers. I love the Lord but we aren't rea", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/12/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/05/31/bookexpo-friday/2377727/", "title": "Octavia Spencer kicks off day two of BookExpo America", "text": "Bob Minzesheimer, Lindsay Deutsch and Jocelyn McClurg\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nCrime novelists offer some advice to aspiring writers\n\nFormer CIA operative Valerie Plame writes a thriller\n\nDonna Tartt returns with a new novel%2C which took more than a decade to write\n\nNEW YORK - The second day of BookExpo America brought out the star power, from the book world and beyond. USA TODAY spotted Jim Carrey and TV food personality Giada DeLaurentiis. Octavia Spencer, of The Help fame, served as host of the morning's breakfast. Sights and sounds from the day:\n\nMulticultural kids' characters: Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer (The Help) performed in a new role: novelist and host of the Children's Book and Author Breakfast. Spencer's debut novel, Randi Rhodes Ninja Detective: The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit, first in a series for readers 8-12, will be released Oct. 15. It features what Spencer calls a \"multicultural cast of characters.\" Randi, a modern-day Nancy Drew, is a redhead, \"a minority in her own right,\" Spencer said. Randi's best two friends are Latino and black. \"Not that they should be define by superficial differences,\" Spencer said, but it shows, \"best friends don't have to look alike to love each other.\" - Bob Minzesheimer\n\n'Tree House' hits the magic number: Mary Pope Osborne, who releases her 50th Magic Tree House novel, Hurry Up Houdini! on July 23, regaled the crowd of librarians and booksellers by reciting letters she's gotten from her readers, mostly 7- and 8-year-olds. They also send her apples and marshmallows. One fan wrote that he, too, was writing a novel. \"It's going to be really scary,\" he warned, \"but I'm not done yet. It's called The Septic System.\" Osborne wrote back, requesting a copy. She's yet to get it. - Minzesheimer (@bookbobminz)\n\nThrilling advice from crime writers: Author Marcia Clark, the former prosecutor (remember the trial of O.J. Simpson?) posed a question to a panel of four of the most popular crime novelists: \"What would you tell an aspiring novelist NOT to do?\" Don't \"stop,\" barked Scott Turow (Identical, out Oct. 15). In writing, \"the race doesn't go to the swiftest, but to those who keep going.\" \"Never lick your finger to test where go the winds of commercial fiction,\" said Michael Connelly (The Gods of Guilt, Nov. 21). The material \"has got to come from inside you.\" \"Leave the business stuff to the professionals,\" counseled George Pelecanos (The Double, Oct. 8). \"Write what you're passionate about.\" \"In our nano-second world…take your time,\" advised David Baldacci (King and Maxwell, Nov. 19). \"Don't start with a preconceived timetable. Get up each day and write, whether it takes a year, or two years, or six years.\" - Minzesheimer\n\nNo apple for the teacher-turned-author: Unlike Pope, Rick Riordan, who's hit it big with his mythology adventure series (The Heroes of Olympus, Book Four: The House of Hades, is out Oct. 8) says his middle-school readers never send him sweet notes or edible treats. \"I've never gotten an apple,\" Riordan, a former 8th grade teacher, reported. \"And I did, I don't think I would eat it.\" He also noted that one young reader, writing online, referred to Riordan's new novel as \"The Hoes of Hades.\" \"That's an entirely different book,\" Riordan dead-panned. \"Part of my new young 'adult' series,\" as he used his hands to signal quotation marks around adult. - Minzesheimer\n\n'Potter' gets a makeover: Scholastic unveiled a brand-new cover for a paperback edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at BEA. The cover, by artist Kazu Kibuishi, features Harry and Ron in the Weasley's flying car, in front of the Weasley's rambling house, \"The Burrow.\" The editor of the American versions of the Harry Potter books, Arthur A. Levine, also appeared at the cover reveal on Thursday. The book goes on sale Aug. 27. - Lindsay Deutsch (@lindsdee)\n\nAmy Tan's friends in high places: Leigh Haber, Books Editor of 'O' The Oprah Magazine, on Friday interviewed author Amy Tan, best known for her 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club, about her upcoming book, The Valley of Amazement (Nov. 5). Tan said she got the title from a painting at a museum in Berlin and that the book takes place \"in a high-class house of prostitution.\" But the standout story of the speech came from a spectator's question, with which Tan shared an anecdote. A few days ago, Tan said, she had lunch with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her Washington, D.C. chambers. \"We talked about strong mothers who worry about their daughters, children who deny their race and the best snorkeling in the world.\" (For politics-loving snorkeling aficinados, Sotomayor recently visited Dry Torugas in Key West, Fla.) - Deutsch\n\nFall books that caught our eye: Valerie Plame is now a novelist. The CIA operative whose cover was blown has penned Blowback (Blue Rider Press, Oct. 1, written with suspense writer Sarah Lovett). It's a thriller about undercover CIA agent Vanessa Pierson, on the case to determine who is building a nuclear weapon in Iran….Late Night host David Letterman and artist Bruce McCall have teamed up for This Land Was Made for You and Me (But Mostly Me), an \"illustrated parody of the American 1%'s outrageous lifestyle and vacation homes\" (Blue Rider, Nov. 5)…Speaking of late-night kings, the bio Johnny Carson, by Henry Bushkin, Carson's legal adviser, is due from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on Oct. 15…And, to the ever-growing genre of historical fiction about famous men and the women in their lives, add Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen (Gallery, October). It's about a triangle involving Edgar Allan Poe, a struggling female poet named Frances Osgood, and Edgar's frail wife, Virginia. – Jocelyn McClurg (@JocelynMcClurg)\n\nTartt's secrets: A book by Donna Tartt is an event -- in no small part because it takes her so long to write one. The author of The Secret History and The Little Friend joked about her own slow pace at a lunch Friday. She said it took \"11 years going on 12\" to write The Goldfinch, which Little, Brown will publish on Oct. 22. The novel is set in the world of New York art dealers (and drug dealers, Tartt says). The novelist says she doesn't really know why it takes her so long to write, except that her books are \"huge.\" \"I really don't have any control over the way I work,\" she said. She spoke eloquently about the fact that she doesn't enjoy talking about her books. \"To me a novel is an invention, an entertainment, an illusion. And how do you talk about an illusion without spoiling it?\" -- McClurg\n\n\n\nMore to come from 'Hunger Games' author: Suzanne Collins, author of the best-selling The Hunger Games trilogy, plans to write another teen series but isn't ready to reveal more. First, she says, she's consulting on the scripts for the third and fourth film adaptations of her dystopian series that has more than 50 million copies in print. (Catching Fire, the second movie, again starring Jennifer Lawrence, will be released Nov. 22. And nearly four years after the book's publication, the paperback of Catching Fire finally hits stores Tuesday. Mockingjay, the series finale, will be split into two films, out in 2014 and 2015). On Sept. 10, Collins releases an autobiographical picture book, Year of the Jungle, illustrated by James Proimos, about her memories of 1968, when she was 6, and her father had \"to go to something called a war…in a place called Vietnam.\" At a discussion Thursday night on writing about war for young readers, sponsored by her publisher, Scholastic, Collins said if kids \"have no idea what propaganda is, how will you ever know when it's being used against you?\" She was joined by Walter Dean Myers, whose World War II novel, Invasion (out Oct. 1), is a prequel to Fallen Angels (about Vietnam) and Sunrise Over Fallujah (Iraq). Myers, whose brother was killed in Vietnam and whose son served in Iraq, was asked why he keeps writing novels that depict the horrors of war. He replied, \"because we keep having wars.\" – Minzesheimer", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2013/05/31"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/16/opinions/promise-biden-couldnt-fulfill-opinion-column-galant/index.html", "title": "Opinion: One big problem in Joe Biden's first year - CNN", "text": "Sign up to get our weekly column as a newsletter. We're looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets.\n\n(CNN) Minutes after Joe Biden placed his hand on a five-inch thick family Bible and took the oath of office last January, the new President told the nation that overcoming America's challenges required one thing:\n\nUnity.\n\n\"For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury,\" Biden said. \"No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward.\"\n\nA year later, Biden can tout the bipartisan infrastructure law as an example of unity producing results. But his more ambitious goals of uniting America around fighting the Covid-19 pandemic , securing racial justice, confronting climate change and opposing political extremism remain unfulfilled. Biden's approval ratings have fallen sharply, and he's been unable to achieve unity even among Democrats in the Senate, where the Build Back Better bill and a filibuster carve-out for voting rights bills lack enough support to pass.\n\nBiden's vaccine mandate for large companies was struck down by the US Supreme Court Thursday. The court's ruling \"does not bode well for those people—including the court's three-justice liberal wing—who are in favor of leaving important decisions, like vaccine requirements, to the experts in federal agencies, \" observed\n\nWhose side are you on?\n\nThe President gave a fiery voting rights speech in Georgia Tuesday. As Julian Zelizer wrote, \"He asked elected officials, 'Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace?' in what appeared to be a question implicitly targeting Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who still refuse to accept the filibuster carve-out that would allow the voting rights legislation to overcome Republican opposition.\" Manchin and Sinema were unmoved, while Republicans howled at the comparison between opponents of the voting rights bills and segregationists like Wallace.\n\nPresidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were able to overcome rocky stretches early in their presidencies, noted Julian Zelizer. \"While Biden's current challenges are very real, they shouldn't be seen as a clear indication of where his presidency is headed,\" Zelizer wrote. \"This challenging moment is a snapshot of his term rather than the conclusion . In modern times, we have seen many presidents recover from a difficult start.\"\n\nDavid Von Drehle said Biden needs to change course. \"A year into his presidency, Biden is too small for the office. Elected by the largest turnout in US history and by voters who thought he would restore mature, measured leadership to the White House, he has instead dwindled in the job. Presidents and their running mates are the only people elected by the entire country. That gives them the duty, and the opportunity, to rise above the Washington fray — yet Biden is being whipsawed by it. In the Washington Post,said Biden needs to change course. \"A year into his presidency, Biden is too small for the office. Elected by the largest turnout in US history and by voters who thought he would restore mature, measured leadership to the White House, he has instead dwindled in the job. Presidents and their running mates are the only people elected by the entire country. That gives them the duty, and the opportunity, to rise above the Washington fray — yet Biden is being whipsawed by it. A successful president explains the present, paints the future and boosts confidence in a path from here to there. Biden is doing none of that.\n\nPeggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal. \"It seemed prepared by people who think there is only the Democratic Party in America, that's it, everyone else is an outsider who can be disparaged. Biden's voting rights speech \"was aggressive, intemperate, not only offensive but meant to offend,\" wrote former Reagan White House speechwriterin the Wall Street Journal. \"It seemed prepared by people who think there is only the Democratic Party in America, that's it, everyone else is an outsider who can be disparaged. It was a mistake on so many levels ... If a president is rhetorically manipulative and divisive on a voting-rights bill it undercuts what he's trying to establish the next day on Covid and the economy.\"\n\nJaime Harrison noted the late Rep. John Lewis \"described democracy as an act. When he passed, there was bipartisan praise of his legacy. Yet there was ample support for Biden's emphatic embrace of the voting rights cause. Democratic National Committee chairmannoted the late Rep. John Lewis \"described democracy as an act. When he passed, there was bipartisan praise of his legacy. But he would not have wanted our empty words. He would have wanted action. And those of us who fail to meet this moment should think twice before invoking the name of Lewis or any other heroes who dedicated their lives to free the vote.\"\n\nMLK's warning\n\nVictor Ray, a professor at the University of Iowa, wrote that \"by blocking voting reform today, Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema From the Birmingham, Alabama, jail in 1963, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, \"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the White moderate who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice.\", a professor at the University of Iowa, wrote that \"by blocking voting reform today, Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are the white moderates Dr. King warned us about.\n\nAs we honor King on Monday, people should also recognize the impact of the civil rights leader's mother, Alberta Christine Williams King, wrote Anna M. Tubbs. Alberta King, \"a powerful organizer, was also a singer and an instrumentalist who trained hundreds of students. She had a bachelor's degree as well as a teaching certificate, and she even tutored her husband through his own education...\"\n\n\"All of us are shaped by our mothers to some extent, but in King's case, the presence of his mother's teachings in his work was profound and the similarities between her passions and his are readily apparent ... She didn't call it non-violence, but she believed that you could fight Jim Crow through faith, marches and boycotts.\"\n\nThe dangers of letting Covid rip\n\nAs the Omicron variant swept across the US in recent weeks, two adult sons of Dr. Kent Sepkowitz, an infectious disease expert, came down with Covid-19. They \"had the usual symptoms: first a sore throat, then some fever and aches and fatigue for several days. Within a week, they were mostly back to themselves ... In fact, they got so well, so (relatively) quickly that I began to wonder whether it might be more expedient from a public health perspective if we just quit trying to stem the pace and extent of the pandemic and just, well, let it rip.\"\n\nIt's not so simple, Sepkowitz wrote.\n\nOpening the gate to more infections is a very terrible idea ; even if it might improve the Covid-19 statistics transiently, it would leave a trail of individual tragedies. First, there are the sheer case numbers: The statistics of death and severe illness would become mighty big numbers if a million people a day were to catch the infection.\" Beleaguered health care workers would be swamped by the onslaught of sick people. The virus would have more opportunities to mutate. And the risks to the immunocompromised would multiply.\n\nKara Alaimo, who has two daughters under the age of 5, won't take them into retailers for fear of exposure to Covid. \"While Covid-19 poses risks to all of us, children 5 and older are at least eligible for vaccines -- and aren't seeing much of an increase in hospitalizations,\" Alaimo noted. \"But the parents of younger kids -- vulnerable little ones who don't have these protections and are getting hospitalized with this virus in alarming numbers -- , who has two daughters under the age of 5, won't take them into retailers for fear of exposure to Covid. \"While Covid-19 poses risks to all of us, children 5 and older are at least eligible for vaccines -- and aren't seeing much of an increase in hospitalizations,\" Alaimo noted. \"But the parents of younger kids -- vulnerable little ones who don't have these protections and are getting hospitalized with this virus in alarming numbers -- are truly in terrible situations.\n\nJaime Green wrote for Slate, \" wrote for Slate, \" There is a knife hanging over our heads, as there is for every parent of a kid under 5. The text alert will come, or the phone will ring with a call from school. An exposure. A symptom. Come get them. Come get them and stay home.\"\n\nGet our free weekly newsletter Sign up for CNN Opinion's newsletter. Join us on Twitter and Facebook\n\nMichael T. Osterholm and Cory Anderson for the Washington Post, but the reality of the Omicron variant could change the picture. \"We must prepare for the possibility that some schools may have to close. In-person learning is better, wroteandfor the Washington Post, but the reality of the Omicron variant could change the picture. \"We must prepare for the possibility that some schools may have to close. This isn't a political statement; it's a simple reality ... . Unlike the series of rolling geographic surges that accompanied previous variants, omicron represents a viral blizzard of widespread infections spanning the entire country. For the next three to five weeks, the sheer number of cases will pose significant challenges to US health-care systems, public safety operations, critical infrastructure capacities, food distribution and services, and educational programs. Each could temporarily lose 25 to 40 percent of their workforce because of isolation and quarantine.\"\n\nPaul Begala wrote, Fauci offered \"a theory behind Paul's attacks. He displayed screenshots he said were from one of Paul's political websites, seeking to raise campaign donations from his attacks on Fauci. Having been through more political song and dance than I care to recall, I think I can spot insincerity. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pushed back Tuesday when Sen. Rand Paul harshly criticized the scientist's approach to fighting Covid-19. Aswrote, Fauci offered \"a theory behind Paul's attacks. He displayed screenshots he said were from one of Paul's political websites, seeking to raise campaign donations from his attacks on Fauci. Having been through more political song and dance than I care to recall, I think I can spot insincerity. Fauci's response, I believe, was real. It was raw. And it was righteous .\"\n\nBoris Johnson's apology\n\nWorking from home wasn't an option for Shaun Brady, a factory worker in the North West of England. As his daughter Hannah Brady wrote, he came down with Covid-19 and died after weeks in the hospital.\n\n\"A year and a half later, I found myself sitting in the Downing Street garden, talking to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. I and four other members of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, the campaign group that I'm part of, were telling Johnson about the loved ones we'd lost to the pandemic ... I showed the Prime Minister a picture of Dad, and Johnson looked me in the eye and said he had done everything he could to protect my father.\"\n\nBut last week, people learned that on May 20, 2020 -- the day a doctor signed Shaun Brady's death certificate -- \"in that same garden at Downing Street,\" Johnson \"had been to a party with dozens of other members of his staff. One of his most senior team members had emailed staff telling them to bring their own booze so they could make the most of the lovely weather, and Johnson joined them for 25 minutes ... On a day when both the government and the police were reminding us that they would prosecute us if we had a picnic or went for a walk with more than one person outside our household -- and the vast majority of us were sticking to those rules -- the Prime Minister was at a party...\"\n\nJohnson apologized last week, but Brady wrote, \" The hypocrisy of the prime minister sticks in my throat. It shows there's one rule for him, and another for the rest of us. As long as Johnson is in that job, he's undermining the legitimacy of the rules, and he's a threat to the safety of the country.\"\n\neditors of The Economist were thinking along similar lines when they wrote: \"Britain chose a party animal for its leader. Thewere thinking along similar lines when they wrote: \"Britain chose a party animal for its leader. Now comes the hangover.\n\nNovak Djokovic\n\nA seesaw battle over whether Novak Djokovic should have been allowed to remain in Australia and compete in the tennis open tournament played out last week, amid growing criticism of how the nation and the star player handled the situation. \"The episode has already proven to be an absurd political drama befitting of a Netflix saga during lockdown,\" Tim Soutphommasane and Marc Stears wrote.\n\n\"The Djokovic family has played a fine supporting role, with patriarch Srdjan Djokovic declaring his son Novak the 'Spartacus of the new world.' Never one to miss out, British politician and high-profile Brexiteer Nigel Farage even flew to Belgrade to offer his support to the Djokovic clan. Much of the saga's ridiculousness, however, is rooted in Australia's own peculiar reaction to the Covid-19 experience .\"\n\n\"This echoes the broader experience of the pandemic. Australia has resembled less of a nation-state, with a clear-sighted leader at its helm, as it has a collection of states led by warring premiers from different parties and different factions over these past three years. Whether it is between federal and state governments, or between the various state governments, health advice and policy have at times varied wildly.\" After losing his appeal, Djokovic left Australia Sunday.\n\nKevin McCarthy and Mike Rounds\n\nWhat Sen. Mike Rounds, of South Dakota, said last week about 2020 wasn't remarkable: \"The election was fair, as fair as we have seen. We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the presidency.\"\n\nSE Cupp observed, \"Now, everything Rounds said is uncontroversial and...true. But the fact that a prominent Republican said it, and attracted some support in the Senate in the face of former President Donald Trump's inevitable attacks, was worthy of note.observed, \"Now, everything Rounds said is uncontroversial and...true. But we know nothing hurts Trump's feelings more than calling him a sore loser and saying outright that Joe Biden won fair and square.\" By contrast, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy threatened to throw prominent Democrats off committees and reinstate committee assignments for extremist Republican backers of Trump. Republicans need more of what Mike Rounds represents, and less of McCarthy, said Cupp.\n\nJill Filipovic wrote. \"But instead, the party's leaders are taking vengeful aim at Democrats with threats of stripping them from committees.\" Republicans could clean house and declare that no one who attempts to undermine a free and fair election -- let alone the American democratic system itself -- should serve in Congress with an R next to their name,\"wrote. \"But instead, the party's leaders are taking vengeful aim at Democrats with threats of stripping them from committees.\"\n\nMcCarthy is also refusing to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. An even more prominent GOP figure could soon be faced with a choice about whether to cooperate -- former Vice President Mike Pence. \"The commission investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by Trump loyalists intent on overturning the 2020 election, is considering asking for his testimony,\" wrote Michael D'Antonio.\n\n\"A year ago, then-vice president Pence escaped the House chambers as the mob shouted, \"Hang Mike Pence,\" and then courageously returned to lead the proceedings that certified President Joe Biden's election. The question now is: Can Pence be brave a second time?\n\nFor more:\n\nDean Obeidallah: Even Canadians fear US democracy could end soon\n\nPutin's miscalculation?\n\nFrida Ghitis noted. \"A senior US official declared ominously that the 'drumbeat of war is sounding loud,' as both sides made pessimistic statements. This is hardly a surprising outcome.\" There was no apparent breakthrough in last week's talks seeking to forestall a Russian invasion of Ukraine , asnoted. \"A senior US official declared ominously that the 'drumbeat of war is sounding loud,' as both sides made pessimistic statements. This is hardly a surprising outcome.\"\n\nFew doubt that Russia would have the upper hand in a conflict, given its military advantage. But an invasion could backfire on Putin, wrote Ghitis. \"Russia's menacing stance toward Ukraine, its continuing threats even as the talks proceeded, are solidifying the Kremlin's image as that of a bully endangering its neighbors. The more Putin threatens, the more he unwittingly makes evident why Russia's neighbors believe they need to join NATO to protect themselves...\n\n\"The only threat Ukraine poses to Putin -- not to Russia -- is becoming a functioning democracy at a time when the Russian leader is seeking to cement his place as an unremovable autocrat, and now one committed to defending other autocrats.\"\n\nMarilyn Monroe\n\nFilm critic Christina Newland, who appears in a new CNN original series on Marilyn Monroe that begins Sunday night, wrote \"It's vanishingly difficult\" for the actress \"to be seen as an actual human being. Not after this many decades of being a symbol, a sex goddess, a blonde bombshell or a candle in the wind.\"\n\n\"Monroe was consistently typecast as vain and stupid for using her looks to her best advantage,\" Newland noted. \"She suffered sexual assault and wrote about it, though it fell more or less on deaf ears. She lived a life that was singular and extraordinary, but women continue to identify with her... No matter what came her way, she was canny, ambitious and self-starting: far from the 'little girl lost' cliché so often attached to her ... Marilyn authored her image and her career far more than the domineering men in her life.\n\nDon't miss:\n\nBarbara Lee: If you find yourself holding a Maya Angelou quarter, remember these words\n\nDr. Jonathan Reiner: Why this modified pig heart transplant is a huge deal\n\nPeniel Joseph: When Sidney Poitier risked his life for civil rights\n\nAlexis Ohanian: Why parental leave is good for men A conversation with\n\nAlistair Currie: The Pope is wrong. Choosing to have few or no children is the opposite of selfish\n\nYvette Williams: You can't discuss the Bronx fire without talking about race and class\n\nLaura Beers: Ted Lasso got on board with the idea of a tie as a win. Maybe the rest of us should too\n\nAND...\n\nBob Saget\n\nOne day in April 2011, Paul Farahvar, a Chicago lawyer feeling the symptoms of burnout, accompanied a comedian friend who was opening a Bob Saget show in Hammond, Indiana.\n\n\"When I introduced myself as a friend and 'manager' of his opening act, Saget immediately shook my hand.\n\nNoticing my Cubs gear, he disarmed me with a discussion about baseball and guitars, the latter of which he played in part of his stand-up set. I remember how kind and sincere he was, asking follow-up questions as we walked through the venue looking for the green room.\"\n\nSaget wound up laughing at one of Farahvar's stories, and he urged him to do stand-up. \" His encouragement lingered in my mind as I watched his show. It felt like some approval I had been searching for all my life... because of my newly discovered confidence in my comedic abilities, I performed at my first open mic the very next day.\"\n\n\"When it was my turn, I repeated the story that had tickled Saget, and it was a hit once again. I was hooked. The immediate rush of adrenaline from the audience's response far exceeded the wins I'd experienced in even high-profile cases. The power of those laughs propelled me to heights I'd never had in a courtroom. And this was an open mic with 20 people in the room, for zero pay.\" Farahvar eventually traded his legal career for one in comedy.\n\nBob Saget died last Sunday at 65.\n\n\"Along with our fellow comedians and fans,\" wrote Farahvar, \"I'm forever grateful for the positive influence he spread.\"", "authors": ["Opinion Richard Galant"], "publish_date": "2022/01/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/careers/2019/09/03/how-david-muir-became-anchor-abc-world-news-tonight/2157758001/", "title": "How I became the anchor of ABC “World News Tonight”: David Muir", "text": "Susannah Hutcheson\n\nSpecial to USA TODAY\n\nOur series “How I became a …” digs into the stories of accomplished and influential people, finding out how they got to where they are in their careers.\n\nFrom getting the first Hillary Clinton email apology and being the first one to sit down with President Donald Trump for an interview in the White House to winning an Emmy for his town hall on race and policing with President Barack Obama, David Muir’s job as the anchor of ABC’s “World News Tonight” has given him a front-row seat to history itself.\n\nUSA TODAY caught up with Muir – who celebrated his fifth anniversary with “World News Tonight” on Sept. 1 – to talk about chasing the passion he’s had since childhood and highlighting the unseen heroes.\n\nQuestion: How did you get your start in the business?\n\nDavid Muir: As a kid, I had always dreamed of seeing the world beyond my backyard and my neighborhood. That is what drew me to watch the news every night. You know, I was the one who was outside playing with everyone else but who would disappear when it came time for the news. I would watch the local news, and I would watch Peter Jennings, and I began an internship at the local TV station at 14. They would march me up to the doorway in the newsroom to measure how much I had grown from school break to school break, and they would make fun of me for how much my voice had dropped.\n\nWhen I look back at it as an adult, when (I was) a kid and (I wanted) to see the world, that for me meant covering the severe thunderstorms in the next county or going to the New York State Fair with the local reporter and photographer who were willing to let me jump in the backseat of the car. Now, I am literally seeing the world. I’m grateful for that, and I could not have put words to it when I was a kid, but it’s all the same hunger that drives me today.\n\nQ: What does a typical workday look like for you?\n\nMuir: There’s no such thing as a typical workday. The first thing I do in the morning when I get up is check my phones, and I have more than one, which I think many people do in this business. I read the overnight notes that our editors put together at the assignment desk, and I read it quickly – what the big headlines are – and then I watch the morning shows. I don’t just watch ours; I have great respect for all our competitors and like to see really what everyone’s reporting on and what people are talking about. I have a conversation with my executive producer long before the morning meetings. We have morning editorial meetings and midday editorial meetings and I do think there was a time when the morning discussion or the midday discussion led to what you would likely see at the end of the day, but I can honestly say that this newscast is a living, breathing thing. It’s much more reflective of the immediacy and the ability to break through the noise that people crave at home than perhaps we saw years ago. There’s no such thing as building a lineup early in the day and delivering that newscast at 6:30. I think there’s an expectation today that if people are going to take time out of their own busy lives to watch us at 6:30, that we owe it to them to break through the noise, to recognize that they’ve been bombarded with tweets and abbreviated headlines on their smartphones and when they log in to their email all day long.\n\nQ: What is your favorite part of your job?\n\nMuir: Especially at this time, when people really feel bombarded by this constant news cycle, it really is important to take a moment and recognize the quiet heroes. They’re everywhere if you just take a moment to give them a voice. We saw this in this series that we did on the return to Normandy. We followed six veterans from every corner of the country as they prepared to go back to Normandy 75 years later. We went to their homes and they were packing, choosing what mementos to bring, and we just allowed them to tell their stories. So many of these veterans, who are well into their 90s, told me that they had never shared so much about what they witnessed and what they had experienced when they landed on the beaches of Normandy until now. Imagine carrying that with you your whole life. Many of these veterans came home, and they helped build the middle class and America as we know it, and they came back and expected little fanfare and little credit for what it was they did. I think that makes them extraordinary. They are gifts, and we owe it to them to give them the chance all these years later to talk about what it is they saw, what they witnessed, and really what they accomplished… how they changed the course of history.\n\nThere was one of them, he goes by “NoNo” Zicari, he’s from Las Vegas, and he said he brought back with him a photograph of one of his brothers from World War II; his name was Don Simmons. I won’t forget his name. He had the photograph from all those years ago of the cross where he was buried – he (Don) did not survive. This was his first trip back to Normandy and all he wanted to do was to find the cross in the cemetery in the Normandy. We were with him when he found it. That was, in and of itself, a powerful moment; but what was extraordinary was that when NoNo returned from Normandy, the family of Don Simmons, from upstate New York, all across the country, reached out to him and said “that meant the world to us. We had no idea that you were carrying that picture around of our loved one all these years.” Seventy-five years later they watched as this man, on national news, paid tribute to their loved one.\n\nQ: To what do you credit your success?\n\nMuir: Honestly, I think the credit goes to the people who have given us a shot – the people who seem to be responding at home and watching. We wouldn’t have the opportunity to tell these stories, to go out and give these people a voice, if we didn’t have people at home who wanted to watch and to hear these stories.\n\nI’m grateful to my parents for driving me into that TV station when I was a kid. I wasn’t nearly as good on the Little League field as I was in the newsroom, and they were willing to take me to that newsroom. I’m grateful to every one of those mentors along the way, and to the mentors here at ABC. I’ll never forget the phone call in the field as a rookie correspondent from Peter Jennings, and when they said “David, Peter’s on the line for you.”\n\nI’ll never forget the first day I sat next to Diane Sawyer on the \"Good Morning America\" set, and I could not believe that I was filing a report next to Diane. She and I have become friends through this great adventure that we’re all on together, and to have learned from the best and to now walk down the same hallway of the same set of stairs that Peter (Jennings) and Charlie (Gibson) and Diane (Sawyer) walked up to go do the news; it’s not lost on me, and the privilege and the responsibility that comes with that.\n\nQ: How do you balance work, life and such a busy schedule?\n\nMuir: That is the challenge for anyone in this industry because it is constant. You have to love what you do, and you have to love people. I always say that to any of the young people who approach me about a career in journalism; you have to be hungry, you have to be curious, and perhaps most of all you have to love people. Because, in the end, you will be judged whether it’s in print or it’s on television by the respect you give to people who are willing to share their stories with you. People know how much you care.\n\nQ: What have been some of your career highlights?\n\nMuir: I have to say that I will never forget a piece of advice early on in my career. I was probably 21 or 22, and I was frustrated. I was working on a story, I wasn’t getting anybody to call me back, and a veteran reporter looked at me and said, “Well, if you want this story, you just have to go out and get the story.” It’s such a valuable piece of advice, and I share it with as many young minds as possible.\n\nWe went to Somaliland not long ago – we were there to report on the famine, and I knew it was an important story, but I did wonder: are we saddling our audience with yet something else to worry about, to be concerned about, just given the stakes of what’s happening in our own country right now? I brought this piece back from Somaliland on the famine, and within 72 hours of the report airing, we had raised nearly $2 million to help feed these children and to give them the medicine they need. I’m never surprised, but I’m always moved by the generosity of the people that are watching. It’s proof to me that they do care about their neighbors, whether they’re down the street or halfway across the world.\n\nQ: What advice would you give to someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?\n\nMuir: Never give up, never underestimate your own abilities and be willing to reach out because people will respond. I try to respond to as many young people as possible, and you will find that person who remembers that it’s their responsibility to turn around and provide that next person a shot at that dream, too. I know every day that when I sit in that chair, I’m just keeping it warm for the next kid who has that same dream that I had in that backyard at 12 years old.\n\nQuick hits\n\n• What’s your coffee order? Black coffee from Starbucks, hot. For the first coffee of the day, I’ll add half-and-half, but everything beyond that I can’t justify the half-and-half.\n\n• What’s your favorite book? My current book is “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead, which I gravitated to because one of his previous books is one of my favorites (“The Underground Railroad”). His mastery of the English language and his ability to transport you back to a time that was not so long ago, when people were enduring incredible injustice in this great country of ours – I think it’s important to be reminded of just how recent that was. I also have to mention “Educated” by Tara Westover. When I go to the bookstore, I pick up extra copies of that memoir and have given them away because I think that is an extraordinary piece of work.\n\n• What is your favorite song of the moment? That is an impossibly difficult question to answer because I have such an eclectic taste in music. If it’s Sunday, it’s usually Nina Simone and Chet Baker. If it’s weekdays I play the Global Top 50 on Spotify to power me through my run or my workout. Right now, I like “Senorita” by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, and I’m also intrigued by the Whitney Houston release, the cover of “Higher Love.” Every day, I find a new song that I love.\n\n• Who’s been one of your biggest mentors? It’s funny – I really began this whole adventure by writing letters in my bedroom in upstate New York. I had this old typewriter and would write letters to all of the local news people. I was lucky enough, at 12 and 13 years old, that they wrote back to me. I remember racing out to the mailbox over summer break to see who had written back this week, and they invited me into the local news station and it wasn’t long thereafter that I became an intern. I was overjoyed to be there, and remember being so happy with the most menial tasks, and I’m just grateful that they allowed me to do it. I remember all of their names, and they’re all my mentors. I’m grateful to this day, and it’s become a driving principle of what I do every day. I really, strongly believe that when we get a chance at our dreams, we have to turn around and recognize that we are keeping the seat warm for the next person who has that dream.\n\n• What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done? I feel, in this job, I’ve had the privilege and responsibility to witness so much history firsthand. All of it fuels me. I’m grateful to have seen everything I’ve seen, whether it’s the difficult moments or the uplifting moments. I will never forget preparing to interview the Pope for the first time – no Pope has ever sat down for an hour with American television.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/09/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2021/06/14/st-augustine-record-honors-henry-white-sr-commitment-service-florida-school-deaf-blind/7686358002/", "title": "Henry White Sr. spends 60 years giving back to the community that ...", "text": "By Margo C. Pope\n\nCorrespondent\n\n10 Who Make a Difference\n\nToday: Henry White Sr.\n\nEditor’s note: This is the first story in The Record’s annual \"10 Who Make a Difference\" series during which we highlight a volunteer who has made a significant impact on our community.\n\nHenry L. White Sr. credits 60-plus years of community service and helping youth succeed to the Sisters of St. Joseph and the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2020/05/15/how-reenter-society-advice-experts-life-post-quarantine/5193930002/", "title": "How to reenter society: Advice from experts on life post-quarantine", "text": "Megan Finnerty\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nAs many states start to relax their stay-at-home orders, individuals and families are navigating how best to reengage with what was once everyday life.\n\nFor some, the fear of contracting coronavirus feels remote. They will resume errands, shopping and appointments as they once did.\n\nOthers will be more cautious, looking to scientists for guidance on how to weigh the risks of leaving home. As part of Just the FAQs: Coronavirus Conversations, USA TODAY interviewed four specialists to get answers to some of your most pressing questions. Tim Lant and Joshua LaBaer at Arizona State University are now working on models to track the spread of the virus in Arizona. The University of Chicago's Devin G. Pope studied how the virus spreads in restaurants and bars. And Dr. Peter Alperin of San Francisco is an expert on telemedicine.\n\nThis is their advice on new ground rules for resuming common activities:\n\nQuestion: Are any restaurants safer, or more dangerous, than others?\n\nPope's short answer: Sit-down restaurants where people spend an hour or more increase your exposure over time. And the more people you eat with, the more opportunities there are to become infected.\n\nLong answer: “There is a surprisingly large amount of variation in the level of risk and contact across different types of restaurants. For example, our analysis … found that some restaurants (e.g. Cheesecake Factory and Olive Garden) are inherently riskier than other restaurants (e.g. McDonalds and Subway). When going to a bar/restaurant, the level of risk increases substantially with the number of people who are with you. In other words, a party of eight is more than twice as risky as a party of four.”\n\nQ: How do we decide if a place is safe to go into?\n\nShort answer: There is no no-risk place outside your home.\n\nLong answer: If a business or office is doing all of the following things, it is taking safety seriously:\n\nPatrons wearing masks.\n\nSocial distancing standing markers on floor/sidewalk.\n\nStaff wearing masks/gloves.\n\nSignage with protocols posted so people know how to comply and what to expect.\n\nTouchless takeaway – i.e. your food on a table, pay via phone.\n\nCapacity limited by tables and chairs removed or blocked\n\nShields between workers and patrons where possible.\n\n– Tim Lant, director of program development, and Joshua LaBaer, executive director, Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University\n\nQ: What should I do when I go out?\n\nLant: Wear a mask when not eating or drinking.\n\n2. Stay home when you can to reduce number of people in spaces.\n\n3. Keep washing your hands.\n\n4. Give others personal space.\n\n5. Be courteous to staff and patrons.\n\nQ: When can I touch or hug someone I have not been living with?\n\nLaBaer's short answer: It depends.\n\nLong answer: Some people are advocating for testing every three days for individuals with public-facing jobs. This is based on the notion that incubation for the virus is three to five days, so a test every three days would likely catch someone relatively early in an infection, before they have had a chance to spread it.\n\nA negative test is very reassuring, but there are biological (not just technical) reasons that a test could produce a false negative. For example, you could have been infected yesterday, so a test today would be too soon. (You might not test positive for three to five days from exposure – depending on the size of your inoculum and your own general response to virus.) So it is really a combination of good testing and careful attention to avoiding exposure that would be most reassuring.\n\nIf you were primarily at home and isolated, and diligent about wearing a mask and washing your hands when you went out occasionally while maintaining social distancing, and then tested negative, I think it would be OK to hug your mom. There is no guarantee here, but it is pretty good. That said, this assumes your mom is of generally good health and not in a very high risk group (other than maybe her age).\n\nQ: Should I go for a routine or preventative check up?\n\nPeter Alperin, vice president at Doximity and internal medicine physician: The CDC recently recommended that nonemergency medical providers delay routine or elective visits to preserve protective equipment and alleviate the risk of spreading COVID-19. And some states have rules about which appointments and procedures can proceed. These rules vary and will continue to vary as states ease restrictions.\n\nWhat should we do if we don’t want to go into an office to see the doctor?\n\nAlperin: Check with your health care provider to see what options he or she has for patients who do not want to be seen in person. They should offer one or all three of the following:\n\nTelemedicine\n\nTelephone (call the office)\n\nOnline patient portals, which are secure places to review lab results or send and receive messages\n\nHow do I make the most of a telemedicine appointment?\n\nAlperin: Find a quiet room and use headphones/earbuds if possible.\n\n2. Make sure there is good lighting so your doctor can see you.\n\n3. Wear loose clothing so you are better able to participate in the physical exam.\n\n4. Write down specific questions.\n\n5. Have a pen and paper handy to write down instructions; the physician won't print out a summary as they often do with in-person visits.\n\nHow do we stay safe at the doctor's office?\n\nAlperin: Call ahead and ask for guidance about protocols.\n\n2. Wear a mask.\n\n3. Ask which door is best to enter.\n\n4. Ask if you can check in or fill out forms online.\n\n5. Remain distant from others in the waiting room, or wait in the car and ask them to call you to come in.\n\n6. Use a tissue or gloves to open doors.\n\n7. Bring your own pen to fill out forms.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/05/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/08/17/pennsylvania-priest-abuse-go-home-good-priest-how-pa-bishops-responded-sex-abuse-grand-jury-report/1009688002/", "title": "Pennsylvania priest abuse: How 25 Catholic Church bishops ...", "text": "In January 2004, a Pennsylvania bishop sent a letter to Pope John Paul II to tell him that an Allentown priest had an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old boy in 1979.\n\nBishop Edward Cullen noted the priest admitted the abuse in 2000. He was sending the letter to the Vatican four years later because the victim's family was threatening to go to the media if the Rev. Robert Cofenas was not defrocked.\n\n\"Currently there is great danger that this case could become public,\" Cullen said in his letter to the pope, according to a Pennsylvania grand jury report released Tuesday.\n\nCullen recommended Cofenas be removed from the priesthood, following the wishes of the victim's family.\n\nThe bishop's actions were common throughout dioceses in Pennsylvania, according to the grand jury report. When bishops were confronted with victims' stories of abuse or priests' admission of guilt, diocese leaders worked to conceal the truth.\n\n“Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all,\" the grand jury wrote in its report after a two-year investigation.\n\nMore:'We are angry' at accused clergy: York priests talk about moving forward after report\n\nMore:'Really sick, abusive stories': 40 Pa. priests confess their crimes\n\nMore:Lies and cover-ups: Catholic church in Pa. had 'playbook' to keep priest abuse secret\n\nChild sex abuse was hidden for years by Roman Catholic church leaders. The coverup went all the way to the Vatican and included secret files in Pennsylvania dioceses, where state investigators found a log of abuses that dated back decades, according to the report.\n\nBishops, monsignors and priests often told grieving victims and families that nothing could be done because the statue of limitations had expired, meaning predator priests couldn't be charged for their crimes.\n\nOthers tried to keep families from going public, sometimes blaming the victim.\n\nWhen a boy was raped, one church leader told his father, \"After all, your son was over the age of reason.\"\n\nIn Catholic teaching, the age of reason is 7 years old, which is the age when children can receive their first holy communion.\n\nThe list below shows how 25 church leaders responded when confronted with stories of alleged abuse, according to the grand jury report and diocese records.\n\nDiocese of Allentown\n\nThe Rev. David Connell, the Rev. Tim Johnson, Jim Gross, a former basketball coach:\n\nWhen a victim told Johnson he was abused by Connell and Gross, Johnson told the victim not to report the abuse to police. The victim insisted on reporting, and Johnson severely beat the victim with a big leather belt and told the victim if he reported the abuse to the police, he would beat him even worse.\n\nMonsignor Gerald Gobitas upon learning of the Rev. Joseph Kean's abuse:\n\nIn October 2005, the parents of a fifth victim reported to Gobitas that their son had been sexually abused by Kean. Gobitas in a diocese report described the sex abuse as \"the activity\" and characterized it as Kean engaging in \"immature behavior,\" such as \"wrestling, chasing each other, tying each other up with rope, etc. In the midst of this behavior there were sexual assaults.\"\n\nMonsignor Alfred Schlert in reference to the Rev. Dennis Rigney's abuse:\n\nAfter Rigney admitted he abused children, Schlert said in a letter to Monsignor Gobitas that Rigney was apprehensive about receiving therapy at a \"special retreat\" he was encouraged to attend by the diocese. \"He retired without scandal, if he goes to the retreat with the other 'known' offenders, it will implicate him,\" Schlert said.\n\nThe diocese upon learning of the Rev. Gerald Royer's abuse:\n\nA victim in 2002 told a priest Royer had abused him. During a meeting with a priest in the diocese, the priest acknowledged that Royer was a \"bad actor,\" stating that the priest had counseled Royer. The priest offered no other advice for the victim and did not report the crime to authorities.\n\nThe diocese in reference to the Rev. Charles Ruffenach's case:\n\nIn August 2001, an adult victim reported Ruffenach had physically and sexually abused him. The abuse began in 1945 when the victim was in first grade and continued through eighth grade. He said Ruffenach beat, paddled and sexually abused him when he attended St. John the Baptist school.\n\nThe diocese responded by stating that Ruffenach was deceased and therefore it could not pursue the victim's claims any further, but offered the victim counseling.\n\nThe diocese in response to Father Stephen Shigo's case:\n\nIn February 2012, a victim said he was sexually abused by Shigo while he was an altar boy in eighth and ninth grades. The diocese responded by offering six months of counseling.\n\nMonsignor Anthony Muntone upon learning of the Rev. David Soderlund's case:\n\nAfter learning of Soderlund's history of sex abuse, Muntone said if Soderlund lived at the rectory at Sacred Heart and \"the hospital held him more accountable for his time, there shouldn't be any problems.\"\n\nDiocese of Erie\n\nThe Diocese in reference to the Rev. Michael G. Barletta's case:\n\nA fellow priest, Father John Fischer, walked in on Barletta sexually abusing a young high school student. The priest did not call the police.\n\nInstead, the incident was reported to Bishop Alfred Watson two months later, after Monsignor William Hastings dismissed Fischer's report of Barletta and the naked child. Both Hastings and Watson brushed him off and told him to, \"Go home, be a good priest.\"\n\nIn 1993, Monsignor Andrew Karg received a complaint from five fellow priests expressing serious concerns about Barletta. On April 29, 1993, Karg wrote to Bishop Donald Trautman about fears Barletta could be \"crossing the line\" into the private lives of the students at Erie Prep. He said Barletta was known to take pictures inside the boys' locker room of \"the kids' crotch area\" and that Barletta maintains a book of \"crotch shots\" in his residence.\n\nPriests also questioned Barletta's personal vacations with the \"good looking boys\" and his trips to San Francisco with students. In another bullet point, Karg said, \"Father Dollinger's fear is that if the Catholic Preparatory school ever had a law suit about a pedophile, will the 18 years of Father Barletta also come to light?\"\n\nMore:Pa. clergy abuse report on Catholic church puts spotlight on statute of limitations\n\nThe diocese in response to the Father Richard D. Lynch's abuse:\n\nA victim came forward and said Father Richard Lynch touched him inappropriately while he was a senior in high school in 1978. Lynch touched him in a private area, and pushed him against the wall.\n\nIn an undated official document from the Office of the Bishop, the writer states, “There are psychological issues present in [the victim]. He receives money from Social Security because of DISABILITY…he usually calms down as you talk to him.”\n\nThe diocese in response to the Rev. Salvatore P. Luzzi's abuse:\n\nAfter several years teaching at Venango Christian High School, the Rev. Salvatore P. Luzzi was moved to St. Mark's Seminary, where he filled several roles. Over the course of his 30-year ministry, he was accused of sexual misconduct by eight male victims ranging in age from early teens to early 20s.\n\nThe grand jury report states that several former juvenile victims of Luzzi received phone calls or letters of apology from the Diocese, where Luzzi’s behavior was dismissed as “Sal’s way of expressing himself,” and his “touching approach” to ministry was attributed to his “Italian upbringing.”\n\nDirector of Clergy Personnel regarding Father Gary L. Ketcham's case:\n\nSome time prior to March 1989, allegations of sexual misconduct by Father Gary L. Ketcham became known by the Diocese of Erie. He was accused of molesting two boys while in a drunken state.\n\nDiocesan preparation for Ketcham’s court case started later that year. The diocese loaned him money for attorney fees. In a promissory note to Ketcham from the diocese— in which they pledged to front him $25,000 for lawyer fees — the director of clergy personnel wrote, “Don’t worry…you’re good for it.”\n\nFather John Fischer's response to the Rev. Joseph W. Jerge:\n\nThe Diocese of Erie was first made aware of sexual abuse allegations against Joseph W. Jerge in early 1989. On April 19, 1989, he was sent to St. Luke's Institute for sexual psychological therapy. He was placed back into ministry at St. John the Evangelist, but given restrictions and told to avoid contact with young boys. At that time, Father Fischer wrote several letters to the administration at St. Luke's voicing his concerns that Jerge was failing in his efforts to stay away from the youth of the diocese. Fischer reported that Jerge had admittedly offended numerous children and was coaching youth basketball, hearing confessions, and ministering at a parish that had a swimming pool.\n\nFischer went on to write that he felt that this swimming pool \"will only nourish the sickness.\"\n\nBishop Donald Trautman's response upon learning of Monsignor James P. Hopkins' abuse:\n\nOn Aug.3, 1993, a victim wrote a letter to Bishop Trautman at the Diocese of Erie. She stated in the letter that in 1945, when she was 13 years of age, she experienced abuse at the hands of Monsignor Hopkins in the rectory of St. Titus. Whenever anyone would voice concern over Hopkins' behavior, she would always hear the conduct dismissed by others as, \"Oh well, he's old, he doesn't mean anything by it.\"\n\nTrautman responded to the victim saying, \"Since Monsignor Hopkins died in July of 1957, there is no possible way to investigate your accusation.\"\n\nDiocese of Greensburg\n\nBishop Anthony Bosco upon learning of Father Joseph L. Sredzinski's abuse:\n\nReports were made against Sredzinski in 1991 when a police office caught him parked in a cemetery alone with a young boy. The grand jury report also notes that numerous community members came forward expressing concern over Sredzinski’s behavior.\n\nOn Jan. 14, 1994, Bishop Anthony Bosco of the Greensburg Diocese wrote a letter to Sredzinski' s sister in response to her concerns that her brother was not being treated properly by the diocese.\n\nBosco wrote to her: “At no time did we conduct an investigation with any of the families precisely because we did not want to agitate the waters any more.”\n\nMore:News of the day in PA priest abuse: Vatican speaks, name change sought for Pittsburgh school\n\nDiocese of Harrisburg\n\nBishop Kevin C. Rhodes' response to the Rev. Francis A. Bach's case:\n\nIn a letter dated May 1, 2007, Bishop Kevin C. Rhodes sent a summary of Bach's sexually abusive behavior to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Rhodes wrote that he did not believe there was a need for any trial or process, judicial or administrative.\n\nBach was living his life in \"basic solitude, doing good when he can,\" and \"spending time in prayer and penance, trying to make reparation for the harm he has caused others through his acts of sexual abuse that occurred early in his priesthood.\"\n\nFather Robert Gribbin's response upon learning of the Rev. Anthony McGinley's abuse:\n\nThe diocesan file for Father McGinley contained a handwritten memorandum, dated November of 1953, by Father Robert Gribbin, who was stationed at Lebanon Catholic High School. Three high school boys reported that McGinley made \"immoral advances\" toward them.\n\nGribbin asked the boys \"if they realized the terrible gravity of these charges.\" He asked if they \"were so convinced of them, would they testify under oath to their truth.\" The boys notified Gribbin that two senior boys knew of the \"immoral advances.\" Gribbin \"warned them to be absolutely silent and dismissed them.\"\n\nPrincipal of Saint Joan of Arc school in Hershey upon learning of the Rev. Timothy Sperber's abuse:\n\nThe Diocese of Harrisburg received a report in 2004 from a female alleging that a priest sexually abused her around 1979 when she was around 10 years old.\n\nThe victim told the principal that Sperber touched her in weird ways, and the principal became angry with the victim and said: “How dare you make these terrible accusations. You are a demon-child.\"\n\nDiocese of Pittsburgh\n\nFather James W. Donlon in reference to the Rev. John P. Connor's case:\n\nRecords obtained by subpoena from the Diocese of Pittsburgh, show that in October of 1984, Father John P. Connor was arrested in New Jersey for sexually molesting a 14-year-old child.\n\nAn excerpt from the grand jury report reads: Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua (who was promoted to cardinal) and the Philadelphia Archdiocese accepted this dangerous priest readily but did nothing to ensure the propriety of his future conduct. Father James W. Donlon, the pastor of St. Matthew Church since March 1989, testified to the grand jury that Bevilacqua never told him about Father Connor's arrest or that he had been treated at Southdown for abusing alcohol and a 14 -year-old boy.\n\nDonlon explained to the grand jury that he “would have been more careful about everything.”\n\nFather John Markell upon learning of Father Richard J. Dorsch's abuse:\n\nThe mother of one of Dorsch’s victims learned of the abuse to her son when Dorsch was arrested between 1994 and 1995. She stated that once she became aware of the abuse, she approached Father Markell, the parochial vicar assigned at the time with Dorsch at the parish.\n\nMarkell discouraged her from pursuing the matter any further and asked her son, “What did you do?”— as if implying he was responsible for, or encouraged, Dorsch’s sexual misconduct.\n\nThen-Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua in reference to the Rev. Joseph D. Karabin's case:\n\nIn March 1980, the Diocese of Pittsburgh received a report from a victim who was sexually abused by Father Joseph D. Karabin while Karabin was assigned to St. Joan of Arc.\n\nHandwritten notes by Bishop Bevilacqua on one of the memorandums in Karabin’s file stated, among other things, \"I do not feel Father Karabin should be given another immediate assignment after leaving his present one. There should be some sign to him that what he did was very grave.\"\n\nFather Norman E. Bevan's in reference to the Rev. Robert E. Spangenberg's case:\n\nThe documents provided by the Diocese of Pittsburgh revealed that Spangenberg was involved with at least two children, possibly more.\n\nThe diocese was first notified of Spangenberg’s ministry in 1988 when a mother contacted the diocese on behalf of her son. Father Norman E. Bevan was assisting the family in counseling. In a letter to the diocese, Bevan wrote: “If we felt them to be true, we would recognize our responsibility to remove Father X from ministry and to insist on therapeutic rehabilitation. At the same time, we realize that a priest's reputation could be irreparably damaged by false accusations.”\n\nFather James Ruggiero upon learning of Father Paul G. Spisak's abuse:\n\nIn October 1998, parish staff from St. Dominic reported Father Paul G. Spisak to the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Parish staff had found pornographic magazines, tapes and internet material in Spisak's room that depicted homosexual and sadomasochistic activity. There were also several pictures of Spisak with two different underage boys including pictures of the boys showing their buttocks and pictures of Spisak pulling down his swim trunks and pulling down the boy's pants.\n\nMore:Priest accused of abuse lands Disney World job with reference from Pa. diocese\n\nAn employee of the diocese was concerned with the relationship Spisak had with her son and reported her concerns to the diocese. In a letter dated April 23, 1999, Father Ruggiero wrote to the diocesan employee’s son and requested to meet with him to discuss disturbing information that his mother had provided to the church.\n\nRuggiero wrote in the letter, “I am sure revisiting these painful memories is not easy for you…I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to discuss this with your mother.”\n\nDiocese of Scranton\n\nBishop James Timlin upon learning of the Rev. Robert J. Brague's case:\n\nOn June 16, 1988, that same anonymous parishioner sent a second letter to Timlin, advising that the relationship between Brague and a teenage female was still continuing even after being reported. The parishioner stated that Timlin had disregarded the previous letter and further suggested that he did not have very much control over his priests.\n\nOn Aug. 29, 1988, Timlin received a letter from the sister of the high school female. She said Brague had had sexual relations with her sister at age 17 and became pregnant. She further advised that Brague had at least two other affairs.\n\nTimlin responded to the letter by stating that as soon as the matter was brought to his attention, Brague was removed from office. Timlin noted that it was better to say as little as possible about the circumstances surrounding his removal rather than cause greater scandal through undue publicity.\n\nIn the letter, he further noted that, \"Father Brague and your sister have a long, difficult road ahead. . . What has happened is their responsibility and certainly Father Brague will take care of his obligations.\"\n\nBishop J. Carroll McCormick in reference to the Rev. Joseph Bucolo's case:\n\nOn Jan. 4, 1971, Bishop McCormick was notified that the parents of a 10-year-old boy had reported that during the previous summer, Father Bucolo took their son on a two-day vacation to the New Jersey shore area. They advised that during this trip, Bucolo committed acts with their son that were \"unbecoming a catholic priest.\"\n\nIn a memorandum on the file, McCormick noted: “Father Bucolo called to see me this afternoon at my direction. He readily admitted the charge, insisting that once and once only did he commit an immoral act with the individual mentioned above - while on vacation last summer. He stated he had never before or since become involved in that way and said he was very sorry. He claimed that it was in a moment of weakness it had occurred.”\n\nMonsignor Joseph A. Madden upon learning of the Rev. James M. McAuliffe's abuse:\n\nIn 2010, a victim of McAuliffe met with Bishop Joseph Bambera to address concerns that even after reporting his abuse in 1963, McAuliffe continued to serve as a priest.\n\nMcAuliffe’s file contained information regarding this report and others. The file also showed that one monsignor in the parish at the time of the abuse, Madden, had written a letter to the parents of the abused in 1963.\n\nMadden made the following remark to the father of the victim, “after all, your son was over the age of reason.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/08/17"}]}
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{"question_id": "20220701_28", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:23", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/22/entertainment/glastonbury-lineup/index.html", "title": "Glastonbury 2022 music festival: full line-up | CNN", "text": "(CNN) The world is a divided, contentious place right now but Britain's biggest music bash appears poised to try to bring people together -- if ever so briefly -- this weekend.\n\nAfter a two-year break due to the pandemic, massive crowds will return to the fields of the English countryside for the Glastonbury Festival. The diverse lineup of artists performing this year span musical genres and generations.\n\nBillie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Paul McCartney will headline the event, while Diana Ross will take the stage for the Sunday Legends slot.\n\n#Glastonbury2022 on Twitter. These are our three official accounts...\n\n\n\n🗞️ @glastonbury official news, announcements and updates\n\n\n\n📷 @glastolive regular photos and posts from right around the site\n\n\n\n❓@glastoinfo answering Festival-goers' questions from 8am til late pic.twitter.com/qjgYjUjPSn — Glastonbury Festival (@glastonbury) June 22, 2022\n\nOther artists scheduled to perform include Megan Thee Stallion, Olivia Rodrigo, Pet Shop Boys, St. Vincent, Lorde, The Libertines, Kacey Musgraves, Leon Bridges, Herbie Hancock and dozens more.\n\nA rundown of the performances and times can be found here\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Chloe Melas"], "publish_date": "2022/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2019/11/18/paul-mccartney-set-headline-glastonbury-music-festival/4233826002/", "title": "Paul McCartney set to headline Glastonbury music festival", "text": "AP Entertainment\n\nLONDON (AP) — Paul McCartney has snagged the coveted Saturday night headline slot at Glastonbury next year as the British music festival celebrates its 50th birthday.\n\nFestival organizers confirmed Monday that the former Beatle will perform on the main Pyramid Stage on June 27.\n\nMcCartney last played Glastonbury in 2004, delivering a set of songs covering the Beatles era, his later work solo and with Wings.\n\nThe 77-year-old star tweeted: \"Hey Glasto - excited to be part of your Anniversary celebrations. See ya next summer!\"\n\nThe festival takes over Worthy Farm in southwest England from June 24-28. The 135,000 tickets sold within an hour of going on sale last month.\n\nMore:'I have a lot of dreams about John': Paul McCartney reminisces about The Beatles", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/11/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2015/08/09/music-festivals-2015-roundup-coachella-bonnaroo-lollapalooza/31088603/", "title": "Grading summer festivals' biggest headliners", "text": "Patrick Ryan\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nAnother sweaty, songful music festival season has come to an end. Over the past few months, up-and-comers Elle King, Azealia Banks and Flume all made waves on the circuit, while mid-level acts The Weeknd and Tame Impala both cemented their star status with dynamic live sets. But not every major artist could carry a top-notch tune. We give five multi-fest headliners a summertime report card:\n\nDRAKE\n\nFestivals: Coachella, Governors Ball\n\nHow he fared: He's making headlines as the undisputed champ of a feud with rapper Meek Mill, but back in April, Drake was considered a loser on the festival circuit. Sleepwalking through his top-billed Coachella slot in Indio, Calif., his awkward smooch from Madonna easily overshadowed the rest of his first-weekend performance, which The Desert Sunlikened to running through a checklist of hits (such as Legend and Crew Love) for an \"over-hyped, underwhelming\" hour and a half. Consequence of Sound took it a step further, rounding up poor reviews and asking if he was the \"worst headliner in Coachella history?\" Probably a stretch, but his merely OK set at New York's Governors Ball in June didn't do much to convince us otherwise.\n\nGrade: D+\n\nFLORENCE + THE MACHINE\n\nFestivals: Coachella, Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza\n\nHow they fared: On the opposite end of the spectrum, some headliners can be detrimentally excited. Such was the case with British frontwoman Florence Welch, who leaped from the Coachella stage and broke her right foot. After some recovery time between April and her How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful album release in June, Welch was back on her feet for Governors Ball early that month, prancing across the main stage for swelling anthems Dog Days Are Over and What Kind of Man, and slowing it down for Calvin Harris collaboration Sweet Nothing. It was a rapturous intensity the festival MVP echoed throughout the summer, according to euphoric write-ups from The Huffington Post and The Tennessean, among many others.\n\nGrade: A\n\nKENDRICK LAMAR\n\nFestivals: Sasquatch!, Sweetlife, Summer Jam, Bonnaroo, Summerfest\n\nHow he fared: Coming off one of the best-reviewed albums of the year, expectations were sky-high for Lamar going into the festival season. So naturally, some fans were disappointed when he only played one song (Alright) off To Pimp a Butterfly at Oregon's Sasquatch! festival in May, filling most of his set with popular, but tired tracks off Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City. The New York Times was also disenchanted when the rapper headlined at Summer Jam in East Rutherford, N.J., in June, calling him a \"B-list version of an A-list star,\" whose serviceable set concertgoers regarded \"with something less than ebullience.\" USA TODAY's Brian Mansfield was more impressed with his performance at Bonnaroo a week later, remarking how he had \"some 70,000 people in the palm of his hand.\"\n\nGrade: B-\n\nLANA DEL REY\n\nFestivals: Sasquatch!, Governors Ball\n\nHow she fared: People don't go to a Lana Del Rey show for her charisma. As Consequence of Sound noted of her Sasquatch! headlining set in May, \"she's less of a performer and more of an aesthetic,\" which didn't stop the likes of The Oregonianfrom praising her dark, unironically whimsical performance that weekend. But she's not the kind of singer whose magnetism can keep a crowd spellbound when sound issues strike — a hurdle she faced at New York's Governors Ball a week later, causing hordes of fans to file out. Although we were unengaged by most of her set (save for the final handful of songs), publications such as Billboardwere more forgiving: writing that her \"smoky, if thimble-sized voice\" couldn't reach the whole audience, but \"it only added to the near-hypnotic attention she commanded.\"\n\nGrade: C+\n\nPAUL MCCARTNEY\n\nFestivals: Firefly, Lollapalooza\n\nHow he fared: Veterans such as Billy Joel, AC/DC and Jack White rocked the festival circuit this summer, but none more than 73-year-old Paul McCartney, who earned mostly positive notices for his jam-packed, 32-song set at Firefly in Dover, Del., in June. Although he \"started off sounding a bit hoarse,\" he loosened up as the show went on, Philly.com noted, tearing through Wings and Beatles hits including Live and Let Die and Back in the U.S.S.R., respectively. He also reached into the Fab Four catalog at Lollapalooza, reviving Helter Skelter and Get Back (with the help of another festival favorite, Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard). Chicago Tribunelamented that his \"voice showed signs of fraying\" in the career-spanning performance, but he \"still provided a lasting memory or two.\"\n\nGrade: B+", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/08/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2020/07/02/15-most-memorable-acl-fest-moments-through-years/42546185/", "title": "15 most memorable ACL Fest moments through the years", "text": "Peter Blackstock\n\nWith the Austin City Limits Music Festival’s announcement on July 1 that this year’s event has been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite memories from the fest’s first 18 years. Organizers said in the announcement that they plan to return the festival to Zilker Park on Oct. 1-3 and 8-10, 2021.\n\nPETER BLACKSTOCK\n\nPaul McCartney, 2018. The single best ACL Fest moment ever? That’s subjective, of course, but it’s easy to make a case for the almost universal appeal of the Beatles’ music that dominated McCartney’s sets on both weekends.\n\nWillie Nelson, 2016. I didn’t even see most of this one, opting for a great Amanda Shires set on the BMI stage that overlapped. But walking down the hill to catch Willie’s glorious “I’ll Fly Away” finale to a huge and euphoric crowd packed into Zilker Park’s east end was an indelible ACL Fest memory.\n\nYola, 2019. The year seemed dominated by Lizzo’s massive breakout and Billie Eilish’s pre-Grammys-sweep appearances. But it’s testament to the upside of the fest’s undercard that this English country-soul dynamo also blew the roof off of the Tito’s tent on the way to her own Grammy best new artist nomination.\n\nJ.T. Van Zandt, 2004. Here’s a sleeper pick. The son of legendary songwriter Townes Van Zandt rarely plays shows anymore, but his voice and style are so evocative of his father’s music that it was something special and almost surreal to hear him play to a small, devoted group of fans that gathered around the shady BMI stage.\n\nAsleep at the Wheel and Barton Hills Choir. Superstar headliners and buzz-bands aside, these two local institutions have been central to the fest’s identity, with the Wheel playing every single fest since the start and the choir a fixture for more than a decade. Their respective noontime sets have always felt like a perfect way to get in the right frame of mind for a joyous day in the park.\n\nDEBORAH SENGUPTA STITH\n\nLizzo, 2019 (and 2016). The Minneapolis rapper’s 2019 performance was a spectacular booty club soul revival and self-love communion that drew one of the largest crowds we’ve ever seen in Zilker Park. The gluteal gyrations were mind-boggling; the calls for love, compassion and positivity were inspiring; and “Truth Hurts” was explosive. The queen claimed her crown. But I also have a soft spot in my heart for her 2016 performance, when she played an opening set to a small but ecstatic crowd. Backstage after the set, she talked about how profoundly the death of her city’s icon, Prince, had affected her. It filled her with a drive to spread as much love and light as possible, and those of us who came to the fest early that year were showered with her radiant vibes.\n\nJanelle Monae, 2018. In a flawlessly executed hourlong spectacle that included expert dance routines, soaring vocals and upward of a half-dozen costume changes, Monae “spoke truth to power in the darkest hour.” Surrounded by her crew, predominantly female and black, she preached a love revolution with such jubilant verve it was easy to get swept up in the magic. She’s a powerful visionary who inspired us to believe once more in the American dream, to embrace the idea that Black people, white people, brown people, queer people, immigrants, we’re all equal.\n\nOutkast, 2014. The Playa and the Poet were essentially on a farewell tour, and on the first Friday of the fest they put in the funky dirty South hip-hop throwdown that longtime fans of the ATLiens had been dreaming of for the better part of a decade. A show for the ages, it was a reminder of exactly what hip-hop at the top of its game is supposed to sound like.\n\nKendrick Lamar, 2016. Standing in a field full of thousands shouting “We Gon’ Be Alright” at the end of a terrible summer defined by far too much death was cathartic and necessary.\n\nGary Clark Jr., 2019. No one puts the Austin in ACL better than Gary Clark Jr. With fiery licks and sweet falsetto, he used his 6 p.m. Saturday set to remind us why he’s our hometown hero. Then, to close his set, he brought out blues upstarts the Peterson Brothers and dynamic rap duo Blackillac for a thunderous cover of the Beatles classic “Come Together” that felt like ATX history.\n\nERIC WEBB\n\nRobyn, 2019. The Swedish pop was an unusually cultish pick for a headliner last year. I vouched for her bona fides, of course, but I’ll admit the “Call Your Girlfriend” singer is an “if you know, you know” kind of star. Robyn’s set was transcendent: fluid, narcotic, balletic. When the music from the stage dropped out, and the crowd sang the chorus of “Dancing On My Own” in unison straight to Robyn, it was one of the most communal moments I’ve seen at ACL Fest.\n\nSolange, 2017. Music festival sets do tend to blend together. Play the hits, maybe have some stunts, give the sunburned people a beat to slosh their beer to. Solange, riding the critical anointment of her album “A Seat at the Table,” gave us crimson style and creative substance. You could have watched it at the MOMA instead of Zilker Park.\n\nLCD Soundsystem, 2016. This set and the band’s 2010 ACL Fest stop sandwiched an infamous band breakup, so nostalgia came as part of the deal. Idiosyncratic dance breaks, glitched-out lights and a feels-good-to-be back “All My Friends” all put this Sunday headline slot in the hall of fame.\n\nFlorence and the Machine, 2015. The first female-fronted act ever to close ACL Fest. Yes, that’s wild! There’s a whole machine behind Florence Welch, but the British alt-pop dynamo is her own power generator. Until you’ve seen this belter hypnotize a massive festival crowd through the sheer magic of joyful cavorting, you haven’t lived.\n\nLorde, 2014. The first line of my review from the Kiwi upstart’s ACL Fest debut: “Why wasn’t Lorde a headliner?” I know 2020 has been 18 years long on its own, but ACL Fest grew into its super-fest status gradually. Lorde’s audience was massive and impenetrable. If you got in, you weren’t getting out — which was fine, because it was a thrill to watch her thrash to “Royals” and “Team.” It’s one of the more notable examples of a skyrocketing new artist booked on a smaller stage drawing an army come fest time.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2015/04/05/music-festival-lineups-women/70631400/", "title": "Why so few women on music festival lineups?", "text": "Patrick Ryan\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nIf you want to headline a music festival, it helps to have a Y chromosome.\n\nPaul McCartney, AC/DC, Kendrick Lamar and Sam Smith are among the dozens of male music acts with top billing at this summer's major fests, which kick off Friday with the mammoth Coachella in Indio, Calif., and continue through August with gatherings large and small across the country.\n\nBut only a handful of women are headlining this year's events, including Florence and the Machine, Alabama Shakes, Lana Del Rey and Sleater-Kinney. Tally up the female artists' names, and the gender imbalance is even more startling.\n\nOut of nearly 160 artists, only 26 at Coachella are female-fronted acts — about 16%. Similarly, fewer than 20 of the 100 artists appearing at Bonnaroo (June 11-14 in Manchester, Tenn.) are female. Roughly 30 of the 135 bands playing Lollapalooza (July 31-Aug. 2 in Chicago) are women-led. Smaller fests such as Hangout (May 15-17 in Gulf Shores, Ala.) and Sweetlife (May 30-31 in Columbia, Md.) fare slightly better, with about 25% and 35% women performers, respectively.\n\nIt's not a new issue, either. Despite women such as Lorde, Haim and Ellie Goulding playing multiple fests on the circuit last year, Coachella still had only 28 female-fronted acts in 2014, according to Slate. And in 2013, Buzzfeed ran through Coachella's lineups since its 1999 inception and reported that only two women have had the festival's highest billing — Björk in 2002 and 2007, and Portishead in 2008 — and the event has never had more than a 25% female lineup.\n\n'Musical diversity'\n\nCoachella producer Goldenvoice declined interviews for this article, and an email to Bonnaroo co-producer Superfly Presents was not returned before publication.\n\nBut from the perspective of other festival promoters, the shortage of women is not for a lack of trying.\n\n\"A lot of it is just timing: Who's got a record cycle? Who's going out? Are they playing other stuff that's in the radius?\" says Hangout festival director Sean O'Connell. \"It's unfortunate, but it's going to happen. There's definitely offers going out.\" (Hangout offered four potential headlining slots to female artists this year, none of which panned out due to scheduling, O'Connell adds.)\n\nWhen taste-making music publication Pitchfork organizes its annual Chicago fest, diversity is \"something you definitely keep in mind; you want to make sure the festival is representative of all genders and races,\" says Pitchfork president Chris Kaskie. Given that most artists playing this year's event (such as Sleater-Kinney and Chvrches) have already been covered extensively by the site, \"the good news is that we don't obsess over the consideration, because it's already a pretty natural thing anyway.\"\n\nOverall, Pitchfork's priority is to accurately represent the current music landscape — a philosophy that promoter Huston Powell of C3 Presents adopts while organizing Lollapalooza's yearly rosters.\n\n\"It's not like I'm counting, out of 130 bands, 'How many are fronted by women? How many women are represented in these bands?' \" Powell says. \"I feel like in a given year, if we take care of the musical diversity, the rest will kind of play out.\"\n\nInstead, it could come down to the continued scarcity of women in mainstream rock, hip-hop and electronic dance music — three genres that are heavily featured at summer music festivals, as opposed to pop. Also, most promoters don't pursue top-40 staples for their top slots, although there have been exceptions, such as Lady Gaga (who headlined Lollapalooza in 2010) and Beyoncé (who closed out the 2011 Glastonbury fest in the U.K.).\n\n\"Every festival thrives on exceptions. Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga could kill it at Coachella, and they'd be the exception there,\" says Billboard editor-in-chief Joe Levy. \"That said, the question is whether or not festivals in general can afford the kind of wildly entertaining spectacles the biggest women in touring put on.\"\n\nFor acts of that caliber, \"they can go on a stadium tour and make more than they would at a festival show,\" says Alex Young, founder of music/film site Consequence of Sound. After all, the likes of Beyoncé, Katy Perry and Cher all scored some of the top-grossing tours of 2014, according to Billboard, with upcoming jaunts from Madonna and Taylor Swift guaranteed to be hot tickets as well.\n\nMore inclusiveness\n\nThat doesn't change the fact that there are still so few mid-sized and up-and-coming female acts on festival rosters. Sarah Barthel is one half of electronic-rock duo Phantogram (with Josh Carter), which has played nearly every major event on the circuit in recent years, and soon heads to Hangout, Sweetlife and Electric Forest (June 25-28 in Rothbury, Mich.) this summer.\n\n\"A lot of times we'd go to a festival and I'd be the only person wearing high heels,\" Barthel says. Although those were generally smaller fests, \"you always respect the women you see on tour and the girls you meet, because they're usually just as dirty as you and you kind of have to think like a guy. There's no nice green room where you can take a nap and someone's going to blow a fan at you.\"\n\nIn general, the bands that make it to the festival-level are the hungrier artists that \"tour their (butts) off and spend as much time as they can on the road,\" she adds. \"You don't see many women in that world because it's pretty hard to do in that aspect. It's not very glamorous.\"\n\nThe demand is there\n\nBut fans still want to see more female faces. Brittnay Johnston, 23, of Los Angeles is going to Coachella, whose lineup includes St. Vincent, FKA Twigs and Sylvan Esso. She's been to Bonnaroo and Ultra fests in past years, but didn't notice the dearth of women until she saw buzz on social media, with Photoshopped lineups that eliminated male artists to make a point about women's festival numbers.\n\n\"It definitely does make me more inclined, when I'm going around and figuring out the smaller bands I want to see, just to pick one who maybe features a woman or just a solo female act,\" Johnston says.\n\nAlison Gary, 40, of Greenbelt, Md., feels similarly. Having started going to festivals such as Bonnaroo and Forecastle nearly a decade ago, she says she has noticed fewer women on lineups as festivals become more \"homogeneous,\" leaning toward more mainstream-friendly acts.\n\nBut with so many ways to discover and support new artists online, she believes it's fans' responsibility to spearhead the changes they want to see.\n\n\"The people have a voice, and I think music festivals used to be about the people and now they've started to become about the ad revenue and sales,\" Gary says.\n\n\"Festivals are successful based upon their attendance, so we should use social media and let our voices be heard, and get what we want at these events.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/04/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2018/03/25/innings-festival-concert-review-tempe/457407002/", "title": "Innings Festival review: Chris Stapleton, Avett Bros, Queens of the ...", "text": "“Baseball and music,” Chris Stapleton mused, looking out on the thousands of fans who’d come to see him headline Sunday’s Innings Festival, a three-day baseball-themed event at Tempe Beach Park. “It doesn’t get much better than that.”\n\nEven if you didn’t bother with the batting cage, the home run derby or the professional speed-ball critique by Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Jake Peavy, the Innings Festival was a really good weekend for music.\n\nAnd it managed to draw more than 33,000 attendees over the course of three days.\n\nTyminski\n\nSunday’s lineup was by far the festival’s most country-oriented offering, starting with the first main-stage performance of the day – Tyminski, led by Dan Tyminski, whose bandmates included a man who was equally gifted on banjo and dobro.\n\nA member of Alison Krauss and Union Station, he topped the U.S. dance charts with his vocal on “Hey Brother,” Avicii’s bluegrass-flavored EDM hit.\n\nWait, George Clooney can't really sing?\n\nBut Tyminski’s biggest claim to fame may be his having briefly fooled us all into thinking George Clooney could sing in “O Brother Where Art Thou?”\n\nAs he announced before treating the fans to his version of the bluegrass standard “Man of Constant Sorrow,” of all the songs he’s ever done, it “probably more than any other is the one that gave me a soggy bottom.”\n\nLuke Combs\n\nThings got way more country during Luke Combs’ second-stage performance.\n\nIt’s hard to imagine the fans who stood in that same spot just two days earlier rocking to Eagles of Death Metal raising their beers in response to the question “We Got Any ‘90s country fans?,” much less singing along to the biggest country single of that decade, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.”\n\nThat Toby Keith song was part of a medley with the Eagles’ “Take It Easy” and Alan Jackson’s “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow.”\n\nThe kid has only country radio hits to perform as well, and he did those, too, bringing his set to a crowd-pleasing finishing with his platinum breakthrough, “Hurricane,” one of the few songs in his set that failed to mention beer (although it does include a reference to whiskey).\n\nChris Stapleton\n\nStapleton’s headlining set wasn’t nearly that country.\n\nHe’s a maverick that way, setting the tone with the blues-rocking swagger of “Midnight Train to Memphis,” his guitar tone set on “Live at Leeds.”\n\nAnd speaking of the Who, he unleashed a torrent of tremolo chords with Pete Townshend-esque fury over the swampy garage-rock vibe of “Second One to Know.”\n\nThe man who can do it all\n\nHis “Outlaw State of Mind,” which he also performed, may not have anything to Outlaw Country, but he’s definitely part of that tradition.\n\nA “rough and rowdy honky tonk man,” as he sings in “Hard Living,” he filters his love of traditional country through a heavy dose of blues and not just Southern rock but rock in general. And it plays to his musical strengths.\n\nHe’s an expressive vocalist whose gritty rasp was put to brilliant use throughout, from the playful delivery of “Them Stems,” a song he prefaced by telling the crowd “You sure do smell good out there,” to soulful urgency he brought to “Nobody to Blame.”\n\nHis guitar work is just as expressive\n\nNearly every song in Sunday’s set included ample room for Stapleton to stretch out on guitar, from “Might as Well Get Stoned” to “Outlaw State of Mind,” which ended in a wall of noise, Stapleton playing with an effects pedal.\n\nHe stripped it down to acoustic guitar and vocals for a suitably heartbreaking version of “Whiskey and You” and led the fans in a singalong on “The Devil Named Music” accompanied only by the strum of his acoustic.\n\n\"Tennessee Whiskey\"\n\nAfter turning in a moody version of the Charlie Daniels ballad “Was It 26,” he introduced his bandmates by literally singing their praises to hilarious effect.\n\nAnd then he brought his set to a triumphant close with a crowd-pleasing version of “Tennessee Whiskey,” a country standard he’s done such a good job of making his own, it’s hard to imagine him getting through a show without it.\n\nCounting Crows\n\nIt wasn’t all country or country-ish Sunday.\n\nCounting Crows drew a large, attentive crowd for a mainstage performance that opened with an epic rendition of “Round Here,” a radio staple that clearly did its share to help “August and Everything After,” their 1993 debut, go seven-times-platinum.\n\nAll the hits: \"Round Here\" to \"Mr Jones\"\n\nAnd they kept that crowd’s attention through lesser-known tracka before bringing the set to a user-friendly finish with their version of “Big Yellow Taxi,” “A Long December” and the breakthrough single Adam Duritz only plays when he’s feeling it, “Mr. Jones.”\n\nIt even felt like he was feeling it.\n\nThen, Duritz – who, it should be noted, was wearing a really cool Iron Fist T-shirt – joked about how they could go offstage and come back for an encore or just play another song.\n\nThey did not leave the stage, bringing their set to a crowd-pleasing finish with another track that made their breakthrough album such a big deal in the ‘90s, “Rain King.”\n\nDispatch gets political\n\nThere wasn’t much in the way of jam-rock for an outdoor festival in Arizona, but jam-scene veterans Dispatch had it covered with their heartfelt blend of reggae, funk and folk-rock.\n\n“Only the Wild Ones” seemed to occupy a breezy middle ground between Dave Matthews Band and Paul Simon in “Graceland” mode while “Bang Bang” found them rapping to a lilting reggae vibe in a way that would speak to Sublime fans.\n\nThey also got political, dedicating a song to “all those high school kids leading the way, knocking some sense into the grownups” in the gun debate.\n\n“As a band, we’ve been pretty amazed that there seems to be a polarity between two worlds,” they said, “when really there isn’t. We’re OK with guns as long as it’s really, really, really hard to get them. So universal background checks would just be the right thing to do to save lives.”\n\nAnd then they played “Dear Congress, (17),” a powerful new song whose title references the number of children killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.\n\nIt was chilling in the best way possible, especially the outro, in which they recited the number of victims in other mass shootings, from Sandy Hook to Columbine.\n\nJ Roddy Walston\n\nSunday’s most raucous performance was an afternoon second-stage set by the great J Roddy Walston and the Business.\n\nTheir piano-rocking front man is a wildly entertaining force of nature when he lets his inner Little Richard take the wheel, pounding the keys with the reckless abandon of a madman while whooping and shouting his way through the rockers.\n\nActually, his vocals sound more like his inner Paul-McCartney-channeling-HIS-inner-Little Richard, especially on \"Don't Break the Needle,\" but that’s just as rocking.\n\nIt wasn’t all breathless piano rock and wailing vocals.\n\n“Take It As It Comes” had a bit of a hand-jive beat but managed to sound wistful at the same time, while “Bad Habits” was a lilting folk-rock ballad with chiming guitars and a singalong chorus.\n\nDay 2: Avett Brothers' unstoppable rally, Gin Blossoms' hometown heroes welcome\n\nDay 2 coverage was provided mostly by Serene Dominic.\n\nIt's hard recapping a Spring Training-inspired music festival and not want to couch everything in baseball terminology or see everything as a competition.\n\nAnyone caught trying to incite the audience to clap by demonstrating the very same clap over their heads? The equivalent of a corked bat.\n\nAnyone performing on the Left Field stage in the early afternoon? Rookies paying their dues. Unknowns to look out for in the future? Major league prospects.\n\nHere's a play-by-play on the second day of the inaugural Innings Festival at Tempe Beach Park. (Serene Dominic)\n\nWhite Reaper\n\nWatching White Reaper kick off the Home Plate festivities Saturday afternoon for the tiniest fraction of the crowd size that had greeted Bishop Briggs in the opening slot a day earlier, it felt like attendance was off from the opening day.\n\nWhich is a shame, because their set was great, at times suggesting Cheap Trick writing hits for the Ramones (or possibly Buzzcocks), what with the reckless abandon they were throwing at those effervescent pop hooks.\n\nThey even did a Misfits cover, “Horror Business.”\n\nI would definitely stand in line to see them in a club. (Ed Masley)\n\nGin Blossoms\n\nSo where was everybody?\n\nApparently staking their claim on a spot near the front of the second stage for a homecoming set for Tempe’s own conquering heroes Gin Blossoms.\n\nThe formerly local sensations seemed touched to be given the hometown heroes welcome down the street from where a number of their greatest hits had been composed.\n\nI shared something on Facebook at the time about how suddenly the crowd at Innings Fest quadrupled when they hit the stage, but I think maybe I just like the word quadrupled. There were six or seven times more watching them.\n\nAnd they delivered.\n\nThey opened with one of their biggest hits, “Follow You Down,\" which featured Robin Wilson on harmonica and encouraging the crowd to sing the chorus hook.\n\n\"We’ve returned to our hometown to kick ass and chew bubblegum,\" Wilson announced. \"And we are all out of bubblegum.\"\n\n\"Allison Road\"\n\nIn addition to crowd-pleasing staples like \"Allison Road,\" they dusted off a country-rocking ballad from a forthcoming release recorded with Mitch Easter and Don Dixon. And it effortlessly held its own in the company of those fan favorites, ending with a future singalong of \"Close your eyes / Hold me tight / Everything is gonna be all right.\n\nThen, they finished the set with their other big singles, \"Found Out About You,\" \"Hey Jealousy\" and \"Til I Hear It From You.\" (EM)\n\nMORE:Gin Blossoms celebrate a 'Miserable' anniversary with new music, hall of fame induction\n\nGALLERY: GIN BLOSSOMS OVER THE YEARS:\n\nLord Huron\n\nBy the time I slid into the Home Plate stage to catch LA indie-folk band Lord Huron, they were midway through the set, hitting an early peak when the sun was just starting to go down with \"Wait by the River,\" a song that came off like a mysterious 45 in a stack that you can't believe you never heard before but is instantly recognizable as a home truth.\n\nLike many of the acts on the second-day roster, the lyrics had an air of fatalism about them (sample lyric: \"If we can't be together/ What's the point of life?\").\n\nBut on the strength of that moment, I was hooked to check out more of his set, which included a more modern-sounding if no less downtrodden outback rendezvous \"Meet Me in the Woods\" (\"I can see what the darkness does/Say goodbye to who I was\").\n\nWho knows how the fabric of our civilization would be forever changed if Justin Timberlake's Abercrombie and Fitch \"Man in the Woods\" fiasco had approached this existential realism? (SD)\n\nLocal Natives\n\nSilverlake's Local Natives make the panorama of a broken heart even more expansive, mostly thanks to the added tribal percussion and the double attack of Kelcey Ayer and Taylor Rice's respective high tenor wailing on numbers like \"You and I\" and \"Past Lives.\"\n\nThe former is the kind of breakup song a forlorn heart could listen to on an endless loop until help in the form of hope arrives.\n\nA lot of bands try to rock the wordless chorus as a cheap ploy for audience participation, but Local Natives do it just to demonstrate that five-part block harmonies are in their wheelhouse.\n\nCase in point: \"Fountain Of Youth\" which was dedicated to Saturday's March For Our Lives activists and couldn't have been more of a pulse reading on this still formative generation and their ability to transform the national discourse if it had been written that same day: \"We can do whatever we want/ We can say whatever we mean/And if we don't care/ Then who cares?\"\n\nThen, they added a cautionary bit of advice, \"I think we'd better listen to these kids/ I can't keep pretending that I'm still asleep.\"\n\nEven The Head and the Heart who later followed them on the same stage and did their own forceful set noted that they were inspired by Local Native's grand slam of a set, which ended with suitable rock bombast and Taylor Rice crowd surfing. (SD)\n\nThe Decemberists\n\nAfter them, the Decemberists were more like a chill-out tent or comic relief, take your pick, with the evening breeze cutting some of the nasal tone off Colin Meloy's vocal delivery for more calming effect.\n\nThe importance of Saturday's march was not lost on Decemberists, whose new album \"I'll Be Your Girl,\" released last weekend, was written in the wake of the 2016 election and probably served to update the normally history-hewn songcraft of Meloy into something more resembling current events.\n\nYet the kitschy pseudo-psychedelic album cover and songs like \"Everything Is Awful\" (dedicated to the anti-gun activists) and \"We All Die Young\" (thankfully NOT dedicated to the marchers) just came off as more of the band's stock in trade out-of-time irony at best and plain ol' cynicism at worst. Especially couched between the passionate Local Natives and the double blast of Avett earnestness on tap.\n\nIf Meloy is truly trying to reach or even encourage Gen Z, better not to write a song which includes an invocation \"to hoist your own petard.\"\n\nAnd word to the concert cam operator, focusing on a gleeful audience member dutifully mouthing the words to \"Severed\" like \"Gonna smother you all till I choke you\" makes for one disconcerting recruitment poster for both band and fans.\n\nWhat worked great for The Decemberists?\n\n\"Ben Franklin's Song,\" the unused lyric from \"Hamilton\" writer Lin-Manuel Miranda that has this beloved statesman and American hero resorting to rap braggadocio: \"I'm Benjamin effin\" Franklin\" and \"I'm the only American the French wanna see/ They call me a genius, I can't disagree.\"\n\n\"Make You Better,\" a song that seemed to come from a genuine place that didn't involve irritation or analogies to mining disasters.\n\nAnd the accordion-lead-guitar duel that ended with all the members of the band lying down on stage and playing barely above a whisper. (SD)\n\nWhite Buffalo\n\nAfter a day of augmented folk outfits, it was nice to hear some power-trio minimalism with the White Buffalo, who fired on all three cylinders with kinetic drumming, lead bass and the deep baritone of Jake Smith, whose \"Come Join The Murder\" loomed large in the Season 7 finale of \"Sons of Anarchy.\"\n\nAlthough some compare his voice to Leonard Cohen, the band seem to have emerged from playing the kind of pub rock that could back a Nick Lowe or Elvis Costello handily. (SD)\n\nThe Avett Brothers\n\nIf you fell in love with the Avett Brothers from their Judd Apatow documentary \"May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers,\" now running on HBO, you would not be disappointed that they are all that and more in a live setting.\n\nAnd standing toe-to-toe with fans who were there for them through those earlier albums, it felt like being welcomed as a member of an extended family.\n\nIndeed, not since the Osmonds has a brother act not only not engendered long-running feuds but have shown themselves to be this loving and simpatico with one another.\n\nTheir whole yin and yang is completely complimentary. The older Scott has the demeanor of a preacher who stands and gestures grandly while the younger Seth appears like a wired teenager so eager to play this music that he is practically running in place.\n\nOnce I read that Stephen Stills was so impressed by George Harrison's \"Within You Without You\" that he had the lyrics carved on a stone monument in his yard.\n\nThere hardly is a song of the Avetts that you wouldn't want to carve into stone. In fact you'd need a quarry to keep up with all the worthy quotables they toss out with frightening regularity.\n\nYet every tale of desperation is tempered with hope, from \"Morning Song,\" where Scott asks the people who stop caring to not tell it to the people that still do, or \" I Wish I Was\" where Seth imagines himself as a flickering flame, a tune and a sweater as means of getting close to a woman he is afraid to become intimate with.\n\nThe Apatow documentary showing the making their last album \"True Sadness\" climaxes with a song about leaving this world with no malice that was so moving, it caught everyone in the studio off guard and vulnerable.\n\nI'm glad that this night they chose to close the encores with that instead of doing it early in the set as they have done on some of this tour.\n\nWhat better way to end a show than having a crowd communally singing \"I have no enemies\" together?\n\nIf the Avett Brothers can't bring us all together, what chance has America's favorite pastime got? (SD)\n\nAvett Brothers' Set List\n\nDie Die Die\n\nTrue Sadness*\n\nLaundry Room\n\nOld Joe Clark (Instrumental) with Upright Bass solo\n\nSatan Pulls The Strings*\n\nMorning Song*\n\nKick Drum Heart\n\nJust Be Simple\n\nI Wish I Was\n\nAin’t No Man\n\nGo to Sleep\n\nThe Prettiest Thing (David Childers & The Modern Don Juans cover)\n\nLive and Die\n\nI Shall Be Released (Bob Dylan cover) Tania Elizabeth sings\n\nSlight Figure of Speech - drum solo\n\nI and Love and You\n\nEncores\n\nFaith (George Michael Cover)\n\nHead Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise\n\nNo Hard Feelings\n\nDay 1: Innings Festival launches in Tempe with Queens of the Stone Age\n\nBy the time Bishop Briggs brought her crowd-pleasing set to a close with a soulful rendition of \"River\" Friday evening, it was clear that the inaugural Innings Festival, a baseball-themed event by the makers of Lollapalooza, was a hit.\n\nWhen I turned my attention from Briggs at the foot of the stage as ended her final song to make my way to Phosphorescent on one of the festival's other two stages, the crowd had already filled in.\n\nAt 5:30 p.m. on a Friday for the first main-stage performance.\n\nBriggs was one of 12 acts on the opening day of the three-day festival at Tempe Beach Park.\n\nThe day's eclectic mix got underway with Rihanna's duet partner Mikky Ekko, who wisely included a version of \"Stay\" in his set.\n\nAnd after making its way through such highlights as Briggs, Phosphorescent, a ridiculously entertaining Eagles of Death Metal, Young the Giant and Cold War Kids, it ended with a nearly 90-minute onslaught from Queens of the Stone Age.\n\nQueens of the Stone Age\n\nJosh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age was making his second appearance on an Innings stage, having taken his place behind the drums for the raucous finale of Eagles of Death Metal's set, much to the fans' delight.\n\nWhatever backlash remains from the incident last December when Homme kicked the camera of a photographer into her face at KROQ's Almost Christmas concert in Los Angeles, it didn't seem to have an impact on the way he was received in Tempe.\n\nAnd there were no signs of erratic behavior.\n\nThe performance got off to a powerful start with \"If I Had a Tail\" and \"My God is the Sun\" from 2013's \"...Like Clockwork.\" And like nearly ever song that followed, they rocked with conviction and swagger to spare.\n\nEven the falsetto-driven slow jam, \"Make it Wit Chu,\" had conviction and swagger to spare.\n\nIn the midst of the third song, \"Feet Don't Fail Me,\" the opening track on their new album, \"Villains,\" Homme addressed the crowd.\n\n\"Tonight is the f--king night,\" he said. \"There's no yesterday. There's no tomorrow. Everybody's free, man. You do whatever the f--k you want.\"\n\nThen, he singled out the one guy in the crowd who wouldn't clap along, which seemed to contradict the message of his monologue. And then, it was back into the song with a verse that felt like something of a mission statement.\n\n\"Me and my gang come to bust you loose / We move with an urgency / Between pleasure and agony.\"\n\n\"Feet Don't Fail Me\" was the first of several highlights pulled from \"Villains.\" They also did \"The Way You Used to Do,\" The Evil Has Landed\" and \"Domesticated Animals.\"\n\nAnd they pulled a few gems from their third album, \"Songs for the Deaf,\" the punkish adrenaline rush of \"You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire\" giving way to \"No One Knows\" like it does on the album.\n\n\"No One Knows,\" whose riff remains one of their greatest moments, included the first of two solos for drummer Jon Theodore, who made the most of the spotlight.\n\nOther highlights of the set included the slide-guitar-fueled \"I Sat By the Ocean,\" \"Smooth Sailing,\" the forward momentum of the piano-banging \"Go With the Flow\" and the massive wall of noise they built on the set-closing \"Song for the Dead.\"\n\nAs Coachella prepares for a weekend with no rock acts as headliners, Queens' performance made it clear that a rock act can still hold its own at the top of a festival bill in 2018.\n\nCold War Kids\n\nIt’s been 11 years since Cold War Kids rolled out of Long Beach with their breakthrough single, “Hang Me Up to Dry.”\n\nAnd it still resonates enough with fans to touch off massive singalongs in concert, as it did on Friday night in Tempe, where they drew a huge crowd as the last act on the second stage.\n\nBut the songs from their new album, “L.A. Divine,” were also well-received, from the soulful majesty of the U2-worthy “Can We Hang On?,” one of several tracks that made the most of Nathan Willett’s upper register, to “Restless,” a ballad that ended with Willett testifying like a gospel singer, and \"Love is Mystical,\" the album's biggest hit.\n\nThe R&B vibe they explored on their latest release was reflected in their choice of a cover song, Rihanna’s “Love on the Brain.”\n\nAnd they offset the newer material with such crowd-pleasing staples as “Miracle Mile” and the Dylanesque ballad “We Used to Vacation,” which as Willett noted was \"the first song on our first record.\"\n\nYoung the Giant\n\nYoung the Giant’s mainstage set immediately followed the non-stop hi-octane rocking and humor of Eagles of Death Metal, which made me worry that they’d seem a little light after that. But as I walked up, they were rocking their way through the headbanging swagger of “Jungle Youth,” as though they had the same thought.\n\nAnd that was followed by a raucous “Something to Believe In,” the biggest single from “Home of the Strange,” their latest album, settling into the moodier, more understated side of what they do as they went on.\n\nThe atmospheric, acoustic-guitar driven “Titus Was Born” was followed by the Bowie-referencing, falsetto-driven funk-rock vibe of “Mr. Know-It-All” and a dreamy rendition of “Mind Over Matter,\" which featured a soaring lead vocal from Sameer Gadhia, who was rocking a very bright jumpsuit.\n\nOther highlights ranged from the disco-flavored groove of \"Nothing's Over\" to an understated \"Firefly,\" which was mostly just a finger-picked acoustic guitar and vocals with some atmospheric textures, and an impassioned \"Amerika.\"\n\nEagles of Death Metal\n\nJesse Hughes was born to rock a festival. It doesn't matter if you go in cold with no knowledge at all of what Eagles of Death Metal do and why they do it. If you have a sense of humor and you don't hate rock and roll, you will be entertained.\n\nAnd if you do hate rock and roll? There is a chance you'll be converted.\n\nThey walked on to the Pilot song \"Magic\" and just stood there soaking up the crowd reaction before launching into the set with the reckless abandon of \"I Only Want You,\" which featured two fake endings. On the first song. That is how it's done.\n\nFrom there, they made their way through such hard-rocking highlights as “Don’t Speak (I Came to Make a BANG)” to \"So Easy,\" on which Hughes went from swinging his mic-cord Roger Daltrey-style to rocking the cradle with it, yo-yo-style.\n\nThen, after admitting that he'd gotten really stoned before the set, he asked \"Do you believe in rock and roll, ladies and gentlemen?\"\n\nIt was clear that they had, so Hughes told them, \"And that is why I believe Duran Duran wrote this next song\" by way of introducing \"Save a Prayer.\"\n\nThey also covered David Bowie's \"Moonage Daydream,\" which featured an epic guitar lead from the great Dave Catching.\n\nThe momentum reached another peak with the audience singing along to \"I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News).\" And then, they cranked it up a notch by bringing Homme out to join them on their set's chaotic grand finale. I'm still smiling when I think about it.\n\nSylvan Esso\n\nAmelia Meath of Sylvan Esso worked the stage in a pair of sneakers with six-inch plaform heels and a No Nukes T-shirt as she and her musical partner, Nick Sanborn (whose shirt said \"Resist fear, Assist Love\") made their way through a set of electropop crowd-pleasers.\n\nAfter setting the tone with \"Sound,\" the glitch-heavy opening track of their latest album, \"What Now,\" they hit their stride on \"Kick Jump Twist,\" those platform sneakers adding to the charm of Meath's exaggerated movements as she brought the lyrics to life.\n\nThey also dusted off the other singles from the new release, \"Radio\" and another strong contender for their most infectious melody, \"Die Young,\" in a set whose other highlights included \"Just Dancing\" and \"Coffee.\"\n\nPhosphorescent\n\nPhosphorescent's brand of folk-rock would've been a better fit for the roots-heavy Saturday lineup. But they turned in one of Friday's best performances.\n\nIt helps to be led by a talented singer-songwriter with a voice as expressive as Matthew Houck's, with his Dylanesque phrasing matched to a bittersweet tone fit to rival Jeff Tweedy.\n\nAnd although Phosphorescent began as a bit of a one-man-band recording project for Houck, the musicians assembled onstage at Innings felt more like bandmates than backing musicians.\n\nScott Stapleton even stole the spotlight on several occasions, pounding his piano like a liquored-up Jerry Lee Lewis with something to prove in places.\n\nHighlights of their set included \"Terror in the Canyons,\" \"The Quotidian Beasts,\" \"Los Angeles\" and \"A New Anhedonia.\"\n\nBefore \"Los Angeles,\" Houck announced, \"We haven't played in a long time, it seems, so this is really nice.\" So maybe the guys were just itching to play, but they sounded amazing together – a little loose, but in a good way.\n\nBishop Briggs\n\nBishop Briggs turned in one of the opening day's most energetic sets. In a state of perpetual motion, she seemed to be constantly running in place or boxing the air or otherwise throwing herself into the music.\n\nAnd she definitely smiled more than anyone else – the kind of smile that could light up a room. Of course, at 4:30 p.m., on an outdoor stage in Tempe, Arizona, it's already pretty bright. But her enthusiasm was contagious.\n\nAnd for all that smiling, she could turn around and invest a line as impassioned as \"I'd rather die than give up the fight\" with the sort of intensely emotional vocal those moments require.\n\nWearing a black hoodie advertising the name and release date of her forthcoming album, \"Church of Scars,\" she opened with her latest single, \"White Flag,\" and kept the emotional urgency on high through \"Have Mercy\" and \"Wild Horses.\"\n\nThree songs in, she thanked the crowd for showing up in time to see her.\n\n\"It means so much to my heart,\" she said, \"my little dark black soul.\"\n\nFrom there, she made her way through such obvious highlights as \"The Way I Do,\" which had crowd members waving their hands in the air as they sang along, and her subdued yet soulful take on INXS's \"Never Tear Us Apart\" before ending with \"River.\"\n\nShe also gave an emotional speech about how good it felt to be there in these troubled times.\n\n\"I have to say to be able to look out and see all of you and all of us coming together and just enjoying music, it's such a special thing,\" she said.\n\n\"And I just want to thank Innings Fest for making this possible, because before I came onstage today, I felt so much heaviness from what's been happening in the world. And the minute I came out here, all of you just gave me such good energy. I think that's the power of all of us getting together and hopefully the power of music.\"\n\nQueens of the Stone Age setlist\n\nIf I Had a Tail\n\nMy God Is the Sun\n\nFeet Don't Fail Me\n\nThe Way You Used to Do\n\nYou Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, but I Feel Like a Millionaire\n\nNo One Knows\n\nThe Evil Has Landed\n\nI Sat by the Ocean\n\nDomesticated Animals\n\nMake It Wit Chu\n\nSmooth Sailing\n\nLittle Sister\n\nGo with the Flow\n\nSong for the Dead\n\nREAD MORE:\n\nMystery Peeps flavor 2018: Our kid candy experts guess the flavors\n\nLowrider lecture: Check out these custom cars' worldwide appeal\n\n45 restaurants in Phoenix for Easter brunch and dinner\n\nThings To Do app: Get the best in events, dining and travel right on your device", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/03/25"}]}
{"question_id": "20220701_29", "search_time": "2022/07/01/14:23", "search_result": []}