{"question_id": "20220715_0", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:19", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2022/04/20/netflix-ads-impact-subscribers/7379645001/", "title": "Is Netflix adding ads? How the potential change could affect ...", "text": "Coming soon to your Netflix account: ads.\n\nDuring its quarterly earnings report, where it revealed its first drop in global subscribers in a decade, Netflix said it is exploring plans that include ads for a lower price.\n\nIn a call with investors, Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings said he has been against \"the complexity of advertising,\" preferring the simplicity of a subscription.\n\n\"But as much I'm a fan of that, I'm a bigger fan of consumer choice,\" Hastings said. \"And allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price and are advertising-tolerant (to) get what they want makes a lot of sense.\"\n\nAlthough Hastings said an ad-supported plan is still a year or two away, it's a moment Netflix subscribers might dread. One of the biggest appeals of Netflix is watching favorite TV shows or movies without a single commercial interruption.\n\nNETFLIX STOCK PRICE FALLS:Netflix loses 200k subscribers and it expects to lose 2 million more\n\nELON MUSK:Billionaire says he doesn't own a home, sleeps at friends' houses\n\nHowever, more consumers appear comfortable mixing ads with their streaming, so long as it's affordable. A December survey from Forrester found 44% of U.S. online adults who use a streaming service will put up with ads if it means they pay less.\n\n\"Ultimately consumers will follow the content and the overall value they’re getting when choosing which streaming services make their watch list,\" said Forrester VP and Research Director Mike Proulx.\n\nComplicating matters is Netflix also is trying to crack down on subscribers who share their passwords. The company said it plans to expand features over the next year that it's testing in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, giving users the option to pay extra if they want to share their account outside their household.\n\nHow will my Netflix subscription change?\n\nNetflix did not reveal details on what plans would look like once an ad-supported option is available, or how much it might cost.\n\nBut other services might provide a glimpse at how new Netflix plans could function. Hulu, for example, has long offered ad-backed and ad-free plans.\n\nHulu has a $6.99-a-month plan with ads and a $12.99-a-month option without the ads.\n\nHBO Max offers similar plans, with a $9.99-a-month subscription with ads and one for $14.99 that strips ads but supports features like offline downloads. Fellow streaming service Peacock provides ad-free and ad-supported subscriptions, too.\n\nLast month, Disney announced it would introduce an ad-supported version of Disney+ this year but didn't provide information on prices.\n\nCurrently, Netflix offers three plans: a basic plan for $9.99, a standard plan – its most popular – to $15.49, and a premium plan for $19.99. The big question for Netflix is how much an ad-backed subscription will cost, said Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter.\n\n\"You look at Hulu. It's $12.99, they cut the price (for the option with ads) to $6.99, so they cut it by $6. If Netflix says, 'Oh, we'll cut it to $9.49,' I doubt anybody does it,\" Pachter said. \"It's like, what's the point? You're still paying more for Netflix with ads than you're paying for Disney without, which doesn't make sense at all.\"\n\nWould you be open to ads on Netflix if you could pay less? Tell Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/investing/sec-retail-investors-payment-for-order-flow/index.html", "title": "The stock market could soon see a massive change to how it ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) The agency that oversees Wall Street is weighing major changes to the way millions of everyday investors buy and sell stocks. That could be bad news for so-called free-trading apps like Robinhood as well as the lesser known firms that underpin their business models.\n\nToday, when you buy or sell a stock on an app, the trade appears to be instantaneous. But beneath that simple buy/sell action is a complex web of Wall Street players exploiting tiny differences in price to rake in huge amounts of cash.\n\nHere's how it works: When you tap buy or sell, Robinhood (or your broker of choice), takes your order to a firm known as a wholesaler or market maker — the middlemen who are supposed to get you the best price and who pay the brokers for the privilege of executing the trades. They typically make pennies off each transaction.\n\nThat process is known as \"payment for order flow,\" and it has come under intense scrutiny by regulators following the fallout from the January 2021 run-up in meme stocks like GameStop.\n\nThe GameStop frenzy \"exposed how rigged the US equity markets are to enrich big Wall Street firms, high frequency trading firms and brokers at the expense of Main Street retail investors,\" Better Markets CEO Dennis Kelleher wrote at the time.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Allison Morrow", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/01/12/companies-forced-to-change-their-names/40963349/", "title": "WWE, Netflix among 15 companies forced to change their names", "text": "Michael B. Sauter and Samuel Stebbins\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nFor the nation’s largest companies, a highly-recognizable name can be an extremely valuable asset. However in the face of a public relations disaster, declining revenue, or major changes in consumer preference, a high-profile brand name can become a liability. In these cases, rebranding with a new name can be necessary to turn corporate fortunes around.\n\n24/7 Wall St. reviewed 15 of the biggest corporate name changes in recent history. This list focuses on name changes that were responses to urgent financial or public relations problems. Some of these companies may not be around today had they not rebranded. Here is a look at the brands that will disappear in 2020.\n\nSome of these companies changed their brands to more effectively represent their range of products and services. For example, Weight Watchers changed its name in 2018 to WW to better communicate that the company offers a wider array of wellness products than just weight loss aid.\n\nMacy's closings:More than two dozen stores are shuttering. Is your location on the list?\n\nA comfortable retirement:In which states will your money will last longest or shortest?\n\nIn other cases, a company’s brand had been so tarnished by scandal or associated with an industry held in increasingly poor regard that the name had to go. The Lance Armstrong Foundation changed its name to Livestrong Foundation after the company founder and namesake was outed for use of performance-enhancing drugs.\n\nIn other instances, long-term business failure or changing cultural values led to a name change for these companies. But often, a single incident and the resulting fallout was enough to precipitate a name change for these companies. These are the biggest corporate scandals of the last decade.\n\nIn a few rare cases, the name changes were not made from a financial or public relations perspective, but a legal one. One well-known entertainment company on this list was forced to change its name due to a trademark violation.\n\n1. Livestrong Foundation\n\n•Former name: Lance Armstrong Foundation\n\n•Year changed: 2012\n\nThe Lance Armstrong Foundation began in 1997 -- in the wake of Lance Armstrong's testicular cancer diagnosis -- as a charity to raise money for cancer research. However, after years of speculation and investigations, it became indisputable in August 2012 that the seven time Tour de France champion had been illegally using performance-enhancing drugs throughout his professional career. In the fallout, Armstrong was stripped of his titles and banned from professional cycling. Armstrong's charity foundation formally changed its name to the Livestrong Foundation in a rebranding effort.\n\n2. American Outdoor Brands Corporation\n\n•Former name: Smith & Wesson\n\n•Year changed: 2017\n\nSmith & Wesson Holding, the parent company of the Smith & Wesson firearm brand, changed its name to American Outdoor Brands on Jan. 1, 2017. The change was likely made primarily in response to the volatility of the firearms market.\n\nGun sales can fluctuate considerably in the United States due to current events, such as mass shootings, and political trends. By changing its name, the company aimed to expand its outdoor gear business to new markets that might have negative views of the firearm industry. Since the name change, however, the company's stock has fallen by over 50%.\n\n3. Netflix\n\n•Former name: Qwikster\n\n•Year changed: 2011\n\nIn 2011, having already announced a 60% price hike that infuriated customers, Netflix Inc. introduced Qwikster. The plan, part of Netflix's attempt to separate its streaming video service from its DVD mailing service, was an instant flop. Customers decried not just the higher costs but also the inconvenience of two separate websites and two separate bills. The Qwikster decision lasted just a few weeks. In a 2011 conference call, CEO Reed Hastings said of the Qwikster plan, \"In hindsight, it's hard to justify.\" He also added, \"Qwikster became the symbol of Netflix not listening.\"\n\n4. Academi\n\n•Former name: Xe Services, Blackwater Worldwide\n\n•Year changed: 2009, 2011\n\nThe corporation once known as Blackwater has changed its name twice in the past four years. In September 2007, five Blackwater guards were involved in an incident that resulted in the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. In February 2009, likely in part as a public relations move, Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services. Just a few months later, two of its mercenaries fired on a vehicle and killed two Afghan civilians.\n\nIn December 2011, six months after the second gunman was convicted and sentenced to 37 months in prison for manslaughter, the company again changed its name, this time to Academi. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the company's CEO, Ted Wright, explained the name change was an attempt to appear more \"boring.\"\n\nWeight Watchers:WW, formerly Weight Watchers, unveils new plan with more choice, less hunger and, yes, pasta\n\nNon-meat meatballs?:Subway will test plant-based Beyond Meatball Marinara sub at select locations\n\n5. Subway\n\n•Former name: Pete's Super Submarines\n\n•Year changed: 1968\n\nThe fast-food sandwich chain now known as Subway was founded in 1965 -- only back then it went by the name Pete's Super Submarines, or, Pete's Submarines, as it read in ads and on billboards. The shop was initially named after the man the restaurant's founder, Fred DeLuca, had borrowed money from to get the operation off the ground. The relatively cumbersome name was short lived, however, as it was often misheard as \"pizza submarine.\" The chain changed its name to the now familiar Subway in 1968.\n\n6. Ally Financial\n\n•Former name: GMAC Bank\n\n•Year changed: 2010\n\nIn 2008, in the midst of the financial crisis and the bailing out of a number of major financial institutions, the U.S. government bailed out the American auto industry to the tune of over $80 billion. As part of this lifeline, the government purchased billions of dollars in shares of GMAC, which began as the financing arm of General Motors and was partially owned by the automaker. It also injected money into GM directly.\n\nIn 2010, GMAC changed the name of its banking unit to Ally Financial. The decision appears to have been made to distance the company from both its own rescue and General Motors' financial difficulties.\n\n7. Altria\n\n•Former name: Philip Morris\n\n•Year changed: 2003\n\nCigarette giant Philip Morris, maker of brands like Marlboro, changed its name to Altria Group Inc. in 2003 on the same day that the company was cleared of responsibility in a smoking-related wrongful death case. The move had been planned since 2001. Philip Morris claimed that the name change was intended to emphasize that the company sells a wide array of products, in addition to the famous tobacco brand, but the assumption for many is that the move was largely to disassociate the company from its controversial product.\n\nAn anti-tobacco group, Intact, called the plan \"a PR maneuver meant to distance the corporation's image from its deadly business practices.\" The tobacco units, Philip Morris International and Philip Morris USA, kept their original names.\n\n8. WWE\n\n•Former name: World Wrestling Federation\n\n•Year changed: 2002\n\nThe popular entertainment company once known as the World Wrestling Federation, or WWF, had to change its name for a very different reason than many of the other companies on this list -- a trademark violation. Few multimillion dollar companies come across such a problem. But the World Wildlife Fund, a global conservation organization founded in 1961 that carries the initials WWF, sued the entertainment group and won on the grounds that it had broken a 1994 agreement that it would limit use of the WWF initials. The WWF in 2002 changed its name to World Wrestling Entertainment, and finally just WWE.\n\n9. AirTran Airways\n\n•Former name: ValuJet Airlines\n\n•Year changed: 1997\n\nOn May 11, 1996, ValuJet Flight 592 crashed in the Florida Everglades, with no survivors among the 110 passengers and crew. Following the crash, despite initially ruling the airline safe, the FAA grounded ValuJet Airlines flights in June 1996 for three months. The FAA stated ValuJet knowingly flew planes that were potentially unsafe. Although it later returned to offering inexpensive flights, in 1997 ValuJet acquired AirTran Airways, taking the smaller airline's name.\n\n10. Bausch Health\n\n•Former name: Valeant Pharmaceuticals\n\n•Year changed: 2018\n\nValeant Pharmaceuticals gained tremendous public notoriety for sharply raising prices on life-saving drugs the company offered through its pharmacy Philidor, which has since been shut down. Company shares plummeted in 2015 and several public lawsuits have surfaced in the wake of the collapse. The company adopted the name of its eye care subsidiary, Bausch + Lomb, which it acquired in 2013.\n\nIn July 2018 it officially changed its name to Bausch Health. In late 2019, the company agreed to pay shareholders $1.21 billion on the grounds that it misled them about its financial situation leading up to the stock price collapse.\n\n11. Tribune Publishing Co.\n\n•Former name: Tronc\n\n•Year changed: 2018\n\nIn 2016, Tribune Publishing, the owner of major newspapers like the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, changed its name to Tronc. The name change was likely intended to signal the publishing company's movement into the modern media landscape, and also to prevent confusion between the company and Tribune Media, the company from which it was spun off in 2014. The change was not well-received. Two years later, Tribune Media was apparently in the process of merging with Sinclair Broadcasting Group, and Tronc changed its name back. The merger eventually fell through but the name change stuck.\n\n12. Intel Security\n\n•Former name: McAfee\n\n•Year changed: 2014\n\nSince its inception in 1987, McAfee has gone through several name changes. The antivirus software company shared a name with its eccentric founder John McAfee for well over a decade, until it was bought by Intel in 2010 and rebranded as Intel Security. The rebranding was an effort to distance the product from Mr. McAfee, whose erratic behavior was making international headlines.\n\nThe merger was short lived however. McAfee began operating as an independent company again in April 2017. The rebranding from Intel back to McAfee was rolled out in stages and almost fully completed as of 2019.\n\n13. RH\n\n•Former name: Restoration Hardware\n\n•Year changed: 2017\n\nIn a rebranding effort apparently geared at improving business, the furniture retailer Restoration Hardware officially changed its name to RH on Jan. 1, 2017. The rebranding decision had been made as far back as 2012 when the company's former CEO Carlos Alberini explained that the change \"enhances our identity and moves us beyond our Hardware store beginnings.\"\n\nSince the rebranding was made official, the company's share price has climbed by over 600%. The company had been known as Restoration Hardware since it was founded in 1979.\n\n14. WW\n\n•Former name: Weight Watchers\n\n•Year changed: 2018\n\nAfter 55 years in business as Weight Watchers, a weight management services company, changed its name to WW in 2018. The change was part of a rebranding effort designed to keep the company competitive as cultural norms around weight loss began to change. Namely, dieting has become taboo in favor of personal wellness and body positivity. The rebranding appears to have been effective to some degree, as the company's share price has climbed over 25% in the last year.\n\n15. CoreCivic\n\n•Former name: Corrections Corporation of America\n\n•Year changed: 2016\n\nThe private prison industry in the United States, which had been growing in popularity as a solution for incarcerating inmates and as of 2017 housed over 121,000 inmates, has garnered a great deal of public criticism for its treatment of prisoners. In 2016, a report by the Department of Justice found that 14 private incarceration facilities had higher incidence of violence compared to federal-run prisons, and also said these prisons had substandard medical care and generally poor living conditions.\n\nThe largest private prison company in the country, Corrections Corporation of America, was included in the report. That same year, the DOJ announced it would no longer use private prisons. That October, CCA announced it would change its name to CoreCivic, likely in part to distance the company from the recent poor press.\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": "2020/01/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/20/media/netflix-prices-earnings-preview/index.html", "title": "Why Netflix is raising prices - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) Netflix is set to report fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday. Typically, Wall Street's eyes would be set squarely on the streamer's subscriber growth. But this time, there's something new for investors and industry observers to look at: Netflix's sales projections after it raised its prices.\n\nThe company boosted subscriber fees Friday, a move that raised its stock price -- and eyebrows -- across the streaming world.\n\n\"They clearly believe they still have the pricing power to do so and that they provide an exceptional value for the money,\" Andrew Hare, a senior vice president of research at media consulting firm Magid, told CNN Business.\n\nNetflix NFLX Hare believesunderstands that the US and Canadian markets are maturing and competition is fierce. So it's trying to offset its slower growth with higher subscription prices.\n\n\"Raising prices is just one lever they can continue to pull right now, though I'm not sure for how much longer,\" Hare said.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Frank Pallotta", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/01/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/07/18/atlantic-city-key-west-beach-towns-will-be-under-water-climate-change/39697819/", "title": "Atlantic City, Key West: Beach towns will soon be under water", "text": "John Harrington\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nThere are about 13,000 miles of coastline in the 48 contiguous United States, and by the end of the century, these contours will be greatly altered by climate change.\n\nBy the close of the 21st century, about 2.5 million properties worth $1.07 trillion, in cities and towns along the coastline will be at risk of chronic flooding, according to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy organization. Chronic flooding, as defined by the scientists group, means flooding that occurs 26 times a year or more.\n\n24/7 Tempo has identified the 21 beach towns in the United States that will soon be under water, based on data in the Union of Concerned Scientists report “Underwater: Rising Seas, Chronic Floods, and the Implications for US Coastal Real Estate.” Areas were ranked by the total number of homes that will be at risk of flooding by the year 2060.\n\n'Stranger Things':Season 3 may be Netflix's saving grace\n\nStreaming:Netflix just lost US paid subscribers for the first time in eight years\n\nRising waters will have far-reaching implications for the economy. Apart from the impact on financial and real estate markets, town infrastructure such as roads, bridges, power plants, airports, public buildings, military bases, would be at risk of more frequent inundation.\n\nChronic flooding also will have a social impact as well, as beloved destinations holding memories of boardwalk strolls, young romance, crashing ocean waves, and greasy summer food are inundated with rising waters and could become virtually unlivable.\n\nSome areas of the nation, such as coastal Louisiana and the eastern shore of Maryland, are already facing the reality of chronic flooding, according to the report.\n\n21. Ventnor City, New Jersey\n\n• Total population (2016): 10,505\n\n• Homes at risk: 3,615\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 46.2%\n\n• Value at risk: $850.0 million\n\nVentnor City, New Jersey, is a small beach resort about 4 miles south of Atlantic City. According to a report published in 2016 by Climate Central, an organization of scientists and journalists researching and reporting on the impact of changing climate, Ventnor City experienced 229 coastal flood days in the period from 2005 to 2014. That was more than twice as many coastal flood days as the previous 10-year period.\n\n20. Long Beach, California\n\n• Total population (2016): 469,793\n\n• Homes at risk: 3,710\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 19.8%\n\n• Value at risk: $2.50 billion\n\nLong Beach, California, about 25 miles south of Los Angeles, is the most populous city on this list of beach towns, with nearly 470,000 people. The city is developing its first plan to address climate change, the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. Long Beach had 60 coastal flood days over the 2005-2014 period, compared with 36 over the prior 10-year period, according to a Climate Central report published in 2016.\n\n19. Madeira Beach, Florida\n\n• Total population (2016): 4,343\n\n• Homes at risk: 3,723\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 29.1%\n\n• Value at risk: $1.23 billion\n\nMadeira Beach, Florida, is about 11 miles northwest of St. Petersburg on Florida's west coast. The area is no stranger to intense storms. One occurred in February of 2006 when between 8 and 11 inches of rain fell in about a five-hour period over a 5 mile-wide corridor from Madeira Beach northeast to west Tampa.\n\n18. Key Largo, Florida\n\n• Total population (2016): 10,024\n\n• Homes at risk: 3,775\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 36.4%\n\n• Value at risk: $2.17 billion\n\nKey Largo, Florida, just off the Florida mainland, is one of three of the Florida Keys on the list. Thirty of the 32 coastal flood days over the 2005-2014 period were driven by climate change, according to a report from Climate Central. Key Largo is one of the areas in Florida that is particularly at risk of water inundation, according to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists.\n\n17. Cudjoe Key, Florida\n\n• Total population (2016): 1,812\n\n• Homes at risk: 3,921\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 83.9%\n\n• Value at risk: $1.72 billion\n\nCudjoe Key is among the most westerly of the Florida keys and is one of the most vulnerable of the keys to rising waters from climate change, according to data from the Union of Concerned Scientists. The Florida Keys overall are the area in the United States most susceptible to climate change, according to research from the The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The region is also prone to hurricanes. More than 83% of the population in Cudjoe is at risk of rising waters.\n\n16. Lavallette, New Jersey\n\n• Total population (2016): 2,026\n\n• Homes at risk: 3,938\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 54.1%\n\n• Value at risk: $1.97 billion\n\nThis Ocean County resort community was devastated by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, one of many Jersey Shore towns damaged by the tempest. In an NJ.com story, David Robinson, a climatologist at Rutgers University, explains that ocean temperatures off the Jersey Shore are rising and that future storms that will strike the Jersey coast will increase in intensity.\n\n15. Margate City, New Jersey\n\n• Total population (2016): 6,250\n\n• Homes at risk: 3,970\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 55.7%\n\n• Value at risk: $1.90 billion\n\nMargate City, New Jersey, is located just south of Atlantic City. The resort community had 229 days of coastal flooding in the 10-year period from 2005 to 2014, more than double the number of coastal flood days from the previous 10-year period, according to a 2016 Climate Central study covered by the New York Times.\n\n14. Holmes Beach, Florida\n\n• Total population (2016): 4,119\n\n• Homes at risk: 3,978\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 66.0%\n\n• Value at risk: $1.67 billion\n\nHolmes Beach, Florida, is located about 19 miles north of Sarasota on Anna Maria Island on Florida's west coast. Town planners are addressing climate change by proposing to gradually raise city streets, build seawalls, and add more stormwater drains.\n\n13. St. Pete Beach, Florida\n\n• Total population (2016): 9,528\n\n• Homes at risk: 4,242\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 31.3%\n\n• Value at risk: $1.56 billion\n\nThe city of St. Pete Beach, Florida, is a barrier island community, located off the mainland of St. Petersburg. According to the city's website, nearly 28% of the residences in St. Pete Beach are owned by people claiming primary residence elsewhere. Climate Central said there is a 57% risk of at least one flood over 5 feet occurring at St. Pete Beach between today and 2050.\n\n12. Sea Isle City, New Jersey\n\n• Total population (2016): 1,905\n\n• Homes at risk: 4,266\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 61.8%\n\n• Value at risk: $2.55 billion\n\nSea Isle City, New Jersey, located in Cape May County in southern New Jersey, is a resort community whose summer population swells to 20 times the permanent population. It is one of the many Jersey coastal communities that was blasted by Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Currently, over 4,000 area homes are at risk of rising sea levels by 2060 if action is not taken.\n\n11. St. Petersburg, Florida\n\n• Total population (2016): 253,585\n\n• Homes at risk: 4,664\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 4.4%\n\n• Value at risk: $1.36 billion\n\nAccording to the St. Petersburg, Florida, website, the city is crafting plans to address climate change, including making stormwater and wastewater infrastructure improvements based on a projected sea level rise that is based on a tide gauge the city has used since 1946.\n\n10. Sunny Isles Beach, Florida\n\n• Total population (2016): 21,937\n\n• Homes at risk: 6,343\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 20.1%\n\n• Value at risk: $2.55 billion\n\nSunny Isles Beach, Florida, is located about 21 miles north of Miami and is one of nine Florida towns on this list. Climate Central predicts the resort town has a 73% risk of at least one flood over 3 feet taking place by 2050. In order to address climate change, the city has made stormwater improvements, purchased land for green space, and planted hundreds of trees, according to the website.\n\n9. Key West, Florida\n\n• Total population (2016): 26,039\n\n• Homes at risk: 6,921\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 36.7%\n\n• Value at risk: $3.33 billion\n\nKey West, Florida, is the southernmost point of the continental United States. It is known more for its snorkeling and scuba diving. With an average elevation of 4.7 feet above sea level, Key West is vulnerable to storm damage. Residents have learned to live with frequent flooding. A NOAA tidal measure in Key West has tallied an increase of 9 inches in sea level over the past century. To combat flooding, Key West has invested in one-way valves on storm drains to block seawaters from surging on to city streets.\n\n8. Atlantic City, New Jersey\n\n• Total population (2016): 39,306\n\n• Homes at risk: 7,055\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 34.5%\n\n• Value at risk: $1.05 billion\n\nIt's a good bet that Atlantic City, New Jersey, one of the East Coast's gambling meccas, will have flooding issues in the years to come. Nearly seven years ago, Superstorm Sandy shattered windows of casinos, forced residents to evacuate the city, and tore up the city's famed boardwalk. Climate Central predicts a 74% risk of at least one flood over 5 feet occurring between now and 2050 in the Atlantic City.\n\n7. Wildwood, New Jersey\n\n• Total population (2016): 5,192\n\n• Homes at risk: 8,109\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 33.8%\n\n• Value at risk: $2.38 billion\n\nWildwood, New Jersey, less than hour south of Atlantic City, is famed for its Doo Wop-era motels. It also suffered during Superstorm Sandy. A report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the New Jersey Back Bay region this past March said construction of seawalls in Wildwood and Sea Isle City, will \"manage risk for both high and low frequency events.\" Construction of those storm walls may protect some of the more than 8,000 area homes at high flood risk.\n\n6. Galveston, Texas\n\n• Total population (2016): 49,443\n\n• Homes at risk: 8,182\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 17.7%\n\n• Value at risk: $2.46 billion\n\nGalveston, Texas, is the site of the worst natural disaster in the nation's history, when in 1900, a hurricane swept over the city, killing 8,000 people. Galveston is about 51 miles southeast of downtown Houston, and the island city juts out into the Gulf Mexico. Climate Central projects a risk of 37% a flood of more than 9 feet will happen between now and 2050.\n\n5. Hilton Head Island, South Carolina\n\n• Total population (2016): 39,651\n\n• Homes at risk: 8,194\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 17.2%\n\n• Value at risk: $4.66 billion\n\nGolf haven Hilton Head, South Carolina, is at risk of soon going under water. Climate Central projects an 86% risk of at least one flood over 4 feet occurring between now and 2050. Over the 10-year period that ended in 2014, Hilton Head had 152 coastal flood days, compared with 115 for the previous 10-year span.\n\n4. North Beach Haven, New Jersey\n\n• Total population (2016): 2,250\n\n• Homes at risk: 10,293\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 57.5%\n\n• Value at risk: $7.78 billion\n\nNorth Beach Haven, New Jersey, is a resort town on Long Beach Island, a long, narrow strip of land. The town is about an hour north of Atlantic City. Superstorm Sandy tore apart houses and left piles of sand in the streets of North Beach Haven in 2012. Climate Central projects a 74% risk of at least one flood over 5 feet taking place between today and 2050.\n\n3. Ocean City, New Jersey\n\n• Total population (2016): 11,430\n\n• Homes at risk: 11,110\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 53.1%\n\n• Value at risk: $5.89 billion\n\nOcean City, New Jersey, located about a half-hour south of Atlantic City, touts itself as a family-friendly beach resort that is also a dry town, meaning no alcohol can be purchased there. Sea-level increases and frequent flooding episodes have cost the town about $530 million in lost property value over the period from 2005 to 2017, according to a study done by data science organization First Street Foundation and Columbia University.\n\n2. Ocean City, Maryland\n\n• Total population (2016): 7,041\n\n• Homes at risk: 11,478\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 34.9%\n\n• Value at risk: $2.90 billion\n\nAnother Ocean City on our list is Ocean City, Maryland, just south of Delaware. There is a 93% risk at least one flood over 5 feet will occur between today and 2050 in the Ocean City area, according to Climate Central. Maryland's Eastern Shore is one of the communities that is at higher risk of rising waters, according to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, which also notes that half or more of the usable land in Ocean City may be chronically inundated by 2100.\n\n1. Miami Beach, Florida\n\n• Total population (2016): 91,784\n\n• Homes at risk: 25,986\n\n• Pct. of total pop. in at risk homes: 36.1%\n\n• Value at risk: $16.63 billion\n\nMiami Beach, Florida, is the U.S. city most likely to soon be under water. The city has more people and more property at risk of rising water than any other American city on our list. Miami Beach will face chronic inundation by 2035, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Nearly 26,000 homes area are at risk of flooding by 2060.\n\nMethodology\n\nTo identify the beach towns that will soon be under water, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed ZIP-code level data on the value of property and the number of homes threatened by rising sea levels in 2060, which was then aggregated to the level of city and town. ZIP-code level data came from the Union of Concerned Scientists report “Underwater: Rising Seas, Chronic Floods, and the Implications for US Coastal Real Estate,” published in 2018. We also used data from Climate Central, an organization of concerned scientists and journalists reporting on the impact of climate change.\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": "2019/07/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/food-dining/2022/06/16/iron-chef-quest-iron-legend-netflix-whats-new/7642848001/", "title": "'Iron Chef': 5 crucial changes on Netflix's 'Quest for an Iron Legend'", "text": "After \"Iron Chef America\" ruled the Food Network for more than a dozen seasons, the famed cooking competition is back on Netflix.\n\n\"Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend\" is now streaming an 8-episode first season, shot in a new Los Angeles Kitchen Stadium with familiar basics – the show's elite Iron Chefs take on deadline cooking challenges against rival chefs with meals involving a secret ingredient announced by The Chairman (with actor Mark Dacascos reprising the role).\n\nBut there are noticeable \"Iron Legend\" changes that are \"quite significant and crucial,\" says returning host Alton Brown. \"But the show's DNA remains intact. This is evolution, not mutation.\"\n\nHere are the top five differences:\n\nMeet the new Iron Chefs: Who'll take on challengers in Kitchen Stadium\n\nNewcomer Kristen Kish brings competition pedigree\n\n\"Top Chef\" Season 10 winner Kristen Kish joins Brown as \"Iron Legend\" co-host, showing competition battle experience and interviewing the chefs on camera during the frenzied preparation. \"Kristen can go down on the floor and ask great questions and really get inside people's heads,\" says Brown. \"Then she comes back up and we can talk about it.\"\n\nIn another host twist, Brown and Kish join the show's judges – Nilou Motamed, Andrew Zimmern and one celebrity – at the judging table. \"There we can continue the conversation, maybe even steer it,\" says Brown.\n\nThe hosts still do not have competition votes.\n\nMORE:Alton Brown knows you hate his slow cooker lasagna, so he made a better recipe: 'I have atoned'\n\nIron Chefs are international Avengers protecting the trophy\n\nThe Iron Chef culinary caliber is high, loaded with global stars including Dominique Crenn, the first female U.S. chef to earn three Michelin stars. The five-member team is also notably international with Mexican-born Gabriela Cámara (one of Time's magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2020), Ethiopian-born Marcus Samuelsson and Australian-born \"Top Chef\" franchise chef Curtis Stone.\n\n\"East Meets West\" star chef Ming Tsai is the only American-born Iron Chef.\n\n\"It represents a global style and approach,\" says Brown. \"It's fresh. I'm seeing stuff I've never seen. That's saying something.\"\n\nThe Iron Chefs are chosen to battle challenging chefs in individual competitions. But a new wrinkle brings the series' highest-scoring challenger into a battle royale against all five chefs – who join forces Avengers-style. If the combined Iron Chef team is defeated in the finale, The Chairman gives up the new golden trophy to the victorious challenger.\n\nMORE: José Andrés 'cannot try to fix every problem,' but he can try to feed every person who needs hope\n\n\"It's the ultimate trophy. It's something only a man of extreme wealth could create,\" says Dacascos who calls the first-ever Iron Chef team battle \"monumental.\"\n\n\"If one lone challenger takes them down, shame, SHAME!\" says Dacascos. \"But if the challenger can pull it off, then respect. Until a challenger chef wins the trophy, it shall stand.\"\n\nBrown says the Iron Chefs team cooks its own palpable tension.\n\n\"As much as they want to act like a team, they're extremely competitive individuals,\" Brown says. \"It's a messy, big bowl of ego going on there.\"\n\nThe Los Angeles Kitchen Stadium is huge\n\nMoving from the tight New York City former quarters to Los Angeles has opened up the battle, now big enough to allow an audience. The size gives room for new cameras, more angles and requires more chef running room in the Kitchen Stadium.\n\nThere's also room for significantly more food piled for the chefs to grab as the clock starts after The Chairman introduces the secret ingredient – which now has its own secret chamber.\n\n\"We have much more ingredients on the altar which is now like the ingredient garage,\" says Brown. \"It allows larger thematic events and we can bring more food.\"\n\nNo commercials, more 'Iron Chef\n\nNetflix streaming means there's more \"Iron Chef,\" without commercials. The 46-minute shows are all cooking action and more discussion.\n\n\"We don't have to sign off, go to the commercial and then recap,\" says Brown. \"We go without interruption.\"\n\nThere's even time for filling out the story of the mysterious Chairman, who gets tearful over a spice in one episode. \"The show is wider and deeper, just like the tree, with deeper roots,\" says Dacascos.\n\nThe bald Chairman has turned it to 11\n\nMartial arts star Dascascos's Chairman originally started in the same stern, bombastic vein as the Chairman Karga (Takeshi Kaga) from the Japanese \"Iron Chef\" (which ran from 1993 to 2002).\n\n\"In the old days, Mark was very serious,\" says Brown. \"But he's managed to bring an absolutely lovable zaniness to The Chairman. And someone at Netflix told him to turn it to 11 now.\"\n\nThe eyes are wider, the martial arts moves more on display, his shouts quirkier. And the head is awesomely bald since Dascascos starred as the Keanu Reeves-fighting assassin Zero in \"John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum.\"\n\n\"I shaved it for 'John Wick' and didn't grow it back for 'Iron Chef' to be like Yul Brynner or Telly Savalas,\" says Dacascos. \"It's growing back now. If we get another season we'll see how The Chairman looks then.\"\n\nCheck out these recipes to up your kitchen game:", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/09/28/the-great-british-baking-show-season-8-review-quarantined/3559336001/", "title": "'The Great British Baking Show': New season is just absurd and bitter", "text": "For a certain segment of TV viewers who love all things quaint, British and baked, there is nothing as wonderful as new episodes of reality series \"The Great British Baking Show.\" It's especially needed in 2020, the year of unrelenting tragedy amid the COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters — returning to the darling white tent in the English countryside, where everyone is kind to each other and cakes are piled high, is a massive relief.\n\nSo it's unfortunate that the first quarantined episode of the series (streaming now on Netflix) continued the recent trend of throwing out the elements that made the show a phenomenon in the U.K. and a cult hit in the U.S., in favor of increasing Instagram-inspired absurdity. And it may be tough to make TV during the pandemic, but the judges, hosts and producers can't blame coronavirus for the problems. They're all self-inflicted.\n\nThe new season, numbered Season 8 on Netflix and Season 11 across the pond, has two major changes: The bakers remained in a \"bubble\" instead of returning home between weekends of filming, and co-host Sandi Tosvig has been replaced by British comedian Matt Lucas. Keeping the bakers at the tent for as long as they survive in the competition is actually more like standard American reality series like \"Top Chef\" or \"MasterChef.\" The \"Baking\" model meant even contestants with demanding jobs and personal lives could participate during their free time. But during the pandemic how we define free time and where we work has changed anyway.\n\nLucas was a strange choice for the hosting gig. Tosvig joined the series in 2017 with Noel Fielding, replacing the comedic duo of Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins. Fielding leans more towards the cringe and silly comedy while Tosvig provided warm, maternal energy for the bakers. Replacing her with Lucas, known for his own cringeworthy style, turns both hosts into a sideshow rather than reassuring emcees. In the first episode, his bits were more distracting than amusing.\n\nNew 2020 TV premieres:Here's when your favorite show returns, and your next addiction starts\n\nEverything coming to Netflix in October:From Adam Sandler's new movie to more 'Schitt's Creek'\n\nBut the real problem with the season premiere was the showstopper challenge, the third of three tasks the bakers are given over each episode. In recent years, particularly since the series jumped from public broadcaster BBC to for-profit Channel 4 in the U.K., the challenges have veered from simple-but-stunning classic cakes and pies to absurd \"biscuit selfies,\" \"naturally colored bread sculptures,\" and \"landscape desserts.\" The challenges feel like they're designed not for British teatimes but for Instagram likes. And, unfortunately, they can go very wrong.\n\nThis week's showstopper involved the bakers creating a cake in the shape of a bust of their favorite celebrity. Let's just be honest, this is a pretty stupid idea for a challenge. If you know anything about cake baking (and the devoted fans of this series absolutely do), you'll know that carving cakes is literally a recipe for bad cake. To retain an odd shape the cakes need to be firm and dry, which is not particularly palatable. To design a cake into a human face, excess amounts of fondant icing (a moldable and edible cake frosting that tastes awful) needed to be used. It wasn't a test of baking but of sculpting, and how many home bakers are champion sculptures of the human form? What does that have to do with baking something that tastes good?\n\nConsidering none of the bakers are professionals, the cakes just didn't look good, and most didn't taste very good, according to judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood. Watching the sloppy faces of what was meant to be Lupita Nyong'o or David Attenborough was more akin to watching Netflix's \"Nailed It!\" — a series devoted baking that's so bad it's hilarious — rather than \"Baking,\" which usually celebrates amateur excellence.\n\nIt was a poor start to the season, all the more disappointing, because the whole year of 2020 has been one big \"bad bake,\" to use the show's parlance. When the world is this tough we don't need Instagram cakes, we need the simplicity of \"Baking\" at its best. Producing TV in quarantine, with restrictions and safety regulations and isolation, is hard, but COVID isn't the reason \"Baking\" is failing. The flavor of the series is off, and it might never be quite as sweet again.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/09/28"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/14/media/netflix-raises-prices/index.html", "title": "Netflix is raising prices for its subscription plans in the US and ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) Your Netflix bill is about to go up again.\n\nThe streaming media company said Friday it is raising the prices on its plans in the United States and Canada.\n\nIn the United States, the subscription price for the standard plan rose $1.50 to $15.49. The basic plan went up $1 to $9.99 and the premium plan increased $2 to $19.99\n\nIn Canada, the price for Netflix's standard plan also went up $1.50 to $16.49 Canadian. The premium plan went up $2 to $20.99 Canadian. Its basic plan was unchanged.\n\nExplaining its decision, Netflix provided a statement to CNN that was identical to its comment from October 2020 , the last time it raised its prices.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Frank Pallotta", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/01/14"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/20/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html", "title": "Netflix's collapse is a warning sign for stocks - CNN", "text": "A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business' Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here . You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.\n\nLondon (CNN Business) Shares of Netflix ( NFLX ) are imploding after the company reported its first quarterly loss of subscribers in more than a decade, far underperforming expectations and worrying investors that had been betting that a handful of big tech companies would continue to grow at a rapid clip.\n\nWhat's happening: Netflix's stock dropped 30% when the market opened on Wednesday, instantly wiping more than $45 billion off the value of the company.\n\nNetflix said it shed 200,000 subscribers in the first three months of the year, when it had been expecting to add 2.5 million.\n\nThe streaming giant, whose stock had already dropped more than 40% year-to-date, blamed the attrition on increased competition for viewers and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nNetflix said its decision to pull out of Russia cost the company 700,000 subscribers. But the economy isn't helping, either.\n\nInflation is forcing households to reevaluate their budgets. People in Great Britain canceled about 1.5 million streaming subscriptions in the first three months of 2022. More than a third did so to save money, according to a new report by media consultancy Kantar.\n\n\"Food and energy are people's priorities right now, not watching 'Stranger Things,'\" CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson told me.\n\nNetflix signaled it could make big changes to its business as it tries to stem the bleeding. It's taking another look at how to address password sharing. CEO Reed Hastings also told analysts that the company will consider a lower-price subscription option with advertising.\n\n\"I've been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription,\" Hastings said Tuesday. \"But as much as I'm a fan of that, I'm a bigger fan of consumer choice.\"\n\nBig picture: Hewson said the stock plunge shows that Netflix was extremely overvalued, as investors — flush with cash during the pandemic recovery — fed a huge rally. Shares of Netflix rose 86% from the end of 2019 through 2021, while the S&P 500 climbed 48%.\n\n\"They were assuming people were going to be locked down forever,\" Hewson said, adding that unlike Apple and Amazon, Netflix doesn't have many alternative sources of revenue.\n\nClearly, the market mood has changed. The strong reaction could set the stage for another turbulent earnings season, with investors already on edge after disappointing results from the big banks.\n\nWhen companies reported fourth quarter results earlier this year, Netflix and Facebook experienced huge stock losses as investors signaled growing sensitivity to downbeat predictions for the future. That was because the Federal Reserve was set to start raising interest rates, a move that would weigh on high-growth companies. Facebook's disastrous results triggered the biggest loss in market value for an S&P 500 company on record.\n\nNow, rates are officially on the rise, and there's daily debate about whether the Fed could be even more aggressive than expected. The war in Ukraine is also dragging down sentiment. That could tee up big swings for top stocks as they disclose results.\n\nAttention turns to Tesla earnings\n\nInvestors have been spending a lot of time following CEO Elon Musk's ploy to buy Twitter. But come Wednesday evening, attention will turn back to a company he already controls.\n\nTesla TSLA reports first quarter results after markets close. Analysts have strong expectations, my CNN Business colleague Chris Isidore reports.\n\nThe electric carmaker's earnings are forecast to jump 142% from a year ago. Other traditional automakers, such as General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen are all expected to report a drop in earnings due to supply chain problems and production issues.\n\nWatch this space: Musk joined the call with analysts last quarter. Will he be on this time around?\n\nIf he isn't, that could feed Wall Street's worries that he's too busy trying to take Twitter private to deal with his management responsibilities. If Musk does dial in, there could still be risks, given his tendency to speak off the cuff.\n\nAnother point of focus will be lockdowns in China, which have affected Tesla's production in Shanghai. Credit Suisse analysts estimate that the recent shutdown there prevented the manufacture of 90,000 vehicles.\n\nShareholders will want to know if the plant can stay open given restrictions, and how suppliers of critical parts such as batteries are faring.\n\nInvestor insight: A lot is riding on Tesla's performance. Disappointing results could further disrupt a stock market that's already unsteady.\n\nGas prices are creeping higher again\n\nPrices at the pump have stopped falling from their recent highs — and some forecasters are warning of another uptick as the summer driving season looms and the war in Ukraine drags on, my CNN Business colleague Matt Egan reports.\n\nAfter a slow-but-steady decline, the national average price for regular gasoline bottomed out at $4.07 a gallon last week, according to AAA. Since then the national average has increased five days in a row , climbing to $4.11 a gallon on Wednesday.\n\nIt's the first increase in gas prices since early March, when turmoil in energy markets hit a crescendo following the invasion of Ukraine. And it dashes hopes that the national average would drop to $4 a gallon, taking pressure off inflation that's running at the fastest pace in 40 years.\n\n\"It isn't going down anymore,\" said Andy Lipow, president of consulting firm Lipow Oil. \"This is terrible news for inflation.\"\n\nPreviously, Lipow had been forecasting a return to $4 gas. But he abandoned that call because of renewed concerns about Russia's oil supplies and a pop in gasoline futures, a major driver of wholesale and retail prices.\n\nUp next\n\nProcter & Gamble PG SL Green Realty SLG Tesla TSLA Alcoa AA United Airlines UAL reports results before US markets open.andfollow after the close.\n\nAlso today: US existing home sales for March arrive at 10 a.m. ET.", "authors": ["Julia Horowitz", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/04/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/19/media/netflix-earnings/index.html", "title": "Netflix stock plunges after subscriber losses | CNN Business", "text": "After shares tanked earlier this year because of concerns over its subscriber growth, the streaming leader said that it lost subscribers when it reported first quarter earnings on Tuesday.\n\nnow has 221.6 million subscribers globally. It shed 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, the company reported on Tuesday, adding that it expects to lose another two million in the second quarter. The service was expected to add 2.5 million subscribers in the first three months of the year.\n\nNetflix's stock dropped 35% on Wednesday, instantly wiping $50 billion off the value of the company.\n\nNetflix's first quarter profit was $1.6 billion, down from $1.7 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue jumped nearly 10%, to $7.9 billion.\n\nIt cannot be overstated just how bad of a report this is for the king of streaming. The company's stock has fallen more than 40% year to date, and coming into the earnings there was a lot of concern from investors regarding its growth. The company hasn't lost subscribers in more than a decade.\n\nWhat happened?\n\nIn its letter to investors, the company said that since it launched streaming in 2007, the company has \"operated under the firm belief that internet-delivered, on demand entertainment will supplant linear TV,\" But, it added, in the near term \"we're not growing revenue as fast as we'd like.\"\n\nNetflix said that the pandemic \"clouded the picture by significantly increasing our growth in 2020, leading us to believe that most of our slowing growth in 2021 was due to the Covid pull forward.\"\n\nBut there are many different factors behind its subscriber stagnation, including competition from traditional media companies that have gotten into the streaming market in recent years, as well as widespread password sharing\n\n\"In addition to our 222 million paying households, we estimate that Netflix is being shared with over 100 million additional households, including over 30 million in the [United States/Canada] region,\" the company said.\n\nThe company also blamed \"macro factors\" that are affecting many companies right now, such as \"sluggish economic growth, increasing inflation, geopolitical events such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine , and some continued disruption from Covid are likely having an impact as well.\"\n\nNetflix said that pulling out of Russia cost the company 700,000 subscribers.\n\nThe company's bad report is likely to roil the streaming market given that so many other firms have changed their business strategies to compete with Netflix.\n\nDisney DIS , for example — one of Netflix's biggest rivals — was down roughly 5% Tuesday evening.\n\nWhat now?\n\nNetflix told investors Tuesday that it plans to turn the tide by doing what it's always done: Improving the service.\n\n\"Our plan is to reaccelerate our viewing and revenue growth by continuing to improve all aspects of Netflix — in particular the quality of our programming and recommendations, which is what our members value most,\" the company said.\n\nThe company added that it's \"doubling down on story development and creative excellence\" and that it launched the \"double thumbs up\" tool that will allow members to \"better express what they truly love versus simply like.\"\n\nNetflix also said it will focus more on \"how best to monetize sharing\" in terms of passwords.\n\n\"Sharing likely helped fuel our growth by getting more people using and enjoying Netflix. And we've always tried to make sharing within a member's household easy, with features like profiles and multiple streams,\" the company said. \"While these have been very popular, they've created confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared with other households.\"\n\nThe company said last month that over the last year, it's been working on ways to \"enable members who share outside their household to do so easily and securely, while also paying a bit more.\"\n\n\"While we won't be able to monetize all of it right now, we believe it's a large short- to mid-term opportunity,\" it said.\n\nAnother place that could help increase revenue and attract more subscribers for the service is advertising.\n\nNetflix CEO Reed Hastings has always been allergic to the idea of having commercials on the platform, but on Tuesday's call with analysts he mentioned that it could be a possibility in the future.\n\n\"Those who have followed Netflix know that I've been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription. But as much as I'm a fan of that, I'm a bigger fan of consumer choice,\" Hastings said on the post-earnings call. \"And allowing consumers who like to have a lower price, and are advertising tolerant, get what they want makes a lot of sense.\"\n\nHe added that the company is looking at that now and trying to figure it out \"over the next year or two.\"\n\n\"Think of us quite open to offering even lower prices with advertising,\" Hastings said.\n\nDespite the dramatic growth slowdown that puts its strategy into question, Netflix remained defiant.\n\n\"This focus on continuous improvement has served us well over the past 25 years,\" Netflix said. \"It's why we are now the largest subscription streaming service in the world on all key metrics: paid memberships, engagement, revenue and profit.\"\n\nCorrection: An earlier version of this article included an incorrect reference to fourth quarter earnings and misstated profit and revenue.", "authors": ["Frank Pallotta", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/04/19"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_1", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:19", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/13/world/coronavirus-newsletter-intl-07-13-22/index.html", "title": "BA.5: The 'worst variant' is here | CNN", "text": "This is the weekly edition of CNN's coronavirus newsletter. Look out for your roundup every Wednesday. If you haven't subscribed yet, sign up here\n\n(CNN) Nearly two-and-a-half years since the coronavirus pandemic began, the most infectious and transmissible variant yet has arrived.\n\nRepeated Covid-19 waves have left millions of people dead, with only vaccines helping to blunt the toll. Now the virus is spreading again — evolving, escaping immunity and driving an uptick in cases and hospitalizations. The latest version of its shape-shifting, BA.5, is a clear sign that the pandemic is far from over.\n\nThe newest offshoot of Omicron, along with a closely related variant, BA.4, are fueling a global surge in cases — 30% over the past fortnight, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).\n\nIn Europe , the Omicron subvariants are powering a spike in cases of about 25%, though Dr. Michael Ryan, the executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Program, has said that number may actually be higher, given the \"almost collapse in testing.\" BA.5 is on the march in China , ratcheting anxieties that major cities there may soon re-enforce strict lockdown measures that were only recently lifted. And the same variant has become the dominant strain in the United States, where it accounted for 65% of new infections last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).\n\n\"We have been watching this virus evolve rapidly. We've been planning and preparing for this moment. And the message that I want to get across to the American people is this: BA.5 is something we're closely monitoring, and most importantly, we know how to manage it,\" said Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House's Covid-19 response coordinator, in a news briefing on Tuesday.\n\nOn the same day, WHO's Emergency Committee said Covid-19 remained a Public Health Emergency of International Concern — its highest level of alert, first declared on January 20, 2020 — amid rising cases, ongoing viral mutation and increasing pressure on already overstretched health systems. In a statement, the committee, which is made up of independent experts, highlighted challenges to the ongoing global Covid-19 response, including a drop-off in testing and spotty genome sequencing, raising the question of just how accurately any nation might reasonably be able to monitor BA.5.\n\nOfficial data dramatically undercount the true number of infections in the US, epidemiologists say, leaving the nation with a critical blind spot as the most transmissible coronavirus variant yet takes hold. Some experts think there could be as many as 1 million new infections every day in the broader US population — 10 times higher than the official count.\n\nAs for how to manage the new wave, Jha urged Americans aged 50 and older to get second booster shots. Adults who are up to date with vaccinations are less likely to be hospitalized than those who are unvaccinated. But only about one in four adults in the US over 50 have gotten their recommended second boosters, data collected by the CDC show.\n\nUS health officials are urgently working on a plan to allow second Covid-19 boosters for all adults, a senior White House official confirmed to CNN on Monday, amid fears that younger adults' immunity may be waning as Covid-19 cases rise with the dominance of BA.5.\n\nWhat makes BA.5 different? Eric Topol, a cardiologist and professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, has called BA.5 Eric Topol, a cardiologist and professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, has called BA.5 \"the worst version of the virus we've seen.\" He explained in a recent newsletter: \"It takes immune escape, already extensive, to the next level, and, as a function of that, enhanced transmissibility,\" well beyond earlier versions of Omicron.\n\nIn other words, BA.5 can easily evade immunity from previous infections and vaccines, increasing the risk of reinfection. Though the variant does not appear to lead to more severe illness, in an interview with CNN on Monday, Topol said that given the extent of BA.5's immune evasion, he expects to see an escalation in hospitalizations, as we've seen in Europe and elsewhere that the variant has taken root. \"One good thing is it doesn't appear to be accompanied by the ICU admissions and the deaths as previous variants, but this is definitely concerning,\" he added.\n\nPublic health experts in the US may take some solace from the trajectory of the variant in Europe. WHO's Ryan said last week that while many European countries are experiencing a jump in hospitalizations, \"what we're not seeing is an increase in intensive care unit admissions, so the vaccines are very much still working and it is those gaps in immunity that are causing the problem.\"\n\nBut still, steep reductions in Covid-19 surveillance worldwide are hindering epidemiologists' efforts as they race to trace the virus' evolution.\n\n\"Sub-variants of Omicron, like BA.4 and BA.5, continue to drive waves of cases, hospitalization and death around the world,\" WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a media briefing on Tuesday. \"Surveillance has reduced significantly -- including testing and sequencing -- making it increasingly difficult to assess the impact of variants on transmission, disease characteristics, and the effectiveness of counter-measures.\"\n\n\"New waves of the virus demonstrate again that the Covid-19 [pandemic] is nowhere near over,\" he added.\n\nYOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED.\n\nQ: How should I protect myself amid the new Covid-19 wave?\n\nA: At this point in the pandemic, many people may not want to plan their lives around Covid-19 anymore — especially if they're generally healthy. On the other hand, those with underlying health conditions or who have concerns about long-haul symptoms are still trying to play it safe. Given just how contagious the new Omicron subvariants are, At this point in the pandemic, many people may not want to plan their lives around Covid-19 anymore — especially if they're generally healthy. On the other hand, those with underlying health conditions or who have concerns about long-haul symptoms are still trying to play it safe. Given just how contagious the new Omicron subvariants are, avoiding infection does require some planning and consideration , CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen explains.\n\n\"I don't think that most people should have to change their daily activities, but I do think people need to be aware of their risk of contracting Covid-19 if they don't take additional precautions,\" Wen said. The question to ask yourself, she added, is this: How much do I want to continue to avoid infection?\n\nFor individuals who want to reduce their risk, Wen advises that they stay up to date with their boosters (in the US, everyone age 5 and older can receive a first booster, and those 50 and older can receive a second booster for a total of four shots). She also recommends wearing a high-quality N95 mask or equivalent in indoor, crowded settings, and staying outside for large gatherings as much as possible — something easier to do in the summertime.\n\n\"For those who find masks uncomfortable, I'd encourage mask-wearing in the highest-risk settings — for example, mask while in a crowded security line at the airport and during boarding and deplaning,\" she said.\n\nSend your questions here . Are you a health care worker fighting Covid-19? Message us on WhatsApp about the challenges you're facing: +1 347-322-0415.\n\nREADS OF THE WEEK\n\nFirst Covid vaccine mandate enforced in mainland China\n\nBeijing last week announced a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for residents wanting to enter public venues, becoming the first city in mainland China to do so as it attempts to contain the spread of BA.5, Nectar Gan writes. Those who are \"not suitable\" for vaccination will be exempt from the requirement, a city official said, without clarifying how they can provide the proof needed for exemption.\n\nThe vaccine mandate comes as Beijing reported three cases of the highly contagious Omicron subvariant. Several Chinese cities have imposed new curbs after detecting BA.5. Shanghai, which only recently emerged from a two-month lockdown, identified its first case on Friday and will perform two rounds of Covid tests this week. An outbreak of BA.5 has already shut down the northwestern city of Xi'an , home to 13 million people, where entertainment, sports and religious venues have been closed, and restaurants limited to takeaway and delivery services.\n\nCasinos in the gambling hub of Macao were ordered to shut for the first time since February 2020 because of a Covid outbreak, sending shares of their operating companies plunging, and fears of new lockdowns in Shanghai undermined the broader China market. Chinese stocks remained under pressure after Monday's sell-off fueled by the threat of new Covid restrictions, especially the tech sector, Laura He reports.\n\nPeople stand in line at a coronavirus testing site in Beijing on July 4.\n\nDrug-resistant infections and deaths have risen among hospital patients\n\nThe US had made significant progress in fighting drug-resistant infections in recent years. But those gains were largely erased during the Covid-19 pandemic, with hospital-acquired infections and resulting deaths rising 15% in 2020, according to new data, Deidre McPhillips reports.\n\nA special report released Tuesday by the CDC found that more than 29,400 people died from antimicrobial-resistant infections in the first year of the pandemic — nearly 40% of those deaths were among people who got the infection while in the hospital. The full number is probably even higher, given that data for half of the 18 pathogens identified as threats are unavailable or delayed.\n\nWHO has called antimicrobial resistance a \"silent pandemic,\" and drug-resistant infections were linked to nearly 5 million deaths globally in 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic probably contributed to the increased risk in the US, particularly because many people delayed care or left infections untreated — either because of closed clinics or fear of exposing themselves to Covid-19 — which can increase the risk of developing drug resistance.\n\nPulse oximeters don't work as well for people of color\n\nOften when Dr. Thomas Valley sees a new patient in the intensive care unit at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor, he clamps a pulse oximeter on their finger — one of the many devices he uses to gauge their health and what course of care they require, whether they are a child having seizures, a teenage car accident victim or an older person with Covid-19.\n\nBut recently, Valley, an assistant professor in the University of Michigan's Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, realized that the small device may yield less accurate oxygen readings in patients with dark skin. If the device isn't calibrated correctly, the darker pigmentation can affect how the light is absorbed by the sensor, leading to flawed oxygen readings and patients being discharged when they shouldn't.\n\nThe findings of Valley and his colleagues add to a growing body of research -- dating back to the 1980s -- that suggests flawed pulse oximeter readings among Black and brown patients can be a real and life-threatening issue in medical care. But the public has only recently been made more aware of this health disparity, and US health officials have announced plans to investigate the accuracy of pulse oximeters , Jacqueline Howard reports.\n\nTOP TIP\n\nAdvice for anxious new moms\n\nEdith Bracho-Sanchez, director of pediatric telemedicine and assistant professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, didn't think she'd be an anxious mom. But that changed when she had her son. \"I stress over every decision I make for William. I make long pro and con lists, I discuss everything with my partner, sleep on things and ultimately, I pray,\" she wrote in a recent column for CNN.\n\nKnowing how difficult it is to make decisions — big and small — she said she understood why some parents might struggle with the choice to vaccinate their children against Covid-19. This is why she says she did it, and her advice to anxious new moms like her\n\nFirst, Covid-19 is an unpredictable illness. While most children have minor symptoms and recover well, many have landed in hospitals and emergency rooms, and to date, more than 400 children under the age of 5 have died from the illness in the US alone, according to the CDC. We also don't yet fully understand the long-term effects of the disease.\n\nSecond, I know the vaccine is in the body for a short period of time and with a specific mission. It instructs the body to make protective antibodies against Covid-19, and the body's own cellular mechanisms quickly break it down soon after. Because of this, there really is no plausible way it will interfere with my little William's development, something about which I am constantly thinking.\n\nLISTEN TO OUR PODCAST", "authors": ["Eliza Mackintosh"], "publish_date": "2022/07/13"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/us/five-things-july-8-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for July 8: Shinzo Abe, Parade shooting, 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\n(CNN) Summer travel is heating up, but understaffed airlines are struggling to avoid melting down. American Airlines this week agreed to pay its pilots triple their normal rate after thousands of flights were left without pilots . Several other major airlines are also offering salary increases for pilots who fly on peak days, as flight cancellations during holiday periods continue to be a regular occurrence.\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. Shinzo Abe\n\nFormer Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died at age 67 after being shot during a speech today in Nara, Japan, doctors who were treating him have confirmed. The shocking act of violence has rattled the country with one of the world's lowest rates of gun violence . Abe died from excessive bleeding and was pronounced dead at 5:03 p.m. local time, doctors at the Nara Medical University hospital said during a press conference. The doctors said the bullet that killed the former Japanese leader was \"deep enough to reach his heart\" and a team of 20 medical professionals was unable to stop the bleeding. Police have arrested a Nara resident in his 40s in relation to the shooting, public broadcaster NHK reported. Messages from world leaders , past and present, have flooded in, expressing condemnation of the shooting. Abe was the longest-serving Japanese Prime Minister in history.\n\n2. Parade shooting\n\nNew details have emerged describing the scene as a gunman opened fire during a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb where seven people were killed and dozens of others were wounded. Concealed on a rooftop, the gunman shot at paradegoers with a semi-automatic rifle, authorities said. His position made it difficult for officers to quickly find him when the parade turned to chaos, officials said. Separately, an 8-year-old boy who was attending the parade with his parents and twin brother was shot and is now paralyzed from the waist down , a family spokesperson told CNN. In a voluntary statement, the gunman admitted to authorities that he emptied two 30-round magazines before loading his weapon a third time and firing again. If convicted, he faces a life sentence in prison.\n\nJUST WATCHED Gunman's father claims no responsibility over shooting Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Gunman's father claims no responsibility over shooting 02:40\n\n3. Brittney Griner\n\nTwo-time US Olympic basketball gold medalist Brittney Griner has pleaded guilty to drug charges in a Russian court near Moscow, her lawyers confirmed to CNN on Thursday. Griner, whom the US State Department has classified as wrongfully detained, faces up to 10 years in prison under the charge. Supporters of the Phoenix Mercury player have called for her release over fears she is being used as a political pawn amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Griner's lawyers said they expect the court to take into account the 31-year-old athlete's guilty plea and hope for leniency. Griner was arrested on February 17 at a Moscow airport. Russian authorities claimed she had cannabis oil in her luggage. Her next hearing is set for July 14.\n\nJUST WATCHED Hear Brittney Griner plead guilty to drug charges in a Russian court Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Hear Brittney Griner plead guilty to drug charges in a Russian court 02:29\n\n4. Coronavirus\n\nAbout 300,000 children under the age of five in the US have received at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine since it was recommended by the CDC last month, a senior White House official told CNN on Thursday. This makes up about 2% of that age group -- a number the official says aligns with the Biden administration's expectations, though the number is lower than other age groups. \"We expected this to be a little bit slower even than 5 to 11, which was slower than 12 to 17, which was slower than adults. It's just kind of what we anticipated, and what we prepared for,\" the official said. Conversations with medical providers, according to the official, have been key to parents' decision-making more than any other effort by the White House to encourage vaccinations among this group.\n\n5. Heat wave\n\nThe third heat wave of the still-early summer is scorching the US South , and \"it will get worse... before it gets better,\" the National Weather Service said. Millions of people across more than a dozen states remain under heat alerts. Paired with uncomfortable high humidity, it will feel like 110 to 115 degrees in some places, forecasts show. Above-normal temperatures are forecast well into next week as well -- exceeding the average of four days. Dallas has already seen several days above 100 degrees and is expected to continue the trend through at least midweek, putting this stretch in the running for the city's longest consecutive 100-degree streak since 2011.\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nLas Vegas Raiders hire first Black female president in NFL history\n\nSandra Douglass Morgan has entered the chat. Meet the powerhouse executive who's breaking barriers throughout the league.\n\nPresident Biden awards Medal of Freedom to 17 recipients\n\nOlympic athletes Simone Biles and Megan Rapinoe were among the select few who received the nation's highest civilian honor on Thursday. See the rest of the impressive list here\n\n'Stranger Things' spinoff is in the works\n\nThe wildly popular Netflix show \"Stranger Things\" is coming to an end, but its upside-down stories will live on\n\nPringles wants a spider named after it\n\nPringles and spiders are probably two things you don't associate with each other -- until now. Trust me, it'll make sense once you see this photo\n\nA photographer cataloged all 12,795 items in her house\n\nGoing from room to room, a woman going through a divorce spent almost five years documenting every single object she owns. This is what she learned\n\nQUIZ TIME\n\nWhich iconic landmark is reportedly riddled with rust and badly in need of repairs?\n\nA. Eiffel Tower\n\nB. Golden Gate Bridge\n\nC. Taj Mahal\n\nD. Big Ben\n\nIN MEMORIAM\n\nJames Caan, the veteran screen actor known for his work in such films as \"The Godfather,\" \"Misery\" and \"Elf,\" has died, his family said on Thursday in a statement on his verified Twitter account. He was 82 . \"It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Jimmy on the evening of July 6,\" the statement read. \"The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.\" They did not disclose a cause of death.\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n21\n\nThat's how many years Derek Chauvin was sentenced to serve in federal prison on Thursday for depriving George Floyd of his civil rights. The former Minneapolis police officer briefly addressed Floyd's children in court. \"I wish them all the best in their life and that they'll have excellent guidance in the rest of their life,\" he said. Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd , attended the hearing and asked the court for the maximum sentence. The killing of Floyd in 2020, which was caught on video, sparked a national outcry over police brutality and a reckoning over racial justice in America.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"Ukrainians are not ready to give away their land, to accept that these territories belong to Russia. This is our land.\"\n\n-- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, telling CNN in , telling CNN in an exclusive interview on Thursday that Ukraine is unwilling to give up any of its land for peace with Russia. The war in Ukraine has now lasted for more than four months, with no sign of either side backing down soon . Last week, White House officials told CNN they are losing confidence Ukraine will ever be able to take back all of the land it has lost to Russia since the war began, even with the aid of heavier and more sophisticated weaponry that the US and its allies plan to provide Kyiv.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Heating up in the South while storms develop for parts of the Ohio Valley Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Heating up in the South while storms develop for parts of the Ohio Valley 02:51\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nIntricately dancing to orchestra music", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/07/08"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/12/us/five-things-july-12-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for July 12: Shinzo Abe, January 6, Gun laws, Covid ...", "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) A spot in the Southern California desert could hold the key to powering all of America's electric cars. It's called the Salton Sea -- but isn't really a sea at all. The toxic lake is the most abundant source of lithium on the planet, with enough to power all domestic EV car batteries for decades to come, energy experts say.\n\nHere's what else 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. Shinzo Abe\n\n2. January 6\n\nJUST WATCHED Reporter: This is why Bannon changed his mind about January 6 testimony Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Reporter: This is why Bannon changed his mind about January 6 testimony 02:43\n\n3. Gun laws\n\nPresident Joe Biden on Monday said gun violence has turned everyday places in America into \"killing fields\" as he marked the passage of the first significant federal gun safety legislation in 30 years. Biden said the package he signed into law last month represents \"an important start,\" but falls far short of what he and his party had advocated for to curb the alarming rate of shootings in the US. During his remarks, Biden was interrupted by Manuel Oliver , a father whose son was killed in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. \"You have to do more than that,\" Oliver yelled. As of today, there have been 333 mass shootings in the US since the beginning of the year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.\n\nJUST WATCHED Parkland victim's father interrupts Biden's speech celebrating new gun laws Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Parkland victim's father interrupts Biden's speech celebrating new gun laws 02:19\n\n4. Coronavirus\n\nUS health officials are urgently working on a plan to allow second Covid-19 boosters for all adults, a senior White House official confirmed to CNN. Second boosters have been authorized for adults 50 and older , as well as some people with weakened immune systems, since late March. But younger adults are eligible for only one booster shot, which was authorized in November. Some experts are concerned that younger adults' immunity may be waning as Covid-19 cases rise with the dominance of the BA.5 Omicron subvariant . The CDC reports that the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants constitute more than 70% of new infections in the country. And while these subvariants may partially escape the immunity produced by the vaccine and prior infection, vaccination still likely protects against severe illness.\n\n5. Sri Lanka\n\nThousands of protesters have stormed the homes of Sri Lanka's President and Prime Minister in recent days in fury over the nation's crippling economic crisis . The protesters have succeeded in forcing the leaders to resign, but refuse to leave the luxury houses until both of them have vacated their roles. Striking images show protesters sprawled on a bed in the presidential palace and barbecuing food on the property. But the most dramatic footage showed protesters swimming in the President's private pool . It remains unclear how Sri Lanka will overcome rising food costs, fuel shortages and electricity cuts as the country struggles to make debt repayments.\n\nJUST WATCHED Video shows protesters occupying Sri Lanka's presidential palace Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Video shows protesters occupying Sri Lanka's presidential palace 02:11\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nElon Musk said \"humanity will reach Mars in your lifetime\"\n\nA tomb linked to King Arthur is being excavated for the first time\n\nArchaeologists are excavating this 5,000-year-old tomb named in honor of the mythical medieval king.\n\nMiles Teller says he's down to do another 'Top Gun' movie if Tom Cruise gives the green light\n\nMaverick, we're counting on you! On behalf of millions of fans, another \"Top Gun\" would be a total treat. Am I right? Or am I right?\n\nK-pop group BTS is coming to Disney+ in a major streaming deal\n\nThe battle of the streaming platforms rages on. In one corner, Disney is aiming to knock out Netflix by attracting legions of BTS fans around the world.\n\nThis is the deepest view of the universe ever captured\n\nCheck out this groundbreaking image of distant galaxies captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n33%\n\nThat's President Joe Biden's approval rating according to a new poll, leading to increased speculation about his prospects for reelection . The nationwide survey conducted by the New York Times/Siena College comes as Democratic officials and party leaders have begun to doubt that Biden is their strongest candidate to beat former President Donald Trump -- or another GOP candidate -- in 2024. But a challenge requires a challenger, and all the Democrats being discussed as potential primary opponents to Biden tell CNN they are ruling out runs\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care -- including abortion care.\"\n\n-- HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, the country's top health official, saying the Biden administration , the country's top health official, saying the Biden administration expects providers to continue offering abortion services , despite laws that strictly limit the procedure after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade . In the clarifying guidance announced Monday, Becerra said that the federal government can penalize institutions or providers that fail to provide abortions as needed to treat medical emergencies.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Heat remains in the South as severe storms hit the Northeast Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Heat remains in the South as severe storms hit the Northeast 02:39\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nCat Needs His Own Cat-uccino To Begin His Day", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/10/us/five-things-may-10-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for May 10: Ukraine, Manhunt, Philippines, Stocks ...", "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) High winds and extreme heat are fueling dangerous wildfires across the Southwest. Four states -- New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Texas -- are battling a dozen large fires that have already burned more than 320,000 acres, and triple-digit temperatures are only making matters worse.\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. Ukraine\n\n2. Inmate escape\n\nThe nationwide search for a former Alabama corrections officer and the inmate she disappeared with ended yesterday when Vicky White died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound , officials said. Vicky White, 56, and Casey White, 38, were captured in Evansville, Indiana, following a car chase with authorities who tracked them down following a tip that came from the public. The chase ended when a US Marshals task force member drove a vehicle into the car the pair were in. Officers were able to remove the inmate from the wrecked car, but Vicky White was pinned inside with a gunshot wound to her head. Casey White reportedly told authorities to help \"his wife\" who had shot herself and told them he didn't do it. The pair's capture brought to a close a lengthy manhunt that gained widespread attention.\n\nJUST WATCHED Escaped Alabama inmate caught after chase Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Escaped Alabama inmate caught after chase 01:34\n\n3. Philippines election\n\nFerdinand Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the late dictator, is on the cusp of winning the Philippines presidential election by a landslide, preliminary and unofficial results show. With more than 95% of the votes counted, Marcos Jr. has about 30 million votes, more than double that of his closest rival, the outgoing Vice President Leni Robredo, according to a partial and unofficial tally reported by CNN Philippines . Official results, however, could take weeks to be confirmed. Known as \"Bongbong\" in the Philippines, Marcos Jr.'s win would return the Marcos dynasty to the Malacañang Palace 36 years after the family fled a mass uprising. His father's 21-year rule was marked by human rights abuses and widespread corruption.\n\nJUST WATCHED Torture survivor has a warning ahead of Philippines' presidential election Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Torture survivor has a warning ahead of Philippines' presidential election 04:04\n\n4. Stocks tumble\n\nUS stocks fell sharply yesterday , pushing the S&P 500 below the 4,000 mark for the first time in more than a year as traders anticipate a new load of bad news on inflation and earnings. The Dow fell about 654 points, or nearly 2%. The S&P 500 dropped 3.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite lost about 4.3%. The moves follow an incredibly volatile week on Wall Street and marks the fifth straight week of losses for all three major US stock indexes. \"I've been in the markets for 25 years and I've never seen anything like this,\" said Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO and chief strategist for Quill Intelligence, a Wall Street and Federal Reserve research firm. \"It's violent not just volatile.\"\n\n5. Resort deaths\n\nThree Americans died of unknown causes at a Sandals resort on the Bahamas' Great Exuma island Friday. Officials are conducting autopsies to learn more about how the travelers -- two from Tennessee and one from Florida -- died over the course of one evening. A fourth American, the wife of the Floridian who died, was airlifted to the nation's capital of Nassau for further treatment before being transferred stateside. No signs of trauma were found on the bodies, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a statement to CNN, and the circumstances remain under police investigation.\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nWarhol portrait fetches a record $195 million\n\nGoing, going, gone! One of Andy Warhol's most recognizable works just became the most expensive 20th-century artwork ever sold at auction.\n\nAnthony Anderson celebrates graduation from Howard University\n\nIt's never too late. The \"Black-ish\" actor, who is 51, credited his son for encouraging him to go back to school\n\nTony Awards nominations announced\n\nBravo! These Broadway productions received the most nods this year.\n\nPrince Harry shows off his acting skills in new video\n\nMs. Markle, spill the tea! Did you give your husband some acting tips\n\nTop 10 hotels in the world and the US for 2022, according to Tripadvisor\n\nCalories don't count when you're on vacation, right? Imagine all of the incredible cuisine options at the world's best hotels\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n2.2 million\n\nThat's how many barrels per day of crude oil will be cut off to Europe if the EU bans Russian oil imports , according to the International Energy Agency. As Europe tries to wean itself off Russia's oil, Middle Eastern nations appear to be the only producers with enough capacity to compensate for the shortfall. Oil analysts, however, caution that the region may not be able to come to Europe's rescue\n\nMeanwhile in the Middle East, a free newsletter from our experts across the region. Three times a week we'll send you an inside look at the biggest stories and trends in the Middle East and what they mean for your world. CNN has launched, a free newsletter from our experts across the region. Three times a week we'll send you an inside look at the biggest stories and trends in the Middle East and what they mean for your world. Sign up here!\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"The lake has drained dramatically over the last 15 years. It's likely that we will find additional bodies that have been dumped in Lake Mead.\"\n\n-- Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Homicide Lt. Ray Spencer, commenting on the discovery of body in a barrel in Lake Mead earlier this month. commenting on the discovery of body in a barrel in Lake Mead earlier this month. More human remains were found over the weekend in the country's largest reservoir. Around 40 million people in the West rely on water from the Colorado River and its two largest reservoirs -- Lake Mead and Lake Powell -- where levels have plunged over the past few years amid a climate change-fueled megadrought.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Fire risk remains across the Southwest as the Central US deals with record heat Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Fire risk remains across the Southwest as the Central US deals with record heat 01:58\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nWindow cleaner creates logos on soapy glass", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/05/10"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/24/us/five-things-march-24-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for March 24: Ukraine, SCOTUS, Covid-19, Capital ...", "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) Home should always be your happy place, but with rents surging in several popular cities, some say it's getting uncomfortable -- and downright frustrating -- to live comfortably. In February, the national median rent was up 17% from a year ago, according to a new report , marking the seventh-straight month of rents soaring by double-digit percentages.\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. Ukraine\n\nPresident Joe Biden is set to gather with world leaders in Brussels for emergency summits to respond to the war in Ukraine. Announcements on new sanctions, NATO force posture and military assistance are all expected at the sessions today , according to US and European officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly asked for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, but US and NATO officials have said that option is not on the table because it would risk provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin and spark a wider war with Russia. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told CNN that Putin has still not achieved his goal in Ukraine, which is to eliminate the country's military potential. Separately, Russia partially reopened its stock market today after a monthlong closure and investors took part in a highly restricted trading session. The White House, however, called the market reopening a \"charade.\"\n\n2. Supreme Court\n\nSupreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson concluded her two days of questioning late yesterday, having spent about 22 hours this week being grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Throughout the hearings, Jackson has defended her experience and credentials as she faced criticism from Republican senators on her judicial philosophy and legal record. No Democratic senators have signaled they will oppose Jackson, but many Republican senators are expected to oppose the nomination . The Senate Judiciary Committee is poised to vote on Judge Jackson's Supreme Court nomination on Monday, April 4. In a 50-50 Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris would be the tiebreaker to put Jackson on the high court.\n\nJUST WATCHED Ketanji Brown Jackson chokes up delivering message to youth Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Ketanji Brown Jackson chokes up delivering message to youth 03:29\n\n3. Coronavirus\n\nThe CEOs of 10 airlines and cargo carriers are urging Biden to end mask mandates and Covid-19 testing requirements for international travelers. In a letter to the presiden t, the CEOs argue that federal travel restrictions -- including international predeparture testing and the federal mask mandate -- \"are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment.\" Earlier this month, the White House moved the end of the transportation mask mandate to April 18 and said government agencies would consult with the CDC to determine if the mandate could expire sooner. The CEOs of Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Atlas Air Worldwide, Delta Air Lines, FedEx Express, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and UPS Airlines all signed the letter.\n\n4. Capitol riot\n\nMore than 80 officials from law enforcement and federal agencies have testified before the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Investigators believe this will be the most extensive review yet of security failures that led to the massive breach. While much of what the Democrat-led committee has made public so far has centered around the plotting by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election, aides and lawmakers say this behind-the-scenes review might lead to the bulk of their legislative recommendations and have the most lasting impact. At the same time, Republicans have launched their own investigation into security lapses on January 6, 2021 , and plan to release their own recommendations.\n\n5. Royal tour\n\nBritain's Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are on a weeklong royal tour of the Caribbean , having arrived Tuesday hours after protests were held calling on the monarchy to apologize and pay reparations for its historical role in the slave trade. Prince William and Kate are visiting Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas for a series of engagements to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's platinum jubilee year , marking 70 years on the throne. However, protests have overshadowed the trip and a royal engagement was canceled amid reported opposition from local residents. Britain and Jamaica's relationship stretches back centuries. The island was seized by the British in 1655 and remained under its rule until it gained independence in 1962 but has stayed under the Queen as head of state. The majority of Jamaicans are of African ancestry and are the descendants of slaves trafficked to the country by European colonists.\n\nJUST WATCHED Prince William and Kate face protests in Jamaica during royal tour Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Prince William and Kate face protests in Jamaica during royal tour 01:46\n\nIN MEMORIAM\n\nMadeleine Albright , the first female US secretary of state and who helped steer Western foreign policy in the aftermath of the Cold War, has died. She was 84 years old. The cause was cancer, her family confirmed in a statement. Albright was a central figure in President Bill Clinton's administration, first serving as US ambassador to the United Nations before becoming the nation's top diplomat in his second term. Biden paid tribute to Albright in a lengthy statement yesterday, calling her a \"force.\" He also ordered flags at the White House and all federal buildings to be flown at half-staff in Albright's honor.\n\nJUST WATCHED Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright dies at 84 Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright dies at 84 04:16\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nAdidas plans to take over college sports, sign endorsement deals with up to 50,000 student athletes\n\nInteresting play call, Adidas. Instead of scrambling to nab deals with the highest-profile players, why not sign them all\n\nA dinosaur bigger than T. rex swam and hunted its prey underwater\n\nArizona is the first state to accept digital driver's licenses on iPhones\n\nIt's a complicated process, but Apple is working to make the feature available in several other states as soon as possible.\n\nDNA tests reveal Dug the giant potato is not, in fact, a potato\n\nMackenzie Scott has given $3.8 billion to 465 organizations since June\n\nThe billionaire philanthropist, and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, now has an estimated net worth of $55 billion even after the sizable donations\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n$6.02\n\nThat's how much a gallon of gas currently costs in Los Angeles County , according to AAA. California gas prices continue to spike even as the national average has been falling -- slowly but steadily -- for the last two weeks. Prices have also crossed the $6 mark in a few mostly rural California counties, while other areas such as San Diego, San Francisco, Orange and Ventura counties, are within pennies of $6 a gallon.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but I finally started talking to a therapist after Indian Wells.\"\n\n-- Professional tennis player Naomi Osaka, referencing when she was , referencing when she was heckled by a fan at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, on March 12. Last year, Osaka also withdrew from The French Open after opting not to speak to the media at the grand slam event, citing her mental health. When asked by a reporter why this was the moment she decided to talk to someone , Osaka said it was because her sister was concerned for her.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Cold air moves into the East as severe storm threat wraps up Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Cold air moves into the East as severe storm threat wraps up 02:05\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nToilet paper challenge", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/03/24"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/23/us/five-things-may-23-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for May 23: Biden in Asia, Ukraine, Baby formula ...", "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) The megarich are getting richer. A new billionaire was minted nearly every day during the pandemic, according to a new report . At the same time, data shows growing levels of inequality and rising food prices could push as many as 263 million people into extreme poverty this year.\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. Biden in Asia\n\nOn his first trip to Asia since taking office, President Joe Biden said today that the United States would respond militarily if China tries to take Taiwan by force. \"That's the commitment we made,\" he told reporters in Tokyo. The President's statement caught several of his top administration officials off guard, CNN was told by multiple aides. However, this is not the first time Biden has gone further than longstanding US public policy toward the self-governing island. The US provides Taiwan defensive weapons, but has remained intentionally ambiguous on whether it would intervene militarily in the event of a Chinese attack. Following Biden's remarks, the White House issued a statement that said the US' official position remained unchanged.\n\n2. Ukraine\n\nTomorrow marks three months since Russia launched its assault on Ukraine. Since then, a staggering 8 million people in the country have been displaced, the UN Refugee Agency said today. Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a \"historic\" joint customs control with Poland yesterday, stressing \"unity of Ukrainians and Poles is a constant that no one will break.\" Zelensky also signed a decree introducing a new award to thank cities of partner countries that have helped Ukraine the most -- and the Polish city of Rzeszow became the first to be added to the list. On the ground, tensions remain high and Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Saturday he has ruled out a ceasefire with Russia , emphasizing Kyiv would not accept any deal with Moscow that involved ceding territory.\n\n3. Baby formula\n\nA shipment of 35 tons of baby formula arrived yesterday in Indiana on a US military aircraft from Germany to address the nationwide shortage -- but none of it will land on store shelves in the US, a Biden administration official told CNN. The recent batch of formula is a specialized prescription and will be fed to babies intolerant of protein in cow milk, the official said. The shipment will provide enough formula for 9,000 babies and 18,000 toddlers for one week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. As for more upcoming shipments, the White House announced yesterday that additional flights to import formula from abroad will \"take place in the coming days.\" Biden announced Operation Fly Formula last week. His administration said the total amount of formula in the first round equals up to 1.5 million doses of eight-ounce bottles.\n\n4. Brooklyn Half Marathon\n\nA 32-year-old runner died Saturday after finishing a half marathon in Brooklyn where 15 others were injured, officials said. The marathoner was found unconscious, lying on the pavement, having collapsed after crossing the finish line just before 9 a.m. in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach neighborhood, an NYPD detective said. An official cause and manner of death have not been released. The runner immediately received attention from on-site medical staff, but was pronounced dead at the hospital approximately 45 minutes later, officials said. Fifteen other individuals were transported to local hospitals from the race and at least four were in serious condition. During the marathon, temperatures ranged from the low 60s to the high 70s Fahrenheit and the relative humidity was between 96% and 97%, according to the National Weather Service\n\n5. Gas prices\n\nThe White House is exploring the possibility of tapping into an emergency diesel reserve to ease the spike in gas prices, a senior White House official said. The emergency declaration under consideration would enable President Biden to release diesel from a rarely used stockpile , but the reserve is relatively small and will only serve as a temporary solution to buy time. The national average price for diesel stood at $5.56 a gallon as of yesterday, just shy of the record of $5.58 set last week, according to AAA . Diesel is a vital fuel for the US economy, powering not only farm and construction equipment but the trucks, trains and boats that move goods across the country. Skyrocketing diesel prices often get passed down to consumers.\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\n'SNL' says goodbye to Kate McKinnon and Pete Davidson\n\n\"Saturday Night Live\" closed out its 47th season with a funny, yet emotional episode. Grab a tissue... your eyes may get a little sweaty when you watch their goodbye moments\n\nJustin Thomas wins 2022 PGA Championship\n\nAnother tee-rific victory for 29-year-old golf star Justin Thomas . If you ask me, he's the best by par.\n\nManchester City produces stunning comeback to secure English Premier League title\n\nThat game goes down in history as one of the most exciting championship Sundays EVER . Talk about a dramatic ending!\n\nNetflix released the first 8 chilling minutes of 'Stranger Things'\n\nSeason 4 will air in two parts with the first seven episodes dropping this Friday . Oh, the suspense.\n\nA Wisconsin couple survived after a bear charged through their window and attacked them\n\nPanic mode: activated. What would you do in this heart-racing situation\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n100\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"Maybe I would've died. But psychologically, they never would've broken me.\"\n\n-- Trevor Reed, recounting the horrifying conditions of his detention in Russia, as well as the prisoner swap that ended a nearly three-year ordeal for him and his family. Reed, an American citizen and former Marine, was sentenced to nine years in prison in July 2020 after being accused of endangering the \"life and health\" of Russian police officers in an altercation the previous year. He and his family have denied the charges against him. In his first television interview since returning to the United States, Reed told CNN he's feeling a little better each day since coming home less than a month ago.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Summer-like temperatures for California as severe storms hit western Texas Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Summer-like temperatures for California as severe storms hit western Texas 01:31\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nRise and shine, Monday is calling you", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/05/23"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/03/us/five-things-june-3-trnd?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_newsbreak", "title": "5 things to know for June 3: Gun violence, Ukraine, Tulsa shooting ...", "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) Right now is the youngest you'll ever be again... or is it? Scientists at Harvard Medical School have successfully reversed aging in mice . Now, their goal is to do the same for humans.\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. Gun violence\n\nIn a passionate address to the nation yesterday, President Joe Biden called for stricter gun laws -- including a ban on assault weapons, tougher background check laws and a higher minimum age of purchase if lawmakers cannot agree on an outright ban. His plea to lawmakers comes as many Americans remain rattled by the recent deadly mass shootings in Oklahoma Texas and New York . \"How much more carnage are we willing to accept?\" Biden asked during his speech, demanding Republicans end their blockade of gun control votes. Both Biden and his advisers have suggested they have exhausted their options on executive action to address guns. In Congress, the House Judiciary Committee approved a wide-ranging bill that would likely pass the Democratic-controlled House but wouldn't overcome a Republican-led filibuster in the Senate.\n\n2. Ukraine\n\nAfter 100 days of war, about 20% of Ukraine's territory is now under Russian control, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday, adding that the Donbas region is \"almost entirely destroyed.\" About 800 people, including some children, are hiding in several bomb shelters underneath a chemical factory in Severodonetsk, which has been targeted by Russian missile attacks, the head of Luhansk region military administration said. Those in hiding are locals who were asked to leave the city but refused. Separately, the US military's hacking unit confirms it has conducted offensive cyber operations in support of Ukraine and to potentially deter Russia from conducting cyberattacks against US infrastructure.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'A huge problem': Retired colonel identifies danger area for Ukraine's military Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'A huge problem': Retired colonel identifies danger area for Ukraine's military 02:18\n\n3. Tulsa shooting\n\nThe gunman who killed two doctors and two others at an Oklahoma medical building Wednesday did so after he blamed one of the physicians for causing him pain from a recent back surgery, a police chief said yesterday. Earlier that afternoon before the rampage, the shooter purchased an AR-15 style rifle used in the slaughter, city Police Chief Wendell Franklin said. He killed himself after the shooting, Franklin added. Officials also found a letter on the shooter that \"made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill [the physician] and anyone who got in his way .\" The Tulsa shooting is one of the 233 mass shootings in the US this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.\n\nJUST WATCHED Tulsa gunman bought assault-style weapon the day of shooting Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Tulsa gunman bought assault-style weapon the day of shooting 02:45\n\n4. January 6\n\nDuring the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows received a series of urgent pleas from Republicans who believed then-President Donald Trump had the power to stop the violence. One of the key questions the House select committee is expected to raise during high-profile hearings next week is why Trump failed to publicly condemn the attack for hours, and whether that failure is proof of \" dereliction of duty \" and evidence that Trump tried to obstruct Congress' certification of the 2020 election. CNN obtained the 2,319 text messages that Meadows selectively handed over to the January 6 committee in December before he stopped cooperating with the investigation.\n\nJUST WATCHED Reporter follows up with people who texted Meadows on Jan. 6. Here's what they said Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Reporter follows up with people who texted Meadows on Jan. 6. Here's what they said 04:03\n\n5. Coronavirus\n\nCovid-19 shots for kids under 5 could begin in the US as soon as June 21 , the White House said yesterday. The vaccination program for the youngest Americans would come more than 18 months after vaccines were first authorized for adults. Despite some reluctance from parents , White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha expects \"the vast majority\" of kids will be vaccinated by their primary care providers. The good news, Jha said, is the US has \"plenty of supply\" of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to start the vaccination program for kids younger than 5, and 10 million additional doses would be made available for states, pharmacies, community health centers and federal entities to order starting today.\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\n14-year-old wins Scripps National Spelling Bee after a historic spell-off\n\nC-o-n-g-r-a-t-u-l-a-t-i-o-n-s are in order for Harini Logan\n\nAn opossum wanders into a bar... and gets tossed out\n\nLeBron James is now a billionaire\n\nA rare, 5-planet alignment will take over the sky\n\nCalling all stargazers. Look up this weekend for a stellar sight in the night sky\n\nChristie's to offer rare first edition 'Harry Potter' book in private sale\n\nThe auction house is inviting offers starting from $250,000 . Let me guess what you're thinking... \"Maybe I have copy hidden on a shelf somewhere.\"\n\nQUIZ TIME\n\nQueen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving monarch in Britain's history, is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee this weekend. How many years has she been on the throne?\n\nA. 30\n\nB. 40\n\nC. 50\n\nD. 70\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n2035\n\nThat's the year Americans will stop receiving their full Social Security benefits -- which help support payouts for the elderly, survivors and disabled -- if lawmakers don't act to address the pending shortfall, according to a new report released yesterday by the Social Security and Medicare trustees. Among the changes Congress could make to improve the solvency of Social Security would be to raise revenues by one-third, cut costs by one-quarter, or some combination of the two, said Stephen Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"We have not yet seen how bad this energy crisis is going to get.\"\n\n-- Former Obama energy adviser Jason Bordoff, on the world careening toward a , on the world careening toward a 1970s-style energy crisis -- or worse. Already, gasoline prices in the US have surged by 52% over the past year to record highs, angering the public and contributing to the nation's inflation crisis. Prices for natural gas, a vital fuel for heating homes and powering the electric grid, have also nearly tripled over the past year.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Tropical system forecast to bring flooding rains to Florida Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Tropical system forecast to bring flooding rains to Florida 02:35\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nChoir surprises travelers with sky-high performance", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/06/03"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/18/us/five-things-april-18-trnd/index.html", "title": "5 things to know for April 18: Ukraine, Gun violence, Taxes, North ...", "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) In just a few hours, more than 30,000 people will lace up their shoes and run in the 126th Boston Marathon . Several previous champions and Olympic medalists are pumped to join the race -- but not everyone is happy. Despite qualifying, 63 runners living in Russia or Belarus were banned from participating in the marathon due to Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.\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. Ukraine\n\nFollowing a weekend of heavy shelling and a slew of new missile strikes across the country, Ukrainian forces are rejecting Russia's demands to surrender in Mariupol . The besieged southeastern port city has been surrounded by Russian forces since March 1, but Ukrainian troops trapped in the city are holding out against Russia's unrelenting onslaught despite overwhelming odds. \"There are still our military forces, our soldiers, so they will fight until the end and as for now they are still in Mariupol,\" Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said yesterday on ABC News' \"This Week.\" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also told CNN that Ukraine is not willing to give up territory in the eastern part of the country to end the war with Russia. This comes as Ukraine continues to suffer horrific civilian casualties . At least 191 children have been killed since the start of the Russian invasion, according to Ukrainian prosecutors , with hundreds of others injured.\n\n2. Gun violence\n\n3. Taxes\n\nToday is tax day and the IRS expects you to submit your 2021 return by the end of the day or file for an automatic six-month extension. If you are among the many who have put off doing your taxes until the last possible moment, don't worry -- we can help you through the process here. Some important things to remember: If you've worked remotely from a state other than the one where your employer is based, you could be subject to the income tax rules of two or more states. If you have one or more children, you should also see if you can claim the enhanced child tax credit , which could be worth hundreds -- if not thousands -- of dollars. And lastly, be patient. The IRS is dealing with millions of returns from last year that have yet to be processed, in addition to staffing issues due to Covid-19 and a lack of needed funding for the agency. If you find you need last-minute help, use the online tools provided on IRS.gov.\n\n4. North Korea\n\nImages published yesterday by North Korean state media showed the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, smiling and clapping as he observed his country fire projectiles into waters off the east of the Korean Peninsula . The weapons test was the country's 12th such test this year -- and a move South Korea and Japan consider extremely threatening. Immediately after the launch, South Korea's military, intelligence agencies and National Security Office held an emergency meeting to assess the situation and discuss countermeasures, according to a Joint Chiefs of Staff statement. North Korea has increased its missile tests this year, including the launch of its first intercontinental ballistic missile in more than four years on March 24, in defiance of international law.\n\n5. Hates crimes\n\nHate crimes in New York City have increased 76% so far this year compared to the same period last year, according to data from the New York Police Department Hate Crimes Task Force. With a total of 194 hate crimes reported since the beginning of this year, New York City is experiencing a wave in violent crime incidents and homelessness, Mayor Eric Adams said, particularly within the subway system. Crime incidents targeted at Jewish people increased from 28 crimes last year to 86 so far in 2022, according to the data. Crimes against Black people also doubled, with the number of targeted incidents this year standing at 26 compared to 13 in the same time period last year. Hate crimes against Asians , however, were down -- with 47 last year and 32 in the same period this year, the data show.\n\nBREAKFAST BROWSE\n\nThe White House Easter Egg Roll is today\n\nParty at the White House! Thousands of guests, who won tickets via a public lottery, will pour through the south gates today for an epic Easter egg hunt.\n\nFlorida man watches 'Spider-Man' movie 292 times, setting world record\n\nWith great power comes great responsibility. Let's see how many lines from the movie he can recite!\n\nBillie Eilish headlines Coachella\n\nOnce you listen to \"Ocean Eyes\" by Billie Eilish, you'll understand why she was named a headliner . Three words: Pure. Raw. Talent.\n\nLet's talk about Coachella fashion\n\nThe festival is back with stellar performances... but some not-so-stellar outfits. Let's leave the boho-chic outfits and flower crowns at home next year, please.\n\nThe oldest known gorilla in the world just turned 65\n\nCheck out this gorilla celebrating her golden years . Cheers to more life!\n\nTODAY'S NUMBER\n\n54\n\nThat's how many new math textbooks the state of Florida has rejected from next year's school curriculum , citing references to critical race theory among reasons for the rejections. The Florida Department of Education said the list of rejected books makes up approximately 41% of submissions, which is the most in the state's history.\n\nTODAY'S QUOTE\n\n\"Tunisia will determine the losses and will demand compensation.\"\n\n-- Laila Chikaoui, Tunisia's environment minister, on the possible environmental damage caused by a merchant ship carrying up to 1,000 tons of oil that , Tunisia's environment minister, on the possible environmental damage caused by a merchant ship carrying up to 1,000 tons of oil that sank in Tunisian waters over the weekend. On Saturday, Tunisian authorities opened an investigation into the sinking, which the environment ministry said was caused by bad weather. The ministry said barriers would be set up to limit the spread of the fuel.\n\nTODAY'S WEATHER\n\nJUST WATCHED Rain and cold air for the Northeast as multiple storms bring drought relief to the West Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Rain and cold air for the Northeast as multiple storms bring drought relief to the West 02:12\n\nAND FINALLY\n\nStart your day with fresh fruit", "authors": ["Alexandra Meeks"], "publish_date": "2022/04/18"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/12/19/omicron-variant-doubling-covid-updates/8952895002/", "title": "Fauci warns omicron variant 'raging through the world': COVID ...", "text": "Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker have tested positive for COVID-19 in breakthrough cases, they each announced on Twitter Sunday.\n\n\"I regularly test for COVID & while I tested negative earlier this week, today I tested positive with a breakthrough case. Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated & boosted,\" Warren wrote.\n\nBooker tweeted: \"I learned today that I tested positive for COVID-19 after first feeling symptoms on Saturday. My symptoms are relatively mild. I’m beyond grateful to have received two doses of vaccine and, more recently, a booster – I’m certain that without them I would be doing much worse.\"\n\nThe senators from Massachusetts and New Jersey have both been vocal proponents of the COVID-19 vaccine in Washington. Warren lost her older brother to the virus in May 2020.\n\nThe democrats are just two of several senators who have tested positive for COVID despite being fully vaccinated, including Lindsay Graham, R-SC and John Hickenlooper, D-Colo.\n\nWarren and Booker's positive tests come amid a rise of COVID-19 cases across the nation and the omicron variant, which Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, said has an \"extraordinary capability of spreading.\"\n\nOmicron has been identified in 43 U.S. states and 89 countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization.\n\nAlso in the news:\n\n►Israel’s prime minister on Sunday called on parents to vaccinate their children against the coronavirus as the new omicron variant showed signs of spreading, while authorities prepared to expand a travel ban to include the United States.\n\n►For the third day in a row, New York surpassed its all-time record of COVID-19 cases, totaling 22,478, according to New York City Councilmember Mark D. Levine.\n\n►Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine for children 2 to 5 may not be available until the second quarter of 2022, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, after trials suggested two doses weren't as effective against COVID-19 and children may require three doses.\n\n►The NBA on Sunday postponed a total of five games involving nine teams in response to rising coronavirus numbers. Called off were three Sunday games: Cleveland at Atlanta, Denver at Brooklyn and New Orleans at Philadelphia. Also called off were Orlando's game at Toronto on Monday and Washington's game at Brooklyn on Tuesday.\n\n►State Sen. Doug Ericksen, a staunch conservative and former leader of Donald Trump's campaign in Washington state, died Friday at age 52. Ericksen’s death came weeks after he said he had tested positive for COVID-19 while in El Salvador, though his cause of death wasn’t immediately released.\n\n►The National Football League announced new revised COVID-19 protocols on Saturday, after an outbreak on several teams caused three games to be postponed. The protocols include a more targeted testing plan, more flexibility to have virtual meetings and a chance for a high-risk player to opt out for the rest of the season.\n\n►Employers will be given more time to comply with a federal requirement that workers get vaccinated for COVID-19 or be regularly tested, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Saturday after a federal appeals court allowed the rule to go forward.\n\n►Saturday Night Live canceled its live studio audience for its last show of the year \"out of an abundance of caution\" because of the spike in omicron cases in New York. Rising cases have also caused cancellations of performances from the Rockettes to Broadway shows.\n\n📈Today's numbers: The U.S. has recorded more than 50.7 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 806,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Global totals: More than 274.3 million cases and 5.3 million deaths. More than 203.7 million Americans – 61.4% of the population – are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.\n\n📘 What we're reading: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines over Johnson & Johnson. What does that mean for you? Read the full story.\n\nKeep refreshing this page for the latest news. Want more? Sign up for USA TODAY's free Coronavirus Watch newsletter to receive updates directly to your inbox and join our Facebook group\n\nDr. Fauci warns omicron variant 'raging through the world'\n\nDr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, said Sunday that the omicron variant of the coronavirus is “raging through the world” and could possibly replace the highly transmissible delta variant as the dominant strain.\n\nThe variant has been detected in 89 countries, according to the World Health Organization, and COVID-19 cases involving omicron are doubling every 1.5 to 3 days in places with community transmission.\n\n“The one thing that’s very clear – and there’s no doubt about this – is it’s extraordinary capability of spreading,” Fauci said in an interview with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press Sunday. \"It is just raging through the world.\"\n\nThe delta variant makes up more than 96% of coronavirus cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But omicron is quickly gaining ground, making up nearly 3% of total U.S. cases. Fauci said in certain parts of the country the omicron variant is found in about 50% of sequenced cases.\n\n“When you have a doubling time that’s that short a period, pretty soon that isolate is going to take over,\" he said. “I would not be surprised if omicron bumped delta off the table.”\n\nLeading COVID drugs may not work as well against omicron, doctors warn\n\nDoctors are warning two standard drugs they’ve used to fight infections are unlikely to work against the omicron variant.\n\nFor more than a year antibody drugs from Regeneron and Eli Lilly have been the go-to treatments for early COVID-19, thanks to their ability to head off severe disease and keep patients out of the hospital.\n\nBut both drugmakers recently warned that laboratory testing suggests their therapies will be much less potent against omicron, which contains dozens of mutations that make it harder for antibodies to attack the virus. And while the companies say they can quickly develop new omicron-targeting antibodies, those aren’t expected to launch for at least several months.\n\n“We’re certainly going to see hospitalizations rise,” said Dr. James Cutrell of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. “If we have a lack of antibodies that’s certainly going to contribute to that many more patients needing to be in the hospital.”\n\nA third antibody from British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline appears to be the best positioned to fight omicron. But Glaxo’s drug is not widely available in the U.S., accounting for a small portion of the millions of doses purchased and distributed by the federal government. U.S. health officials are now rationing scarce drug supplies to states.\n\nBiden to announce new steps in addressing COVID, omicron this winter\n\nAs Americans prepare for the upcoming holiday festivities, the White House braces for another possible winter surge in COVID-19 cases brought on by family gatherings, travel and the highly transmissible delta and omicron variants.\n\nPresident Joe Biden plans to speak Tuesday on the status of the fight against COVID-19 and discuss government help for communities in need of assistance, White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted. The president will also warn about the risks for unvaccinated Americans.\n\nFauci told NBC the president would again urge people to get the booster shot, highlight increased availability of testing, discuss “surge teams” for besieged hospitals and explain how important it is to provide vaccines for the rest of the world.\n\n\"If we're going to deal with omicron successfully, vaccinated people need to get boosted,\" he said. \"And obviously, people who are not vaccinated clearly need to get vaccinated now more than ever.\"\n\n44 people test positive for COVID on Royal Caribbean cruise\n\nForty-four people on board Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas cruise that ended Saturday tested positive for COVID-19, the cruise line said.\n\nThe cruise line also notified passengers on that sailing and on two others that a passenger who sailed on that ship during an earlier itinerary tested positive for the omicron variant.\n\nLyan Sierra-Caro, spokesperson for Royal Caribbean, told USA TODAY late Saturday each person was quarantined quickly.\n\n\"They were found as a result of immediately identifying close contacts after a guest tested positive,\" she said. \"Everyone who tested positive is asymptomatic, and we continually monitored their health. Six guests were disembarked earlier in the cruise and transported home. The remaining guests received assistance today upon our arrival.\"\n\nAll passengers age 12 and older were required to be fully vaccinated and to test negative to board the cruise which departed from Miami on Dec. 11. Children ineligible for the vaccine were required to test negative, too.\n\n– Morgan Hines, USA TODAY\n\nLatest surge in New York City cases isn't swamping hospitals, so far\n\nSoaring COVID-19 case numbers, long testing lines and event cancellations might feel a bit like déjà vu, but so far New York City hospitals aren’t seeing a repeat of the surges that swamped emergency rooms early in the pandemic.\n\nThe state reported Saturday that nearly 22,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday – eclipsing the previous day’s mark for the highest single-day total for new cases since testing became widely available. More than half of the positive results were in the city.\n\nBut new hospitalizations and deaths – so far – are averaging well below their spring 2020 peak and even where they were this time last year, during a winter wave that came as vaccinations were just beginning, city data shows.\n\nAt least so far, “we’re seeing a lot more treat-and-release” coronavirus patients than in earlier waves, Dr. Eric Legome, who oversees two of Mount Sinai Health System’s emergency rooms, said.\n\nFlorida is now a 'high transmission' state as cases double over a week\n\nCOVID-19 cases across Florida more than doubled over the course of a week, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health on Friday.\n\nFrom Dec. 10 to Dec. 16, Florida had 29,568 COVID-19 cases and 134.6 cases per 100,000; the week prior, Florida had 13,530 COVID-19 cases and 61.6 cases per 100,000. This makes for an increase of 16,038 COVID-19 cases and 73 cases per 100,000 in the span of one week.\n\nThe increase in the new case positivity rate saw parallel increases: From Dec. 10 to Dec. 16, Florida had a case positivity rate of 5.4%, up 2.8% from the previous week.\n\nThe increase in cases coincides with the highly-contagious omicron’s arrival in the Sunshine State. Wastewater sampling in Orange County found the omicron variant that has swept other parts of the globe to be the main strain of COVID-19 found in the county’s sewage samples.\n\n– Amira Sweilem, Florida Today\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/12/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/12/21/covid-omicron-not-march-2020/8967351002/", "title": "Omicron has overtaken delta in the US. But it's not all bad news.", "text": "Although details about the omicron variant are sketchy, a picture is starting to emerge – and it's not all bad news.\n\nAs the omicron variant sweeps across the world and pushes out the delta variant that preceded it, scientists rush to understand how it might change the coronavirus pandemic, entering its third year.\n\nOmicron is highly contagious – roughly twice as contagious as delta and four times more than the original virus.\n\nExperts worry that even if it's less virulent, which isn't clear, it could cause enough hospitalizations to overwhelm health care systems here and abroad.\n\nThe latest COVID-19 updates in your inbox:Sign up for Coronavirus Watch here.\n\nBut this is not 2020. Back then, only a handful of people on Earth had been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. Everyone's immune system was unprepared.\n\nToday, the majority of Americans have either contracted COVID-19 or been vaccinated once, twice or three times against it. That should – though there are no hard numbers to confirm it – provide people protection against severe disease and death.\n\n\"I think we should reassure people that if they've been vaccinated with two doses or naturally infected, they're likely protected against serious illness,\" said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatric infectious disease expert and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.\n\nWhat's not clear is how people who have never been vaccinated or contracted COVID-19, or whose protection has waned, will fare if they catch omicron.\n\nAn experiment in hamsters, which should see results as soon as Tuesday, will provide the first indication of how people far from an infection or vaccination may fare if they are infected, said Galit Alter, an immunologist and virologist at Harvard Medical School and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard.\n\nMore vaccinated or previously infected people are contracting omicron than they did earlier variants, data shows. Vaccinated people, and perhaps those who've already been infected, are probably less likely to pass the virus to others.\n\nIt's still the unvaccinated and unprotected who are providing opportunity for the pandemic to continue, Offit said.\n\n\"You have a critical percentage of the population who are unvaccinated and shedding this virus,\" he said.\n\nSouth Africa's experience\n\nData out of South Africa, where omicron hit early and which has tracked cases carefully, is incomplete but encouraging.\n\nThere, hospitalization rates are much lower than in previous waves of infection, and the people hospitalized are not as sick as those infected with the beta or delta variants, said Salim Abdool Karim, a South African epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist and member of the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness.\n\nOnly 2% to 4% of infected people are ending up in hospitals, compared with about 20% during the beta and delta waves, Karim said. Before, two-thirds of those hospitalized had severe cases; now about one-quarter meet that criteria. Death rates are one-tenth as high as they were with previous variants.\n\n\"The clinical picture we are seeing is one of substantially less severe disease,\" he said.\n\nKarim said he doesn't have information on how many hospitalized patients had been previously infected or vaccinated, though he expects to get that soon.\n\nAnecdotally, Karim said, \"there's a preponderance of unvaccinated\" in hospitals, probably about 75% of patients. \"Is it more severe in that group? What's the picture? I can't tell at this point because I don't have that data.\"\n\nThe department of public health in South Africa decided people exposed to an infected person but not infected themselves do not have to quarantine.\n\nKarim said he recommended his government reinstitute mandates to minimize crowds. Officials didn't take his advice. But the general public has followed with their feet.\n\n\"Theaters are empty. Restaurants are half-empty with just a handful of people,\" he said. \"People have come to that conclusion themselves. … Indoor gatherings? No. No.\"\n\nOmicron is more contagious than other variants, he said: There were 35,000 to 45,000 cases in South Africa in the first month of the beta and delta waves and 133,000 cases in the first month of omicron.\n\nDenmark has seen similarly high rates of transmissibility and low rates of serious disease.\n\nUnlike other variants, which slowly made their way from country to country, omicron is exploding around the world simultaneously, said Jacob Lemieux, an infectious diseases staff physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.\n\n\"In prior waves, we had a few weeks to watch what was happening in Western Europe and other places to know what we were in store for,\" he said. Not this time. \"We're not going to have the luxury of watching what's going to unfold in our country elsewhere in advance.\"\n\nThe US outbreak\n\nAlthough it's still early days in the American experience with omicron, the variant has overtaken delta in the USA. As of Saturday, the omicron variant accounted for 73.2 % of new COVID-19 infections in the nation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported, up from 12.6% the previous week.\n\n\"It's clear we're now waist-deep in the omicron wave,\" Lemieux said. \"The question is how severe is it going to be?\"\n\nIt may follow South Africa's pattern that the majority of people get nothing worse than a bad head cold. Or it may cause more hospitalizations, particularly among those who have waning or no protection, potentially overwhelming the health care system, which was already dealing with a wave of delta infections, he said.\n\nAt Texas Children’s Hospital, doctors are waiting to confirm how many cases are omicron versus delta, but pediatric COVID-19 hospitalization rates have more than doubled in four days, and the number of patients is in the double-digits.\n\nThe rate of positive tests jumped from well below 5% five days ago to 15% Monday, according to James Versalovic, co-chair of the Texas Children’s Hospital COVID-19 Command and the hospital’s pathologist-in-chief.\n\n“These are signals that tell us we have a surge beginning,” Versalovic said. “Every indication now is pointing in the same direction.”\n\nIt’s not clear whether children will react differently to omicron than they did to delta. Nor does the hospital know the vaccination status of the children over 5 (vaccinations are not authorized for those younger than 5), their parents’ vaccination status or whether any of the children was previously infected with COVID-19, he said.\n\nDr. Eric Topol, of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said he hears anecdotal descriptions that omicron infections differ from delta. People don't appear to be losing their smell or taste the way they did with earlier variants.\n\nIf true, that would be extremely good news, Topol said, because it would mean this variant isn't entering the brain and would take off the table the risk of neurological problems.\n\nOmicron appears not to get into the lung cells, according to studies from Hong Kong and the U.K. \"That was the most distinguishing feature (of COVID-19) until now,\" Topol said, and the reason it caused so much lung damage. \"I know of a few people who had really high fevers (with omicron),\" he said. \"No one's had pneumonia.\"\n\nLooking ahead\n\nWhat will happen with the virus remains uncertain.\n\n\"The virology community is kind of split 50-50 on whether this creature has big surprises in store for us or whether we've seen most of what it can do,\" Dr. Jeremy Luban, another member of the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, said Monday.\n\nHe and others were surprised to see how many differences omicron has from its predecessor variants – without any obvious intermediate changes. \"The virus may be doing things that are not under our magnifying glass and we can't actually see,\" he said.\n\nIt may have given up some of its ability to cause harm when it became more transmissible, Luban said.\n\nEventually, a variant will become so dominant that no other will be able to outcompete it and the pace of change will slow down, Karim said. Some experts thought delta had reached that point. He expects there are several variants left to come.\n\nUntil then, and to combat the lingering uncertainties of omicron, everyone should get vaccinated and boosted, wear masks, open windows and avoid crowds, he and others said.\n\n\"We've learned the same lesson again and again,\" Luban said. \"The virus is transmitted in enclosed spaces with lots of people congregating. And masks work.\"\n\nContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.\n\nHealth and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/12/21"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_2", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:19", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/asia/sri-lanka-crisis-rajapaksa-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Sri Lanka is in chaos and its president has fled. Here's what we ...", "text": "(CNN) Sri Lanka has plunged into chaos and its president has fled to Singapore, before emailing his resignation, as questions swirl about the country's future.\n\nEmbattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore on a flight from Maldives on Thursday, according to a high-ranking security source in Colombo. He had been in Maldives for just over 24 hours after fleeing Sri Lanka's commercial capital on Wednesday -- the same day he was meant to resign after he pledged to step down following huge protests against his rule at the weekend.\n\nSingapore confirmed that Rajapaksa had landed and been allowed to enter the country on a \"private visit\" but had not asked for or been granted asylum.\n\nRajapaksa then tendered his resignation in a letter sent by email to parliamentary speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardenena, according to the speaker's office, though the office also cautioned \"we cannot accept such an email at face value.\"\n\nHere's what we know.\n\nSri Lankan protesters chant slogans after taking control of the Prime Minister's office in Colombo on July 13.\n\nWhere is the president?\n\nRajapaksa had been expected to resign on Wednesday, clearing the way for new leadership. Instead he and his wife boarded a military plane in the early hours of Wednesday and fled from Colombo to Maldives.\n\nThe plane had been refused permission to land in Maldives until former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed -- now speaker of the Maldivian Parliament -- intervened, according to a high-ranking security official. A spokesperson for Nasheed did not confirm or deny the intervention.\n\nMaldives and Sri Lanka are close neighbors -- the Maldivian capital Male is just a 90-minute flight from Colombo. And Nasheed and the Rajapaksas have a history of cooperation. In 2012, amid anti-government protests in the Maldives, Nasheed and his wife sought political shelter in Sri Lanka, then led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the current president's brother.\n\nThe Maldivian government didn't confirm Rajapaksa's presence in the country, but Sri Lankans living in Maldives took to the streets of Male anyway on Wednesday to protest his reported arrival.\n\nPhotos from the Maldives capital show a crowd of people holding the Sri Lanka flag, and signs reading: \"Throw him out here\" and \"Dear Maldivian friends, please urge your government not to safeguard criminals.\"\n\nSri Lankans living in Maldives stage a demonstration in Male on July 13.\n\nOn Thursday, Rajapaksa left Maldives for the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore, a senior military source familiar with the matter told CNN. The president left on a \"Saudi flight,\" the source said.\n\nCNN believes the source was referring to Saudia flight 788, which left Male at 11:30 a.m. local time Thursday. Saudia is the flag carrier of Saudi Arabia. CNN has reached out to Saudia but has not heard back.\n\nRajapaksa landed in Singapore later on Thursday, and its Foreign Ministry released a statement that read: \"It is confirmed that Mr. Rajapaksa has been allowed entry into Singapore on a private visit. He has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted any asylum. Singapore generally does not grant requests for asylum.\"\n\nA Saudia airline Boeing 787 Dreamliner believed to be carrying Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrives at Changi Airport in Singapore on July 14.\n\nIs Rajapaksa still the president?\n\nSri Lanka's parliamentary speaker, Abeywardenena, has received an email with Rajapaksa's resignation, the speaker's office confirmed to CNN Thursday, but added that the \"legality of it needs to be ascertained.\"\n\nIt has been shared with the relevant authorities for the verification of the same,\" the office said. \"Once we have official confirmation and it is legally verified, we hope to make a statement regarding it tomorrow [Friday] morning.\"\n\nAbeywardenena's office added that it is expecting to receive a paper copy of the letter, but that would take longer as it would be sent from Singapore.\n\nRajapaksa's resignation would only be considered official once the speaker receives a letter of resignation, according to the country's constitution.\n\nA new president was set to be elected on July 20 after the resumption of parliament on July 16 -- though that timeline is now on hold.\n\nRajapaksa's departure is a historic moment for the island nation, which his family had ruled with an iron fist for much of the past two decades before losing the faith of their once adoring citizens.\n\nSri Lankan protesters occupy the prime minister's office in Colombo on July 13.\n\nWhat's going on with the protests?\n\nColombo appeared calm on Thursday after several days of escalating protests, with a curfew declared from noon until 5 a.m. on Friday.\n\nLast weekend's demonstrations were among the most dramatic seen so far, with protesters setting fire to Wickremesinghe's private residence in an affluent neighborhood, and swimming in Rajapaksa's private pool.\n\nOn Wednesday, hundreds of demonstrators broke into the compound of the prime minister's office in Colombo following a standoff with armed police. Protesters also entered the premises of state broadcaster Sri Lanka Rupavahini.\n\nA protester runs for cover from a tear gas canister during a protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 13.\n\nPhotos from Wednesday show crowds of protesters crammed into the prime minister's office, waving the Sri Lankan flag and singing. Some flooded out onto the balconies and flung open windows, raising their fists at the crowd gathered below.\n\nPolice responded with tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds. Photos show protesters covering their faces with face masks, bandannas and plastic goggles; some picked up tear gas canisters to throw back toward police.\n\nAt least 75 people were injured during the protests Wednesday, according to the National Hospital in Colombo. Many people were brought in due to tear gas inhalation, others with cuts and bruises likely from trying to jump over fences, according to a nurse at the hospital.\n\nOne police officer was seriously injured during the protests Wednesday and was rushed to hospital where he was receiving treatment, Sri Lankan police said Thursday. An army sergeant was also injured in scuffles with protesters, police added.\n\nDuring this incident, protesters took a T-56 rifle and two clips of live ammunition, containing 60 rounds each, police said. Police were looking for the service weapon and ammunition to bring it back into police custody.\n\nAs the demonstrations escalated, Wickremesinghe's office declared a state of emergency -- later canceled -- and a nighttime curfew. He also appointed a committee of senior armed forces commanders to coordinate ground troops across Sri Lanka, and to \"restore law and order.\"\n\nWhat caused the crisis?\n\nSri Lanka, located just off the coast of India, has been rocked by ongoing protests for months over its worst financial crisis in seven decades.\n\nThe country's foreign exchange reserves plummeted to record lows, with dollars running out to pay for essential imports including food, medicine and fuel -- leaving millions unable to feed their families, fuel their cars or access basic medicine.\n\nFrequent and largely peaceful protests have been held since March, with rising public anger over food costs, electricity cuts, and the government's handling of the crisis. Protesters have demanded the resignations of both Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe.\n\nThe crisis has been years in the making, said experts, who point to a series of government decisions that compounded external shocks.\n\nOver the past decade, the Sri Lankan government has borrowed vast sums of money from foreign lenders to fund public services, said Murtaza Jafferjee, chair of Colombo-based think tank Advocata Institute.\n\nThis borrowing spree coincided with a series of blows to the Sri Lankan economy, from both natural disasters like monsoons and man-made catastrophes, including a government ban on chemical fertilizers that decimated farmers' harvests.\n\nFacing a massive deficit, Rajapaksa slashed taxes in a doomed attempt to stimulate the economy. But the move backfired, instead hitting government revenue. That prompted rating agencies to downgrade Sri Lanka to near default levels, meaning the country lost access to overseas markets.\n\nSri Lanka then had to fall back on its foreign exchange reserves to pay off government debt, shrinking its reserves. This impacted imports of fuel and other essentials, which sent prices soaring.\n\nTopping all that, the government in March floated the Sri Lankan rupee -- meaning its price was determined based on the demand and supply of foreign exchange markets. However, the plunging of the rupee against the US dollar only made things worse for ordinary Sri Lankans.", "authors": ["Jessie Yeung"], "publish_date": "2022/07/14"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/02/asia/sri-lanka-economic-crisis-protests-intl-hnk-dst/index.html", "title": "Sri Lanka is in an economic crisis. Here's what it's like for people on ...", "text": "Colombo, Sri Lanka (CNN) For three straight nights last week, Upul took to the streets of Sri Lanka's capital city holding a candle or a placard as he protested the country's worst economic crisis in decades.\n\nLike his neighbors, he was frustrated by the more than 10-hour power cuts that plunged Colombo into darkness, and a shortage of gas to cook with that made it hard for his family to eat.\n\nThen on Thursday -- the fourth night -- the protest turned violent.\n\nFurious demonstrators hurled bricks and started fires outside Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's private residence, as police used tear gas and water cannons to break up the protests.\n\n\"People were visibly angry, shouting,\" said Upul, who asked only to be referred to by his last name for fear of repercussions. \"Earlier (in the week) they demanded the President to step down, (on Thursday) they were yelling and calling him names.\"\n\nProtesters take cover as police use tear gas to disperse them during a protest outside the Sri Lankan President's home on March 31, 2022.\n\nFor weeks, Sri Lanka has been battling its worst economic crisis since the island nation gained independence in 1948, leaving food, fuel, gas and medicine in short supply, and sending the cost of basic goods skyrocketing.\n\nShops have been forced to close because they can't run fridges, air conditioners or fans, and soldiers are stationed at gas stations to calm customers, who line-up for hours in the searing heat to fill their tanks. Some people have even died waiting.\n\nBut Thursday night marked an escalation in Sri Lanka's ongoing economic crisis.\n\nFollowing the protests, the police imposed a curfew and the President ordered a nationwide public emergency , giving authorities powers to detain people without a warrant. On Saturday evening, Sri Lanka declared a nationwide 36-hour curfew, effectively barring protests planned on Sunday -- but protests went ahead Saturday anyway. In a statement Sunday, police said they had arrested 664 people for violating the curfew.\n\nMeanwhile, the government is seeking financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and turning to regional powers that may be able to help.\n\nBut there is brewing fury inside Sri Lanka -- and experts warn the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.\n\nA Sri Lankan policeman tries to disperse protesters in Colombo, March 31, 2022.\n\nDays spent waiting in line\n\nFor weeks, life in Sri Lanka has involved hours of queuing -- just to get basic goods needed to survive.\n\nOur daily life has been reduced to standing in a queue. Malkanthi Silva\n\n\"Our daily life has been reduced to standing in a queue,\" said Malkanthi Silva, 53, as she leaned on a worn blue gas cylinder in Colombo's baking heat, where she had already been waiting for hours for the propane she needs to cook to feed her family. \"When we need milk powder, there's a queue for that, if we need medication there's another queue for that.\"\n\nThough the situation is now particularly acute, it's been years in the making.\n\n\"30% is misfortune. 70% is mismanagement,\" said Murtaza Jafferjee, chair of Colombo-based think tank Advocata Institute.\n\nFor the past decade, he said, the Sri Lankan government had borrowed vast sums of money from foreign lenders and expanded public services. As the government's borrowings grew, the economy took hits from major monsoons that hurt agricultural output in 2016 and 2017, followed by a constitutional crisis in 2018 , and the deadly Easter bombings in 2019.\n\nSri Lankans spend most of their day queueing for fuel and gas as the country's economic crisis worsens.\n\nIn 2019, the newly elected President Rajapaksa slashed taxes in an attempt to stimulate the economy.\n\n\"They misdiagnosed the problem and felt that they had to give a fiscal stimulus through tax cuts,\" Jafferjee said.\n\nBut while President Rajapaksa was new to the role, he wasn't new to government.\n\nAs defense minister under the leadership of his elder brother, Rajapaksa oversaw a 2009 military operation that ended a 26-year civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The United Nations opened an investigation last year into allegations of war crimes committed by both sides.\n\nAfter winning the presidential election, Rajapaksa appointed his brother, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as Prime Minister and filled dozens of government roles with serving or former military and intelligence personnel, according to the UN. Their younger brother, Basil Rajapaksa, was later appointed finance minister.\n\nIn 2020, the pandemic hit, bringing Sri Lanka's tourist-dependent economy shuddering to a halt as the country shut its borders and imposed lockdowns and curfews. The government was left with a large deficit.\n\nOpposition party supporters shout slogans during a protest outside the President's office in Colombo, Tuesday, March 15, 2022.\n\nShanta Devarajan, an international development professor at Georgetown University and former World Bank chief economist, says the tax cuts and economic malaise hit government revenue, prompting rating agencies to downgrade Sri Lanka's credit rating to near default levels -- meaning the country lost access to overseas markets.\n\nSri Lanka fell back on its foreign exchange reserves to pay off government debt, shrinking its reserves from $6.9 billion in 2018 to $2.2 billion this year, according to an IMF briefing.\n\nThe cash crunch impacted imports of fuel and other essentials, and in February Sri Lanka imposed rolling power cuts to deal with the fuel crisis that had sent prices soaring, even before the global crunch that ensued as Russia launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine\n\nLast month, the government floated the Sri Lankan rupee, effectively devaluing it by causing the currency to plunge against the US dollar.\n\nJafferjee described the government's moves as a \"series of blunder after blunder.\"\n\nPrime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa told CNN Saturday that the Finance Minister and his team were working around the clock to put the economy right. He said it was wrong to say the government mismanaged the economy -- instead, Covid-19 was one of the causes.\n\nPreviously, the President said he is attempting to resolve it.\n\n\"This crisis was not created by me,\" Rajapaksa said during an address to the nation last month.\n\nWithout gas, Sri Lankans are unable to cook food, and power cuts mean electric cookers are unusable.\n\nAn impossible situation\n\nThe unfolding situation in Sri Lanka has made it incredibly challenging to earn money -- and even getting to work can be a major obstacle for some.\n\nAuto rickshaw driver Thushara Sampath, 35, needs fuel to work so he can feed his family. But both fuel and food are being rationed, and prices are soaring -- the cost of bread has more than doubled from 60 rupees ($0.20) to 125 rupees ($0.42), he said.\n\nAjith Perera, a 44-year-old auto rickshaw driver, also told CNN he can't survive on fuel rations.\n\n\"With the liter or two we receive, we cannot run hires and earn a living,\" said Perera, with tears in his eyes. \"Leave alone looking after my mother, wife and two children, I cannot pay the installment for my taxi to the finance company,\" he said.\n\nFor many, it's an impossible situation -- they can't afford not to work, but they also can't afford not to join long lines for basic goods.\n\nKanthi Latha, 47, who sweeps roads for a living to feed her two young sons, says she quietly slips away from work to join shorter lines for food before hurrying back.\n\n\"I cannot afford to take the day off, if I do I may lose my job,\" said Latha.\n\nBefore the economic crisis, Sivakala Rajeeswari says her husband worked as a construction worker. But with the price of building materials spiking, people are reluctant to undertake even the most basic construction work, she said.\n\nWe've never been this poor even with all the money we saved and earned. Upul\n\nRajeeswari, 40, says she can still earn a living doing chores at people's homes, but for the past few days she's had no time to do anything but wait in line. \"I have not had the chance to go and work anywhere,\" she said. \"When will this misery end?\"\n\nEven members of the middle class with savings are frustrated.\n\nUpul, the protester, earns a decent wage in a professional job, but says he still can't access essentials he needs for his family. He has enough medicine to treat everyday headaches, pain and fever for now, but he worries about running out.\n\nHis family has switched to induction cooking to cut down on the use of gas but frequent power cuts make even doing difficult.\n\n\"Neither I nor my family or every other person in Sri Lanka deserve this,\" he said. \"We've never been this poor even with all the money we saved and earned.\"\n\nInflation is pushing the price of food higher, putting pressure on people to earn more money to cover basic costs.\n\nWhat happens next\n\nSri Lanka is now looking for outside help to ease the economic turmoil -- the IMF, India and China.\n\nDuring last month's address, President Rajapaksa said he had weighed the pros and cons of working with the IMF and had decided to pursue a bailout from the Washington-based institution -- something his government had been reluctant to do.\n\n\"We must take action to fill this deficit and increase our foreign exchange reserves. To this end, we have initiated discussions with international financial institutions as well as with our friendly countries regarding repayment of our loan installments,\" Rajapaksa said on March 16.\n\nIn a news conference Thursday, IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice told reporters: \"The Sri Lankan authorities have expressed interest in an IMF-supported financial program.\n\nThere's a lot of hate and anger against the President and the cabinet. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu\n\n\"We plan to initiate those discussions pretty much in the coming days, and that will include during the expected visit of the finance minister of Sri Lanka to Washington for our spring meetings in April.\"\n\nSri Lanka has also requested help from China and India, with New Delhi already issuing a credit line of $1 billion, India's External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar tweeted on March 17.\n\nBut that would just be \"kicking the can down the road,\" said Jafferjee, from the Advocata Institute. \"This is prolonging the crisis.\"\n\nPaikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Colombo-based Center for Policy Alternatives, worries people's frustration with the government could escalate.\n\n\"It's obviously going to have to get a lot worse before it gets better Saravanamuttu said. \"There's a lot of hate and anger against the President and the cabinet. Government lawmakers are afraid to face constituents.\"\n\nSoldiers have been deployed to gas stations to keep the peace as tensions rise.\n\nThere's still so much uncertainty around what comes next -- national consumer price inflation has almost tripled from 6.2% in September to 17.5% in February, according to the country's central bank.\n\n\"The prices of essentials are changing every day,\" said Silva, as she lined-up in Colombo. \"The price of rice yesterday is not the price we will buy tomorrow.\"\n\nThursday's protests -- and the developments since -- also raise the possibility of worse things to come.\n\nUpul, the protester, says he has been demonstrating on behalf of all Sri Lankans. But the new emergency rules make him worried.\n\n\"I have been taking part in these protests and even though I was injured, I was not discouraged,\" he said. \"But now, with the new regulation, I am afraid.\"", "authors": ["Rukshana Rizwie", "Iqbal Athas", "Julia Hollingsworth", "Malkanthi Silva", "Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu"], "publish_date": "2022/04/02"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/957094/ten-things-you-need-to-know-today-17-june-2022", "title": "Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 17 June 2022 | The Week UK", "text": "Disabled man dies at Gatwick\n\nA disabled man left waiting on a plane died at Gatwick’s Airport after getting off without a helper. The Sun said the passenger became “the first victim of Britain’s airport chaos” after he fell to his death from an escalator. The tabloid said the man had been waiting for assistance from an EasyJet flight but became frustrated by delays, prompting him to leave the plane into the packed terminal, where the accident occurred. Gatwick said “staff shortages were not a factor in this incident” and “an investigation is under way”.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/07/03/critical-race-theory-makes-school-board-meetings-political-ground-zero/7785802002/", "title": "Critical race theory makes school board meetings political ground zero", "text": "When Barb Mozdzen opened last month's school board meeting in Chandler, Arizona, for public comment, she had a caveat.\n\nWhile many attendees indicated they were at the meeting to discuss “critical race theory,” the topic was not actually on the agenda that day.\n\nIn fact, critical race theory wasn’t being taught in Chandler’s schools, and neither the board nor administration had discussed the possibility of implementing it into the curriculum, said Mozdzen, the board president.\n\nIn the following hour, an attendee said he saw no distinction between critical race theory and equity trainings. Conservative activist Charlie Kirk said the board was “stomping on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.\" And, outside, the chair of the right-wing Patriot Party of Arizona, Steve Daniels, was arrested.\n\nIn recent weeks, protests, arrests and appearances by national activists have become the norm at school board meetings across the country. Anger is boiling over after a year and a half of virtual learning and strict COVID-19 rules in schools. Fears about critical race theory, stoked in national media and fanned by conservative think tanks and activists, have heightened tensions with schools even more.\n\nThe pitched battles, over issues ranging from racism to masks to the rights of transgender students, have often caught district leaders flatfooted. Board members, used to sleepy and ill-attended public meetings, are reeling.\n\nA meeting room was cleared in Michigan. Shouting matches broke out in Kentucky. In Virginia, sheriff's deputies arrested and cited someone after a school board voted to end its unruly meeting. School board members in New Hampshire were compared to Nazis. A father in New York rushed to the stage to confront a board member.\n\n“This has been building up over this past year and a half. And I think we've reached a crescendo because I think people are just tired,” said Anna Maria Chávez, executive director and CEO of the National School Boards Association.\n\n‘Children deserve to be taught’: Teachers in 22 cities are planning protests over laws restricting racism lessons in schools\n\n‘Perfect storm of timing and misinformation’\n\nCritical race theory is not being taught in most schools across America. It’s a decades-old legal framework for examining laws that reproduce inequalities in society.\n\nCommon misinformation about the theory ties it to Marxism, and some opponents claim it teaches white children to hate themselves.\n\n“What critical race theory teaches, even though it's not being taught in primary schools, isn't that radical,” said Eric Ward, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “It is mainly arguing that racism and an ideology called 'white supremacy' and a historical period called 'chattel slavery' have had a significant impact on the law, meaning on the way that we function within a society.”\n\nWhat is critical race theory? And why do Republicans oppose teaching it in schools?\n\nThe term began circulating more widely among conservatives in September 2020, when former President Donald Trump heard about it in a Fox News segment and issued a memo ordering the government to stop funding training for contractors on critical race theory, which he called propaganda.\n\nIn recent years, schools have also worked to teach more history from the perspective of oppressed people and sought to introduce equity initiatives that target achievement gaps among students driven by socioeconomic backgrounds. Those efforts have only increased since the racial reckoning in the U.S. that arose from the murder of George Floyd.\n\n'On our own terms':How scholars of color are correcting the narrative of national tragedies\n\nAdditionally, about a year before the Black Lives Matter movement galvanized countless people to protest around the country, The New York Times published a series of essays called the \"1619 Project,\" which aimed to “reframe the country's history” in the context of slavery as well as contributions from Black Americans. The project's creator, Nikole Hannah-Jones, won a Pulitzer Prize for her essay, but the project was also a frequent target of Trump.\n\nSchool board conversations around race are also coming after an unprecedented year for those organizations, Chávez said. During the pandemic, boards engaged parents in new ways, hosting virtual forums and posting regularly on social media. And parents were more involved as decisions were made around COVID-19 precautions and school reopening, she said.\n\nNow, parents feel empowered – and they're fed up.\n\nAt a school board meeting in Penfield, New York, parent Rich Tyson yelled from the audience when he noticed a school board member mocking a public commenter. The board member cursed and gestured for Tyson to come to the stage, setting off chaos that cleared the room until the meeting resumed in a virtual-only forum.\n\nThe pandemic has made many parents more aware of how school districts operate – and they don't like what they see, Tyson told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, part of the USA TODAY Network.\n\n\"It just woke us up to how decisions are made at a local level, and how many are not made at a local level,\" Tyson said.\n\nFurther exacerbating the issue, said Sherry Johnson, executive director of the Monroe County School Boards Association, are state decisions that then cause confusion locally.\n\n\"When guidance changes on a Friday and the expectations are to be implemented on a Monday, that’s just not enough time to communicate to the entire community – especially if you yourself don’t have clear guidance,\" she said. \"There's this perfect storm of timing and misinformation.\"\n\nMore on New York:School board meetings are turning into shouting matches. Here's why\n\nA ‘Wizard of Oz element’ to the critical race theory discussion\n\nRaucous meetings around the country may appear to be driven by a growing group of worried families. But experts also point to well-funded conservative and libertarian think tanks using critical race theory as a catchall phrase to spook parents and gin up activism.\n\n“There’s definitely a connection,” said Richard Gray, deputy director of the NYU Metro Center in New York City, a social justice nonprofit that works on school equity issues. “There’s a 'Wizard of Oz' element to this, where you pull back the curtain and see it isn’t just a groundswell movement of concerned parents, but a well-orchestrated political movement.”\n\n“If you had to choose three words and put them together to heighten the most concern, this would be the trifecta,” added John Rogers, a professor at the University of California-Los Angeles’ Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.\n\n\"Race,\" for instance, prompts anxiety around broader demographic changes and the reckoning that played out after Floyd’s murder. \"Critical\" and \"theory\" imply conspiracy or controversy.\n\nNumerous states have introduced bills that would prohibit schools from teaching \"divisive,\" \"racist\" or \"sexist\" concepts. While they seldom mention critical race theory directly, in many cases legislators have cited it as a driving force behind the measures.\n\n'Laws in search of problems that don’t exist':Republicans try to ban critical race theory in colleges\n\nNewly formed right-leaning organizations such as Parents Defending Education and No Left Turn in Education have encouraged parents to play more active roles at school board meetings. Conservative think tanks, including the Manhattan Institute and Heritage Foundation, have also increasingly focused on the issue.\n\nHeritage Action, the foundation's 501(c)(4) lobbying arm, for example, helped organize a rally in Loudoun County, Virginia, to \"stop critical race theory.\"\n\nOthers, like Citizens for Renewing America, a group founded by a former Trump administration official who penned the critical race theory memo, have developed toolkits and how-to's for parents. The Citizens for Renewing America guide bills itself as “an A-to-Z guide on how to stop Critical Race Theory and reclaim your local school board.”\n\nFox News has also mentioned “critical race theory” on its network nearly 1,300 times in the past three and a half months, according to a recent study from the left-leaning group Media Matters for America.\n\nOn social media, the phrase has increasingly gained prominence. Since the start of the year, nearly 340,000 Facebook posts on public pages and groups mentioning the phrases “critical race theory” or “school board” have garnered over 70 million interactions on the platform, according to data tracked by the social media analytics tool CrowdTangle.\n\nSome of the posts included videos with the titles, “Mom tears apart school board over Critical Race Theory” or “Teacher TORCHES School Board to Their Faces Until They Cut Her Mic,” shared by right-wing media outlet Newsmax and conservative commentator Dan Bongino, respectively.\n\nOften, parents who are galvanized into taking action at a school board meeting on a given issue may represent a “vocal minority” getting “far more attention than they deserve,” said Vladimir Kogan, an associate professor of political science at Ohio State University.\n\nIn Arizona, activist groups have organized parents to attend meetings all over the state, said Heidi Otero, a spokesperson for the state’s school boards association.\n\n“You see the same exact 120 people. Many of them don’t even represent that area,” Otero said of districts like Chandler. “Where are the 50,000 parents, the families that are representative of that community?”\n\nIn May, a Scottsdale school board meeting was canceled when an unruly crowd chanted, “No more!” as members asked parents and attendees to adhere to the meeting's social distancing and mask rules.\n\nWelcome to school boards across Arizona in 2021:Members under fire for mask use, 'critical race theory' accusations\n\nComment cards attendees completed to speak at the meeting included issues such as vaccines, mask mandates and transparency over curricula, including critical race theory, board President Jann-Michael Greenburg said. None of those topics were on the meeting agenda.\n\n\"This is a deliberate misinformation campaign,\" he told The Arizona Republic.\n\nAnother meeting in Peoria was disrupted and almost switched to a virtual format at the advice of local law enforcement present at the meeting. While the meeting continued in person, attendees condemned critical race theory for 40 minutes, saying to teach it would be to condone racism.\n\n“It’s not like we don’t know what happens with this critical race theory, or equity, or inclusion, or any of these other flowery names that you want to call it. It doesn’t matter what you call them. … You know what it does? The exact opposite of everything they say it does,” said Angie Russo, who represented the group Purple for Parents. “It has not a thing to do with equality. It has to do with payback.”\n\n'National political narratives' shape local rhetoric\n\nPurple for Parents is a conservative group founded in response to teacher walkouts in 2018, and its members have been present at other Arizona meetings, including in Scottsdale, Vail and Chandler.\n\nWhile the organization has its roots in state, it is listed on a map organized by the national nonprofit Parents Defending Education.\n\nAsra Nomani, a former journalist who is the national group’s vice president for strategy and investigations, said she got interested in similar discussions in 2020 when her child’s selective high school in northern Virginia announced proposed changes to its admissions policy.\n\nThomas Jefferson High School, part of Fairfax County's public school board, nixed its challenging admissions exam and approved a “holistic review” process, which would take into account factors such as whether the student is in a low-income household or one that doesn’t primarily speak English.\n\nThe change sparked lawsuits and parent protests, and it inspired Nomani to connect with others in her community via a Facebook group. From there, Nomani said, the discussion grew and turned to messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. They got a website and began sharing ideas and skills with each other, such as how to file a public records request or place an op-ed in a newspaper.\n\n“Toolkits are not like some diabolical dark money plan. They are also parents trying to effectively advocate for kids,” she said.\n\nIn March, a news release from Parents Defending Education said the group “trains parents how to put schools and officials on the spot, gain media attention, get involved with school boards and other oversight bodies, and make sure the school knows there will be consequences for indoctrination and radicalism in the classroom.”\n\n“I believe that the school board members are gaslighting parents,” Nomani said.\n\nIn another northern Virginia county, a school board meeting turned violent after debate over critical race theory and how teachers address transgender students.\n\nThe June 22 Loudoun County meeting ended after just a few speakers made public comment. Photos on social media showed a man being held by police with a bloodied lip. One person was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and a second was cited for trespassing.\n\nAfter an earlier school board meeting in June, multiple clips posted to conservative news media’s social media accounts went viral. Attendees called schools “indoctrination camps” and compared critical race theory to Marxism and the Chinese Communist Party.\n\nThe spate of school board protests have also included activism against equity initiatives.\n\nIn Troy, Michigan, the goal of equity programs is to eliminate the impact of factors such as race, \"so that everyone has the same level of access to learning and growth opportunities in our district,\" said Cornelius Godfrey, who is leading the programs.\n\nBut at a recent school board meeting, parents worried aloud that white students would be marginalized and made to feel bad about being white if equity programs succeed.\n\n2 concepts divide Michigan school boards:What to know about critical race theory, equity\n\nGodfrey said he has seen parents in school board meetings refer to critical race theory as an umbrella term for equity programs, when the two are not synonymous.\n\n\"Things are a lot more nuanced and complicated than some of our detractors on the political stage would like to make them seen,\" he said.\n\n‘Trump things’ shape local rhetoric\n\nThe rhetoric and much of how critical race theory has been described in conservative media mirrors what Trump said during his September 2020 speech announcing the 1776 commission to promote “patriotic education.”\n\n'Liberal indoctrination':Donald Trump rails against modern teaching of U.S. history\n\nThe string of events that led to Trump signing the memo banning trainings on critical race theory and his later speech have been well documented. The Manhattan Institute's Christopher Rufo appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show for a segment on critical race theory, and the next morning, Rufo told The Atlantic, Trump told his chief of staff to reach out to the think-tank fellow.\n\nIn his address at the National Archives, Trump warned of “liberal indoctrination of America’s youth” and cast critical race theory as a “Marxist doctrine holding that America is a wicked and racist nation.”\n\n“Critical race theory is being forced into our children’s schools,\" he claimed. \"Teaching this horrible doctrine to our children is a form of child abuse in the truest sense of those words.”\n\nThis isn't the first time that national political talking points have created partisan divides in local school boards, Kogan noted.\n\nRemember Common Core? The set of educational standards was adopted a decade ago by dozens of states, and their full or partial appeal drove local and state elections around the country.\n\nThe principles in the standards were supported by nearly two-thirds of Americans, according to an Education Next survey in 2017. But when people were asked specifically about “Common Core,” support dropped to 41%.\n\n\"We're seeing how these national political narratives are seeping into our local school board meetings,\" said Chávez, of the National School Boards Association.\n\nMore on New Hampshire:Markings on students at Exeter prom cause parents to complain to school board\n\nThat dynamic played out recently in Exeter, New Hampshire, where a meeting of a joint school board featured attendees calling board members Nazis, communists and Marxists, plus someone who said school officials were on par with the authoritarian state of North Korea.\n\nThe comments came after rules at the Exeter senior prom required students who were unvaccinated or could not prove vaccination status to have numbers written on their hands in Sharpie for contact tracing purposes.\n\nAttendees of the school board meeting compared the practice of marking unvaccinated individuals to Nazi Germany, a comparison House GOP member Marjorie Taylor Greene has also invoked to criticize COVID-19 vaccination protocols.\n\n\"In 1939 when (the Nazis) put those stars on those people – 'Oh, it's just a star'; that's what they said at the time,\" said Lisa Mazur, a resident of Goffstown, which is not part of the school district. \"Oh, it's just a Sharpie marker. That's how it starts. You branded your kids. … In World War II, we said: 'Never again.' But here we are.\"\n\nIt was the first in-person public meeting held by the board after New Hampshire's COVID-19 emergency orders ended.\n\nThe next night, at another school meeting, some parents spoke out in support of the district, acknowledging the difficult choices the officials have been facing amid the pandemic.\n\n“This is a global pandemic,\" said Mary Ann Cappiello, a mother of a student in Stratham. \"We have no blueprint for it.”\n\nContributing: Erin Richards and Alia Wong, USA TODAY; Taylor Seely, Joshua Bowling, Renata Cló, Paulina Pineda and Richard Ruelas, Arizona Republic; Lily Altavena, Detroit Free Press; Justin Murphy, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle; Alexander LaCasse, Portsmouth Herald; The Associated Press\n\nFollow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/03"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/investing/china-capital-outflows-covid-ukraine-war-intl-mic-hnk/index.html", "title": "Foreign investors are ditching China. Russia's war is the latest trigger", "text": "A version of this story appeared in CNN's Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country's rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.\n\nHong Kong (CNN Business) Investors are ditching China on an unprecedented scale as a cocktail of political and business risks, and rising interest rates elsewhere, make the world's second biggest economy a less attractive place to keep their money.\n\nChina witnessed $17.5 billion worth of portfolio outflows last month, an all-time high, according to most recent data from the Institute of International Finance (IIF). The US-based trade association called this capital flight by overseas investors \"unprecedented,\" especially as there were no similar outflows from other emerging markets during this period. The outflows included $11.2 billion in bonds, while the rest were equities.\n\nData from the Chinese government also showed a record bond-market retreat by foreign investors in recent months. Overseas investors offloaded a net 35 billion yuan ($5.5 billion) of Chinese government bonds in February, the largest monthly reduction on record, according to China Central Depository and Clearing. The sell-off accelerated in March, hitting a new high of 52 billion yuan ($8.1 billion).\n\n\"China's support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine was clearly the catalyst for capital to leave China,\" said George Magnus, an associate at the China Centre at Oxford University and former chief economist for UBS.\n\nGeopolitical risks\n\n\"There is nervousness about China's ambiguous, but Russia-leaning stance on the Ukraine conflict, which raises worries that China could be targeted by sanctions if it helps Russia,\" said Martin Chorzempa, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, who has studied China's economy and US-China relations.\n\nThe war in Ukraine has also heightened concerns about the risk that China could increase its military force against Taiwan, triggering a massive flight of capital from the Asian island.\n\nBut geopolitical tension is not the only reason behind the exodus. The rate hike in the United States and China's strict Covid-related lockdowns have also played a role in scaring investors.\n\nAnd the yuan hit a six-month low against the US dollar. The US Federal Reserve is increasing interest rates for the first time since 2018 to tame inflation, while the People's Bank of China has entered an easing cycle to bolster its faltering economy. That means China looks less attractive to investors when compared with the United States. Earlier this month, yields on China's 10-year government bond fell below US Treasury yields for the first time in 12 years.And the yuan hit a six-month low against the US dollar.\n\n\"The rise in interest rates, especially in the US, makes the nominal return associated with Chinese fixed income assets less attractive on a relative basis,\" Chorzempa said.\n\nFurthermore, Beijing's unwavering commitment to its zero Covid policy has taken a massive economic toll, and increased uncertainties about future growth.\n\n\"The economy is enfeebled and being made worse by government actions and by zero Covid policies,\" said Magnus.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'The city completely lost its shine': Expats vent about Shanghai's strict Covid measures Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'The city completely lost its shine': Expats vent about Shanghai's strict Covid measures 03:38\n\n\n\nChina's economy slowed sharply in March — consumption slumped for the first time in more than a year, while unemployment in 31 major cities surged to a record high — as escalating Covid lockdowns in Shanghai and other major cities severely hit growth and supply chains.\n\nSome economists are even talking about the possibility of a recession this quarter, as Beijing looks determined to hold on to its zero Covid policy despite the hefty price.\n\nA number of investment banks have slashed their forecasts for China's full-year growth in the past week. The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut its growth forecast for China to 4.4%, down from 4.8%, citing risks from Beijing's strict zero Covid policy. This is well below China's official forecast of around 5.5%.\n\nConfusion about the future\n\nWith these worries mounting, some fund managers and analysts have started questioning whether they should invest in China at all.\n\n\"China is seeing deep foreign capital outflows as doubts increase regarding its basic investability,\" said Brock Silvers, managing director for Kaiyuan Capital, a private equity investment firm based in Shanghai.\n\nThe pandemic is not the only reason behind China's slowdown. A lot of the country's current economic pain can be traced back to the sweeping regulatory crackdown on the private sector, which was unleashed by President Xi Jinping in 2020. There are fears that the government will continue to clampdown on sectors ranging from education to technology this year.\n\n\"Global investors don't want to play regulatory guessing games or worry that tomorrow's news may deplete another otherwise attractive company or business model,\" Silvers said.\n\nThe speed and ferocity with which authorities have acted against private enterprise have startled even the closest China watchers.\n\nThe Nasdaq Golden Dragon index, a popular index that tracks more than 90 US-listed Chinese companies, lost 31% in the third quarter of 2021, the worst quarter on record. It then shed another 14% in the final quarter of last year. By comparison, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% and 11% respectively in the third and fourth quarters of last year. The Nasdaq Composite also surged 8% in the final quarter of 2021.\n\nSome of the money flowing out of China may have gone into US dollar assets, while there is also \"a notable switch from China to India,\" according to Qi Wang, chief investment officer for MegaTrust Investment in Hong Kong.\n\nShrinking appetite\n\nThe crackdown on the private sector has also impacted private equity funds that focus on China.\n\nFunds that raise US dollars to invest in China only attracted $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2022, down 70% from the previous quarter, according to Preqin, a London-based investment data firm.\n\nA separate survey by Bain & Company showed that Greater China-focused private equity funds attracted $28 billion in new funding for the second half of last year, down 54% from the first half, as global investors are increasingly concerned about political and economic uncertainty in the Chinese market.\n\n\"Looking ahead, about 55% of respondents expect the [fundraising] situation to be more challenging in next 12 months,\" said Kai Zhong, a manager on the China Private Equity team at Bain & Company.\n\nOn the fence\n\nHowever, while bond and equity funds may be slashing their exposure to China, there's evidence that global companies are continuing to invest in Chinese businesses.\n\nForeign direct investment inflows to China hit a record high of $173 billion in 2021, up 20% from the previous year, according to data from China's Ministry of Commerce.\n\nChorzempa noted that the record FDI came even though \"the regulatory uncertainty and a darkening view among policymakers outside of China was already highly salient.\"\n\n\"So it is not clear whether the data from the last two months represents a paradigm shift or more of a temporary recalibration to a still very strong investment relationship, especially with Europe,\" he said.\n\nAccording to an annual survey conducted by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China last year, only 9% of nearly 600 European companies operating in China planned on shifting any current or planned investment out of China, the lowest share on record.\n\nStill, there are signs that some of them have become anxious about China's zero Covid policy.\n\nEarlier this week, China's commerce minister Wang Wentao met with a few foreign chambers to discuss the impact of the country's zero Covid policy.\n\nJens Hildebrandt, executive director of the German Chamber of Commerce in North China, told CNN Business that the participants raised some pressing issues member companies are facing related to the Covid-containment strategy, especially in Shanghai.\n\nAn ongoing lockdown in Shanghai — a major business and manufacturing hub — has forced most businesses to shut down for weeks, threatening to disrupt key supply chains for autos and electronics. It has also made port delays worse and forced the suspension of many passenger flights, sending air freight rates soaring and putting even more pressure on global supply chains.\n\n\"The current policy with lockdowns leading to productions stops, logistic and supply chain disruptions and restrictions on the movement of people do not only pose a short-term concern, but will leave their marks on the long run,\" Hildebrandt said in an emailed response to CNN Business.\n\n\"As foreign companies are suffering economically, we are looking for clear signals on how the Chinese government will help to ease the burden through relief programs,\" he added.", "authors": ["Analysis Laura He", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/04/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/az-narratives/2014/12/04/uss-arizona-pearl-harbor-survivors/19892203/", "title": "USS Arizona: The men who survived", "text": "Shaun McKinnon\n\nThe Republic | azcentral.com\n\nGRASS VALLEY, Calif.\n\nLou Conter is telling the story of the night his patrol bomber was shot down seven miles off the coast of New Guinea, dumping the seaplane's 10-man crew into the Pacific Ocean.\n\n\n\n\n\nThe crew was not alone in the water.\n\n\"We had 10 or 12 sharks around us all the time,\" Conter says. \"I told the men, 'If a shark comes close, hit it in the nose with your fist as hard as you can.'\"\n\nThe men stayed afloat until another plane saw the burning wreckage and tossed out a life raft. The exhausted crew dragged ashore an hour later and hid in the jungle, fearful they would be captured by Japanese soldiers. The next night, an American PT boat retrieved all 10 men.\n\nAs Conter told it, the story wasn't about punching sharks, or skulking in the jungle or chasing shadows to the waiting rescue boat. Conter was talking about survival, about coming back alive.\n\nHis time in the war started that way.\n\nHe was 20 when he escaped the burning wreckage of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor. He tried to save as many injured crewmen as he could, but when the sun set on Dec. 7, 1941, he was one of just 335 sailors who did not perish.\n\nConter fought on through World War II, scraped past a lot of close calls, then went to Korea. After that, he started teaching U.S. troops the skills of survival, evasion, resistance and escape. He wrote a training manual whose precepts the Navy still follows. Today, he tries to pass on what he knows to students of history.\n\nAt 93, he is one of the last survivors of the attack on the Arizona. He endured what he did, he says, because that was his job. And that's what he told every soldier and airman who took his courses.\n\nWhatever happens, find a way to survive.\n\nConter was stationed on the Arizona at Pearl Harbor in September 1941, when he turned 20. He and a buddy had been talking about their future in the Navy.\n\n\"Lou, let's go to flight school,\" Conter's buddy said one day.\n\n\"We won't get in,\" Conter said. \"We're right-arm rates.\" At the time, sailors wore patches designating their rates, the enlisted expression of rank, on the right or left sleeve, depending on their assignment. Aviators most often arose from left-arm rates.\n\nConter had made friends with a young lady in Honolulu. Her father was an engineer and a top executive for a dredging company with a big Navy contract. Conter was at the young lady's house one day when her father received an important visitor: Admiral William Calhoun, the commander of base force for the Pacific Fleet.\n\nCalhoun quizzed Conter about his posting, his job on the ship. Conter told the admiral he was interested in flight school, but doubted he would earn admission.\n\nCalhoun told Conter to put in for the assignment. A few weeks later, Conter and his buddy passed a flight test at sea and on Nov. 1, they got their orders: Report to Navy flight school in Pensacola, Fla.\n\nTwo weeks later, the Arizona's captain called the two sailors in and told them the ship was headed back to Long Beach in early December. They could ride to the mainland then and leave for Florida.\n\nTheir orders were lost on the Arizona when the battleship sank on Dec. 7. Conter and his buddy waited for new instructions, but heard nothing.\n\nIn early January, Conter visited his young lady friend again and again, Admiral Calhoun was there.\n\n\"I thought you'd be in flight school,\" he said.\n\nConter told him about the lost orders. Three days later, he and his buddy were on a ship to San Francisco and then a train to Pensacola.\n\nConter got his wings in November 1942. He was soon flying one of the Navy's Black Cats, a squadron of long-range patrol bombers painted black for night missions.\n\nThe Black Cats flew surveillance, search and rescue, sea patrol, but they proved especially valuable for nighttime assaults and nuisance raids on Japanese submarines and ships. The planes could fly at low altitudes, then buzz upward for a bombing run, confounding enemy gunners trying to calculate speed and distance.\n\nThe crews were based on tender ships moored in secluded harbors. Conter served on the San Pablo and Half Moon. The planes took off and landed on the water; the pilots tied up to buoys near the ship.\n\n\"We'd leave at 5:30 in the evening and stay out 12 or 14 hours, then return in the morning,\" Conter said. \"Sometimes, we'd come back, eat, then sleep on the beach.\"\n\nConter's crews flew missions across the South Pacific: New Guinea, Borneo, New Britain, the coast off Perth, Australia.\n\nThe crews learned the routines of the Japanese ships. The best time for a bombing raid was after 1 a.m., when the ship was quiet.\n\n\"We wouldn't get much fire back and by the time they sounded general quarters, we were on our way,\" Conter said. \"Sometimes they'd get shooting at you and you'd look at the shells and they looked like they were going to hit you. Then they'd go by.\"\n\nConter's plane hadn't been out long in September 1943 when enemy bullets pierced one of their rear hatches and hit a parachute flare. The flare exploded and started a fire, which forced the plane into the water.\n\n\"Say your prayers, men, we're seven miles off shore and we're in 10, 15-foot swells,\" one of the officers said as the crew abandoned the plane. \"I don't think we'll ever be able to swim to shore.\"\n\n\"Baloney,\" Conter replied. \"Knock it off. Just stay together, hold hands and kick slowly 'cause there'll be sharks around. If a shark comes too close, hit it in the nose with your fist as hard as you can.\"\n\nThe men helped one another, holding up anyone who weakened. Not long after, a second plane dropped a life raft and all 10 of the crew made to shore and, the next night, back to the base.\n\nIn late 1943, Conter flew a mission to rescue more than 200 coast watchers in New Guinea. Coast watchers were military intelligence operatives who gathered information about enemy activities on islands across the South Pacific.\n\nThe planes flew up the Sepik River from the northern coast of New Guinea. The river wound through dense vegetation, leaving 15 or 20 feet of clearance on each side of the plane. If a plane crashed, crocodiles awaited in the river.\n\n\"In three days, we rescued 219 coast watchers without losing anybody,\" Conter said. \"The Japanese were only a mile away. It was one of the biggest rescues in World War II, but no one knew about it because everything was top secret in those days.\"\n\nIn Korea, Conter flew 29 missions, but his work in Naval intelligence left him vulnerable if the North Koreans captured him, so he was shipped to Washington, D.C.\n\nHe was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in February 1954, the rank he held until he retired. His work turned toward survival training in a new military program called SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape.\n\nConter helped establish training bases in Florida and California and in 1965, he returned to Pearl Harbor to write training materials for troops headed to Vietnam.\n\nHe had stopped at Pearl Harbor more than a decade earlier, on his way to a posting in Korea. A platform marked the wreckage of the USS Arizona. Conter and others in his group boarded a boat to go out to the platform and see his old ship.\n\n\"We got halfway there and I told them to turn around,\" Conter said. \"I wasn't going out there. I couldn't.\"\n\nIn 1967, Conter retired from the Navy. More than 20 years earlier, he had earned his real estate license in California and had maintained it. He settled in Palm Springs and built a career as a real estate developer, buying up land for commercial and residential projects.\n\nThat same year, he met his wife, Valerie, in Palm Springs. Her sister knew Jack Warner, the film studio mogul, and invited Valerie to a movie premiere party Warner was hosting in Palm Springs for his latest project, \"Camelot\".\n\nConter attended the same event and was seated next to Valerie. They struck up a conversation and, after a brief courtship, married.\n\nToday, Lou and Valerie Conter live in a two-level house at the end of a winding road on a golf course in Grass Valley, a mountain town about 60 miles outside Sacramento.\n\nTall pines tower over the house. Deer and rabbits wander the hillside. Golfers play through 50 yards from Conter's driveway.\n\n\"I'm going to be back out there one of these days,\" Conter said, his voice wistful as he watches a foursome trying to stay on the greens. Conter's doctor has sidelined him for now for health reasons, but he is certain he will return soon.\n\nHe took up golf seriously in Palm Springs and played in the Bob Hope Classic six times, once on a team with crooner Johnny Mathis. He keeps a photo from that tournament on a bookshelf in an alcove off the kitchen.\n\nOn the same bookshelf sit mementos from his time on the Arizona. Medals. Photographs. A painting of the Arizona hangs on the wall of a sitting room. He keeps a folder of newspaper clippings, magazine stories and copies of a telegram.\n\n\"Here's the one that told my mother I was missing in action on the Arizona,\" he says. It is dated Dec. 21, 1941.\n\n\"The Navy Department deeply regrets to inform you that your son Louis Anthony Counter quartermaster third class US Navy is missing following action in the performance of his duty.\"\n\nThe telegram, which misspelled Conter's last name, promises further information and asks his family not to divulge Conter's posting.\n\nA second telegram, dated Jan. 6 reported that Conter was alive and would contact his family.\n\n\"I'd already sent word, even before the first one got there,\" he says. \"So they knew.\"\n\nThough Conter turned around the first time he ventured toward the sunken Arizona, he has been back since, to see it with other survivors.\n\nHe joined the USS Arizona Reunion Association and stays in touch with a few of the remaining survivors. One, Joe Langdell, lives about 40 miles away in Yuba City.\n\nHe keeps up with what the military does, and some of it irritates him. Discipline seems less important than it was in his day. Too many strategic decisions come down from Washington instead of from the commanders on the ground.\n\nAnd he has watched with dismay the changes in survival training. He once helped design programs that sent soldiers into the wilds for days or weeks at a time. Now, some courses require less than a week of field time.\n\n\"You can't get a guy hungry in three or four days,\" Conter says.\n\nBut there are moments when he knows what he did meant something. His old co-pilot in the New Guinea days was asked once if he'd had survival training for the war.\n\n\"He said, 'I had survival training in the ocean. We had survival training on the job. And my co-pilot, Lou Conter, saved my life.'\"\n\nConter stares at his hands.\n\n\"Some things,\" he says, \"you don't know about what they'll mean until years later.\"\n\nLAS VEGAS\n\nOnce a month or so, Clarendon Hetrick's phone rings with a call from Utah. On the other end of the line is an old shipmate from the USS Saratoga, the aircraft carrier where Hetrick worked as a mechanic through most of World War II.\n\nFor an hour or so, the two men talk. They catch up. They trade stories. Not war stories, usually, not unless one of them has had it out with a doctor or a pushy clerk. Just stories, the kind buddies tell each other.\n\n\"He's there anytime I call him,\" Hetrick says. \"He's there for me. I guess he'd do anything he could for me. He's more like family than just a friend.\"\n\nHetrick, who is 91, has outlived most of the men he knew on the Saratoga. He is one of nine living survivors from the attack on the USS Arizona, the battleship he boarded in 1941 when he was 17.\n\nHe will answer questions about that December day when he escaped the burning wreckage of the Arizona, reciting as many of the details as he can remember. The new shoes he left on the deck of the sinking ship, the ones he intended to retrieve later. The shock of jumping into a harbor knowing he couldn't swim.\n\nBut he kept most of it to himself until he started meeting up with other survivors, years after he retired from the military.\n\n\"I was always wanting to learn more when I was younger,\" says Hetrick's younger son, Robert, who lives not far from his dad in Las Vegas. \"But I had a brother in Vietnam who didn't want to talk about it at all, so I guess I realized if they want to talk, they'll talk. That was the way it was.\"\n\nHetrick shrugs, trying to get comfortable in the recliner. \"It just didn't appeal to me to bring it up,\" he says.\n\nFires still burned on the broken USS Arizona the morning after the Japanese ambush. Hetrick slept on the battleship USS Tennessee, which had been moored just ahead of the Arizona along Ford Island.\n\nThe Tennessee took hits in the attack, but two of the armor piercing bombs, the kind that sunk the Arizona, failed to detonate. Debris from the Arizona showered the Tennessee's stern and started fires, but the vessel stayed afloat.\n\nHetrick took a motor launch to the receiving station on shore, where he and other survivors were allowed to shower and given a change of clothes. The men followed orders in a fog of wonderment and confusion.\n\n\"We didn't hear much from the outside at first,\" Hetrick said. \"It hadn't really sunk in what had happened.\"\n\nThe Navy began assigning sailors to new postings. Hetrick was sent to the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier. The ship remained anchored outside Pearl Harbor for most of a month as U.S. commanders planned their next move against the Japanese in the South Pacific.\n\nOne day, a Navy officer came on board and asked if anyone wanted to volunteer for an assignment in the aviation section. Hetrick thought about it. He liked the idea of working as an aircraft mechanic, so he volunteered.\n\n\"They gave me 30 minutes to get off the ship and catch a transport to San Diego for training,\" he said. \"It didn't take me that long. I had one pair of dungarees and that was it, that and a towel and shaving gear.\"\n\nThe Lexington sailed out of Pearl Harbor not long after. It never returned, crippled in the Battle of the Coral Sea and scuttled by the Navy to keep the enemy from salvaging her.\n\nAfter about six months of training in San Diego, Hetrick returned to Honolulu and joined the USS Saratoga, the sister ship of the Lexington. He worked on board as a mechanic for a torpedo squadron and ended up in charge of the hydraulic shop.\n\nThe Saratoga sailed across the South Pacific, to Guam, the Philippines, around New Guinea. Hetrick was on board during battles at Midway and Wake Island and for the U.S. invasion of Iwo Jima early in 1945. The Saratoga was attacked by six Japanese suicide bombers within about 24 hours.\n\n\"I put on two life jackets,\" Hetrick said. \"I told another kid if they come back again tonight, I'm leaving.\"\n\nHetrick earned a Purple Heart for wounds during one of the bombing raids.\n\nThe Saratoga had returned to Pearl Harbor by the time the Japanese surrendered. The Navy loaded 5,000 bunks on board, along with a row of portable latrines, and the Saratoga sailed to San Francisco, passing under the Golden Gate Bridge with toilet paper streamers and thousands of sailors who needed something to do.\n\nHetrick was still just 21 by then, but a seasoned sailor who shared little in common with the 17-year-old kid who left high school and joined the Navy on his parents' signature.\n\n\"I didn't have the slightest idea what would happen when I signed up,\" he said. \"I decided I'd do whatever they told me to. When they said, 'grab your sea bags and let's go,' I did.\"\n\nWhen he first arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hetrick wasn't even old enough to buy a beer until he found a place where they didn't ask questions if a guy was in a service uniform.\n\nNow, stateside again, Hetrick reported to a Navy station in San Diego, where he met the woman who would become his wife, Jeanne. As his stint was about to end, the Navy decided to transfer him back to Pearl Harbor. He asked if Jeanne could come with him.\n\n\"They said, 'If you re-enlist, we'll send her over.' I said, 'You send her over, I'll re-enlist.' I'd been told things like that before. They wouldn't send her over so I didn't re-enlist.\"\n\nBut Hetrick couldn't find work, so inside of six months, he signed up for the Navy Reserve. He was sent to the Los Alamitos Naval Air Station up the coast in Orange County.\n\nIn 1949, the newly created U.S. Air Force was trying to fill it out its ranks with experienced support crews, almost begging for mechanics who knew the aircraft. Hetrick saw a new opportunity and joined.\n\n\"On the day I swore into the Air Force, I was still in my Navy uniform,\" he said. \"Three months later, I was in Korea.\"\n\nHe worked his way up to crew chief on a squadron of B-26 bombers,\n\nAfter 18 months overseas, he returned to Langley Field in Virginia. (\"Two of us with the same rank were up for the same kind of job,\" he said. \"He wanted the east coast, I wanted the west coast. He got the west coast and I got the east coast. So you see how that works.\")\n\nFrom Virginia, he went to Utah, to France and then to Albuquerque, where he retired in November 1961.\n\nHe was on his own once again, he and his young family. They moved to Modesto, Calif., where he got a job driving a produce truck in the fruit orchards.\n\n\"They paid me by the day,\" he said. \"After 36 hours, I still hadn't put in a day. I asked the boss, 'how many hours is in a day for you?' He said, 'whatever I can get out of you.' I quit. I wasn't working for nothing.\"\n\nHe hired on with a farm labor contractor and within a year, he and a guy he worked with started their own business, contracting with the orchard owners to harvest crops. They covered the growing seasons: cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, grapes.\n\nThe venture was working out well. Until his partner ran off with all the money.\n\nHetrick recovered. He built a reputation as a guy who could bring in the harvest on time.\n\nAround 2005, he and Jeanne moved to Bullhead City. A few years after that, they left for Las Vegas, where their son, Bob, and his family help them get around.\n\nLas Vegas seems to like Hetrick. He was at a restaurant last summer and someone noticed his USS Arizona cap. He didn't have to pay for dinner.\n\nHetrick turns a rusted chunk of metal over in his hands, running his fingers along the curves and edges. It is a piece of rigging used to secure a mooring line from a ship.\n\nFrom the USS Arizona.\n\nHe first visited the Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor on the 50th anniversary of the attack and has returned since.\n\n\"It gets your breath when you first see it,\" he says. \"It's hard to explain.\" He thinks back. \"You know, you can see where I came out of, the hatchway. There's a little air bubble. It's the same place where the oil is leaking\" — oil stores aboard the ship that, even today, still seep to the surface — \"that's where I got out from below.\"\n\nIn 2006, Hetrick returned to Pearl Harbor for the 65th anniversary of the Japanese attack. He had visited before, but this trip meant more. He brought all of his family: his wife Jeanne, his three sons and their families. And he was allowed to visit a part of the Arizona few people ever see.\n\nDuring construction of the memorial, the Navy sliced off pieces of the Arizona's wreckage to make room for the structure that sits above the sunken ship today. The pieces – the largest is about as long as a bus – sit in a salvage yard on the Waipi'o Peninsula on Oahu. The Navy occasionally cuts away small bits of the wreckage for memorials.\n\nFor Hetrick, the section of mooring line links him to those final moments of the Arizona. He will tell his story if he's asked and he will remember details along the way.\n\n\"I remember hearing explosions at first,\" he says. \"It sounded like someone shooting guns. You don't fire guns in port, so I ran out real quick to see what was happening. I saw one airplane, with a big red meatball on the side. Nobody could debate what that was, no question about it.\"\n\nHe remembers the crewman trying to climb a ladder to escape through a hatchway on the deck. The man told him later he had broken both his hips in one of the explosions and had survived only because Hetrick was there to urge him on.\n\nHetrick still likes to talk about the new shoes he bought the day before the attack in Honolulu. As he prepared to jump off the burning ship, he took the shoes off and set them on the quarterdeck.\n\n\"I left them there and hoped to get them back,\" he says. \"I ain't seen 'em since.\"\n\nHe remembers when the order was given to abandon ship. He jumped into the harbor, even though he had never passed his swimming test.\n\n\"When somebody says get out of here and you're on a hundred tons of ammunition, well, you don't question it,\" he says. \"If somebody in authority said do something back then, you didn't question it. I think that's what kept me living to this day.\"\n\nHe's not sure he'd have learned that lesson if he hadn't enlisted in the Navy. He says that decision was the best thing he could have done.\n\n\"I'd do it a hundred times more,\" he says.\n\nPROVO, Utah\n\nKen Potts eases around the side of the pool table, waving toward items like a museum tour guide in a back room.\n\n\"This shows where all the ships were,\" he says, pointing at a map depicting Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. \"There's the battleships … there's the Nevada, the Arizona, the Tennessee, the West Virginia, Maryland, the Oklahoma. The California was way down here.\"\n\nHe stops in front of a newspaper, the front page of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin with the headline: \"WAR! OAHU BOMBED BY JAPANESE PLANES\"\n\n\"That's one of the first extras that was put out that day,\" Potts says. \"I bought it at the receiving station in Pearl Harbor. It's in good shape for a paper.\"\n\nFarther down the paneled wall hangs a painting of the USS Arizona, the battleship Navy recruit Potts boarded in December 1939. By 1941, he worked the cranes on the ship, a job that entailed retrieving the Arizona's small seaplanes after they landed on the water.\n\nHe points out the cranes and the locations along the ship where he would tie up the motor boats he piloted to fetch supplies and ferry sailors to and from shore. He gazes at the picture.\n\n\"They were saying, when it first started, some of the ones whose station was up here – \"\n\nHe traces his finger up onto the main forward mast, to the crow's nest and the bridge. He clears his throat. \"They tried to jump off. Some of 'em made it, some of 'em landed on the deck. That was the end of it.\"\n\nA moment passes. He returns his attention to the cranes and the catapults that flung the seaplanes into flight.\n\n\"Once after we crossed the equator, one of the planes came back,\" he says. \"The sea was real rough when it came in and the sharks started gathering around. They called the Marines out with rifles to protect the plane and the guys while we hauled it in.\"\n\nPotts was returning to the Arizona with fresh produce when the first Japanese bombers dove into Pearl Harbor. He climbed aboard the ship, ducking to avoid bullets from the gunner planes. He helped rescue some of his shipmates. Seventy-three years later, he is one of just nine survivors of the attack on the Arizona.\n\nHe keeps the mementos from his experience – the maps, the photos, the clippings, the medals, the painting – in a room behind a door on the side wall of the living room in the house where he has lived for 54 years. He doesn't like to talk about the attack. Sometimes he can't control his emotions, so he declines speaking requests.\n\nBut he is proud of his service, of the other sailors on the Arizona. And there's a trophy in the corner the paneled room that means as much as anything else there.\n\nA few weeks after the war started, sometime in early 1942, Potts opened a letter from his mother. Why is the FBI checking up on you, she wanted to know. Someone from the bureau had been asking questions. He heard the same stories from his grandmother and his aunts.\n\nHe didn't know what to tell them. It scared him a little. Potts was working aboard an oil tanker, making short runs out of the harbor to refuel ships anchored off the coast. In the chaotic days following the Dec. 7 ambush, the Navy wasn't letting ships into the harbor, fearful the Japanese might send in more bombers.\n\nFinally, after a few weeks on the tanker, Potts was handed a new assignment. He would work in the port director's office, delivering sealed packets to the captains of Navy ships. Inside the packets were the captains' new orders, military secrets, classified information that required clearance to handle.\n\nThat's why the FBI was nosing around me, Potts thought.\n\n\"These captains of the ships, when they left the states, they had no idea where they were going, just that they're going via Pearl Harbor,\" Potts said.\n\nHe resumed one of his old jobs from the Arizona, piloting motor launches from the receiving station out to the Navy ships.\n\nPotts was based out of the port director's office – there were two, one at the harbor, one on the ninth floor of the Aloha Tower in downtown Honolulu – but he logged most of his hours at the controls of the motor boat, a Jeep or a station wagon.\n\n\"The station wagon was for the captains of some of the ships that would come in,\" he said. \"Not Navy ships, other ships. The Navy captain who lived on Waikiki Beach gave a lot of parties and invited these guys. I had to take them to the parties and sit there until it was over.\"\n\nThe parties sometimes dragged into the early morning hours.\n\n\"It was boring,\" Potts says. \"But it was a lot better than being shot at.\"\n\nHe tried to keep his thoughts on the work in the office. He tried not to remember the days after the attack. The day when they assigned him and a crew of divers to a motor launch and sent them to the Arizona to remove bodies of dead sailors.\n\n\"When they dropped that bomb that made our ammunition explode, it dang near broke the ship in two, so we couldn't go anywhere forward of that,\" he says. \"We took all the bodies we could find.\"\n\nWhen he reaches that part of his story, he stops. He can't relive those images anymore. He describes the store of booze they pulled out of safe and the money.\n\n\"One day our boat was stacked with two dollar bills,\" he said. \"They paid everybody in two dollar bills back then. We hauled it all back in.\"\n\nPotts stayed in Honolulu until the end of the war. He finally received his orders to return to the states. He would sail to San Francisco on one of the cruise ships refitted to move troops, the Lurline, or maybe the Matsonia.\n\nAs he was packing, a buddy warned him that his possessions would be searched at the port in San Francisco. If they found anything that belonged to the Navy or hadn't been approved, they'd take it.\n\nPotts picked up the Colt 45 he'd found on Ford Island on Dec. 7, 1941. The gun took away some of the terror he had felt from the moment he saw the first bomber, the panic he felt when he found the armories on board the ship locked. With a gun, he could defend himself. He had held on to it through the war.\n\nBut he didn't want to start his civilian life in the brig, so he left it in Honolulu.\n\n\"We got into San Francisco,\" he says, \"and they never even opened my bags. Never would've found it.\"\n\nHe bought another gun in the states and he is never far from it. A pistol sits on top of his television at home. He keeps it with him when he travels. And he keeps it loaded.\n\n\"It ain't worth a damn if it ain't loaded,\" he says.\n\nPotts returned to Illinois in late 1945 to await his formal discharge, hanging out in Chicago. He was still active, so would report to the Navy Pier each morning to check a list for the names of sailors who had been given duties for the day. His name never appeared and he would leave for the day.\n\n\"I came back to the pier one morning and my name was on the list to do KP work,\" he says. Kitchen patrol. Mess hall duty. Peeling potatoes.\n\n\"I went and found the head guy and by the time I got through explaining things to him,\" Potts says, \"my name was never on that list again.\"\n\nHis mother had moved to Decatur, Ill., by then, so he followed and took a job at a hardware store. He started chatting up a regular customer, a contractor, and got a job building houses.\n\n\"What houses they built!\" Potts says, shaking his head. \"That lumber was so damn green then, we used to kid we had to shoot the squirrels out of it.\"\n\nHe wasn't happy where he was, so he loaded up his big 12-cylinder Lincoln Zephyr and headed west. He stopped in the small town of Payson, Utah.\n\n\"They said what a wonderful place it was to live, with jobs and everything, so I bought a little place up in Spanish Fork,\" he says, \"I'm still looking for that easy money.\"\n\nWith his experience running cranes on the Arizona, Potts figures he could have landed a decent job at the Geneva Steel operation, but he didn't want to work shifts, so he worked as a carpenter again and eventually went into the used car business with a friend.\n\nHe moved to Provo and sold cars until 1990. He and his wife, Doris, have lived in the same house for 54 years.\n\nThe paneled room behind the door in the living room of the Provo house is filled with trophies of almost any imaginable sort. Two deer racks (his wife shot one, his son the other). Guns. Knives. A bow. An impressive collection of restaurant menus from 30 years of cross-country searches for used cars.\n\nAnd in the back corner, a real trophy. It sits a little higher than most items, but not necessarily on a platform. It fit in that location. And it holds deep meaning for Potts, even though he did nothing to win it.\n\nPotts had not returned to Honolulu in the decades since he left for San Francisco in 1945. He wasn't ready to see it all again, to sharpen the memories he'd tried to dull.\n\nIn 2006, one of his sons offered to take Potts to Hawaii for the 65th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. He stayed on the 17th floor of a hotel on Waikiki Beach. He visited the memorial and was relieved to see the builders got it right.\n\n\"It's one of the best actual memorials I've seen,\" he says. \"It's where the war started.\"\n\nFive years later, in 2011, he got a call from the band director at Timpview High School in Provo. The marching band had been invited to fly to Pearl Harbor and perform at activities commemorating the 70th anniversary of the attack.\n\nThe band members had decided they wanted to honor survivors from that day. Would Ken be willing to go as a guest of honor? The band would cover all expenses for him and Doris.\n\nPotts was touched. He could see the band was sincere. To prepare for the trip, they were studying World War II history, attending lectures, writing research papers. They offered to perform at a gathering of Utah survivors. How could he say no?\n\n\"Talk about treating you like royalty,\" he says. He was able to visit the national cemetery at an area called the Punch Bowl. He watched the band perform and stood as a survivor of the Arizona, one of the sailors who lived. He went out to the floating memorial.\n\n\"I got the lay a wreath in front of the names of the fallen,\" he says quietly.\n\nWhen he returned home, he got another call from the band director. The band had won a trophy in one of the competitions during their stay in Honolulu. They had voted. They were dedicating it to Potts and wanted him to have it.\n\nHe squeezes past the pool table, past the photos and the maps and the medals. Here is a story he will tell, a memory he will keep.\n\nThe trophy sits on a small white base that raises it above other items on a shelf. It is about three feet tall, with a carved island figure on top and the silhouette of a Hawaiian warrior on a plaque. The inscription reads \"Spirit of Aloha Award, Timpview High School Marching Band.\"\n\nHe touches the trophy.\n\n\"It's my pride and joy.\"\n\nLA MIRADA, Calif.\n\nFor 30 years, Lauren Bruner punched a clock at a manufacturing plant south of Los Angeles, a World War II veteran in a landscape crawling with them.\n\nNo one knew much about Bruner's years in the Navy, not the early years anyway. The easy stories he'd tell. The ones that gave him nightmares, the stories from the day he nearly burned to death, he kept to himself.\n\nYet in a place where you couldn't cross the street without running into a war vet, Bruner was not just another ex-sailor who made it home. Only 335 men survived the bombing of the USS Arizona, the mighty battleship whose loss at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, inspired a nation to go to war.\n\nBruner was one of them.\n\nBy 1991, the 50th anniversary of the attack, the number of living Arizona crewmen had shrunk. Survivors' groups wanted to find all of them so their stories would not be lost.\n\nA woman from Illinois drew Bruner's name. No one among the groups knew where he was or what he was doing, but the woman persisted. She tracked him to the Los Angeles area, then started a phone search.\n\nFinally, she located some of Bruner's tax records and found his address and telephone number.\n\n\"No one knew where the hell I was,\" Bruner says. \"I was here all the time. When they sent me my discharge, I just stayed here.\"\n\nThe woman helped connect Bruner with other survivors from the Arizona and Pearl Harbor. He finally found people who understood his experience.\n\n\"I never talked about it much then,\" he says. \"I just didn't want to. I still get to the point when I'm talking about it, first thing you know, I go to bed at night, wake up and can't sleep for a week.\"\n\nBruner, who turned 94 in November, is now one of nine living USS Arizona crewmen who survived the ship's sinking. He has been telling his story to an author, Ed McGrath, who is working on a book and a film about Bruner's escape from a collapsing tower on the ship.\n\nThe survivors' group that found him was right, he has concluded: The stories of the Arizona should not die with the men who lived them.\n\n\"The kids coming up now have never heard of it,\" he says, his voice tinged with sadness and dismay. \"Never heard of it.\"\n\nBruner was at his battle station in an anti-aircraft gun director, a metal box on the forward mast of the Arizona, when an armor-piercing bomb ignited the ship's powder magazine. The fireball from the explosion engulfed the six men in the box and trapped them.\n\nA sailor on the deck of the repair ship Vestal spotted the men and threw a line across. Their skin charred and falling off, the men crawled down the line to the Vestal. Bruner was the second-to-last man to leave the sinking ship.\n\nHe won't talk much about the escape, or about the men who didn't make it across. Nightmares invade his sleep when he remembers those final moments.\n\nFrom the Vestal, Bruner was taken to the USS Solace, a hospital ship in the harbor. The Solace dispatched motor boats to the Arizona to rescue wounded sailors and her crew pulled others from the water.\n\nBruner was burned over more than two-thirds of his body. He had taken a bullet to the back of his leg as he was climbing the tower, but the burns were far worse. He stayed aboard the Solace about a month. In January, another ship took him to San Francisco to the Navy hospital on Treasure Island.\n\nHe was treated there for four months. Before the war started, a hospital stay that long would have earned a sailor a discharge, but not anymore. He knew he was near release the day an officer came by and launched into a pep talk about the war and the Navy's role in it.\n\n\"I got another ship for you,\" the officer said at last.\n\n\"OK,\" Bruner said. \"What's up with this one?\"\n\n\"It's a brand new destroyer, the Coghlan, DD-606,\" he said, \"built right here in 'Frisco.\"\n\nAs the war with Japan intensified, the Navy was building new warships as fast as it could. And the ships needed experienced sailors.\n\nBruner was put in charge of the gun batteries. The ship carried four 5-inch anti-aircraft guns and six half-inch machine guns, and, initially, five 21-inch torpedo tubes. The guns used the same type of control mechanisms Bruner had mastered on the Arizona. Sight-setters and pointers would locate targets visually and determine their distance and range. An electro-mechanical computer would aim the guns.\n\n\"I had to start training the new recruits on every machine,\" Bruner said. \"The new ones, they didn't know beans.\"\n\nBruner looked each recruit in the eyes to determine the right job, but he wasn't testing their mettle, not yet. He wanted men with eyes set in the right place on their face. He looked for what he called medium spacing. With eyes too close or two far apart, a crewman could deliver faulty readings.\n\nThe Coghlan left San Francisco in September 1942 and sailed toward Pearl Harbor for an assignment. The ship was still a day away from Honolulu when the captain received new orders. The ship was to turn around and steam toward Alaska.\n\nThe Japanese military had established strategic outposts in the Aleutian Islands and had its eye on Alaska. Japan wanted the northern Pacific to control its shipping routes and block U.S. attacks from that direction.\n\nThe Coghlan approached the Aleutians in October, as winter was pushing fall aside. The sea turned rough, tossing the ship with 40-foot swells, bouncing the vessel like a rubber ball in a washing machine.\n\n\"When we got up into the Aleutians, we started banging on the Japanese that had already landed,\" Bruner said. \"We'd patrol at night. They were trying to replenish submarines or send smaller ships in. We'd go out and blow them up.\"\n\nBy winter, temperatures plunged below zero. The Coghlan's crew battled just to keep the guns free of ice as they headed toward their next target.\n\n\"We had to have two crews, a regular crew and a stand-by crew lined up waiting,\" Bruner said. \"We'd send two guys out to knock the icicles off the guns, then they'd high-tail it back in. By the time they were back, the icicles were forming again and two more guys would go out.\"\n\nThe Coghlan supported Army landings and Navy bombing runs. In March, the crew turned back Japanese forces in the Battle of Komandorski.\n\nLate in the year, after an overhaul in San Francisco, the Coghlan returned to patrol duty off the Aleutians with a half dozen other U.S. vessels. The ships encountered a Japanese fleet, two big cruisers, six destroyers, some troop ships, and engaged.\n\n\"We lit into them, started firing on them,\" Bruner said. \"This went on for four straight hours. We got into a run-and-gun battle. One of our cruisers, the heavy cruiser, got hit and water got into the oil. They were dead in the water.\"\n\nFinally, the four U.S. destroyers were ordered to mount a torpedo run.\n\n\"We took off,\" Bruner said, \"firing just as fast as we could. We got as close as 5,000 yards, which was point-blank for those ships. We cut the torpedoes loose.\"\n\nThe Americans stopped the Japanese ships and wiped out some of the top officers. The Coghlan turned back, almost spent. Another five minutes, Bruner figured, and they'd have run out of ammunition.\n\nBruner and the Coghlan returned to Honolulu and finished out the war in the South Pacific. The ship accompanied General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines and was anchored in the harbor off Nagasaki, Japan, when the second atomic bomb exploded.\n\nBruner toured Nagasaki in a Jeep with other Navy officers and chief mates. A few days later, the drove through the crumbling streets of Hiroshima. The cities were in ruins. But the war was over.\n\n\"When I got back home, my doctors here wanted to know about my medical background,\" Bruner said. \"I would tell them. They said, 'You should have been dead a long time ago.'\"\n\nHe finished his stint in the Navy in Shanghai, working shore patrol the way he did back in Honolulu. He was cut loose in San Francisco and returned to Los Angeles, where he had married a girl back in late 1942.\n\nOne day, a young fellow knocked on his door.\n\n\"Hi,\" he said, introducing himself. \"I'm planning to marry your wife's sister, but I've got to have somebody take my place at work. I wanted to know if you could do it for a couple of weeks.\"\n\nBruner thought it an odd request. He asked what the fellow did.\n\n\"I'm a painter,\" he said. \"A brush painter.\"\n\nBruner laughs as he remembers the conversation.\n\n\"Well, I'd brushed enough paint on that damn ship, I figured I could do it,\" he says. \"I said, 'sure, I'll take it.' I still had to wait 29 years for that guy to come back and take his brush back.\"\n\nHis new employer manufactured industrial refrigeration units. Bruner started as a painter, trained as a carpenter, then helped start a new sheet-metal department. Almost three decades later, he was the plant manager, second-in-command.\n\nThree months before he would mark 30 years with the company, he was let go, bought out like a lot other older workers in those days.\n\nBy the time the woman from Illinois found him, he was ready to face his past.\n\nBruner lives alone , in a post-war neighborhood in the far northern edges of Orange County. Trains run close enough to hear the horns during the day, but not close enough to make them a nuisance.\n\nAn avocado tree grows in the backyard. Bruner's neighbor, who has become a close friend and a source of transportation, picks the fruit to keep it from rotting on the ground. Long a bachelor again, Bruner has also entertained lady friends from time to time.\n\nBruner keeps mementos of his time on the Arizona in the sitting room. Framed medals. Photos of the ship and other survivors at reunions in Honolulu. A sign over the arched door marks the room as \"Captain's Quarters.\"\n\nFor a long time, he didn't think he would ever return to Pearl Harbor.\n\nNow, Bruner prepares for his next trip in the Captain's Quarters. He will meet three other survivors in Hawaii for their last reunion. He looks forward to his time with the guys from his years in the Navy.\n\nThe first couple of trips back to Hawaii were difficult. The ones after that were, too.\n\n\"It never gets easy to go back,\" he says.\n\nSo why go back?\n\n\"To see the people I knew back in those days,\" he says. \"They were very good days before the war. I even had a couple of dates with girls.\"\n\nHis mouth quirks into a smile.\n\n\"I was on a date on that Saturday night with a gal I'd been running around with,\" he says. He doesn't need to say which Saturday night by now. \"We're were out and around. We were going to have a date the next day.\n\n\"The next day never came.\"\n\nMORRIS, Okla.\n\n\n\nLonnie Cook was born in this rural town south of Tulsa, not long after it was founded as a stop on the Ozark and Cherokee Central Railway. Only a few hundred people lived there then. Today, the population can almost reach 1,500 when everyone is home.\n\nCook enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and was assigned to the USS Arizona, one of the largest battleships in the fleet with a crew that, at full complement, numbered more than 1,500.\n\nAbout a year after he boarded the ship, he ran into a young recruit named Clyde Williams, a fellow from Okmulgee, Okla., a few miles down the road from Morris. All those sailors from all those places and here was a guy who was practically a neighbor.\n\n\"I was back here on leave before the war started and he was here too,\" Cook says. \"We picked up a couple of girls and made the rounds. Then we had to go back.\"\n\nCook was a gunner's mate on the Arizona. Williams was in the Arizona's band.\n\nOn the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Cook was changing clothes at his locker, savoring the thought of a day in Honolulu with the $60 he'd won in a craps game the night before. Williams was on deck, tuning up to play for colors, an early call after the previous day's fleet Battle of the Bands on shore.\n\nMinutes later, the Japanese attacked and the Arizona was on fire, sinking beneath the surface.\n\nCook made it off alive. He returned after the war to his home along the railway in eastern Oklahoma. By then, he'd seen the world, witnessed history before it was history. His ships steamed across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal to Africa. He fought with other sailors in the Battle of Midway and watched the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima.\n\nBack on land, Cook followed welding jobs from Kentucky and Pennsylvania to New Jersey and Long Island, west to North Dakota and Wisconsin and finally to a ranch house in Salinas, Calif., where he raised a family and stayed put for almost 30 years.\n\nBut one day and one place in Cook's 94 years seem to embody all the rest, the day in December 1941 when the young sailor from Oklahoma escaped the ship that sent America to war.\n\nSeven decades later, he is one of nine living survivors from the Arizona. His story is always in demand, though he'd just as soon not tell it in front of a lot of people. He remembers all the details and most of what happened later.\n\nAnd he still likes to talk about that other young fellow from Oklahoma, the one who didn't make it home.\n\nWhen he left Morris the first time in 1939 after high school, Cook wasn't sure where he'd end up. Jobs were few, so he set off for Warner, Okla, with the idea of playing football at Connors State Agricultural College.\n\n\"They told me the team was already picked,\" he said. \"I said goodbye and left.\"\n\nHis mother suggested Hills Business College in Oklahoma City. He enrolled, but after a couple of weeks, the noisy streetcars and the police sirens kept him up all night.\n\n\"I went back and told my mother I wasn't going up there anymore,\" he said.\n\nBy April 1940, the Navy seemed like a good idea and by summer, he was on board the Arizona, stationed at Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.\n\nHe was assigned a battle station in the No. 3 gun turret. His job was to put the primer in the big 14-inch gun. Other crewmen would roll out the shell, use a mechanical device to ram it in, then load four bags of powder behind it. The primer went in last, before the end of the gun was sealed shut.\n\n\"From down inside, it wasn't too bad when they fired it,\" Cook said. \"It was like a hard jolt.\"\n\nCook made it to his battle station on Dec. 7, 1941, but the Arizona was moored in a cramped harbor and couldn't have fired the big guns even in a prolonged assault. Cook and the other men stayed below deck until the smoke from a fire forced them to leave.\n\nThe bomb that shattered the Arizona's bow exploded as Cook and the others climbed out of the turret. He stepped off the deck into a motor launch as the ship was sinking.\n\nThe next morning, the Arizona was still burning as oil flowed out of her full tanks. No one seemed to be in charge on Ford Island, where Cook had spent the night. He met up with some of the guys from the turret crew and they hopped a boat to shore, where there was a call for volunteers to join the Navy's destroyers.\n\n\"We said we'd volunteer if they'd put two or three of us together on the same ship,\" he said. \"They agreed.\"\n\nCook was assigned to the USS Patterson, then two months later, transferred to the Aylwin, a destroyer that had been moored at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7 and engaged the bombers as the attack began.\n\nIn February, the Aylwin was part of a U.S. task force preparing for a raid on a Japanese base at Raubal, on the island of New Britain near Australia. Enemy patrol planes spotted the ships and the raid was canceled. As the ships turned around, a squadron of enemy bombers appeared. The ships sent up their own planes and turned back the assault.\n\nIn May 1942, the Aylwin joined a task force in the Coral Sea with the USS Lexington, one of the Navy's early aircraft carriers. On the morning of May 8, the fighting intensified as American aircraft tried to turn back the enemy planes.\n\nJapanese torpedo bombers hit the Lexington and crippled the big ship. Explosions rocked the vessel and fires burned into the evening. The crew was evacuated and another U.S. destroyer scuttled the Lexington to keep the Japanese from capturing her.\n\nYears later, at a reunion in Tucson, Cook learned that one of his buddies from the Arizona had been sent to the Lexington and was in the Coral Sea when the carrier was attacked. He had settled in New Mexico with his family.\n\nCook got the buddy's telephone number and tried to call him. The buddy wasn't home, but his son-in-law answered.\n\n\"Can you tell me what ship did he go on after the Arizona?\" Cook asked.\n\n\"The Lexington,\" the son-in-law said.\n\n\"Was he on it when it sunk?\" Cook asked.\n\n\"Yes, sir, he was.\"\n\nCook never got a chance to catch up with his buddy, but marveled at the connections he seemed to make from his short stint aboard the Arizona.\n\nA month after the Coral Sea battle, Cook's ship was part of the American forces in the critical Battle of Midway. After that, he steamed north to Kodiak, Alaska, where other Navy ships were trying to turn back Japanese inroads throughout the strategically important Aleutian Islands.\n\nBefore the year was out, Cook was sent to gunnery school in Washington, D.C., and to the South Boston Navy Yard, where he joined the new destroyer Pringle on its shakedown cruise.\n\nAbout halfway through the cruise, the Pringle was ordered to accompany the battleship Iowa to Africa, where President Roosevelt was to attend a conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Morocco.\n\nDuring the conference, the Pringle sailed into the Mediterranean Sea and anchored in a river. One day, some smaller boats sailed past. One of the men started yelling.\n\n\"Is there anybody there from Oklahoma?\"\n\nThere were: Cook and another crewman. The man in the boat was from Muskogee, a town about 40 miles east of Morris.\n\nLonnie and Marietta Cook met in Morris after the war, but the road to their home here today winds thousands of miles across the country.\n\nCook was discharged in 1948 in San Diego and stuck around California, where he worked as a metal finisher at Van Nuys manufacturing plant. That didn't last long and he headed back to Morris, where he met Marietta.\n\nShe likes the story of how they tied the knot. He tries to abbreviate it: \"We went to California and got married.\"\n\n\"Tell them the rest,\" Marietta prompts.\n\n\"She went to California and I followed her,\" Lonnie says.\n\nMarietta shakes her head. \"He called me one night and said if you won't let me come to California, I found a lady who's got a new black Buick and I'm going to move to Texas.\"\n\n\"It was a new Mercury,\" Lonnie says.\n\n\"I said, 'Well, come on, then,'\" Marietta says, and in 1950, they wed.\n\nThat's where the cross-country adventures begin. Cook worked in California, mostly welding jobs, until the union he belonged to called a strike. He headed east and landed in Paducah, Ky. From there, he worked jobs in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and back to New York, where he welded 20-inch gas lines going through Brooklyn.\n\nHe returned to Oklahoma again and started his own business, outfitting a one-ton Ford pickup with a winch and other equipment that let him work the oil fields. A while later, he and Marietta were on the road again, to a missile base in Sturgess, S.D., to gas lines in Wisconsin and North Dakota.\n\nFinally, they made their way to Salinas, Calif., just inland from Monterey on the central coast. They bought a small ranch and, while Lonnie continued to work welding jobs, they grew walnuts, almonds, peaches, apples, nectarines, cherries and grapes.\n\n\"I canned 500 quarts of fruit one year,\" Marietta says. \"I really miss it.\"\n\nLonnie finally retired from welding in 1982 and in 1994, the Cooks moved back to Morris. Lonnie had taken up trap shooting and hoped to do a little hunting back home. It turned out little was the right word. He hasn't hunted in a while, though he still reloads his own ammunition on a garage workbench.\n\nAfter so many years of travel, the Cooks have settled into a more tranquil pace. They spoil their granddaughters and can now move on to a new great-granddaughter. Once a week, they motor on into Tulsa, where Marietta takes a china painting class and Lonnie wanders the aisles of sporting-goods stores.\n\nOccasionally, they head into Okmulgee for an evening out at the One Fire, a casino operated by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.\n\nCook has returned to Pearl Harbor three times and he likes the Arizona memorial. It is respectful. He's not so fond of the crowds around Honolulu and doesn't plan to go back.\n\nAs he talks about Pearl Harbor again, other memories surface.\n\nCook was the gun captain on the Pringle at the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. The ship provided fire support for the Marines going ashore. Cook stood on a shelf in the gun mount with his big binoculars and watched the Marines raise the flag to mark the U.S. victory.\n\nAbout a month later, Japanese suicide bombers sunk the Pringle near Okinawa.\n\nDuring his voyage to Alaska, Cook remembers the flying fish, which stirred up the water like a torpedo wake. That was enough to rattle nerves on board the ship, which was at general quarters every day an hour before sundown and an hour before sunrise.\n\n\"The nights up there were already short, so I didn't get much sleep,\" Cook says. \"That's what I'm catching up now. When she says anything, I tell her I'm catching up from the war.\"\n\nA few years ago, the Cooks attended a fund-raising dinner at a local American Legion post. Cook is invited to such events occasionally and sometimes introduced as an Arizona survivor.\n\nAt this one, he was looking around the room and he saw a picture of a sailor way back in the back, in a setting arranged like a memorial. He squinted and thought about where he was.\n\n\"That must be old Clyde Williams,\" he thought, the Arizona band member killed at Pearl Harbor.\n\nHe walked back there. Sure enough.\n\nIt was Clyde.\n\nROSWELL, N.M.\n\nHis name was Cactus Jack and to his fans in southeastern New Mexico, he was the dulcet-voiced host of Sagebrush Serenade, a program of country music on KSWS radio.\n\nHe was in the studio on Valentine's Day 1955 when a nervous young man walked in. He was the opening act for country superstar Hank Snow that night at the North High School auditorium. He had a record, a new song he was trying out.\n\n\"Would you like to listen to it?\" the young man asked.\n\nJack shrugged. \"Sure, let's see it.\" He put the disc on a turntable and dropped the needle.\n\nWhat he heard wasn't quite country music, but he liked it and he told the kid. Song's got some zip to it, he said. He agreed to play it on his show.\n\nThe song, \"Hound Dog\" and the singer, Elvis Presley, both went over pretty well, the way Cactus Jack remembers it.\n\nFor a lot of people, meeting Elvis and playing one of his first records on the air might sound like one of life's truly unforgettable days. But John Anderson, the Navy chief petty officer who called himself Cactus Jack on the air, had a good head start already.\n\nHe had chased Japanese soldiers along the coast of China three years before America declared war on Japan. In World War II, he fought at Guadalcanal, in the battle of the Coral Sea, at Okinawa and Iwo Jima. He fought cold and hunger on a ship nearly dead in the ocean off Alaska.\n\nAfter the war, he worked as a stuntman for Orson Welles and John Wayne and helped build Alan Ladd's house in the hills outside Hollywood.\n\nAnd he was aboard on Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, a pivotal moment in history, but one that struck Anderson to his core. There, he lost his twin brother\n\n\"It was a bloody catastrophe, a bloody mess,\" he says. \"I don't think I'll ever forget what I saw that day.\"\n\nAnderson always talks about his brother, Delbert \"Jake\" Anderson, when he tells the story of his own escape from the burning ship.\n\nHe is one of nine living survivors of the Arizona and, at 97, he has amassed a lifetime of unforgettable days.\n\nAnderson grew up in the Red River Valley of northern Minnesota, the son of a prominent local judge. He had five brothers, including Jake, and four sisters, all grouped so close in age that paying for college wasn't practical for their folks.\n\nAs a youngster, Anderson heard stories about the Navy from his uncle, a man named Ray Stokes. Uncle Ray was nearing the end of his career in 1937 when John and Jake both decided to enlist.\n\nJohn was sent from training camp in Illinois to Bremerton, Wash. He was assigned briefly to the Arizona, then to the Saratoga, an aircraft carrier, then, as the Navy tinkered once more with its troop alignment, back to the Arizona.\n\nBefore the big battleship could leave Puget Sound, Anderson volunteered for another mission, joining the small Asiatic Fleet along the coast of China.\n\nAnderson went aboard the USS Edsall, a destroyer that supported various military action at sea and ashore. Japan and China were at war again and America was trying to protect its interests without getting involved in the conflict.\n\n\"We saved people on commercial ships on the seas, we rescued missionaries in the interior of China, we shot up a bunch of pirates,\" Anderson said.\n\nAt Kulangsu, an international settlement on an island off the southern Chinese coast, Anderson's unit ran into the French Foreign Legion, who had been cornered by Japanese soldiers on a high ridge.\n\n\"I'd never seen so many guys with so much guts,\" he said. \"They were holed up behind sandbags, but they never got hit.\"\n\nThe Edsall sailed farther north, then headed to the Philippines, where they played baseball with a group of indigenous Moros, who had fought the United States more than 20 years earlier.\n\n\"We were told to watch out for them, these guys were assassins,\" Anderson said. \"We made friends. We left and never fired a shot at them.\"\n\nIn 1940, Anderson reported to the Arizona once more, joining his brother for the first time since they had enlisted. They would serve together for a little over a year.\n\nThe day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Anderson volunteered for duty on the Macdonough, a destroyer that downed at least one of the Japanese attack planes on Dec. 7.\n\nThe ship steamed toward the Asiatic Pacific and soon Anderson was chasing Japanese forces again, only this time the United States was at war. This time the objective was clear.\n\nThat summer, the ship joined others for the invasion at Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands, one of the first major assaults against Japan by the Americans. The Macdonough stayed until September, then sailed back on patrol in the Pacific.\n\nIn the spring of 1943, the Macdonough headed north toward the Aleutian Islands, where Japan was trying to establish strategic strongholds that could control shipping lanes and thwart allied attacks on the Japanese islands.\n\n\"It was rough weather, foggy, raining cold,\" Anderson said. \"Here we are, we can't see the enemy. We can't see our own ships. Then we got hit.\"\n\nThe Macdonough had collided with another destroyer, the Sicard. The ship was dead in the water. The crew unloaded anything they could do without, to keep the damaged hull above the water line. They knew the oil tanker Tippecanoe was out there, but couldn't see her.\n\nFinally, the tanker spotted the destroyer. Anderson spoke to one of the tanker's crew about towing the Macdonough. The fellow he was talking with recognized Anderson's voice and they realized they had served together on the Yangtze Patrol before Pearl Harbor.\n\nThe tanker towed them to Adak, Alaska, and from there, another ship took the crippled destroyer to San Francisco for repairs.\n\nOver the next year, Anderson would sail across the South Pacific, joining other ships in the American assault on the Marshall Islands, Parry Island and the Palau Islands. The Macdonough pulled picket patrol often, protecting other troops and guarding against kamikaze attacks by Japanese planes.\n\n\"We made so many landings,\" Anderson said. \"We would go in with a landing party or we furnished artillery for the landing force. Sometimes we never landed, but we kept the line, always watching out for kamikazes.\"\n\nOn a fall day in 1945, John Anderson teetered on the base of a church steeple 110 feet above the ground. The steeple clock chimed and a statue of an angel wielding a sword emerged from an alcove and knocked Anderson off the steeple.\n\n\"Cut!\" a director yelled. A stunt coordinator helped pull Anderson from the pile of cigarette crates that had broken his fall. Anderson had finished his first day as a Hollywood stunt man.\n\nThe job wasn't what he expected in September, when he was discharged from the Navy. He had a ticket home to Minnesota, but decided to find a place to stay and come up with a plan.\n\nAs he walked past a bar, still in his Navy uniform, a fellow popped out the door and looked Anderson up and down, checking him out more closely someone would ordinarily.\n\n\"What are you looking at?\" Anderson demanded to know.\n\n\"You,\" the fellow said. \"Are you in the Navy?\"\n\n\"I was,\" Anderson said. \"I just got discharged. The war's over.\"\n\n\"Would you like a job?\" The fellow told him to report to the front gate of Sam Goldwyn's studio in Hollywood on Monday morning. He gave Anderson the name of a contact there.\n\nAnderson decided he had nothing to lose. After an initial run-in with the guard at the gate (\"Three weeks ago, I was shooting at people and killing them and I didn't even know who they were,\" he growled at the guard. \"You I know.\") he met his contact and not long after, he was standing in for Orson Welles in a scene from the movie \"The Stranger.\"\n\nIt turned out most of the regular stuntmen were still in the military. The studios needed tough men who could handle dangerous situations. The job paid $700.\n\n\"Next thing you know, I'm in a movie with John Wayne,\" Anderson says years later. \"I didn't have any speaking parts, but I was working for the studio and they paid me.\"\n\nHe got to know Alan Ladd, who had starred in a series of war movies. When the regular stuntmen returned and the studio cut loose the subs, Ladd hired some of them to work on his house in the Holmby Hills above Los Angeles.\n\nAt nights, Anderson was taking classes in meteorology and electronics, trying to learn skills that could help him stand out among all the returning servicemen and women.\n\nOne day, he stopped for coffee at the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood. He felt a tap on his shoulder. He saw Gene LaRocque, a man he'd served with aboard the Macdonough.\n\n\"Are you out of the Navy, Andy?\" LaRocque asked. When Anderson said he was, his old friend was incredulous. \"Andy, you had 12 years of the damnedest fighting I ever saw. You're the bravest man I ever know. You can't leave the Navy.\"\n\nLaRocque took Anderson to San Pedro, where his current ship was anchored. He introduced him to other officers. By the end of the day, had persuaded Anderson to sign up for the Navy Reserve. Put in eight years at least and you'll have a pension, he promised.\n\nAnderson would serve another 23 years before finally retiring once more.\n\nAnderson's road to the radio booth started in Hollywood, with a screen test at a studio where he had worked. He waited for the result. You have a great voice, he was told. Why not try radio?\n\nSo he did. He started on a small station, playing organ music. An administrator at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, N.M., heard Anderson and talked him into joining the school to help improve its radio station and start a television station.\n\nAnderson picked up and moved to New Mexico. He clashed with the station manager of the radio station and finally quit. Or got fired. Or both. That led to a job in Roswell, the Sagebrush Serenade and Elvis Presley.\n\n\"They played country music because the people here loved that,\" Anderson says. \"Some of the ships I was on had guys who liked to play the guitar, so I knew something about it. The owner said, 'give it a name and say who are. Anything you choose is fine. You're on your own, every day.'\"\n\nAs Cactus Jack, Anderson made a few concessions to his seagoing past.\n\n\"I cleaned up my language,\" he says, admitting he deployed a salty vocabulary, even after leaving active duty. \"In the service, if you didn't use nasty words, you weren't a good sailor.\"\n\nA few years later, a new station owner showed Anderson his plans to start a TV station. He said he wanted Anderson to join the on-air staff. Did he know anything about meteorology?\n\nAnderson smiled. Did he ever. Soon, he became one of the earliest TV weathermen and an evening fixture in Roswell homes, or at least those with televisions.\n\nNot long after he returned to Pearl Harbor near the end of the war, Anderson searched out some of the battle reports from Dec. 7, 1941. He knew his brother hadn't made it off the Arizona alive, but he didn't know much else.\n\nHe found a report by a gunner's mate. The report said most of the guys in the anti-aircraft batteries, where Jake fought, were shot down early in the assault. When the fourth bomb detonated in the powder magazine, anyone left was blown over the side.\n\nAnderson has returned to the Arizona memorial often and has taken his family there. He has met many of his old friends and shipmates. Many have since died.\n\n\"It's always a great thing for me to see them,\" he says. \"That's what I want to remember. The things I don't want to remember was the blood.\"\n\nAlthough he is 97, he decided he couldn't miss a final reunion this year and he bought his tickets early. He wanted one last unforgettable day.\n\nUPDATE: John Anderson died in November 2015, less than a year after this report.\n\nCOLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.\n\n\n\nDonald Stratton completed the paperwork for a concealed weapons permit at the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and approached the counter to submit fingerprints.\n\nHe was still adjusting to his new life in Colorado, hundreds of miles inland from his old home in coastal California and more than a mile higher in elevation. He had turned 90 and was starting over again.\n\nAs he waited, he had a feeling he knew what would happen, but he didn't say anything. A clerk tried to complete the process, normally a routine, if messy, step to secure the permit. She returned, puzzled.\n\nThey were having trouble reading his prints, she told Stratton. It was as if he had none.\n\nStratton hesitated, then confirmed her suspicion. His fingers were almost smooth, lacking all but a few of the swirls that create an identity.\n\nStratton told her why: He had been aboard the USS Arizona when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941. He survived, but was burned badly over two-thirds of his body. Doctors treated him and he recovered, but the his fingers never healed properly.\n\nThe clerks decided they could not send Stratton away without his permit. They found a way to take prints from the edges of his fingers, enough to satisfy the law.\n\nAs he recounts the experience, he rubs his hands together, then holds them out, turning them over. He pushes his shirtsleeves up to show his arms. He motions toward his gnarled ear. He catalogs the scars and their origin.\n\nThey are the marks of a survivor, 73 years on. They are reminders of a moment in time he can never escape, a moment he sees again and again.\n\n\"Through all that, I never did lose consciousness,\" he says. \"I knew everything that was going on.\"\n\nAs the USS Arizona burned and sunk into the harbor, Stratton and five other men had been trapped on an anti-aircraft gun control platform on the ship's foremast, burned in a fireball when below-deck ammunition exploded.\n\nA sailor on the repair ship Vestal, tied up nearby, spotted them and threw them a line. The men, their charred skin peeling away, climbed hand-over-hand across the line to safety.\n\nStratton and other men climbed into a small boat that took them ashore. They still had to climb onto the dock and then into a truck for a short ride to a Navy hospital. The burn ward filled with the injured. The smell of burned skin filled the air. Doctors and nurses wove among gurneys, administering morphine shots and looking for the victims most in need.\n\nWithin a day or two, someone came into the ward and said a few of the wounded would be sent to California. He asked for volunteers.\n\n\"I'll go,\" Stratton said.\n\n\"No,\" the worker said. \"We don't think you'd make it. Maybe next time.\"\n\n\"I want to go anyway,\" Stratton said.\n\n\"Fine,\" the worker said. \"If you can stand up and stay up while we change the linen on this bed, we'll see about it.\"\n\nStratton climbed to his feet and, biting back the pain, he stood and when his bed was ready, he collapsed back into it. By Christmas, he was in a hospital at Mare Island near San Francisco. He stayed there for months. He weighed 92 pounds by the time he was sent to rehabilitation in Corona, Calif. Finally, the Navy gave him a medical discharge.\n\nA year later, he felt better, so he re-enlisted. The Navy wanted to keep him in Idaho, working with new recruits at a boot camp, but he pushed for a seagoing assignment and wound up on the destroyer USS Stack as a gunner's mate.\n\nHe saw action across the South Pacific, patrolled areas where suicide bombers were attacking American destroyers. Once he was awakened by a loud noise and a flash and thought his ship was under attack.\n\nIt wasn't, but the flash was a reminder, as if he needed anything more.\n\nBefore the end of the war, he went to San Diego for gunner's mate school. He finished his training and was discharged in December 1945.\n\nStratton grew up in the tiny prairie town of Red Cloud, Neb., about as far away from an ocean as any place in the country. He joined the Navy because it seemed like a better environment.\n\n\"You either had a nice place aboard a ship and were high and dry or you didn't have anything,\" he reasoned. \"In the Army you were crawling around in the mud and everything else and I didn't want to do that.\"\n\nAfter his second discharge, he knocked around Nebraska again, working in his dad's tavern, then on a beer truck, but he grew bored. He decided to head back to the water. In California, he earned his naval seaman's license and went to work on a drilling rig offshore near Santa Barbara.\n\nHe made bargemaster on a huge drilling rig, but yearned for something more interesting, so he got a job as a tender with a commercial deep sea diving business. As a tender, he stayed on the surface, monitoring the divers working on rigs, piers, pipelines, any piece of seaside or seagoing equipment.\n\nStratton logged thousands of miles of travel. Nicaragua. Chile. Colombia. Kuwait. In Alaska, he helped set up platforms that could keep up with tides that rose and fell as much as 32 feet.\n\nIn his dining room in Colorado Springs, he keeps a replica of a hard diving helmet, the kind his divers used. The face plate is glass and around the bottom are screws that would secure it to the diving suit. Stratton falls easily into the memories of his years on diving boats.\n\n\"We worked with a crane barge capable of lifting 700 tons,\" he sys. \"I motioned to crane operator what we needed, what tools to send down.\" He touches the diving helmet. \"I ran the decompression chamber on jobs. Once, I made a dive in a two-man submarine, down in over 1,200 feet of water off Santa Barbara coast. One of the first people to do that.\"\n\nFor years, Stratton wore the scars from the Arizona without talking about them much. Lots of men brought home scars from World War II and Korea. The offshore diving business could leave its own kind of scars.\n\nIn 1966, 25 years after the attack, Stratton returned to Pearl Harbor with his family. In the waters off Honolulu, he confronted his memories. It was the first time Randy, his son, had seen his father cry.\n\nIn the years after, he became active in survivors' groups and started going back to Pearl Harbor more often. At the USS Arizona memorial, he became friends with a National Park Service historian and inspired a Pearl Harbor action figure that the service sold at the gift shop.\n\nIn time, he felt no anger toward the Japanese, but he couldn't forget what they did. Sometimes, Japanese pilots attended memorial ceremonies and some of the other survivors would shake their hands. Stratton could not.\n\n\"Listen, all those men down there on that ship, a thousand of them, they wouldn't do it and I don't think they'd want me to do it,\" he says. \"We can't forget what happened there that day. We can't let it happen again.\"\n\nA while back, Stratton and his wife Velma retired to Yuma and lived there about 15 years. He played a lot of golf, but missed California. They moved to Santa Maria, not far from Santa Barbara, to be near their oldest son, then to Colorado Springs to be near Randy. They will celebrate 65 years of marriage in April.\n\nThe Stratton men have taken up a more personal cause. He wants to secure a proper medal for Joe George, the sailor from the Vestal who helped rescue the six men from the gunner's control tower.\n\nA lot of people agree that what George did was heroic, but the Navy balks at every step, in part because George disobeyed a direct order.\n\n\"He should have the Navy Cross,\" Stratton says. \"He saved six people's lives. Joe saved six lives and he didn't get crap. He refused to cut the line no matter what. As far he was concerned he was saving lives.\"\n\nIn 1971, Stratton was working long hours with a diving outfit on a nuclear power plant project not far from Santa Barbara. He needed a truck to carry equipment back and forth, so he scouted out a car lot and bought a 1965 Chevrolet pickup.\n\nHe kept the truck, held on to it through repairs, engine overhauls, new paint jobs. It sits today in the carport outside his home. He still tools around town in the truck, but it's a classic now, so he drives it almost as often to car shows.\n\nHe can tell stories about his years with the diving crews, but the truck has evolved into a reminder of another time. The license plate reads USS ARIZ. A mural on a white bed cover depicts the USS Arizona and the memorial that floats above it in Pearl Harbor. It identifies Stratton as a survivor of the attack that sank the ship.\n\nWherever he goes on the pickup, people ask him about his experience. Yes, he'll say, he was on the Arizona and he survived. Yes, a lot of brave men died. Yes, some of them were his friends.\n\nHe still remembers the day he saw the Arizona in dry dock at Bremerton, Wash.\n\n\"It was quite a sight for an old flatlander like me to see a 35,000-ton battleship out of the water,\" he says. \"It was a big ship with a lot of metal, I'll tell you.\" He owns a chunk of the ship's burned deck, a reminder he keeps in a box with a few other items.\n\nOn a recent fall afternoon, Stratton ambles down the driveway and fires up the engine. He eases the truck out of the carport, far enough to show it off. He fiddles with the radio.\n\n\"Randy, come and turn on the music box.\" His son reaches in the cab and queues up one of the hundreds of songs he and his daughter downloaded onto the new MP3 player.\n\n\"Lots of big band songs,\" Randy says, as the first bars of a brass line pour from the speakers. \"The stuff he likes.\"\n\nHow lucky can one guy be?\n\nI kissed her and she kissed me\n\nStratton's eyes brighten. A smile spreads across his face as Dean Martin's voice fills the cab.\n\nLike a fella once said\n\nAin't that a kick in the head?\n\nThe smile widens. Almost imperceptibly, he sways.\n\nWEST WARWICK, R.I.\n\n\n\nThe six men stared straight ahead, almost as if they were back in line, at attention. They listened for their names and their service branch. They stayed composed as their stories were told, stories of bravery, of quick thinking. Stories of survival.\n\nEach of the six men were at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese planes swarmed the Navy fleet in an ambush that would provoke war. On the 70th anniversary of the attack, the men had been brought to the state capitol to receive new honors.\n\nAs each name was read, Rhode Island National Guard Maj. Gen. Kevin McBride presented the man with the Rhode Island Star, one of the state's highest military honors.\n\nWorld War II veterans are a special breed, Lt. Col. Denis Riel said as the men accepted the medals. Without them, Riel said, who knows where we'd be today.\n\nMcBride reached the last man, Raymond Haerry, a 20-year-old coxswain on the day of the assault. Haerry straightened in his seat as his story was told. He had escaped the USS Arizona, the battleship whose losses surpassed any other.\n\nFor Haerry, McBride had a the state's highest military honor, the Rhode Island Cross. Haerry accepted the medal, but found he could not speak. He handed the microphone to his son, Raymond Haerry, Jr., who spoke of his father's courage and resilience.\n\nThree years later, Ray Haerry Jr. holds the cross in his hand, fighting back tears.\n\n\"I hadn't told him he was going to be individually honored that day,\" he says. \"I had to help my father out of his seat. He stood strong and tall right in front of this general. I heard the general say, 'You're a remarkable guy.' I think it was one of the proudest days of my father's life.\"\n\nHis dad has never sought recognition for his service on the Arizona and barely talks about the day of the attack. He will tell his story to people he knows well and trusts, but he is 93 and the details are fading from his memory.\n\nIn 2011, he was one of six Rhode Islanders who had lived through the attack on Pearl Harbor, the only one from the Arizona. Today, he is one of nine remaining survivors from the mighty battleship.\n\n\"I do as much as I can to keep his story alive,\" his son says. \"It's always been my fear that people are going to forget that day, that people are going to forget the sacrifice that was made that day.\"\n\nHaerry ran away from home to join the Navy. He grew up in New Jersey and after high school, enrolled at MIT in Boston. He was smart enough to excel, but started cutting classes not long after the start of his first semester.\n\nHe and a buddy would sneak off campus and hop freight trains to see how far they could get. He missed enough of his classes that he was finally asked to leave. As soon as he turned 18, he enlisted in the Navy.\n\nOn the Arizona, he worked on the deck crew. He cleaned and painted day after day, but he also operated the motor boats used to ferry crew members to shore, a job that let him leave the ship periodically.\n\nHaerry had made two runs to shore on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. It was Sunday and some of the crewmen with liberty wanted an early start. He was eating breakfast when he heard the first pops of the attack planes strafing Battleship Row.\n\nHe ran to the anti-aircraft battery, his battle station, but there was no ammunition ready. He could see the planes were flying too low for his guns anyway, but before his crew could figure out their next move, an armor-piercing bomb detonated near the powder magazine beneath the No. 2 gun turret.\n\nHaerry felt the entire ship life out of the water. As it fell, he was thrown from the ship into the harbor. He half-swam, half-walked the 70 yards to Ford Island and manned a mounted machine gun. He spent the rest of the day retrieving bodies from the harbor.\n\n\"He remembers body parts in the water, charred burned bodies that he swam by,\" his son Ray, Jr., says. \"Something had happened that no one could comprehend.\"\n\nHaerry sailed on Navy ships through World War II and again during the Korean conflict. He spent long months on a tender, a vessel that carries equipment, parts and other supplies for ships at sea.\n\nOn one mission, Haerry's tender was tied to a larger ship as the crew delivered supplies and completed maintenance tasks. The sky began to darken and the wind grew. A storm was approaching, a big one by the looks of it.\n\nThe tender didn't want to be tied to the larger ship when the worst of the storm blew through. High winds could slam one ship into the other and sink one or both of the vessels.\n\nHaerry held the rope that connected the ships as another crewman swung an ax to cut it. As the boat heaved, the man with the ax missed and hit Haerry's hand, nearly severing it from his wrist. He did not reach a hospital for several days, but doctors still saved his hand.\n\nA year after World War II ended, Haerry went home for a while and married a girl he'd met not long before. He and Evelyn had their first son, Ray, Jr., in 1947.\n\nFor a while, the young family lived in Puerto Rico as Haerry, now a chief boatswain's mate, drew new assignments aboard his tender.\n\n\"He was out to sea nine months out of the year, only home for three months,\" Ray Jr. says. \"He was very military by then, very disciplined.\"\n\nAfter he returned from Korea, Haerry was promoted to master chief petty officer, signifying his experience and level of service. He had turned down a promotion to ensign, preferring the camaraderie of the enlisted ranks.\n\nAt his request, he was assigned to the officer candidate school in Newport, R.I. He left home at 5 every morning and took a ferry from Jamestown to the Navy base. He liked teaching and liked the chance to instill discipline.\n\n\"I've gotten letters from some of the officer candidates who had my father as an instructor,\" Ray Jr. says. \"They said he was a tough bastard, but that's exactly what they needed.\"\n\nHis service on the Arizona also seemed to give him added credibility among the young sailors. They respected a guy who survived such a horrific attack.\n\nThere was a tradition at the end of training that the graduates would give the chief a silver dollar. Haerry would come home on those days with cigar boxes full of the coins.\n\nFor a long time, Haerry never talked about his experiences at Pearl Harbor. He displayed no pictures, kept no mementos that his family knew about. He would answer questions, but in short bursts of description, with no emotion.\n\n\"The only people he would talk to were either very close friends or relatives,\" his son says. \"He'd always have to be prompted.\"\n\nIt took Ray Jr. years, decades to piece together his father's story. He would draw out snippets and stash them away, collecting them until he would weave the barest narrative.\n\nAs anniversaries of the attack passed, Ray Jr. would asked his dad if he wanted to visit the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor.\n\nNope. He wanted to part of it. He's never been back.\n\n\"I can understand that,\" Ray Jr. says. \"To go through that to me is incomprehensible. Nobody was expecting anything like that.\"\n\nHis dad will return finally at his death. Ray Jr. has arranged for his father's remains to be interred in the sunken Arizona, an honor accorded any of the sailors or Marines who survived the attack.\n\nThree years ago, Ray Jr. received a call from a lieutenant colonel in the Rhode Island National Guard. He told Ray about the plans to honor Pearl Harbor survivors at the statehouse. One of the survivors would receive the Rhode Island Cross.\n\nAs they talked, Ray mentioned that his dad had been aboard the Arizona. That caught the lieutenant colonel's interest. He called back a few days later.\n\n\"We found our guy,\" he told Ray Jr.\n\nFive years ago, Haerry moved into a nursing home, He stays in a room on the second floor. Thickets of tangled shrubs and rows of trees are visible from his window.\n\nThe nurse who checks in on him regularly likes Haerry. She prods him to move around more and to leave the room for meals. He has told her about his escape from the Arizona.\n\nRay Jr. seems surprised. \"He told you the story?\" She nods and smiles.\n\nHaerry accepts the chocolate bars his son has brought him. He likes chocolate and is disappointed if Ray Jr. forgets it. There are a few personal photos on the table, but nothing from his years in the Navy.\n\nExcept the cap. The USS Arizona ballcap that almost every survivor owns and wears.\n\nHe doesn't want to answer questions about his war service, shrugging them off or insisting he can't remember the details anymore. But he clutches the cap and puts it on as he sits in an easy chair by the window.\n\n\"These guys were the first heroes of the war, even though the war hasn't been declared,\" Ray Jr. says. \"I think my dad was one of the first American heroes of World War II.\"\n\nHe and his father chat a little. Haerry says he wants lunch delivered to his room, but the nurse says no. You need the exercise. Haerry nods and like a good sailor taking orders from the chief, he pulls himself up with a walker and shuffles off to lunch.\n\nYUBA CITY, Calif.\n\nJoe Langdell found a table in the wardroom of one of the ships moored in Pearl Harbor and sat down with his breakfast.\n\nThree days had passed since Japanese bombers had punched a fiery hole in the Navy's Pacific fleet. Three days since the war started.\n\nCrippled ships still floated around the mooring posts along Ford Island. Repair crews were already at work on the battleships that had survived. Salvage work would begin soon on others. Sailors found food and shelter wherever they could.\n\nLangdell's ship, the USS Arizona, lay dead in the water where she sank 14 minutes into the attack. The mast and towers near the bow tilted at a sickening angle. Fire had blackened much of the structure still visible.\n\nLangdell heard someone enter the room.\n\n\"Are there any officers from the Arizona here?\" he said.\n\nLangdell was an ensign, an entry-level officer, not yet a year in the Navy. He was nervous about volunteering for anything, but he raised his hand.\n\nThe man walked over and looked at Langdell's name tag.\n\n\"Mr. Langdell,\" he said, \"when you're done with your breakfast, you'll report to the pier and you'll be met by a motor whale boat and a party of 20 enlisted men with sheets and pillow cases.\"\n\nWhat is this? Langdell thought.\n\n\"You will go to the Arizona and you will take off all the bodies and body parts above the water line,\" the man said. \"Cover the decks, anywhere you can find them up to the top of the masts.\"\n\n\"So that's what we did,\" he says, staring out at the harbor nearly seven decades later.\n\nLangdell is one of the last nine survivors from the Arizona. At 100, he is the oldest.\n\nHe was on Ford Island when the Japanese attacked, training for new assignment. His own battle station was beneath the gun turret shattered by the last bomb to hit the Arizona. From the shore, he helped wounded men from the water, men whose bodies had been torn apart by bombs and bullets and fire.\n\nBut he could not be prepared for what he found on the charred hulk of the battleship. He still will not talk about it. His younger son believes the experience changed his dad forever.\n\n\"How could it not?\" the son wonders.\n\nLangdell says only this: \"It took two days to take all the bodies. We carefully wrapped them in sheets. The body parts we put in pillow cases. We swept the decks and took the small bones. Everything was taken ashore and properly taken care of.\"\n\nLangdell arrived at Pearl Harbor along a different path than many of the young sailors, who signed up for the service because they were unable to find work as civilians.\n\nBorn in 1914, seven months after the first bolts were tightened on a new battleship in Brooklyn, Langdell grew up wooded agricultural area along the Souhegan River in southern New Hampshire.\n\nHis dad operated a livery stable and a small dairy and later earned money as an auctioneer. The family sold maple syrup distilled from the trees on their farm.\n\nAfter high school, Langdell enrolled at Boston University, working nights to pay for his classes, and in 1938, he earned a degree in business administration. He went to work as a junior accountant for a prominent Boston firm.\n\nBut he became restless. He signed up for a Navy program that allowed college graduates to attend officer candidate school and emerge as ensigns within three months. By early 1941, Langdell was one of the \"90-day wonders\" and drew his first assignment: The USS Arizona.\n\nAfter Pearl Harbor, Langdell asked for a posting on one of the new destroyers the Navy was set to launch. He was soon aboard the USS Frazier, which left the shipyard at San Francisco in July 1942.\n\nThe Frazier patrolled the South Pacific at first, but in early 1943, steamed northward toward Alaska, where Japan was trying to secure positions in the Aleutian Islands.\n\nOne day in May, crewmen spotted two periscopes in the water and the Frazier opened fire. The guns hit the periscope. Using its sonar equipment, the ship fired depth charges and eventually sank the enemy submarine.\n\nToward the end the war, Langdell was stationed in the Philippines, at a base in Manila. Among his responsibilities was overseeing the naval officers' clubs in the area.\n\nOne morning, he was at his desk, catching up on paperwork, when he heard a vehicle screech to a halt outside. A young sailor ran in, out of breath.\n\n\"Mr. Langdell, Mr. Langdell, you've got to come here quick,\" he said.\n\n\"What is it?\" Langdell asked.\n\n\"It's easier if you come see it,\" the sailor said.\n\nThey hopped in a Jeep and head up the hill toward one of the Quonset huts, the one where liquor for the officers' clubs was stored. As they walked toward it, Langdell reeled at an odor. Alcohol.\n\nInside, he found broken bottles scattered in a soggy soup of booze and cardboard. Someone had stacked the boxes too high and in the humid environment of the island, the cardboard had grown damp and weak.\n\nThe boxes had collapsed.\n\nLangdell was discharged at the war's end and returned to Massachusetts, where his wife, Libby, waited.\n\nJoe had met Elizabeth McGauhy in Chicago half a decade earlier. He was attending midshipman's school at Northwestern University. She was attending an art academy to learn dress designing. They met at a dance at the YWCA on North State Street.\n\nThey danced. They went out for coffee afterward. They continued to see each other and, when Langdell left for Hawaii, they corresponded, often.\n\nAs he prepared for his new posting on the Frazier, Langdell decided to make a move. He asked his brother, Ted, to visit Libby and see if she could cook. The report: Oh, yes, she can cook.\n\nJoe proposed and Libby accepted. They would be married in San Francisco, before the Frazier set sail. The only question was how Langdell would send Libby word about his arrival from Pearl Harbor. The Navy censors would never allow such information in a letter.\n\nLangdell knew Libby was friends with a skater in the Ice Follies, which was summering in San Francisco. He wrote Libby a letter and suggested it would be a good idea if Libby visited her friend on or about a particular date. Libby got the message.\n\nThey were married in an Episcopal Church on Van Ness Avenue. Langdell had borrowed a car, a Dusenburg, for the honeymoon. Libby had arranged stays north of the city. Friends told them when the left the church, keep the water on their left.\n\nWhat they didn't count on was the side-street parking. Langdell took a right turn instead of a left and the newlyweds didn't realize their mistake until they stopped for gas in Gilroy, about 80 miles south of San Francisco.\n\nThe Langdells ended up honeymooning in Monterey and Carmel on the central California coast.\n\nAfter the war, Langdell returned to the family auction business in Massachusetts, but after all those years in Hawaii, the Philippines and in the tropical South Seas, he couldn't readjust to the cold. He and Libby moved west to Walnut Creek east of San Francisco.\n\nThey eventually bought a home-furnishings outlet farther inland and finally built their own store in Yuba City, north of Sacramento. They ran Joe and Libby Langdell's Village Mart for more than 20 years until they retired.\n\nOccasionally, they would close the store and hook a 33-foot trailer to a pick-up truck. They traveled around the country, meeting up with other USS Arizona survivors, with shipmates from the Frazier. Keeping the memories alive.\n\nLangdell returned to Pearl Harbor in 1976. His oldest son had joined the Navy and his first posting was aboard the USS Ouellet, a frigate. The family visited the Arizona memorial and toured other sites near the harbor.\n\nBefore the trip, Langdell hadn't talked much about his years in the war, about his time on the Arizona. Afterward, Langdell sought out other survivors who had formed reunion organizations. He was active in those groups for many years, serving as president of one devoted to the Arizona.\n\nAs the 50th anniversary of the attack neared, Langdell got a call from a documentary filmmaker. He wanted to interview Langdell for his project. He was also interviewing a Japanese pilot named Zenji Abe, a pilot who had taken part in the raid on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Would Langdell agree to meet Abe on film?\n\nThe two men not only met, they took a boat to the USS Arizona memorial and laid a wreath in front of the wall with the names of the crewmen who died on the ship.\n\nIn the documentary, \"The Life and Death of a Lady,\" Langdell and Abe speak, side by side on the memorial. Abe offered condolences and said he prayed that all their souls were at peace.\n\nLangdell said much more.\n\n\"It is only by the grace of God that I stand here today,\" he said. \"I witnessed your attack from Ford Island. Helpless, I watched your bomb sink the Arizona in nine minutes.\"\n\nSentiment ran high against the Japanese, he said, but also against U.S. leaders whose decisions many questioned in the aftermath. He acknowledged the wreath.\n\n\"I appreciate your thoughtfulness. It took more courage on your part to present this wreath than it did for me to accept it.\"\n\nIn 2006, Langdell walked along the steep shoreline of Ford Island, the Arizona memorial in the background. He told his story as his son, Ted, recorded it on video.\n\n\"The lesson I've learned from that experience is that the 1,177 men entombed on the ship right now will never know the love of a wife or the joy of grandchildren,\" he said. \"It's just not going to happen. We all have to remember that they did not die in vain.\"\n\nOn Oct. 12, Langdell celebrated his 100th birthday with with his older son, John, who flew in from Spearfish, S.D. On Veteran's Day, he participated once more in a parade through Marysville, the next town over from Yuba City. But he doesn't tell his story anymore, not on his own.\n\nLangdell lives now in a skilled nursing center. He has trouble remembering the past. He struggles to speak at times (though when he's feeling good, he likes to flirt with the nurses). He sits in his wheelchair as his son recites the narrative, keeping his father's story alive.\n\nPhotographs hang on the walls of his room. His wife, Libby, who died two years ago. His kids and grandkids. Pictures of past parades. A framed painting of the Arizona, the repair ship Vestal next to it.\n\nHe likes to wear a cap that identifies him as a veteran of the Arizona.\n\n\"Why do you like the hat, dad?\" Ted asks.\n\n\"It acknowledges to people that I'm a survivor,\" Joe replies, his voice soft. \"The hat represents the Arizona.\n\nTed asks him about the ship.\n\n\"The Arizona was a fighting battleship,\" Joe says. \"One of the last ones…\" He talks about going aboard the Frazier.\n\nLangdell will return to the Arizona once more. When he dies, his remains will be interred under the No. 4 gun turret, with the men who died there and survivors who had died since.\n\nA final tribute.\n\nUPDATE: Joe Langdell died in February 2015, months after this report.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/12/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2017/10/07/hurricane-maria-aftermath-dominica/742638001/", "title": "Delaware team brings glimmer of hope amid devastation and chaos", "text": "PORTSMOUTH, Dominica - A primary school here serves as a camp for refugees in their own city.\n\nSince Hurricane Maria slammed the “Nature Island” with 160-mph winds on Sept. 18, eight classrooms have been shared by more than 100 people.\n\nClothes hang on lines stretched across campus, and naked children bathe in the open. Dogs scratch their fleas where people eat meager rations.\n\nA father in the camp told Delaware doctors who had come to help that his 8-year-old son had endured nightmares since the storm, insisting Maria would return to kill them all.\n\n“He used to wake up every morning to see if we died,” Portsmouth survivor Deon Dinnard said of his son.\n\nThe doctors explained that the boy suffered symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.\n\nMaria left Dominica an island of stunned inhabitants and ruined rain forests, of towns and villages isolated from one another by blocked roads and spotty communication. Schools and other buildings are used as refugee centers for an estimated 3,000 people across the island.\n\nThe lush, green forests are now void of foliage, and the island is strewn with debris fields, giving it a barren brown color.\n\nInto this scene came the Delaware Medical Relief Team, a group of doctors, nurses and disaster zone veterans armed with all the medical supplies they could cram into a gaggle of suitcases.\n\nRoosevelt Douglas Primary School is now home for people taking shelter there, and no one knows how long they will be there.\n\n“For those that their houses are completely destroyed, nowhere to be seen, it’s just up in the air,” said Francillia St. Jean, who’s helped manage the makeshift shelter since the storm hit. “They don’t know if they’re going to go tomorrow, two months, three months.”\n\nA ferry from Dominica’s southern neighbor, St. Lucia, brought the medical relief team into view of the island Thursday afternoon, and they joined other passengers staring through starboard windows — wide-eyed and slack-jawed.\n\nThe island is naked.\n\n“The mountain range, it was entirely bare. It was brown. I’ve never seen anything like that before,” said Dr. Kathy Cornelius, a Baltimore doctor who joined the team in Dominica. “It gave me a sense of the destruction the island underwent, the beating nature took. Imagine what the individuals felt.”\n\nRoosevelt Douglas Primary is one of four shelters the medical relief team has visited since landing in Portsmouth. Darkness and a curfew limited their reach that day, but for the Delaware team’s leader, Christiana Hospital internist Dr. Reynold Agard, it was important to get started right away.\n\n“Even if it’s just two hours, we’re ready to go,” Agard told the team’s guide.\n\nAgard described the warm welcome the team received at the Portsmouth Beach Hotel as providence. A chance encounter with an American-born islander the day before connected him and hotel management, who put them up, fed them and took them by van from shelter to shelter.\n\nEmployees have cleaned up the hotel property, and a generator keeps the rooms lit into the night. An adjacent black sand beach is lapped by constant waves that echo in its rooms, and some of its fallen coconuts still are fresh enough to slice open for a drink.\n\nBut just beyond the hotel gates, the Portsmouth streetscape is twisted hell.\n\nTrees are a tangle of uprooted splinters. Scattered about still-standing houses are ruined appliances and furniture and twisted metal that earlier served as roofing material.\n\nAt least 27 people died in the storm, and hundreds more were injured or since have been injured. There are reports in the villages and towns of sickness and death, especially from eastern parts of the island where help apparently has been slower to reach inland communities.\n\nElectricity is returning in areas of Roseau and Portsmouth, the largest cities on an island with a population of about 72,000, according to an Oct. 2 report from the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency. But power poles lay strewn like fallen matchsticks across the country.\n\nCDEMA reports that the most immediate needs are food and water, with long-term needs focused around construction and roofing materials.\n\n“I’ve never seen total devastation like that, like the school where you see the books still in place but the roof and everything else is ripped off, like seeing the houses completely destroyed and wondering how these people are going to rebuild,” said Nicole McCarry, a Christiana nurse.\n\nIt’s worse in the inland villages where the medical team spent Friday offering care.\n\nIn the village of Paix Bouche on the island’s northern edge, the only sound ringing more commonly through the valley than the cuck-caw of roosters is the clanging of hammers on tin roofs. The village is proud of its drummers and singers, but these days what matters is its builders.\n\n“It’s a very united village. Everybody works together,” said Paix Bouche native Emerline Anselm. “Most of them are involved in construction, so they go there and help build homes. Most of the homes that are being repaired now, they talk about the boys from Paix Bouche going to do that.”\n\nMany didn’t return to the village Friday until the sun already was dipping down, and when they did, they made straight for the cantina in the center of town. The only drinks for sale came from an ice chest at the bottom of its steps, but the store itself was hosting Delaware’s healers.\n\nAgard set up his first Dominican clinic here after leaving part of the team farther down the mountain in the village of Dos D’ane to do the same. But to see his first patient, he had to make a house call.\n\nStiff-backed and in repose on a mattress in a Paix Bouche kitchen, Agard’s patient moaned and whimpered as the doctor tried to listen to his breathing. Sometimes he feels like he wants to vomit, the man told the doctor, and he barely could keep down the biscuit he had eaten that morning.\n\nAn older man who was sick before the storm, he was the worst case the Paix Bouche clinic would encounter Friday.\n\nThe rest, some 40 walk-ins, came to have their vital signs read, their medications restocked and their minds put at ease.\n\n“It was mostly just everyone wanting to make sure they’re doing OK,” said Beth Sargent, a Christiana nurse. “Surprisingly, most people were OK, but the people who were not had blood pressures in the 190s and 200s. Either they ran out of their medications or they never had any.”\n\nCynthia Joseph was healthy and felt good before she walked into the makeshift clinic, but it was more important that her 2-year-old daughter, Ciara Paul, got checked out.\n\n“I haven’t been to the health care clinic in a long time now, but I feel good today,” Joseph said. “And everything’s OK with her so that’s good.”\n\nBut like so many others in Paix Bouche, only fragmented concrete walls of her home were left standing after the storm.\n\nOne hundred percent of the nation’s agriculture is reportedly destroyed, and the main water supplies sustained significant damage.\n\nCDEMA reports Dominica’s roads and utility infrastructure is vulnerable to landslide and storm surge, both of which Maria brought with it.\n\n“This sometimes leaves communities entirely cut off from the rest of the island, particularly communities with single-road access in and out of these communities,” according to a CDEMA report. “Associated impacts are felt on communications, electricity and water since most of these are placed along major road networks.”\n\nThe United States, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Venezuela and the United Kingdom all have delivered food and water to coastal drop zones, according to the report. In collaboration with regional and international partners, CDEMA deployed more than 360 response personnel to provide support in the areas of search and rescue and damage assessment.\n\nAt least 120 Jamaican soldiers deployed to the island to aid in recovery efforts, according to the CDEMA report. The Canadian ship HMCS St. John’s conducted humanitarian assistance operations in the vicinity of Marigot.\n\nGuyana donated more than 85 tons of relief supplies to Dominica and Antigua, including water, food, tarps and chainsaws, and other nations have offered various forms of physical assistance and donations.\n\nExpatriate Merritt Wallick has learned more about the geography of Dominica in the past three weeks than in the three years he’s lived on the island. Its once-lush forests are now only slanted sticks, and without the canopy, he can study the rocky ridges from a distance.\n\n“Now we’ve got a dozen parrots in our yard every morning scrounging for the little bits of food they can find from the guava trees and the mango trees,” Wallick said. “It’s going to take a big toll on them.”\n\nThe former News Journal reporter and editor found Dominica in the pages of National Geographic and vacationed there. When it was time to retire, Wallick decided he didn’t want the same old routine sans a workday.\n\nSo in 2014 he and his wife, Elizabeth, decided to leave their comfortable home in Odessa for the new home the couple built on a mountaintop in Calibishie, on Dominica’s northern coast.\n\n“We didn’t anticipate the worst storm in history,” Wallick said.\n\nEveryone on the island underestimated Hurricane Maria, he said.\n\n“It grew very quickly. It was tropical storm to Category 5 hurricane in about 24 hours,” Wallick said. “Everybody was calmly preparing for it, and then it arrived.”\n\nWallick’s roof flexed half a foot in the wind, he said, and water gushed through heavy timbers.\n\n“Just like a hose being shot in your face,” he recalled. “Every time I thought it couldn’t get any worse, it got worse.”\n\nThe Wallicks emerged from their shelter to find their lime and mango trees knocked down or whittled into twigs.\n\nWhile the roof heaved, it held, Wallick said, because it was fortified with metal hurricane ties holding the roof to rafters.\n\nStill, the metal on the roof blew away, and the couple hasn’t had electricity since the storm passed Sept. 18.\n\nRELATED:Delaware Medical Relief Team runs into problems getting supplies to Dominica\n\nRepairs are slow. Construction materials are in short supply.\n\n“You can’t run down to Lowes and pick up a box of nails,” he said.\n\nWallick, 66, knows the road ahead will be arduous. And the unspoiled beauty that brought him here is now gone — at least temporarily.\n\n“It was so lush, and I believe it will be lush again,” Wallick said.\n\nThe former Delawarean said he likes the simplicity of life here and enjoyed watching farmers walk past his home on the way to work every morning. There are still farmers, but the farms are gone.\n\n“Help these people,” the expatriate said of his new neighbors. “Do whatever you can.”\n\nDominicans will be the first to tell you they’re a resilient people accustomed to disastrous weather. Gwendolyn Magloire is one of them, and she was one the first the Delaware Medical Relief Team met in Portsmouth after leaving the hotel.\n\nSitting alone in her room at the Dominica Seventh Day Adventist Secondary School, one of the area’s designated shelters, she told the Delaware team right away that the day before had been her birthday, so the relief workers sang her a song as she clapped, laughed and smiled.\n\n“How old are you now?” Magloire exclaimed, prompting the team to sing the next verse to the birthday song.\n\nThe answer is 99 and counting. But even at her age, Magloire never has seen a more powerful storm than Maria — no Dominican has.\n\nHurricane David ripped across Dominica in 1979 as a Category 5 storm and left a devastated island in its wake. Banana and sugarcane harvests were ruined, dealing a blow to an agricultural economy.\n\nEarl Darius Etienne, an artist from the town of Jimmit on the southwestern coast, lived through David and through Tropical Storm Erica, which unleashed torrents of rain strong enough to send parts of the mountains tumbling down like rivers.\n\nWEATHER:Hurricane Nate makes landfall as a Category 1 storm, expected to weaken\n\nNeither of them blew nearly as fiercely as Maria.\n\n“This was the most disastrous and life-threatening and terrifying storm I’ve ever seen in Dominica,” Etienne said. “This one was the mother of all hurricanes. We have never seen that in Dominica before. The noises that we heard, it was an eerie feeling.”\n\nHunkered down with his wife and his gallery’s curator, they bailed water as best they could throughout the storm. But he’s fortunate — or foresighted — because he built his home as a bunker, the way he said most islanders once did.\n\n“In this modern age, we have lost our culture,” Etienne said. “We have lost the way of building houses to withstand hurricanes.”\n\nWhen Maria unleashed her rains over Dos D’ane, it’s unlikely even a bunker would have saved the five lives lost there that night. The river swelled and washed away a home, sweeping it away along with everyone inside.\n\nOn Friday, an excavator peeled the remnants of a house floor from the heart of the village as a group of hapless onlookers stared.\n\n“I lost my uncle and two of my cousins,” said Benette Remy, a representative for Dos D’ane. “Debris blocked the bridge so the water backed up and just swept the house away.”\n\nHe returned to the island only a few days ago, having evacuated to a nearby island out of harm’s way. Friends sent him pictures, but the images did not convey the sense of destruction, the despair.\n\n“Seeing it in pictures and seeing it real, it’s two different stories,” Remy said.\n\nThe Delaware Medical Relief Team has seen only a fraction of the island and addressed only a fraction of its problems. But they didn’t come to save the world — just to be a part of that salvation.\n\n“You might just save one life. You might save no lives,” said Rich Agard, who’s joined his family on these missions across the world. “The point is we’re coming to help and we know what we’re here for so we’re doing it.”\n\nAll types of donations can be sent to Dr. Reynold Agard’s office at 314 E. Main St., No. 103, Newark, DE 19711. Checks should be made out to “Delaware Medical Relief Team.” Retired doctors or nurses who want to volunteer may call (302) 685-0181.\n\nFollow along with the Delaware Medical Relief Team's efforts on Twitter and interact with team members and our journalists using the hashtag #DelMedRelief.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/10/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2014/01/29/snowstorm-travel-disruption-south/5010845/", "title": "Freak Southern storm blamed for at least 13 deaths", "text": "Larry Copeland, Doug Stanglin, Doyle Rice and Gary Strauss\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nArctic blast has left much of Atlanta paralyzed\n\nNational Weather Service criticized for its forecast\n\nATLANTA — The arctic blast crippling much of the deep South has caused at least 13 deaths and created havoc for millions, prompting six states to declare emergencies and bringing criticism on the National Weather Service for its forecasting.\n\nGeorgia Gov. Nathan Deal, who mobilized the National Guard on Wednesday to rescue Atlanta-area motorists stranded on snarled, icebound freeways, blamed the state's early response on the Weather Service, which predicted the chaotic storm would hit farther south.\n\nTuesday's snowfall brought just 2.6 inches of snow to Atlanta, but it was a one-day record and enough to hamstring the region, creating nightmares for commuters, truckers, students and their families. Hundreds of flights were grounded at Hartsfield International Airport — the nation's busiest.\n\nDeal declared a state of emergency for Georgia. Similar declarations were issued for Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, At least nine people died in traffic accidents, including five in Alabama, two in North Carolina and 1 in Florida. Four people, including a three-month-old infant, were killed early Tuesday in a Mississippi mobile home fire near Fulton caused by a faulty space heater.\n\nSome commuters in the Atlanta metro area pleaded for help via cellphones while holed up in their cars; others gave up and trudged miles to their homes. Deal said there had been \"significant progress\" rescuing kids stranded at schools in counties around Atlanta, but at least 2,000 remained at schools in Atlanta, Fulton, Cobb and Douglas Counties.\n\nMarshall Shepherd, a meteorologist with the University of Georgia and president of the American Meteorological Society, said neither meteorologists nor the forecast for the Atlanta area was to blame.\n\n\"The buses had a tough time getting kids home, but meteorologists should not be thrown under the bus,\" he said.\n\nAt 3:39 a.m. Tuesday, Marshall said the weather service issued a winter storm warning for the entire Atlanta metro area, expecting 1-2 inches of snow. \"Overall, the Atlanta event was a well-forecasted and well-warned event,\" he said.\n\nThe weather service did say in an online briefing Tuesday morning, \"Leave work early if you can to avoid the rush and wintry precipitation combination.\" Drivers did so, which is what led to the traffic chaos.\n\nDeal said the weather service \"had continually had modeling showing Atlanta would not be the primary area (of the storm). It would be south of Atlanta.\"\n\nPoliticians of weather-stricken cities and states often face harsh criticism for slow response to disasters. Deal, a Republican, faces re-election this year. He said his goal was to reach every stranded driver \"and make sure we have enough shelter to get them off the roads and get them someplace warm.\"\n\nAlong with Deal, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is likely to face scrutiny in the coming days over the handling of the storm.\n\nToday meteorologist Al Roker said the traffic nightmare in Atlanta was caused by \"poor planning on the mayor and governor's part.\" Dalton, Ga., Mayor David Pennington, who's running against Deal for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, said, \"Government's primary role is to protect the people; Nathan Deal has failed miserably once again.\"\n\n\"I'm willing to accept whatever blame comes my way,\" Deal said. \"And if I'm responsible for it, I'll accept that.\"\n\nReed defended his handling of the situation. \"We got 1 million people out of the city of Atlanta in about 12 hours,\" Reed said. Moreover, the city's response was better than after \"Snowmageddon 2011,\" the winter storm that paralyzed the Atlanta metro that year, Reed said. \"Unlike the last event, when we had four pieces of equipment in Atlanta, this time we had 70 pieces of equipment, and we knew how to use it.\"\n\nReed said many of stranded motorists were on interstate highways, which are maintained by the state.\n\n\"This has been an ordeal for everyone,\" said Georgia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Natalie Dale. \"This storm and the bitter temperatures have caused so much difficulty, discomfort and anxiety for so many Georgians. We believe roadways will be restored to some level of normalcy today but would encourage the public to remain home, preferably all day.\"\n\nA police officer in suburban Atlanta helped assist the safe delivery of a baby girl on a gridlocked interstate Tuesday after snow and ice brought traffic to a crawl.\n\nSandy Springs Police Capt. Steve Rose told the Associated Press that a traffic officer arrived on the scene minutes before the infant.\n\n\"Fortunately he had his emergency lights on and people got out of his way,\" Rose said. \"The delivery was pretty flawless.\"\n\nDebbie Hartwig, a waitress at an Atlanta area waffle house, said she managed to keep her cool thanks in part to the kindness of strangers after 10 hours on the road.\n\n\"I'm calm,\" she said. \"That's all you can be. People are helping each other out, people are moving cars that have spun out or had become disabled. It's been really nice. I even saw people passing out hot coffee and granola bars.\"\n\nIn Alabama, where the storm stranded thousands at work, school or in cars overnight, mass school and business closings remained in Birmingham and Mobile. Gov. Robert Bentley's office said rescue personnel and medics in state aircraft were flying over Jefferson and Shelby counties conducting search and rescue missions for stranded motorists.\n\nBoth the timing and the amount of snow was not accurately forecast in Birmingham. Well-known Alabama TV meteorologist James Spann of ABC 33/40 said, \"In terms of human impact, yesterday's forecast 'bust' was the most significant for me since January 1982.\"\n\n\"I will say I have never seen this kind of impact on roads with 1 to 2 inches of snow in Alabama in my 35 years as a professional meteorologist. There was clear human suffering as a result of my bad forecast,\" Spann said.\n\nLouisiana highway officials closed over 20 highways due to icy conditions, including Interstate 10. There were limited flights in and out of New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport.\n\nIn South Carolina, state police reported over 800 traffic collisions since Tuesday afternoon. The Arthur Ravenel Bridge linking Charleston and Mount Pleasant on U.S. 17, as well as the bridges linking the two communities on Interstate 526 remained closed Wednesday afternoon. Bridges linking Hilton Head Island to the mainland were also closed for a time at midday Wednesday because of accidents on the icy spans.\n\nWhile the storm that gripped much of the Deep South has moved into the Atlantic, there is little chance of significant melting of untreated roads and bridges until Thursday. Most residents are unaccustomed to driving in such conditions.\n\nJeff Cox, a Dunkin' Donuts store manager in Montgomery, AL., said he fishtailed several times in his Nissan Pathfinder going home from work.\n\n\"You feel helpless when your car is going sideways,\" he said. \"We don't get this a lot. I don't think anybody here was really prepared. There was so much ice on the road, you were easily slipping and sliding. The South is just not equipped to have this much ice on the road.\"\n\nContributing: Talia Richman, in McLean, Va.; Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/01/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/06/how-were-pro-trump-rioters-able-breach-capitol-law-enforcement/6568796002/", "title": "'A colossal failure': How were pro-Trump rioters able to breach ...", "text": "WASHINGTON – The violence inside the U.S. Capitol building had turned deadly by Wednesday evening, as officials announced that a woman who was shot earlier had died. At least three others were injured and taken to hospitals after rioters, many waving Trump flags and wearing Trump garb, breached security at the Capitol building and swarmed the area.\n\nThe breach prompted an evacuation of the Senate chamber and a 3 1/2-hour lockdown before officials declared the building was secure. The FBI is also investigating reports of two suspected explosive devices, though both have been rendered safe.\n\nThis series of events, which disrupted what should have been a largely ceremonial democratic process of counting state-certified Electoral College votes, was a culmination of weeks of resentment fueled by President Donald Trump's false claims that the election had been stolen from him.\n\nThe security breach also raised questions about how demonstrators managed to force their way inside the Capitol and whether there was enough law enforcement presence, especially when threats of violence brewing for days on social media should have raised red flags.\n\nEarlier Wednesday, protesters crowded halls inside the Capitol building and climbed over chairs. Some made it inside the Senate chambers, while others sat inside lawmakers' offices. Shots and chemical irritants were fired.\n\n\"In my experience in 50 years in law enforcement, this is unprecedented,\" said John Magaw, a former Secret Service director.\n\n\"The coordination of security has virtually fallen apart. We are watching the deterioration of law and order in the U.S. It just becomes chaos. I don't see any sign that the current president is going to stand up and lead like presidents have led in the past,\" Magaw said. \"Our democracy is on the edge of a cliff.\"\n\nEd Davis, former commissioner for the Boston Police Department, said law enforcement should've been better prepared.\n\n\"There has to be political will to put resources in place to stop what clearly should've been seen. … This is the result of a lack of political will to control an attempted insurrection.\n\n\"What happened here is a colossal failure, and I believe it's a colossal political failure, not on the part of the police,\" Davis said. \"They were outnumbered and overrun.\"\n\nIt's unclear whether the Justice Department or the Department of Homeland Security were involved in coordinating a robust law enforcement response with the U.S. Capitol Police, which has jurisdiction of the area, before the protests. The federal agencies deployed a large number of agents during protests last summer in Washington and several other cities after the death of George Floyd.\n\nCONTRAST:Police shot at BLM protesters; Capitol response seems muted in comparison\n\nVideos on social media, which USA TODAY has not been able to independently verify, showed men in police uniforms taking selfies with and removing outdoor barriers for the rioters.\n\nRep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said a review of Wednesday's events \"will determine what failures occurred and why.\"\n\n\"The plans should have anticipated the potential for what happened today,\" Thompson said.\n\nActing Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said the Justice Department has sent hundreds of federal law enforcement officers and agents to assist Capitol police. \"The violence at our Nation's Capitol Building is an intolerable attack on a fundamental institution of our democracy,\" Rosen said in a statement.\n\nActing Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke late Wednesday with Vice President Mike Pence and congressional leaders about the riot at the Capitol.\n\n“We have fully activated the D.C. National Guard to assist federal and local law enforcement as they work to peacefully address the situation,” Miller said in a statement. “We are prepared to provide additional support as necessary and appropriate as requested by local authorities. Our people are sworn to defend the Constitution and our democratic form of government, and they will act accordingly.”\n\n'Intent on causing harm'\n\nThe protesters gathered at the National Mall early on Wednesday to protest election results. During a rally, Trump urged his supporters to go to the Capitol building.\n\nThe protesters came to Capitol Hill \"following the president’s remarks,” said D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee. “It was clear that the crowd was intent on causing harm to our officers by deploying chemical irritants on police to force entry into the United States Capitol.”\n\nWednesday afternoon, several Republican lawmakers called on Trump to strongly urge his supporters to back down. Doing so is the \"last thing you'll do that matters as President,\" Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said on Twitter. In a video posted on Twitter, Trump urged his supporters to \"go home,\" repeating false claims of a stolen election and telling them he loved them. He later tweeted that \"these are the events and things that happen,\" which many criticized as condoning the riots.\n\nJim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, said it’s premature to speculate on how or why protesters were able to swarm the Capitol.\n\n“We won’t know until it’s over. … You don’t analyze a battle while in the middle of it,” Pasco said, adding that demonstrators breaching security at the Capitol is “a national disgrace.”\n\nTerry Gainer, former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police who also served as the Senate’s sergeant at arms, described Wednesday’s protests as unprecedented in four decades in law enforcement.\n\n“It’s dangerous,” Gainer said. “This is a much more hateful crowd incited by the president himself. It’s definitely something new in our business.”\n\nGainer said there have been breaches of perimeter fencing and barriers at the Capitol, but he wasn't aware of any mass breach of the Capitol building.\n\nChuck Wexler, executive director of the think tank Police Executive Research Forum, said government officials are likely to look back at this and evaluate whether additional law enforcement resources might have been necessary.\n\n\"At this point, it's hard to say,\" Wexler said. \"Most demonstrations are peaceful, but then if they suddenly turn violent like this one did, it’s difficult for the police without a massive police presence to prevent it.\"\n\nNational Sheriff's Association President David Mahoney said protesters' actions were \"indistinguishable\" from those of antifa, a loosely organized far-left movement, \"or any other lawless groups who chose to destroy cities and communities.\"\n\nHistory of violence at the Capitol\n\nThough the rioting was unusual, there has been violence at the Capitol in past decades.\n\nTwo Capitol police officers – officer Jacob Chestnut and Detective John Gibson – were killed July 24, 1998, by a gunman who made his way into the first floor of the building on the House side between the chamber and the crypt.\n\nFive House lawmakers were shot and wounded March 1, 1954, by members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, which argued for the island’s independence. The four nationalists shot indiscriminately from the gallery above the chamber’s floor and unfurled a Puerto Rican flag. All were apprehended. A bullet hole remains in a desk that is part of the House dais, a reminder of the attack.\n\nA former Capitol police officer, William Kaiser, fired two shots at Sen. John Bricker, R-Ohio, on July 12, 1947, as he entered the subway tunnel linking the Capitol to Senate offices. Both shots missed, and Bricker jumped aboard an electric subway car to escape.\n\nContributing: Tom Vanden Brook and Deborah Barfield Berry", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/01/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/01/11/corrections-clarifications-2021/6629259002/", "title": "Corrections & Clarifications 2021", "text": "USA TODAY\n\nWe recognize that mistakes may happen — or that new information can emerge after a story is published — and we pledge to address all concerns quickly, fairly and transparently. If a correction or clarification is warranted, we will highlight that in the original file and explain to readers why the change was made. Any correction or clarification would also be published on our corrections log.\n\nTo report corrections & clarifications, contact:\n\nPhone , 1-800-872-7073\n\n, 1-800-872-7073 Email, accuracy@usatoday.com\n\nPlease indicate whether you're responding to content online or in the newspaper.\n\nThe following corrections & clarifications have been published on stories produced by USA TODAY's newsroom:\n\nDecember 2021\n\nTech: A previous version of this story misstated the distance the Webb telescope will travel. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2022/01/01/james-webb-telescope-its-way-talking-tech-podcast/9066873002/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of a criminal defense attorney based in Lake Wales, Florida. Her name is Sara Jones. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2021/12/27/police-reform-code-of-silence-solutions/8845611002/\n\nOpinion: A headline misstated the number of years Kendrick Fulton spent Christmas away from his mother. It has been updated. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/2021/12/24/first-christmas-mom-clemency/8915529002/?gnt-cfr=1\n\nSports: Bills wide receiver Cole Beasley was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list. He has said he's unvaccinated, which means he'll be out 10 days and miss Sunday's key game against the Patriots. https://twitter.com/usatodaysports/status/1473435703749062661\n\nSports: A previous headline on this story incorrectly referenced the manner of Vincent Jackson's death, which has not yet been announced by the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2021/12/16/vincent-jackson-former-nfl-wide-receiver-bucs-chargers-cte/8922090002/\n\nSports: A story in the Dec. 1 edition on Asia Durr returning to the WNBA after suffering from long-term effects of COVID-19 misstated her status for the 2022 season. She is under contract to the New York Liberty. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/wnba/2021/12/14/asia-durr-looking-forward-return-wnba-after-bout-long-covid/8892583002/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story misstated the first name of Army Col. Gregory Fix. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/12/08/us-troops-wounded-iran-al-asad-attack-get-purple-hearts/6434992001/\n\nSports: A story on Tony Oliva and Minnie Minoso elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in the Dec. 7 edition misspelled the surname of Chicago Cubs star third baseman Ron Santo.\n\nSports: A previous version of this story incorrectly characterized the journey bobsledder Kaillie Humphries took to get to Germany in time for competition. She flew out of San Diego. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/nancy-armour/2021/12/06/bobsledder-kaillie-humphries-wins-first-two-races-us-citizen/6407020001/\n\nMoney: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated a fast-food chain was experiencing a chicken tenders shortage. The story has been updated to remove that reference. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2021/12/05/chicken-tender-shortage-why-its-happening-and-what-else-you-can-eat/8879604002/\n\nNews: The previous video incorrectly identified the names of the parents of shooting suspect Ethan Crumbley. https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2021/12/04/michigan-school-shooting-suspect-parents-arrested-after-manhunt/8867410002/\n\nSports: In a previous version of this story, a photo incorrectly identified Virginia football coach Bronco Mendenhall. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/acc/2021/12/02/bronco-mendenhall-virginia-college-football-coach-stepping-down/8844667002/\n\nNovember 2021\n\nEntertainment: A previous version of this story incorrectly characterized how BTS’ remarks were translated for fans. The band was joined by a professional translator. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/11/29/bts-la-concert-megan-thee-stallion-crashes-stage-butter-remix/8790082002/\n\nNews: A previous version of this article misstated the historic nature of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan's position. Lisa Jackson was the EPA’s first African American administrator from 2009 to 2013, Regan is the second.\n\nNews: This story originally said the majority of people at the Judge Rotenberg Center were Black and Latino boys and men. But it should have said they account for 33% of people there. The article also stated that students could be put in “four-point” restraints or shocked for minor infractions; the facility says it does not use “four-point” restraints and such shocks are currently used only as a last resort. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/11/02/electric-shock-school-senators-lean-fda-ban-devices/6235461001/\n\nNews: A front page story Friday about misconduct in the National Guard incorrectly stated when The Washington Post reported on cronyism in the New Jersey National Guard. It was in 2015. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/11/25/national-guard-scandals-by-state/6093566001/\n\nNews: A Nov. 24 story on page 1A about the prevalence of “vehicle ramming” incidents misspelled the name of Bruce Butterworth of the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University.\n\nSports: In a story on the Nov. 23 Page 1C, a photo incorrectly identified the late Dallas Cowboys strength and conditioning coordinator, Markus Paul.\n\nNews: The Associated Press is replacing the story about the sale of a Miami mansion once owned by Madonna with this piece, which looks at how the tale of a German shepherd and a trust has long been used as a publicity stunt to dupe reporters. The AP fell for parts of the stunt and is removing the erroneous story. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/11/20/millionaire-pooch-selling-miami-villa-once-owned-madonna/8699633002/\n\nNews: A previous version of this story misstated when Social Security was passed into law and Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), the name of the organization that did the study. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/11/13/republicans-believe-america-has-changed-for-worse-since-fifties-survey/6389895001/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story misstated when the department called in an “EMS Task Force.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/11/09/astroworld-disaster-unfolded-private-medics-and-city-fire-lost-touch/6349933001/?gnt-cfr=1\n\nEntertainment: An earlier version of this story listed an incorrect name for Edwin Galea. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/11/09/crowd-safety-and-security-heart-astroworld-investigation-travis-scott-houston/6345460001/\n\nNews: A previous version of this story misidentified Michelle Wu's background. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/11/02/2021-election-live-updates-virginia-nj-governors/6238229001/\n\nOpinion: An earlier version of this column incorrectly stated the author's great-grandmother's age when she died. She was 25. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2021/11/01/supreme-court-texas-abortion-endanger-women/6235379001/\n\nNews: This story originally misstated the number of plaintiffs. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/10/28/white-supremacists-face-civil-trial-unite-right-violence/6180634001/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins. The general is a man. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/10/29/women-military-pay-more-keep-their-uniforms-up-date/8574208002/\n\nSports: Previous versions of these columns were edited to remove the team name after it had been originally published. Due to an editing change, the team name was inserted without the author’s knowledge. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2021/10/24/braves-freddie-freeman-reaches-world-series-breaves/6165300001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2021/10/20/braves-beat-dodgers-nlcs-game-4-eddie-rosario/6114024001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2021/10/17/braves-beat-dodgers-nlcs-austin-riley/8495229002/\n\nOctober 2021\n\nNews: An Oct. 28 story on Page 1A included an incorrect number of children who received the active Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in clinical trials. About 3,500 got the vaccine; 1,500 received a placebo. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/10/27/covid-vaccines-kids-5-11-what-we-know-dont-know/8554544002/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story misstated the name of an amicus brief. The correct case is Bostock vs. Clayton County. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/10/27/lgbtq-students-these-us-colleges-worst-most-unsafe-attend/8542486002/\n\nEntertainment: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated details about bullet casings from the incident. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2021/10/27/rust-shooting-santa-fe-sheriffs-alec-baldwin-live-round/8560736002/\n\nEntertainment: A previous version of this video showed a tweet from Rosanna Arquette with a photo of a woman who was not Arquette. The video has been updated to show Arquette. https://www.usatoday.com/videos/entertainment/celebrities/2021/10/26/alec-baldwin-targeted-conservatives-after-fatal-rust-incident/8553039002/\n\nMoney: An earlier version of this story misstated the width of Amber Otto's computer monitors. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/10/25/housing-market-fatigue-has-homebuyers-putting-their-searches-hold/6107249001/\n\nNews: Princess Blanding is running as a member of the Liberation Party. A previous version of this story misstated her party identification. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/10/26/virginia-governors-race-mcauliffe-youngkin-dead-heat-poll-shows/6172824001/\n\nSports: A previous version of this story misstated the location of Suffern (New York) High School. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/lacrosse/2021/10/21/madie-nicpon-tufts-dies-20-accident/6120026001/\n\nSports: A previous version of this story misidentified the team that's second in the Atlantic division of the ACC. It is North Carolina State. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2021/10/21/college-football-picks-predictions-top-25-ncaa-games-week-8/8521027002/\n\nSports: A previous version of this story included an incorrect dateline. The game took place in Atlanta. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2021/10/23/braves-defeat-dodgers-return-world-series/6161051001/\n\nOpinion: This column has been updated to correct the wording of the new Superman motto. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2021/10/21/superman-scraps-american-way/8505844002/\n\nNews: This story was updated Oct. 20 to correct the name of UCHealth, a nonprofit health care system based in Colorado. This does not affect the rating for this item. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/10/20/fact-check-hospital-requiring-covid-19-shot-transplant-patients/6036157001/\n\nNews: This story has been updated to reflect that a previous draft of the bill contained punishments of fine or detainment. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/10/18/china-law-would-punish-parents-for-kids-behavior/8510227002/\n\nEntertainment: An earlier version of this report included a photo misidentified as Lili Bernard. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/10/14/bill-cosby-accuser-sues-alleged-1990-rape-atlantic-city-hotel/8459040002/\n\nSports: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the repayment terms of loans the Southeastern Conference obtained to fund a supplemental distribution to its members. Repayment to the lenders from the SEC currently is required to occur over two years – fiscal 2025 and 2026 – but the conference can request two one-year extensions, which would extend the period during which the conference would reduce planned distributions to all of the schools. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2021/10/13/power-five-public-school-athletic-programs-lost-billions-covid-pandemic/8433913002/\n\nTwitter: A previous version of this video used imagery that does not align with USA TODAY’s standards. https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/1447890949758197765\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story used information from The Associated Press which incorrectly reported two earthquakes. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/10/10/earthquakes-hawaii-tsunami-threat-geological-survey-threat/6085015001/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this newsletter incorrectly stated the number of flights canceled by Southwest Airlines. https://www.usatoday.com/story/nletter/2021/10/11/indigenous-peoples-day-southwest-airlines-nobel-prize-daily-briefing/6086834001/\n\nEntertainment: An earlier version of this report incorrectly characterized how Pete Buttigieg and husband Chasten welcomed twins. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/10/08/pete-buttigieg-calls-parenting-twins-most-demanding-job/6059110001/\n\nNews: A previous version of this story misspelled the first name of Dr. Erroll Southers. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/07/31/biden-wants-openness-police-disciplinary-files-thats-hard-do/5422091001/\n\nEntertainment: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the author of “Never Fall For Your Fiancée.” The author’s name is Virginia Heath. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2021/10/01/best-winter-rom-books-eight-perfect-hours-the-ex-hex-and-they-lived-happily-ever-after/8181751002/\n\nNews: This article has been revised by Kaiser Health News to correct an inaccuracy. Anthem has not created its own network of facilities. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/10/05/anthem-united-major-insurers-behind-payments-hospitals-covid/5997173001/\n\nNews: The Powerball number in Monday night's drawing was 15. A previous version of this story contained incorrect information. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/10/04/powerball-jackpot-would-8th-largest-history/5990557001/\n\nOpinion: An earlier version of this column mischaracterized who ran in the 1968 California Democratic primary. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/2021/10/03/rfk-murder-crime-devastated-nation-gov-must-deny-parole-kennedy-killer/5843300001/\n\nNews: This story was updated Oct. 1 to correct a reference to when South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from its state capitol in 2015. This did not affect the rating for this claim. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/09/30/fact-check-local-naacp-chapters-want-stone-mountain-carvings-removed/5847370001/\n\nSeptember 2021\n\nSports: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported details of a story Eli Manning told about meeting Brett Favre. Manning, who was 17 at the time, said he left the bar because his friend wouldn't sneak in. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/media/2021/09/21/peyton-eli-manning-mnf-broadcast-viewership/5804732001/\n\nLife: A Sept. 9 Life story about equity and inclusion on Broadway incorrectly described the parting of costume designer William Ivey Long and the musical “Diana.” Long and producers say the parting was mutual. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/2021/09/03/broadway-diversity-safety-inclusion-equity-activists-new-deal/5578162001/\n\nNews: An earlier version misspelled the last name of Joan Zitzelman. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2021/09/21/inside-one-womans-fight-integrate-higher-education-south/5611567001/\n\nNews: In the list of 9/11 victims' names that published Sept. 9 on Page 4D, Rodney Dickens' name was in the incorrect section. He was a passenger on Flight 77 and was killed when the plane hit the Pentagon. Also, the names of the Flight 93 passengers were erroneously listed twice.\n\nMoney: An earlier version of this story misstated which city serves as the capital of Alaska. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/09/14/unemployment-rate-cites-highest-rates-yuma-el-centro/5595292001/\n\nNews: A subheadline in this story has been updated to reflect that Aurora Fire Rescue illegally administered ketamine, according to the report. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/09/16/aurora-colorado-police-racially-biased-excessive-force-report-finds/8360938002/\n\nSports: A previous version of this story included a name and quote of a person who purported to be a student at Clemson and provided a pseudonym. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2021/09/16/clemson-fans-beg-tigers-fans-stop-paw-hand-gesture/8364863002/\n\nSports: An earlier version of this story misstated Sam Cunningham's status in 1970. He was classified as a sophomore. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2021/09/07/sam-cunningham-southern-cal-nfl-patriots-dies/5759603001/\n\nTech: An earlier version of this article reflected incorrect details provided about Verizon's wireless plan and misstated the AT&T pricing for iPhone 13. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2021/09/15/iphone-13-prices-best-apple-trade-deal-att-verizon-tmobile/8341445002/\n\nNews: A Sept. 15 story about the growth of multidisciplinary clinics to treat long-haul COVID-19 misstated Lisa O'Brien's relationship with Long Haul COVID Fighters. She founded support groups in several states.\n\nSports: A previous version of this story misstated Peyton Manning's Super Bowls. He has won two. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/seahawks/2021/09/13/ciara-met-gala-dress-russell-wilson-seahawks-jersey-number/8327284002/\n\nNews: This story has been updated to reflect that a shooting victim crashed a car into a commuter train, according to updated information from police. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/09/09/east-st-louis-shooting-suspects-crash-car-into-commuter-train/8266387002/\n\nNews: This story has been updated to reflect that Kentucky has reported 7,905 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began, through Tuesday. Two-thirds of those deaths have been in 2021. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/09/07/us-cases-40-million-unemployment-labor-day-travel-updates/5748549001/\n\nNews: This story was updated Sept. 2 to note that President Joe Biden checked his watch multiple times at the dignified transfer event, including during the ceremony itself. The rating on this claim has been changed from partly false to missing context. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/09/01/fact-check-biden-checked-watch-after-ceremony-dover-air-force-base/5663427001/\n\nNews: The Department of Defense has corrected the spelling of Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, one of 13 U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan on Aug. 26. Stories published on 1A and 3A Monday contained an incorrect spelling. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/08/29/joe-biden-meets-families-13-service-members-killed-kabul-bombing/5641896001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/08/27/us-service-members-killed-afghanistan-airport-attack-what-we-know/5623806001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/08/29/johanny-rosariopichardo-massachusetts-marine-killed-afghanistan/5639233001/?fbclid=IwAR3yJEaz-mKibzv8j0JnAiZdPsBJlrJ6pbQ3ge0vAM0mgozM1p2hRrvU1Nw https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/1433094870357454853\n\nSports: A previous version of this story included a misidentified photo. A Mark Andrews photo is now attached. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/ravens/2021/09/06/mark-andrews-signs-four-year-contract-extension-baltimore-ravens/5749228001/\n\nEntertainment: An article in the Sept. 1 Life section about how Hollywood is releasing films during the pandemic misstated the title of the new “Spider-Man” movie. The film is “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2021/08/26/cinemacon-hollywood-faces-theater-owners-over-streaming-releases/5597481001/\n\nSocial media: This post has been updated to correct the start of the Afghanistan War. https://www.facebook.com/13652355666/posts/10159692738175667\n\nAugust 2021\n\nMoney: An earlier version of this story misidentified the Tesla driver. The Florida Highway Patrol report said the driver was a 26-year-old female. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2021/08/29/tesla-part-automated-drive-system-slams-into-police-car/5642789001/\n\nNews: This story was updated Aug. 25 to clarify that background checks are required at gun shows if the seller is a licensed gun dealer. This change does not affect the False rating of the claim. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/08/16/fact-check-new-texas-law-doesnt-change-gun-purchase-regulations/5542740001/\n\nSocial media: A previous tweet misspelled White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki's last name. https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/1430264723145216008\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated who would provide an update on evacuation efforts in Afghanistan on Aug. 25. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will provide the update. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/08/25/biden-afghanistan-remembering-aaliyah-national-parks-5-things-know-wednesday/5572238001/\n\nNews: This story originally mischaracterized the increase in armed protests. The number of armed protests increased from February to June; the proportion doubled. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/08/23/guns-protests-increase-likelihood-violence/8188602002/\n\nMoney: An earlier version of this article misreported the benefits amount paid to Jenna Dahlke, who said she went from getting $800 per month in benefits for her family to nothing. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/money/2021/08/17/benefit-pay-increase-stop-low-income-families-wisconsin/8154396002/\n\nSports: A previous version of this story misidentified Bill Freehan's health condition. He was battling dementia. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2021/08/19/bill-freehan-detroit-tigers-dies-alzheimers-disease/8193982002/\n\nNews: A previous version of this Instagram post labeled a region incorrectly. https://www.instagram.com/p/CSu9w1FNNkV/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story misstated when the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis first wrote about the Memphis Police Department’s practice of not recording interrogations. It was in 2018. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2021/08/11/memphis-false-confession-story-behind-bizarre-murder-case/8095997002/\n\nNews: An Aug. 17 story on Page 6A incorrectly described Fatima Goss Graves’ role with the National Women’s Law Center. She is its president and co-founded the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund that it administers.\n\nNews: Eagle Scout Wyatt Niemann's last name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/08/10/boy-scout-eagle-scout-earn-50-merit-badges-50-states/5553833001/\n\nSports: A headline on a story regarding Latinos in the NFL misstated Anthony Munoz's Hall of Fame status in some Aug. 6 editions. Munoz was inducted in 1998.\n\nSports: A previous version of this story misidentified Hakuho Sho's status. He is an active wrestler. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/08/07/sumo-olympic-sport-sports-future-looks-bright-after-tokyo-games/8029523002/\n\nMoney: An earlier version of this story misstated Shahil Shrestha’s home country, which is Nepal. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/real-estate/2021/08/09/remote-work-incentives-expand-smaller-cities-try-attract-talent/5478847001/\n\nSports: A story in the Aug. 9 edition misstated the country Emil Zatopek competed for in the 1952 Olympics. He was from Czechoslovakia. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/08/08/tokyo-olympic-track-field-athing-mu-sydney-mclaughlin/5530189001/\n\nNews: This story was updated based on new information received after publication from multiple sources. The rating on this file has been changed from False to True. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/08/04/fact-check-viral-image-altered-show-sexual-message-backpack/5461452001/?fbclid=IwAR3SFVVSp1vXLjYvO6lMTPEaz7WeFf8PXhYJSkuOD8z7AlD8DMZdAHkW3ZA\n\nNews: This story has been updated to fix House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's title. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/10/howard-liebengood-capitol-police-officer-dies-days-after-riot/6615758002/\n\nNews: The Associated Press has updated this story to remove an erroneous quote from Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/07/27/atlanta-spa-shooter-pleading-guilty-hopes-life-sentence/5384869001/\n\nNews: This story's headline has been updated to correct Sen. Susan Collins' comments on the Jan. 6 select committee. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/08/01/susan-collins-says-trump-shouldnt-testify-january-6-committee/5447261001/\n\nJuly 2021\n\nNews: This story has been updated to clarify the number of COVID-19 vaccine shots administered in the U.S. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/07/30/delta-variant-new-cdc-data-why-masks-important-vaccinated-transmission/5427884001/\n\nSports: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the definitions of port and starboard. Port is the right side of the boat from the rower's perspective facing the stern and starboard is the left side. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/07/23/rowing-tokyo-olympics-seven-events/8070502002/\n\nSports: A story in the July 29 edition about the increase in the hiring of Black head coaches in the NBA misspelled the name of a San Antonio Spurs assistant coach. She is Becky Hammon. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2021/07/28/seven-hires-nba-nears-record-number-black-coaches/5374290001/\n\nEntertainment: An earlier version of this report included an image misidentified as Dusty Hill. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/07/28/zz-top-bassist-dusty-hill-dead-72/5404890001/\n\nOpinion: This column has been updated to reflect the timing and location of the fine for the Norwegian handball team. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/07/27/tokyo-olympics-german-gymnasts-unitards-why-not-hijabs/5385281001/\n\nTech: This story has been corrected to clarify the research will focus on how extremist groups raise funds. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/07/26/paypal-adl-collaborate-cutting-off-funding-hate-groups/8092628002/?Adsfa\n\nMoney: An earlier headline of this story misidentified the percentage of teenage workers in the U.S. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/07/25/work-shortage-teenagers-largest-segments-workforce/8086700002/\n\nMoney: An earlier version of this story misattributed a quote to Michelle Lee, editor-in-chief of Allure, and has since been corrected. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2021/07/24/lipstick-makeup-sales-rise-target-ulta-kohls-sephora-covid-masks/7430171002/\n\nSports: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the location of Olympian Lee Kiefer's fencing club. She has trained with Bluegrass Fencers' Club in Lexington. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/07/25/lee-kiefer-makes-history-gold-womens-foil-tokyo-olympics/8085797002/\n\nMoney: This article has been updated to include relevant timing. The photos Troy Nicholas was seeking were taken in February 2020 and sent to him in July 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/2021/07/22/jcpenney-photos-were-delayed-how-do-get-my-family-pictures/8045786002/ https://www.facebook.com/usatodaymoney/posts/4559893540701417 https://twitter.com/USATODAYmoney/status/1418616902994235394\n\nSports: In a previous version of this story, a photo misidentified Suni Lee. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/07/21/sunisa-lee-olympics-gymnastics-rising-star/7976840002/\n\nNews: This story has been corrected to show that the decision not to prosecute was made during the Trump administration. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/07/19/wilbur-ross-misled-congress-census-citizenship-question-watchdog/8017463002/\n\nNews: A July 12 story on Page 5A incorrectly stated which candidate President Donald Trump endorsed in a 2017 Alabama Senate primary. Trump endorsed Sen. Luther Strange over Rep. Mo Brooks. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/07/11/how-much-does-trump-endorsement-help-gop-candidates/7880571002/\n\nNews: This story has been updated to reflect information provided by the Carl Sagan estate after this item initially published. The rating has been changed from False to Missing context. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/07/12/fact-check-quote-truth-misattributed-carl-sagan/7925859002/\n\nNews: A July 14 story on Page 2A incorrectly identified the title of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/07/13/michael-bender-describes-turmoil-chaos-trump-white-house-book/7948108002/\n\nSports: A previous version of this story misidentified Kahlil Watson's school. He went to Wake Forest (N.C.) High School. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2021/07/11/mlb-draft-pittsburgh-pirates-draft-louisville-catcher-henry-davis/7932887002/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story misstated the Republican support for the proposal in the Senate. Two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio. have co-sponsored the bill. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/07/09/joe-biden-wants-close-crack-powder-cocaine-sentencing-disparity/7842213002/\n\nPolitics: A previous version of this story mis-stated the timeline of the interactions between Newman and Greene. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/07/09/marjorie-taylor-greene-makes-transphobic-comments-fundraiser/7915979002/\n\nJune 2021\n\nNews: A photo caption on Page 1D on July 1 didn't make clear that \"A Capitol Fourth\" in Washington, D.C., was not a live event this year.\n\nSocial media: A previous tweet incorrectly described the events of a live video. Here is the updated version: https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/1411715358218674180\n\nSports: An earlier version of this story listed the incorrect starting date for K-Zone. It launched on July 1, 2001. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2021/07/04/buster-posey-brandon-crawford-san-francisco-giants/7853260002/\n\nNews: A Wednesday story on Page 1A about using DNA analysis to identify mass casualty victims misidentified the last name of the 1,642nd victim identified in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. He was Scott Michael Johnson. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/06/29/surfside-condo-collapse-dna-testing-could-key-identify-victims/7790521002/\n\nNews: This story has been updated to reflect when the National Institute of Standards and Technology was founded. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/06/28/miami-condo-collapse-update-missing-people-florida-building/5369756001/\n\nNews: This story was updated to correct an inaccurate statement attributed to Pakistan's foreign minister. Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the nation is shutting its border to refugees but did not make reference to the Taliban. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/06/27/after-us-leaves-afghanistan-pakistan-worry-taliban-take-over/5363611001/\n\nMoney: An earlier version of this story gave incorrect figures for the number of Americans working from home in May 2020 and May 2021. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/06/25/return-work-labor-day-businesses-shift-mindset-employees/5310673001/\n\nMoney: A prior version of this video misspelled the name of Priyanka Chopra Jonas. https://www.usatoday.com/videos/money/2021/06/17/rebranding-victorias-secret-says-goodbye-its-angels/7732395002/\n\nNews: John Zaia, who directs the Center for Gene Therapy at City of Hope, is leading a trial of a COVID-19 vaccine for cancer patients, which was developed by colleagues there. Existing COVID-19 vaccines appear to be safe and provide about 80% protection for patients with inflammatory bowel disease. An article in the June 25 edition misstated Zaia’s role and the type of bowel condition.\n\nNews: A story on page 1D in the June 25 edition misspelled the name of Evelyn Minjares-Carrillo. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/06/25/common-app-hbcu-college-application-test-score-optional/5310479001/\n\nNews: This story was updated June 22 with a reworded claim that provides a more nuanced summary of the point made in the Facebook post being fact-checked here. Other references were updated for clarity. This does not change our rating for this post, which remains False. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/06/06/fact-check-post-misleads-effectiveness-j-j-covid-19-vaccine-older-adults/7466677002/\n\nSports: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported the margin by which Ryan Crouser bested the previous world record. He beat the record by 10 inches. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/06/18/ryan-crouser-sets-world-record-mens-shot-put-us-olympic-trials/7751068002/\n\nNews: Earlier versions of these stories overestimated the number of undocumented immigrants affected by the bill discussed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/06/15/bidens-eu-meeting-california-reopening-5-things-know-tuesday/7688088002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/06/14/vp-kamala-harris-meet-daca-recipients-amid-immigration-uncertainty/7683960002/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story overestimated the number of \"Dreamers\" who could be helped by the American Dream and Promise Act. There are are more than 3 million Dreamers among 11 million undocumented Americans. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2021/04/14/immigration-reform-dreamers-daca-recipients-hope-stay-us/7004644002/\n\nEntertainment: A photo caption in a previous version of this report misidentified Amanda Kloots’ sister. Her name is Anna Kloots. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/entertainment/books/2021/06/14/amanda-kloots-gets-real-grief-shares-sign-late-nick-cordero/7597484002/\n\nTravel: Germany’s entry requirements have been updated. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2021/05/19/covid-travel-restrictions-countries-fully-vaccinated-americans-europe/7284487002/\n\nTravel: This story has been updated to reflect that though Celebrity Cruises has billed the Celebrity Millennium sailing as \"fully vaccinated,\" some unvaccinated children are aboard the ship. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2021/06/10/passengers-positive-covid-after-sailing-100-vaccinated-cruise/7645511002/\n\nNews: A prior version of this story misstated the name of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/06/10/southern-ocean-officially-recognized-fifth-ocean-national-geographic/7645212002/\n\nTech: A previous version of this story did not include AT&T's latest robocall-blocking security software, ActiveArmor. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/06/05/how-stop-robocalls-iphone-android-these-apps-fight-spammers/7542584002/\n\nLife: A story on Page 1D on June 9 incorrectly stated why a patient needed emergency surgery. It was for inflamed fibroids.\n\nSports: A display quote accompanying a story on the Logan Paul-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight in some editions June 4 misidentified the person who said it. The statement was made by Logan Paul.\n\nSports: A previous version of this story misidentified the Arizona Diamondbacks' home TV network. It is Bally Sports Arizona. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2021/06/02/diamondbacks-announcer-bob-brenly-mocks-marcus-stromans-durag/7503646002/\n\nSports: A photo caption included in a story on Michelle Wie West in the June edition misstated the number of golf tournaments she played in 2021 before the U.S. Women’s Open. She had played in three.\n\nMay 2021\n\nNews: A previous version of this video misstated that John Warner held a position in Virginia state government. https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/politics/2021/05/26/john-warner-former-virginia-senator-has-died-94-years-old/7448706002/\n\nSports: A column on Joe West in the May 25 edition misstated the record-setting number of games he was set to umpire in that day. It is 5,376.\n\nNews: This story has been updated to include a photo approved for use by the parent and student. A previous version included altered photos to conceal the identity of minors. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/05/23/florida-female-students-yearbook-photos-bartram-trail-high-school/5237009001/\n\nNews: This story has been updated to correct the poll's name as a Reuters/Ipsos poll. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/05/25/poll-quarter-americans-surveyed-say-trump-true-president/7426714002/\n\nEntertainment: An earlier version of this report misidentified the Ford pickup truck seen in the series finale of \"Last Man Standing.\" The vehicle is a 1956 F-100. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/05/21/last-man-standing-series-finale-recap-tim-allen-interview/5135396001/\n\nNews: A May 20 story on Page 3A contained an incorrect title for Ken Cooper. He is director of THT of New York, a New York state-certified firearms and security training academy. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/05/19/andrew-brown-bodycam-video-police-civil-liberties-experts-weigh/5165158001/\n\nSports: The NHL playoff power rankings in the May 17 edition misstated the Minnesota Wild’s record against the Vegas Golden Knights this season. The Wild were 5-2-1 against the Knights, and one of the losses came in regulation. https://www.usatoday.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fnhl%2F2021%2F05%2F14%2Fnhl-stanley-cup-playoffs-power-rankings%2F5016621001%2F\n\nNews: A story on Page 3A on May 18 incorrectly included Florida among the states that Joe Biden carried in the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump won Florida. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/politics/2021/05/15/target-joe-biden-donald-trump-gop-find-hard-hurt-his-image/5042821001/\n\nNews: A prior version of this story mischaracterized part of virologist Jesse Bloom's position. He said he can’t rule out the possibility the coronavirus was either a natural occurrence or accidentally released from a lab in China. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/05/14/covid-origins-chinese-lab-leak-animals-us-scientists-want-answers/5056422001/\n\nEntertainment: An earlier version of this report misstated when tickets for new dates on Justin Bieber's world tour go on sale. They go on sale later this month. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2020/07/23/justin-bieber-reveals-rescheduled-world-tour-adds-new-show-dates-2021/5497174002/\n\nEntertainment: An earlier version of this report incorrectly characterized a previous fatal shooting at the X-clusive nightclub in Shively, Kentucky, last August. Police say Ronnie T. O'Bannon is \"a person of interest\" in that case. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/05/11/jack-harlow-dj-charged-louisville-nightclub-shooting/5045655001/\n\nNews: This story was updated May 11 to clarify the nature of viral shedding connected to COVID-19 and the vaccines. COVID-19 vaccinated people don't shed viral particles from the vaccine, be they live virus or spike proteins. The update does not affect the \"false\" rating. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/05/07/fact-check-covid-19-vaccinated-people-dont-shed-virus/4971413001/\n\nSocial media: A previous tweet misstated the origin of the confrontations in Gaza. https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/1391897178038095874\n\nNews: A May 7 story on Page 1A incorrectly identified the regional locations of Wake Island and Hawaii. The islands are in the North Pacific. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/politics/2021/05/06/trump-navy-secretary-kenneth-braithwaite-spent-2-3-million-travel/4860333001/\n\nNews: This article has been updated to correct information provided by the Biden administration related to preschool in Missouri and child poverty in Arizona. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/05/06/biden-using-state-specific-data-sell-child-care-education-plan/4956903001/\n\nNews: This article was updated May 5 to detail new CDC guidelines and how previous restrictions on gatherings were set on a state level, not federally. The rating was changed from \"False\" to \"Missing context.\" https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/04/28/fact-check-biden-didnt-say-july-fourth-celebrations-canceled/4854599001/\n\nApril 2021\n\nTravel: An earlier version of this story misstated from where travel will be restricted. President Joe Biden's administration plans to restrict travel from India to the United States. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/04/30/india-travel-us-restrict-flights-india-due-covid-19-surge/4892115001/\n\nNews: This article has been update to reflect and link to Arizona's 2020 election data. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/05/02/cindy-mccain-arizona-2020-election-audit-ludicrous/4915508001/\n\nTravel: A previous version of this story incorrectly characterized a study of homelessness at airports. The $400,000 study is being conducted by the Transportation Research Board. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/04/18/covid-travel-and-stress-airports-step-up-mental-health-assistance/7239029002/\n\nNews: This story has been updated to reflect that additional charges were brought against the former deputy in January 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/04/27/accused-drug-planting-deputy-slapped-two-dozen-new-charges/4852722001/\n\nSocial media: A previous tweet of this quote misidentified the actress. https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/1386504898741735427\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referenced the legality of machine guns in the United States. Machine guns registered with the ATF before 1986 can still be bought and sold with government approval. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/04/22/fact-check-post-missing-context-ar-15-rifles-and-mass-shootings/7039204002/\n\nNews: Elvis Presley received a polio vaccine in 1956 before performing on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” An April 20 article on Page 1A contained incorrect information. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/health/2021/04/19/covid-vaccine-tracker-available-widely-hesitancy/7187382002/\n\nNews: An April 14 graphic on Page 2A, comparing a Taser X26P and a Glock 17 handgun, included incorrect weights. The Taser with cartridge and battery is 1.74 pounds. The loaded Glock is 2.02 pounds. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2021/04/14/daunte-wright-shooting-brooklyn-center-minnesota-taser-accidental-discharge-firearm-mistake/7201753002/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the name and age of 50-year-old Jasvinder Kaur based on information provided by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/04/16/deadly-indianapolis-fedex-shooting-what-we-know-suspect-victims/7250410002/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the FedEx facility where the shooting took place on Thursday night. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/04/15/fedex-shooting-indianapolis-international-airport-police/7249620002/\n\nSports: A previous version of this story mischaracterized new revenue generated since Deion Sanders arrived at Jackson State. The school’s athletic department has generated the equivalency of $185 million in advertising and exposure, a university spokeswoman said. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/columnist/bell/2021/04/17/deion-sanders-star-power-paying-off-jackson-state-football/7266362002/\n\nSocial media: An earlier version of this social card contained an error based on information provided by the Indianapolis police. https://www.instagram.com/p/CNx4fxisroI/ https://www.facebook.com/usatoday/posts/10159375864285667 https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/1383507602336718853\n\nNews: An earlier version of The Short List misidentified the race of 13-year-old Adam Toledo. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/04/15/adam-toledo-video-derek-chauvin-russian-sanctions-kim-potter-court-its-thursdays-news/7237902002/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story misreported the placement of Derek Chauvin's hands as he kneeled on George Floyd. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/03/29/george-floyd-video-chauvin-trial-jurors-watch-9-minute-cellphone-video-his-death/7046237002/\n\nLife: The author of a review of Fox News' \"Gutfeld!\" was misidentified on April 14. Bill Keveney wrote the review.\n\nOpinion: A prior version of this column misstated where former police officer Derek Chauvin's hand was. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/04/13/how-view-george-floyds-drug-addiction-column/7199523002/\n\nNews: A prior version of this story misstated the name of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2021/04/13/us-navy-marines-white-supremacy-discharged/4566463001/\n\nTravel: An earlier version of this story listed an incorrect location for The Grove Resort & Water Park, which is in Winter Garden, Florida. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/hotels/2021/04/11/floridas-best-water-parks-margaritaville-tradewinds-grove/7160444002/\n\nNews: This story was updated to reflect that Brazil was the second nation to have 4,000 COVID-19 deaths in a single day. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/04/07/brazil-covid-19-deaths-exceed-4-000-daily-variant-rages/7125324002/\n\nNews: A story on Page 3D on April 8 incorrectly described the experience of Lindsay Fox, who worked in an emergency room in Newark, New Jersey. She saw as many as 100 COVID-19 positive patients in a shift, and a refrigerated truck full of dead bodies. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/04/07/hillsboro-new-mexico-covid-19-vaccine-community-comes-together/7121695002/\n\nSports: An earlier version of this story included a UNLV opponent and score from a previous season. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/sports/ncaab/2021/04/03/final-four-how-perfect-teams-have-fared-tournament-since-1976/4834970001/\n\nSports: This story has been updated to correct the age of UNC Greensboro coach Wes Miller. He is 38. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2021/04/01/north-carolina-basketball-tar-heels-roy-williams-coach-candidates/4836387001/\n\nEntertainment: A prior version of this video misidentified the cause of the heart attack of rapper DM. https://www.usatoday.com/videos/entertainment/music/2021/04/04/dmx-hospital-after-suffering-heart-attack/7082763002/\n\nSports: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the years Jordan Burroughs won world titles. He won in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/04/03/olympic-wrestler-jordan-burroughs-fails-make-us-team-tokyo/7080854002/\n\nMarch 2021\n\nSports: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Shaka Smart's record as the men's basketball coach at Texas. He was 109-86. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2021/03/26/shaka-smart-marquette-basketball-coach/7013415002/\n\nNews: Since December, the U.S. has bought 200 million more doses each of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. The Trump administration ordered 100 million each in December, and the Biden administration another 100 million each in February. An article in the March 26 edition contained incorrect information.\n\nSports: A story about Jerry Jones and the National Medal of Honor Museum and Leadership Institute in the March 25 edition incorrectly stated the number of years that have passed since the first Medal of Honor was bestowed. It has been 158 years. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2021/03/25/cowboys-jerry-jones-national-medal-honor-museum-giving-20-million/6986461002/\n\nNews: This story has been updated to correct the name of the school where F. King Alexander was president prior to his tenure at LSU. He worked at California State University, Long Beach. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2021/03/23/oregon-state-university-president-alexander-resigns-amid-lsu-scandal/6965847002/\n\nNews: This story has been updated to reflect White House press secretary Jen Psaki's mention on Wednesday of potential executive actions related to gun control. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/24/gun-control-where-president-biden-stands-legislation-executive-orders/6989667002/\n\nNews: A prior version misstated time of police arrival and reported shooting of officer in Boulder, Colorado. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2021/03/23/boulder-shootings-10-killed-suspect-surrenders/6963259002/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story misspelled Tralona Bartkowiak's first name. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/03/23/boulder-shooting-victims-colorado-identified-eric-talley/6964265002/\n\nNews: Marty Walsh is the first union member to head the Department of Labor in nearly 50 years. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/graphics/2021/03/05/tracking-the-confirmations-of-bidens-cabinet-members/4557215001/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story misspelled Thao Nguyen's name and where she resided during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/03/20/covid-19-college-student-newspapers-coronavirus/4503367001/\n\nNews: We clarified the Biden administration's timeline for its goal of 100 million doses in the first section of this article on March 19. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/graphics/2021/03/12/when-will-everyone-be-vaccinated-for-covid-19-when-will-we-reach-us-herd-immunity-projection/6840512002/\n\nTravel: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized California Attractions and Parks Association’s recommendations to mitigate the effects of shouting on theme park rides. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2021/03/16/covid-and-theme-parks-try-not-scream-rides-group-advises/4720336001/\n\nSports: A story on the Drew family and the NCAA Tournament in the March 17 edition misstated the year Bryce Drew hit The Shot for Valparaiso. It was 1998. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2021/03/15/scott-drew-bryce-drew-baylor-grand-canyon-ncaa-tournament/4697397001/\n\nSocial media: Previous posts incorrectly stated the new tax filing deadline date. The Internal Revenue Service has pushed the deadline to May 17. https://www.facebook.com/usatoday/posts/10159299124870667 https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/1372334587192471553\n\nNews: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is the first Native American to serve as a presidential Cabinet secretary. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/15/deb-haaland-confirmed-becomes-first-native-american-cabinet/4700097001/\n\nSports: A previous version of this story misstated North Carolina's last NCAA Tournament appearance. The Tar Heels last appeared in the tournament in 2019. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/tourney/2021/03/14/march-madness-ncaa-tournament-bracket-analysis-south-region/4678604001/\n\nNews: A story that ran in Jan. 11 editions incorrectly quoted President Donald Trump during a conversation with a Georgia official based on incorrect information provided to USA TODAY. A subsequent recording of the call published by The Wall Street Journal shows Trump asked the official to look for \"dishonesty.\" https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/09/trump-phone-call-pressured-georgia-election-investigator/6610212002/\n\nTravel: A previous version of this photo gallery had incorrect information about the height of Vermont's Decker Towers. The Burlington building is 11 floors and 124 feet tall. https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/travel/news/2021/03/11/tallest-building-in-every-state/115502164/\n\nNews: Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., is a co-sponsor of the bill to extend the application deadline for the Paycheck Protection Program. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/12/bipartisan-group-lawmakers-scramble-extend-payroll-protection-program/4665435001/\n\nSports: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the announcer who made racist comments during a girls high school basketball game between Norman (Oklahoma) and Midwest City. The announcer was Matt Rowan. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2021/03/12/announcer-directs-racist-comments-toward-norman-girls-basketball-kneeling-during-national-anthem/4666770001/\n\nSports: The location of the LPGA Tour's Drive On Championship in the tournament scores was misidentified in the March 8 and March 9 editions. It was held in Ocala, Florida.\n\nSports: A photo caption in the March 1 edition accompanying an LPGA story misidentified the Korda sister celebrating with tournament winner Nelly Korda. The sibling was Jessica Korda.\n\nSocial media: A previous version of this graphic underrepresented the number of COVID-19 vaccines delivered.⁠ https://www.facebook.com/usatoday/photos/10159261339295667 https://twitter.com/USATODAY/status/1366927557090770945 https://www.instagram.com/p/CL8E3hiLt3H/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this story from The Associated Press incorrectly reported that the shooting victim had died. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/03/01/arkansas-school-shooting-student-killed-pine-bluff/6878759002/\n\nMoney: This story has been updated to reflect that this is the first time Reese's has offered a peanut butter cup without chocolate. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/03/02/reeses-peanut-butter-cups-without-chocolate-back-hershey-company/6884001002/\n\nFebruary 2021\n\nNews: A Feb. 24 photo on Page 1A showed a COVID-19 mobile testing clinic by the Community-University Health Care Center in Minneapolis in September. The caption incorrectly described the type of clinic.\n\nNews: This story has been updated to reflect the correct number of terrorists involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks who entered the U.S. on a student visa; it was only one. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/02/20/dhs-ice-sued-over-international-students-enter-us/4493742001/\n\nNews: This story has been updated to correct the years that Newsmax and OANN launched. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/21/paleologos-poll-newsmax-and-oann-out-foxing-fox/4533848001/\n\nSports: A previous tweet incorrectly identified the team for which David Ayres played. https://twitter.com/usatodaysports/status/1363884866618732545\n\nNews: A Page 1A story on Feb. 15 incorrectly described Sen. Bernie Sanders’ political affiliation. He is a registered independent who caucuses with Democrats.\n\nMoney: An earlier version of this story misidentified one of the online brokerage firms that restricted the buying and selling of stocks. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/02/18/gamestop-hearing-robinhood-reddit-ceos-testify-before-congress/6770118002/\n\nSports: A previous version of this story misstated Garrett Reid’s age when he passed away. He was 29. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/super-bowl/2021/02/07/britt-reid-son-chiefs-coach-andy-reid-miss-super-bowl-2021/4425667001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/chiefs/2021/02/11/britt-reid-no-longer-employed-chiefs-reports-nfl-investigating/6721965002/\n\nSports: A story on Jordan Spieth in some Feb. 11 editions misstated his third-round score in the Phoenix Open. He shot 10-under 61.\n\nNews: Some Feb. 10 editions misidentified the political affiliation of Kevin Madden, an independent political strategist and former adviser to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, in a story on Page 1A.\n\nSports: A story on NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin in Tuesday’s edition misstated his car number. He drives the No. 11 car. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ftw/2021/02/08/nascar-denny-hamlin-seeks-daytona-500-winning-history/115441624/\n\nNews: A previous version of this story gave the incorrect state for Rep. Rosa DeLauro. DeLauro represents Connecticut’s 3rd District. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/08/covid-19-relief-democrats-propose-3-600-per-child-tax-credit/4434504001/\n\nSports: A story in the Feb. 5 edition about fans who have been to every Super Bowl misstated the Super Bowl in which Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith coached against each other. It was Super Bowl 41. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2021/02/02/super-bowl-2021-five-fans-attend-55th-consecutive-game/6657265002/\n\nNews: The Missouri item in the 50 States roundup of the Feb. 4 edition included an incorrect city. Kansas City's mayor, Quinton Lucas, is seeking to ensure that Black and Hispanic residents have equal opportunities to get COVID-19 vaccinations.\n\nSports: A previous version of this story mischaracterized the nature of Francesca Jones' scholarship with the LTA. The support she receives benefits Jones and her current coaching team. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/tennis/aus/2021/02/08/australian-open-debut-francesca-jones/4420665001/\n\nEntertainment: A previous version of this story misidentified a 2018 film titled “The Nightingale.” The adaptation of Kristin Hannah's book of the same name has not yet been released. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2021/02/02/the-four-winds-review-kristin-hannahs-epic-dust-bowl-era-novel/4345865001/\n\nSports: An earlier version of this story included a photo that was not of Martellus Bennett. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/mike-freeman/2021/02/04/martellus-bennett-shares-dark-important-thoughts-nfl-life/4370498001/\n\nEntertainment: An earlier version of this story misstated the timing of Fox News' segment debunking election-fraud claims involving Dominion Voting Systems machines. The network aired its segment about Dominion in November, before the company wrote a letter raising the prospect of legal action against those making or providing a platform for what it claims are defamatory statements. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/02/02/newsmax-anchor-walks-out-after-my-pillow-ceo-mike-lindell-rant/4363781001/\n\nTravel: A federal magistrate has not granted permission for Jenny Cudd to leave the country, as indicated in a previous version of this story. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2021/02/02/capitol-rioter-wants-go-mexican-vacation-and-court-lets-her/4358889001/\n\nJanuary 2021\n\nEntertainment: A previous version of this report incorrectly characterized the status of Rod Stewart’s plea deal. Defense lawyers say the details of the deal have been worked out, and prosecutors confirm negotiations are ongoing. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/01/29/rod-stewart-avoids-trial-reaches-plea-deal-florida-altercation/4316404001/\n\nNews: This story has been updated to reflect a change to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' official shade of red. The rating has been changed to Missing Context. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/01/27/fact-check-super-bowl-lv-chiefs-bucs-logos-same-primary-pantone-color/4276067001/\n\nTravel: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized President Joe Biden’s action on rescinding the Muslim travel ban. It was a presidential proclamation. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2021/01/21/biden-executive-order-ends-muslim-travel-ban-donald-trump/4240420001/\n\nNews: This story has been updated to clarify that the satirical event flyer was emailed to a law student listserv on Jan. 25. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/01/27/fact-check-flyer-calling-capitol-riot-stanford-event-satire/4267449001/\n\nSports: An earlier version of this story misstated the team for which Leslie Frazier works. He is the defensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/texans/2021/01/27/houston-texans-hire-ravens-assistant-david-culley-head-coach/4288346001/\n\nTech: A prior version of this story misspelled Mei of “Turning Red.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/reviewedcom/2021/01/11/here-all-new-pixar-projects-coming-disney-plus/6625409002/\n\nSports: Earlier tweets shared reporting about the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others. It was our intent to share new reporting around the day's timeline. Our tweets came with no warning or context. We took down those tweets and regret the insensitivity of the content. https://twitter.com/usatodaysports/status/1354133575050944512\n\nSports: A previous version of the headline and this story misstated the Mets offer to Trevor Bauer. The offer would approach Gerrit Cole's $36 million average value on his nine-year, $324 million contract signed a year ago. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/mets/2021/01/26/trevor-bauer-mets-offer-contract/4258036001/\n\nVideo: An earlier version of this video misstated the terms of Biden's executive order, which formalizes an international COVID-19 travel testing requirement and recommends international travelers quarantine upon arrival in the U.S. https://www.usatoday.com/videos/travel/news/2021/01/25/president-biden-expected-reinstate-covid-19-travel-restrictions/6698470002/\n\nTravel: An earlier version of this story misstated the terms of one of President Joe Biden’s executive orders, which formalizes an international COVID-19 travel testing requirement and recommends international travelers quarantine upon arrival in the U.S. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2021/01/24/joe-biden-covid-19-travel-restrictions-non-us-travelers/6695664002/\n\nSports: A column in the Jan. 18 editions about Colin Kaepernick and Martin Luther King Jr. referred to support that King showed Tommie Smith and John Carlos. It should have noted that according to news reports, Carlos met with King in early 1968 to discuss nonviolent protest. King was assassinated before the Olympics were held in Mexico City.\n\nNews: A prior version of this story misstated which company acquired Aerojet Rocketdyne. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/01/16/nasa-fires-moon-rocket-test-but-engines-shut-down-early/4193701001/\n\nNews: This version corrects time of C-Span report of rioters inside Statuary Hall to 2:33. It also corrects the content of a Dec. 19 tweet from the president: \"Be there, will be wild!\" https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2021/01/06/dc-protests-capitol-riot-trump-supporters-electoral-college-stolen-election/6568305002/\n\nNews: A previous version of the headline misstated the number of known COVID-19 cases among primates. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/01/12/covid-gorillas-test-positive-san-diego-zoo-safari-park-california/6635869002/\n\nInstagram: Federal authorities said Friday that there is \"no direct evidence of kill and capture teams\" among the Capitol rioters, walking back claims outlined in court documents that attackers sought to apprehend and \"assassinate elected officials.\" ⁠This post has been updated to clarify the allegation. https://www.instagram.com/p/CKFFJC8srZt/\n\nNews: Due to a change in CDC reporting, this page temporarily displayed the number of total vaccine doses administered as a share of population, instead of the number of first doses administered. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/graphics/2021/01/14/covid-vaccine-distribution-by-state-how-many-covid-vaccines-have-been-given-in-us-how-many-people/6599531002/\n\nMoney: A story in some Jan. 12 editions misidentified the company targeted for acquisition by Staples. The target company is Office Depot.\n\nNews: Data language on this page has been updated. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/11/10/covid-updates-iowa-schools-coronavirus-school-districts/5893590002/\n\nGolfweek: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Phil Mickelson won the event at Tucson National. https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2021/01/13/phil-mickelson-amateur-pga-tour-win-1991/\n\nNews: In stories that ran Jan. 13 on 4A and 1D, the status of a Capitol Police officer was incorrect. No Capitol Police officers had been arrested. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, corrected his statement. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2021/01/13/capitol-riot-law-enforcement-failure-analysis/6601142002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/12/2-capitol-police-suspended-10-under-investigation-after-capitol-riot/6639735002/\n\nNews: An earlier version of this article listed the wrong state for Rocky Mount, Virginia. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/01/10/capitol-riot-live-updates-online-planning-more-arrests-made-videos/6614783002/\n\nNews: This version corrects time of C-Span report of rioters inside Statuary Hall to 2:33. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2021/01/06/dc-protests-capitol-riot-trump-supporters-electoral-college-stolen-election/6568305002/\n\nNews: A story on 1D in print editions on Jan. 6 misspelled the last name of Denison University student Davis Kleen. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/01/04/colleges-offer-classes-covid-prompts-longer-winter-break/4126710001/\n\nNews: In a previous version of this story, Brad Rukstales' residence was misstated. He lives in Illinois. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/01/07/capitol-mob-drew-trump-fans-qanon-shaman-fireman-jake-angeli-arrest/6585339002/\n\nTravel: A Jan. 11 story on Page 6D about crowded Brazilian beaches amid the coronavirus pandemic had an incorrect byline. Mauricio Savarese and Diane Jeantet of The Associated Press reported and wrote the story. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2021/01/08/brazilians-packed-beaches-over-holidays-covid-deaths-hit-200-000/6592970002/\n\nSports: A previous version of this story included incorrect information about the first female to work in a CBS broadcast booth for an NFL game. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2021/01/10/nfl-playoff-game-nickelodeon-features-new-orleans-saints-vs-bears/6608939002/\n\nMoney: An earlier version of this story misidentified UPS as the service delaying one company's deliveries. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/01/02/small-businesses-holiday-shipping-deals-usps-fedex-ups/4087597001/\n\nEntertainment: Tanya Roberts, who starred in the 1985 James Bond film \"A View to A Kill,\" as well as classic TV series \"Charlie's Angels\" and \"That '70s Show,\" has been hospitalized, according to her publicist Mike Pingel, who had incorrectly confirmed the actress' death Sunday. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2021/01/03/tanya-roberts-dies-bond-charlies-angels-70-s-show-star/4123788001/\n\nNews: This Facebook post has been edited to remove language that does not meet our standards. https://www.facebook.com/usatoday\n\nMore:Corrections & Clarifications 2016\n\nMore:Corrections & Clarifications 2017\n\nMore:Corrections & Clarifications 2018\n\nMore:Corrections & Clarifications 2019\n\nMore:Corrections & Clarifications 2020", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/01/11"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_3", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:19", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/11/world/james-webb-space-telescope-first-image-scn/index.html", "title": "NASA's James Webb Space Telescope: President Biden reveals ...", "text": "Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more\n\n(CNN) The first glimpse of how the James Webb Space Telescope will change the way people see the universe has arrived.\n\nThe image shows SMACS 0723, where a massive group of galaxy clusters act as a magnifying glass for the objects behind them. Called gravitational lensing, this created Webb's first deep field view of incredibly old and distant, faint galaxies.\n\nThe presentation occurred at the White House during a preview event with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.\n\n\"It is the deepest image of our universe that has ever been taken\" in infrared, according to Nelson.\n\nSome of these distant galaxies and star clusters have never been seen before. The galaxy cluster is shown as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago.\n\n\"This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length by someone on the ground,\" according to a NASA release.\n\nThe image, taken by Webb's Near-Infrared Camera, is composed of images taken at different wavelengths of light over the course of 12.5 hours. The Hubble Space Telescope's deepest fields took weeks to capture.\n\nThe rest of the high-resolution color images will make their debut on Tuesday, July 12.\n\nThe space observatory, which launched in December, will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began by viewing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.\n\nThe first image release highlights Webb's science capabilities as well as the ability of its massive golden mirror and science instruments to produce spectacular images.\n\nThere are several events taking place during Tuesday's image release, and all of them will stream live on NASA's website\n\nOpening remarks by NASA leadership and the Webb team will begin Tuesday at 9:45 a.m. ET, followed by an image release broadcast that kicks off at 10:30 a.m. ET. Images will be revealed one by one, and a news conference at 12:30 p.m. ET will offer details about them.\n\nThe first images\n\nNASA shared Webb's first cosmic targets on Friday, providing a teaser for what else Tuesday's image release will include: the Carina Nebula, WASP-96b, the Southern Ring Nebula and Stephan's Quintet.\n\nLocated 7,600 light-years away, the Carina Nebula is a stellar nursery, where stars are born. It is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky and home to many stars much more massive than our sun.\n\nWebb's study of the giant gas planet WASP-96b will be the first full-color spectrum of an exoplanet. The spectrum will include different wavelengths of light that could reveal new information about the planet, such as whether it has an atmosphere. Discovered in 2014, WASP-96b is located 1,150 light-years from Earth. It has half the mass of Jupiter and completes an orbit around its star every 3.4 days.\n\nThis test image was taken by Webb's Fine Guidance Sensor over a period of eight days at the beginning of May. It shows how Webb can capture detailed images of very faint objects.\n\nThe Southern Ring Nebula, also called the \"Eight-Burst,\" is 2,000 light-years away from Earth. This large planetary nebula includes an expanding cloud of gas around a dying star.\n\nThe space telescope's view of Stephan's Quintet will reveal the way galaxies interact with one another. This compact galaxy group, first discovered in 1787, is located 290 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. Four of the five galaxies in the group \"are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters,\" according to a NASA statement.\n\nThe targets were selected by an international committee, including members from NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.\n\nLooking ahead\n\nThese will be the first of many images to come from Webb, the most powerful telescope ever launched into space. The mission, originally expected to last for 10 years, has enough excess fuel capability to operate for 20 years, according to NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.\n\n\"Webb can see backwards in time just after the big bang by looking for galaxies that are so far away, the light has taken many billions of years to get from those galaxies to ourselves,\" said Jonathan Gardner, Webb deputy senior project scientist at NASA, during a recent news conference. \"Webb is bigger than Hubble so that it can see fainter galaxies that are further away.\"\n\nThe initial goal for the telescope was to see the first stars and galaxies of the universe, essentially watching \"the universe turn the lights on for the first time,\" said Eric Smith, Webb program scientist and NASA Astrophysics Division chief scientist.\n\nSmith has worked on Webb since the project began in the mid-1990s.\n\n\"The James Webb Space Telescope will give us a fresh and powerful set of eyes to examine our universe,\" Smith wrote in an update on NASA's website. \"The world is about to be new again.\"\n\nCorrection: This story has been updated to reflect that the image is the deepest view of the universe to date in infrared.", "authors": ["Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/05/10/nasa-images-james-webb-space-telescope/9720272002/", "title": "NASA releases stunning images from James Webb Space ...", "text": "Marcia Dunn\n\nThe Associated Press\n\nCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA's new space telescope is in the home stretch of testing, and science observations are expected to begin in July, astronomers said Monday.\n\nThe James Webb Space Telescope beamed back the latest test pictures of a neighboring satellite galaxy, and the results are stunning when compared with images taken by NASA’s previous infrared observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope.\n\nEach of the 18 mirror segments on the new telescope is bigger than the single one on Spitzer.\n\n\"It's not until you actually see the kind of image that it delivers that you really internalize and go ‘Wow!’” said University of Arizona’s Marcia Rieke, chief scientist for Webb’s near-infrared camera. “Just think of what we're going to learn.\"\n\nLaunched last December, the $10 billion Webb is the largest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever sent into space. It will seek light emitted by the first stars and galaxies close to 14 billion years ago and keep a sharp lookout for possible signs of life.\n\n'Voyage back to the birth of the universe': NASA launches James Webb Space Telescope\n\nScientists are keeping the identity of Webb's first official target a secret.\n\nPositioned 1 million miles from Earth, Webb is considered the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope.\n\nWhat's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter today", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/10"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/12/world/james-webb-space-telescope-new-images-scn/index.html", "title": "NASA reveals Webb telescope's new images of stars, galaxies and ...", "text": "Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more\n\n(CNN) A stellar nursery where stars are born, interactions between galaxies and a unique view of an exoplanet are just some of the new cosmic images were shared Tuesday.\n\nAfter decades of waiting, it's finally time for the world to see the first images taken bythe most powerful space telescope ever -- the James Webb Space Telescope\n\nDevelopment of the world's premier space observatory began in 2004, and after years of delays, the telescope and its massive gold mirror finally launched on December 25.\n\nThe images are worth the wait -- and they will forever change the way we see the universe.\n\nPresident Joe Biden released one of Webb's first images on Monday, and it is \"the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date,\" according to NASA. The rest of the high-resolution color images made their debut on Tuesday.\n\nThe space observatory can investigate the mysteries of the universe by observing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.\n\nWebb will peer into the very atmospheres of exoplanets , some of which are potentially habitable, and it could uncover clues in the ongoing search for life outside of Earth.\n\nThe telescope will also look at every phase of cosmic history, including the first glows after the big bang that created our universe and the formation of the galaxies, stars and planets that fill it today.\n\nNow, Webb is ready to help us understand the origins of the universe and begin to answer key questions about our existence, such as where we came from and if we're alone in the cosmos.\n\nThe first images\n\nThe first image, released on Monday, shows SMACS 0723, where a massive group of galaxy clusters act as a magnifying glass for the objects behind them. Called gravitational lensing, this created Webb's first deep field view that includes incredibly old and faint galaxies.\n\nThe image of SMACS 0723 is \"the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date,\" according to NASA.\n\nSome of these distant galaxies and star clusters have never been seen before. The galaxy cluster is shown as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago.\n\nThe image, taken by Webb's Near-Infrared Camera, is composed of images taken at different wavelengths of light over a collective 12.5 hours. Deep field observations are lengthy observations of regions of the sky that can reveal faint objects.\n\nWebb's other primary targets for the first image release included the Carina Nebula, WASP-96 b, the Southern Ring Nebula and Stephan's Quintet.\n\nWebb's study of the giant gas planet WASP-96 b is the most detailed spectrum of an exoplanet to date. The spectrum includes different wavelengths of light that reveal new information about the planet and its atmosphere. Discovered in 2014, WASP-96 b is located 1,150 light-years from Earth. It has half the mass of Jupiter and completes an orbit around its star every 3.4 days.\n\nNASA's James Webb Space Telescope captured a spectrum of WASP-96 b.\n\nWebb's spectrum includes \"the distinct signature of water, along with evidence for clouds and haze, in the atmosphere surrounding a hot, puffy gas giant planet orbiting a distant Sun-like star,\" according to NASA.\n\nThe observation demonstrates \"Webb's unprecedented ability to analyze atmospheres hundreds of light-years away,\" according to NASA.\n\nIn the future, Webb will capture actual images of known exoplanets while also searching for unknown planets, said Knicole Colón, Webb deputy project scientist for exoplanet science at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, during a news conference. And the spectrium of WASP-96 b is \"barely scratching the surface of what we're going to learn.\"\n\nColón anticipates that scientists will determine just how much water is in the exoplanet's atmosphere.\n\nThe Southern Ring Nebula, also called the \"Eight-Burst,\" is 2,000 light-years away from Earth. This large planetary nebula includes an expanding cloud of gas around a dying star. Webb helped reveal previously hidden details about the nebula, which is a shell of gas and dust released by the dying star. The nebula's second star can be seen in the Webb image, as well as how the stars shape the gas and dust cloud.\n\nThe second star is surrounded by dust while the brighter star, at an earlier stage of evolution, will release its own cloud of gas and dust later on. As the two stars orbit one another, they effectively \"stir\" the gas and dust, resulting in the patterns seen in the image.\n\nThe insights from images like this could help astronomers to unlock how stars change their environments as they evolve. Multi-colored points of light in the background represent galaxies.\n\nThe space telescope's view of Stephan's Quintet shows the way galaxies interact with one another. This compact galaxy group, first discovered in 1787, is located 290 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. Four of the five galaxies in the group \"are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters,\" according to a NASA statement.\n\nIf you've ever watched \"It's a Wonderful Life,\" you've seen Stephan's Quintet. Now, Webb has revealed the galactic grouping in a new mosaic which is the telescope's largest image to date.\n\n\"The information from Webb provides new insights into how galactic interactions may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe,\" according to NASA.\n\nThe Stephan's Quintet image provides a rare glimpse into how galaxies can trigger star formation in one another when they interact, as well as outflows driven by a black hole at a new level of detail.\n\nThe gravitational dance between these galaxies can be seen through tails of gas, dust and stars and even shock waves as one of the galaxies pushes through the cluster.\n\nLocated 7,600 light-years away, the Carina Nebula is a stellar nursery, where stars are born. It is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky and home to many stars much more massive than our sun.\n\nNow, its \"Cosmic Cliffs\" are revealed in an incredible new Webb image.\n\nWebb's ability to see through cosmic dust has revealed previously invisible areas of star birth within the nebula, which could provide new insight on the formation of stars. The earliest stages of star formation are harder to capture -- but something Webb's sensitivity can chronicle.\n\nWhat looks like a landscape in the image is really a massive gaseous cavity with \"peaks\" reaching 7 light-years high.\n\n\"The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image,\" according to NASA. And what looks like \"steam\" rising off the \"mountains\" is hot, energetic gas and dust.\n\nThe targets were selected by an international committee, including members from NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'I'm a little verklempt': Analyst breaks down stunning new Webb telescope images Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'I'm a little verklempt': Analyst breaks down stunning new Webb telescope images 03:50\n\nA long future of observation\n\nThe mission, originally expected to last for 10 years, has enough excess fuel capability to operate for 20 years, according to NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.\n\nThese will be just the first of many images to come from Webb over the next two decades, which promises to fundamentally alter the way we understand the cosmos.\n\nWhile some of what Webb could reveal has been anticipated, the unknowns are just as exciting to scientists.\n\n\"We don't know what we don't know yet,\" said Amber Straughn, Webb deputy project scientist for communications at NASA Goddard. \"I think it's true that every time we launch a revolutionary instrument into space, like with Hubble, we learn things that completely surprise us but do cause us to sort of change our fundamental understanding of how the universe works.\"\n\nHubble's 31 years have yielded a wealth of discoveries that couldn't be anticipated, and the scientific community views Webb and its capabilities in the same way.\n\nWhen comparing Webb's first images to other breakthroughs in astronomy, Webb program scientist and NASA Astrophysics Division chief scientist Eric Smith compared it to seeing Hubble's images after the telescope was repaired and everything snapped into focus.\n\n\"A lot of people sometimes see pictures of space and they think it makes them feel small,\" Smith said. \"When I see these pictures, they make me feel powerful. A team of people can make this unbelievable instrument to find out things about the universe revealed here, and just seeing that pride in the team, and pride in humanity, that when we want to, we can do that.\"\n\n\"The universe has (always) been out there,\" said Jane Rigby, Webb operations project scientist at NASA Goddard. \"We just had to build a telescope to go see what was there. Yeah, very similar feeling of, maybe, people in a broken world managing to do something right and to see some of the majesty that is out there.\"", "authors": ["Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/11/opinions/james-webb-space-telescope-nelson/index.html", "title": "Opinion: New space photos to reveal secrets of universe - CNN", "text": "Bill Nelson is NASA administrator and a former US senator from Florida. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.\n\n(CNN) On Monday, President Joe Biden and NASA revealed the deepest and sharpest infrared image of our universe that has ever been taken. It's just one of the first full-color images captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope -- the largest space telescope ever built. More images will be released on Tuesday morning.\n\nBill Nelson\n\nPut simply, Webb will give humanity a new view of space and fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe.\n\nThat's not all. These images show Webb's power in searching for the markers of life and habitability on other worlds. Its extreme sensitivity will help scientists understand some of the great open questions about how and why stars form, and it will bring into clarity stars and galaxies in a way we've never seen before. From new-forming stars to devouring black holes, this telescope will reveal all this and more.\n\nLess than 100 years ago, we discovered that our Milky Way is just one of many throughout our universe. Today, Webb reveals an unprecedented understanding of the billions of galaxies that make up the cosmos.\n\nEvery image from Webb is a new discovery. And Webb's ingenuity is a reminder of what's possible when we work together for the benefit of humanity.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Opinion Bill Nelson"], "publish_date": "2022/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/11/james-webb-space-telescope-first-image-released-biden-monday/10029517002/", "title": "James Webb Space Telescope: First image released by Biden ...", "text": "Several more new images from the Webb Telescope were released Tuesday morning.\n\nThe size of a tennis court and three stories high, the Webb is the largest telescope ever sent into space.\n\nThe machine's namesake, James Webb, was NASA's second administrator, who served from 1961 to 1968.\n\nThey're finally here.\n\nLiterally decades in the making, the first images from NASA's $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope were released.\n\nAt a White House briefing Monday, President Joe Biden showed an image of thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed – which appeared in Webb’s view. It's the deepest view of the cosmos ever captured.\n\n\"Today is a historic day,\" Biden said. \"The first image from the Webb Space Telescope represents a historic moment for science and technology, for astronomy and space exploration.\"\n\n\"And for America and all humanity,\" he added.\n\nFour more stunning images from the Webb telescope were released Tuesday morning.\n\nThis is the first wave of full-color scientific images the telescope gathered, showing the farthest humanity has seen in both time and distance.\n\nThe release of the images marks the official beginning of Webb’s general science operations.\n\nWhat is the James Webb Space Telescope?\n\nWebb, an international partnership with European and Canadian space agencies planned since the early 1990s, launched in December from French Guiana.\n\nAfter unfolding into its final form in space and reaching its destination 1 million miles from Earth, the telescope completed its monthslong process of preparing for science operations.\n\nNEW WEBB PHOTOS:NASA releases 'sharpest' images of the universe from James Webb Space Telescope\n\nThe size of a tennis court and three stories high, the Webb is the largest telescope sent into space. It's an astounding 100 times more powerful than the famed but aging Hubble Space Telescope, which is 32 years old.\n\nLooking back in time and space\n\nTelescopes not only see things far away in distance, they also can look back in time because of how long it takes light from galaxies to reach Earth. The Webb telescope, using infrared wavelengths, can see the first stars and galaxies that formed about 13 billion years ago after the Big Bang.\n\nAccording to NASA, Webb will explore every phase of cosmic history – from within the solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe, and everything in between.\n\n“Webb can see backwards in time to just after the Big Bang by looking for galaxies that are so far away that the light has taken many billions of years to get from those galaxies to our telescopes,” Jonathan Gardner, Webb’s deputy project scientist, said in a media briefing.\n\nWebb uses a massive, 21-foot primary mirror made up of hexagonal tiles to study the cosmos. Its main capability is infrared observation, meaning it will be able to peer through obstacles such as dust clouds to see the early phases of star formation. Scientists hope to see the atmospheric compositions of far-off planets.\n\nThomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s science mission chief, said the cosmos is “giving up secrets that had been there for many, many decades, centuries, millennia.”\n\nA 'new world view'\n\n“It’s not an image. It’s a new world view that you’re going to see,” he said during a media briefing.\n\nZurbuchen said that when he saw the images, he got emotional and so did his colleagues: “It’s really hard to not look at the universe in new light and not just have a moment that is deeply personal.”\n\nThe images were selected by an international committee of representatives from NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute.\n\nWho was James Webb?\n\nThe machine's namesake, James Webb, was NASA's second administrator, who served from 1961 to 1968.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/05/27/hubble-telescope-image-galaxy-twice-size-milky-way/9958387002/", "title": "NASA's Hubble telescope captures stunning image of galaxy twice ...", "text": "NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning new image of a galaxy that's over twice the size of our Milky Way.\n\nAccording to NASA, the gigantic elliptical galaxy (dubbed NGC 474) sits about 100 million light-years from Earth, toward the constellation of Pisces. And its size stretches almost 250,000 light-years across – which is 2.5 times larger than our own Milky Way galaxy.\n\nLast week, NASA released a rare, close-up view of NGC 474's central region, captured by the Hubble telescope's \"superb sharp eye.\"\n\n\"Images like this are showing the complexity and activity of galaxies.\" Hubble’s senior project scientist Dr. Jennifer Wiseman told USA TODAY in an emailed statement.\n\nIn addition to its massive size, NGC 474 is unique because it has a series of complex, layered shells of dust and gas that surround its core. How exactly the shells formed is still unknown, but astronomers believe that they may have resulted from the galaxy absorbing one or more smaller galaxies over time.\n\nJames Webb Telescope:NASA releases stunning images from James Webb Space Telescope in final stage of testing\n\nThanks to the Hubble telescope, Wiseman explained, astronomers know that galaxies have frequently merged with their neighbors by mutual gravitational pulls throughout cosmic history. And the long merger process, which can take billions of years, creates a much larger merged galaxy and often sparks a \"frenzy of star formation as gas within the region is stirred up and compressed.\"\n\nWhile NGC 474 is an elliptical galaxy (and among the only 10% of elliptical galaxies with shell structures), numerous types of modern galaxies are also the products of previous mergers. Our spiral Milky Way, for example, experienced mergers but ended in a different structure.\n\n'It was so quiet':NASA's Perseverance rover gives a snippet of what Mars sounds like\n\nAnd the Milky Way is on course for another merger, Wiseman said. Hubble's precision observations estimate that the Milky Way will merge with the Andromeda Galaxy (our closest major galactic neighbor) in a few billion years.\n\n\"Future observations with Hubble and other telescopes in space and on the ground will help us to further understand how the dynamics of galaxies and their mergers create larger galaxies and stimulate the formation within them of stars and their planetary systems,\" Wiseman said. \"This will also help us to understand the environment in our Milky Way that led to the formation of our own Solar System.\"\n\nWhat's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter today", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/07/20/nasa-camera-earth-deep-space-climate-observatory-satellite/30445821/", "title": "Amazing NASA photo shows Earth from 1 million miles away", "text": "Jessica Durando\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nNASA released an outstanding color image of Earth on Monday showing the sunlit side of the planet from 1 million miles away.\n\nThe image from July 6 shows North and Central America and was taken on the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite with NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera, according to a statement.\n\nEPIC will start taking photos each day of Earth soon, available 12 to 36 hours later so people can see them on a Web page by September, NASA said.\n\nThe objective is to study — for the first time — daily changes over the \"entire globe.\"\n\nFrom NASA:\n\nThe image was generated by combining three separate images to create a photographic-quality image. The camera takes a series of 10 images using different narrow band filters — from ultraviolet to near infrared – to produce a variety of science products. The red, green and blue channel images are used in these color images.\n\nPhotos: Amazing pictures of Earth", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/07/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/05/12/space-florida-grow-plants-soil-moon/9734972002/", "title": "Space news: Florida scientists grow plants in soil from the moon", "text": "Researchers grew plants in soil — from the moon — for the first time ever, according to a new study.\n\nScientists from the University of Florida showed that plants can grow in lunar soil, according to a peer-reviewed study published this week in the journal Communications Biology.\n\nThe researchers used the moon's soil, also called lunar regolith, to conduct the experiment. They had 12 grams of soil, the equivalent of a few teaspoons, collected during the Apollo 11, 12 and 17 missions. The material was loaned to the researchers by NASA.\n\n“Here’s the key finding – plants grow in lunar dirt,\" Rob Ferl, an assistant vice president for research at the University of Florida and one of the co-authors of the study, told USA TODAY. \"That’s just pretty freaking astounding because plants have never been to the moon. Seeds have never adjusted to living up there. There’s no evolutionary reason for us in our hubris to think that plants could grow on lunar soil.”\n\nSpace:'Super flower blood moon' lunar eclipse is coming Sunday night. Here's what you need to know.\n\nNation:NASA releases stunning images from James Webb Space Telescope in final stage of testing\n\nAlthough the research shows plants can grow in lunar soil, “they don’t like it,\" said Anna-Lisa Paul, director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research at the University of Florida and another co-author.\n\n“They adjust their metabolisms in order to. Even though they don't like growing in lunar regolith, they adjust themselves to enable themselves to grow,” she told USA TODAY. “They pull all manner of tools out of their metabolic toolbox.”\n\nIn the seeds planted as controls, the “roots grew nice and long and straight, and the plants were very robust. The roots from the ones growing in the lunar regolith were not. They were more kinked and distorted,” Paul said.\n\nTo plant their “garden,” the researchers used thimble-sized wells, with each of the wells receiving lunar soil. They then “moistened the soil with a nutrient solution and added a few seeds from the Arabidopsis plant,” according to a statement from the University of Florida.\n\nThe plant is also known as thale cress, which can produce small white flowers and is native to Eurasia and Africa.\n\n“Arabidopsis is widely used in the plant sciences because its genetic code has been fully mapped. Growing Arabidopsis in the lunar soil allowed the researchers more insight into how the soil affected the plants, down to the level of gene expression,” the statement added.\n\nThe plants were also given water and light. Those grown in lunar soil were compared to plants grown in non-lunar soils used as a control group, including those planted in JSC-1A, a substance that can mimic actual lunar soil.\n\nSome of the plants grown in the lunar soil “looked pretty close to what the controls looked like,” Paul said. But she added, “When you look at their molecular biology, their metabolism, you could still see that on the inside all the mechanisms that they were doing to keep themselves looking that healthy were going like gangbusters.”\n\nStephen Elardo, an assistant professor of geological science at the University of Florida and another co-author of the study, told USA TODAY that “the moon is not a hospitable place to plants.\n\n“The fact that you can just simply add a few of those nutrients and still get the plants to grow, as a geologist, I don’t think I would have expected that,” he said.\n\nFerl explained that plants have previously been “dusted” with lunar samples to determine if there was \"a virus or a microbe that would be transferred from the sample into the plant.”\n\nLooking forward, the authors said additional research could answer questions ranging from how to relieve plants’ stress while growing in lunar soil to how to launch a lunar greenhouse.\n\nBut for now, “the simple observation of watching plants grow on lunar soil is by itself pretty astounding,” Ferl said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2022/07/12/james-webb-space-telescope-explained/10038756002/", "title": "James Webb Telescope photos are dazzling. What to know about ...", "text": "From cosmic cliffs to the birthplace of stars, the James Webb Space telescope is stunning stargazers and non-stargazers alike with its breathtaking views of a universe never glimpsed before.\n\nThe world's largest and most powerful space telescope is capturing images of thousands of galaxies – some of which formed billions of years ago after the Big Bang – and some of the faintest objects ever observed.\n\nThe telescope will explore every phase of cosmic history, NASA says.\n\nHere's what you should know:\n\nWhat do the images show?\n\nThe first pictures from the telescope, released Monday and Tuesday, show thousands of galaxies, some of which formed nearly 13.2 billion years ago. They are seen in part because the James Webb Telescope targeted a cluster called SMACS 0723, which has a gravitational field so strong it magnifies the light of older, more distant galaxies.\n\nNASA also plans to release imagery of a “stellar nursery” where the Carina Nebula, the Southern Ring Nebula and Stephan’s Quintet formed.\n\nSee first images:What the James Webb Space Telescope has captured\n\nWhere is the James Webb Telescope now?\n\nThe Webb telescope is pretty far away – 1 million miles from Earth to be exact. It launched in December 2021 from French Guiana.\n\nWhat is the James Webb Telescope?\n\nThe James Webb Space Telescope was built through an international partnership between the Canadian, European and American space agencies. It has been in development since the 1990s and, according to NASA, aims to explore cosmic history, taking a deeper look at our own galaxy and the many that came before it.\n\nRead more NASA News:NASA 'strongly rebukes' pro-Russian separatist flag display on International Space Station\n\nHow does the telescope look back in time?\n\nThe telescope looks back in time using gravitational lensing. The latest image from the Webb telescope looks much bigger than it is: The picture is about the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length and shows only an infinitesimally small bit of our vast universe, NASA says.\n\nBut the galaxy cluster captured in the image, known as SMACS 0723, serves as a gravitational lens, bringing to light more distant galaxies. Its gravity is so strong that it distorts the light coming from other galaxies, making them appear brighter and therefore visible to us.\n\nHow long will the James Webb telescope last?\n\nThe Webb facility is expected to operate for five years but is not capped at that, and it has the materials to operate for more than 10 years, according to NASA.\n\nIs James Webb much better than Hubble?\n\nThe James Webb telescope is the most powerful space telescope in history. It is better in resolution and detail than its predecessor, the Hubble Telescope. It has a larger collecting area and can capture longer wavelengths in infrared.\n\nBoth of these space photographers take “deep field” images, pictures with long exposure times (12½ hours in Webb's case) that allow even the most faint form of incoming light to be seen.\n\nThe Hubble Telescope, which had its own dramatic reveal in the 1990s, is now second fiddle. The James Webb telescope is designed to capture light 100 times fainter than that captured by Hubble.\n\nCheck out Hubble Telescope's discoveries:'Needle-in-a-haystack' search finds possible phantom-like black hole roaming the Milky Way\n\nCan the James Webb Telescope see planets?\n\nYes! New images show a distant gas giant planet. Evidence of water, clouds and haze gave scientists an unprecedented observation point for planets hundreds of light-years beyond Earth that would be habitable.\n\nAs for the planets in our own solar system – the Webb telescope can see those too, of course. \"Because it is so powerful, it has capabilities that we can apply everywhere in the cosmos, even in our local neighborhood, the solar system,\" said Heidi Hammel, an interdisciplinary scientist working on Webb, in an interview with Space.com.\n\nWhat is the temperature of the James Webb Space Telescope?\n\nThe Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI)) employed by the telescope is cooled to below 7 kelvins, or minus 447 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASA. Since the operation of the telescope produces heat, a cryocooler of gaseous helium is required to offset that and maintain temperature stability.\n\nWho funded the James Webb Telescope?\n\nThe Webb telescope cost $10 billion. About $9.7 billion is from the U.S.; $810 million came from the European Space Agency; and $160 million came from the Canadian Space Agency.\n\nJWST isn't only funding recipient:Scientists are searching the universe for signs of alien civilizations: 'Now we know where to look'\n\nWho was the James Webb Telescope named after?\n\nThe James Webb Telescope was named after James E. Webb, who was NASA's administrator from February 1961 to October 1968. NASA's website describes Webb as the government official who did more for science than perhaps any other and a fitting recipient to be the namesake of the Next Generation Space Telescope.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/16/world/nasa-ixpe-xray-image-scn/index.html", "title": "Glowing clouds surround an exploded star in NASA mission's ...", "text": "(CNN) A new pair of X-ray eyes on the universe is allowing us to see extreme objects like never before.\n\nJust over two months after launching to space, NASA's newest explorer --- the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE -- shared its very first images.\n\nAnd they are stunning. The images offer a glimpse of Cassiopeia A, the famous remnant of a supernova, or exploding star.\n\nGlowing purple gas clouds can be seen around the remains of the star. These clouds were created when shock waves from the explosion heated surrounding gas to incredibly high temperatures, accelerating high energy particles called cosmic rays.\n\n\"The IXPE image of Cassiopeia A is bellissima, and we look forward to analyzing the polarimetry data to learn even more about this supernova remnant,\" said Paolo Soffitta, the Italian principal investigator for IXPE at the National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome, in a statement.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/02/16"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_4", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:19", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/08/politics/biden-democrats-midterm-elections-new-strategy/index.html", "title": "Midterm elections: The strategy behind Biden's new language on ...", "text": "Hamilton, Ohio (CNN) Last week's Supreme Court bombshell introduced two new terms into Joe Biden's presidential rhetoric. One was abortion; the other may shape his election-year prospects more.\n\nThat term is \" MAGA Republicans ,\" which Biden embroidered with \"extreme\" but, significantly, not \"Donald Trump.\" The distinction reflects polling and analysis by Biden allies designed to identify the most effective arguments for Democrats in trying to fend off a crippling Republican blow in November's elections.\n\n\"It's very clear that the Democratic Party hasn't had a coherent story to tell about the Republican Party and what's happened to it,\" says Anita Dunn, a top Biden adviser who participated in the research and soon will rejoin the White House staff. \"I don't think we were looking for this particular message, but it found us.\"\n\nDemocrats have long intended to spend the 2022 homestretch trying to redirecting voters' attention from discontent with Biden's performance toward a contrast with Republican opponents. They have no choice; a century's worth of historical trends, reinforced by today's discontent over inflation, among other issues, point toward midterm losses likely to cost them control of the House and perhaps the Senate.\n\nThe question has been what kind of contrast to draw.\n\nTraditionally Democrats used issues such as tax and spending priorities to assail Republicans as the party of the rich. That helped President Barack Obama win reelection in 2012 over Mitt Romney, the former private-equity executive who now represents Utah in the Senate.\n\nIn 2018 and 2020, Democrats ran successfully against Trump's unpopular persona and agenda. But he's neither president nor on the ballot now, facts that undercut Democratic attempts to use him as the foil in Virginia's gubernatorial race last fall.\n\nThat's when the liberal Center for American Progress began exploring different approaches. Looking beyond the ex-President, its polling tested broader themes involving changes Trump accelerated within the GOP that have outlived his tenure.\n\n\"This is so much bigger than him,\" explains Navin Nayak, president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. \"They have radicalized.\"\n\nEyeing a larger portrait, the Center for American Progress didn't measure attitudes toward discrete topics such as climate change or abortion. With Americans voting less on policy stances than on the party they personally identify with, it explored defining a reshaped GOP to turn potential supporters toward Democrats.\n\nIn separate polls, Hart Research and Global Strategy Group asked Americans who don't strongly align with Trump about the GOP's evolution. Their research suggested that many saw extensive changes in the last five to 10 years in the Republican Party, and in key sectors of the electorate -- independents, non-Whites, Whites without college degrees -- substantial shares said those changes have been for the worse.\n\nIn districts and states with battleground races for the House, t he Senate and governorships, pollsters found that assailing \"a new extreme MAGA agenda\" moved voters more than hitting the GOP's quest to \"lower taxes for the rich.\" The pollsters also concluded there was broad agreement with the idea that Republicans were \"willing to do anything for power.\"\n\nThose findings anchor the new argument Biden and fellow Democrats have begun making. It seeks to cast the Republican quest for power as a threat not just to voters' economic interests but also to American values, personal rights and democracy itself.\n\nTheir leading example came on January 6, 2021 . Next month, public hearings by the House committee investigating the deadly insurrection will drive the point home by showcasing the role of Trump and Republican allies.\n\nPresident Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, May 4, 2022.\n\nNow the leaked draft Supreme Court opinion on abortion has unexpectedly provided what Nayak calls a \"powerful proof point.\" As Biden demonstrated from the White House last week, Democrats will use potential rollback of a half-century old constitutional right to rally voters against extremism.\n\nThe extremism framework encompasses the call by veteran Democratic strategist James Carville to highlight \"out-and-out weird\" Republicans such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina . Dunn says Democrats intend to \"make them even better known than they've already made themselves.\"\n\nBy directing attacks at \"MAGA Republicans,\" Biden leaves space for cooperation with more traditional GOP lawmakers. One of them, Ohio's retiring Sen. Rob Portman , joined the President at a metals plant here as he touted a pending bill investing billions in semiconductor manufacturing. But raising the partisan temperature risks complicating negotiations.\n\nOdds against Democrats holding Congress remain long, since most voters continue to disapprove of the President's performance. What Biden advisers hope is that the \"MAGA Republican\" theme gives them a fighting chance.\n\n\"There's no magic formula for the party in power to win a midterm,\" Dunn concludes. \"Making it a choice, not a referendum, is a first step.\"", "authors": ["Analysis John Harwood"], "publish_date": "2022/05/08"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_5", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:19", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/12/entertainment/emmy-awards-2022-nominations/index.html", "title": "Emmy nominations 2022: The full list by category - CNN", "text": "(CNN) It was a good morning for the cast and creative teams of \"Succession\" and \"Ted Lasso.\"\n\nThe shows on Tuesday earned several nominations in the major categories for the 74th Emmy Awards, which will be held September 12.\n\n\"Succession\" earned the most nominations of any show, earning a total of 25 nods, including one for outstanding drama, as well as outstanding lead actor nominations for Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong.\n\n\"Ted Lasso\" led the comedy category, earning 20 nominations, including one for outstanding comedy series. Star Jason Sudeikis earned an outstanding lead actor nomination, while Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein and Hannah Waddingham were among those who earned individual nominations in their respective supporting acting categories. Sarah Niles, Toheeb Jimoh and Nick Mohammed also earned supporting actor nominations.\n\n\"White Lotus\" was a favorite in the limited series category, earning a total of 20 nominations and an incredible eight nominations in supporting acting categories.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Sandra Gonzalez"], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2022/07/12/emmys-nominations-2022-full-list/10018798002/", "title": "Emmys nominations 2022: Full list; 'Succession,' 'Ted Lasso' lead", "text": "'Succession,' 'Ted Lasso,' 'White Lotus' top Emmy nominees.\n\nHBO nabs 140 nominations to Netflix's 105.\n\n'Squid Game' is the first non-English language show nominated for best drama series.\n\nJust like Logan Roy (Brian Cox) himself, HBO's \"Succession\" once again comes out on top.\n\nThe show, which follows the dysfunctional Roy family's fight for corporate power, leads the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards race with 25 nominations, including outstanding drama series. Apple TV+ comedy \"Ted Lasso\" and HBO's social-satire limited series \"The White Lotus\" tied for second, with 20 nominations apiece.\n\n\"Succession\" will compete with Netflix's \"Squid Game,\" the first non-English language show nominated for the title; Netflix's \"Ozark,\" which released its final episodes in April; and Netflix's \"Stranger Things,\" the most watched English-language series on the platform. AMC's \"Better Call Saul,\" HBO's \"Euphoria,\" Apple TV+'s \"Severance\" and Showtime's \"Yellowjackets\" are also nominated in the category.\n\nEmmy snubs 2022: Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston among actors left off nomination list\n\nZendaya is nominated again as outstanding lead actress in a drama series for her work on HBO's \"Euphoria.\" The first season made her the youngest (and only the second) Black woman to win a lead actress drama Emmy, for playing teen drug addict Rue Bennett. Zendaya is also up against BBC America's \"Killing Eve\" stars Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, who wrapped their final season in April.\n\n\"Lasso,\" which earned Jason Sudeikis an acting Emmy for the show's first season, is vying for best-comedy honors with ABC's “Abbott Elementary,” HBO's “Barry” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” FX's “What We Do in the Shadows” and Amazon Prime's “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”\n\nAlso in the race: Hulu's murder mystery \"Only Murders in the Building\" and HBO Max's \"Hacks,\" which saw Jean Smart winning an acting Emmy in the show's first season.\n\n\"Lotus\" and Hulu's nonfiction drama \"Dopesick, about the opioid crisis, are among nominees for outstanding limited series. \"Lotus,\" which follows employees and guests at a Hawaiian resort, is tied with \"Ted Lasso\" with 20 nominations and \"Dopesick,\" which showcases Purdue Pharma's role in fueling the opioid addiction crisis, has 14.\n\nHBO and HBO Max, with a leading total of 140 nominations, narrowly edged Netflix's 105 for the second year in a row.\n\nThe 74th Primetime Emmy Awards are set to air Sept. 12 on NBC. A host hasn't yet been announced.\n\nThe 2022 Emmy nominees:\n\nDRAMA SERIES\n\n\"Better Call Saul\" (AMC)\n\n\"Euphoria\" (HBO)\n\n\"Ozark\" (Netflix)\n\n\"Severance\" (Apple)\n\n\"Squid Game\" (Netflix)\n\n“Stranger Things” (Netflix)\n\n\"Succession\" (HBO)\n\n\"Yellowjackets\" (Showtime)\n\nCOMEDY SERIES\n\n\"Abbott Elementary\" (ABC)\n\n\"Barry\" (HBO)\n\n“Curb Your Enthusiasm” (HBO)\n\n\"Hacks\" (HBO Max)\n\n\"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel\" (Amazon)\n\n\"Only Murders in the Building\" (Hulu)\n\n\"Ted Lasso\" (Apple)\n\n\"What We Do in the Shadows\" (FX)\n\nLIMITED SERIES\n\n\"Dopesick\" (Hulu)\n\n\"The Dropout\" (Hulu)\n\n“Inventing Anna” (Netflix)\n\n“Pam & Tommy” (Hulu)\n\n\"The White Lotus\" (HBO)\n\nLEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES\n\nJodie Comer, \"Killing Eve\" (BBC America)\n\nLaura Linney, \"Ozark\" (Netflix)\n\nMelanie Lynskey, \"Yellowjackets\" (Showtime)\n\nSandra Oh, “Killing Eve\" (BBC America)\n\nReese Witherspoon, \"The Morning Show\" (Apple)\n\nZendaya, \"Euphoria\" (HBO)\n\nLEAD ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES\n\nJason Bateman, \"Ozark\" (Netflix)\n\nBrian Cox, \"Succession\" (HBO)\n\nLee Jung-jae, \"Squid Game\" (Netflix)\n\nBob Odenkirk, \"Better Call Saul\" (AMC)\n\nAdam Scott, \"Severance\" (Apple)\n\nJeremy Strong, \"Succession\" (HBO)\n\nLEAD ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES\n\nRachel Brosnahan, \"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel\" (Amazon)\n\nQuinta Brunson, \"Abbott Elementary\" (ABC)\n\nKaley Cuoco, \"The Flight Attendant\" (HBO Max)\n\nElle Fanning, “The Great” (Hulu)\n\nIssa Rae, \"Insecure\" (HBO)\n\nJean Smart, \"Hacks\" (HBO Max)\n\nLEAD ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES\n\nDonald Glover, \"Atlanta\" (FX)\n\nBill Hader, \"Barry\" (HBO)\n\nNicholas Hoult, “The Great” (Hulu)\n\nSteve Martin, \"Only Murders in the Building\" (Hulu)\n\nMartin Short, \"Only Murders in the Building\" (Hulu)\n\nJason Sudeikis, \"Ted Lasso\" (Apple)\n\nLEAD ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE\n\nToni Collette “The Staircase” (HBO Max)\n\nJulia Garner, \"Inventing Anna\" (Netflix)\n\nLily James, \"Pam & Tommy\" (Hulu)\n\nSarah Paulson, “Impeachment: American Crime Story” (FX)\n\nMargaret Qualley, \"Maid\" (Netflix)\n\nAmanda Seyfried, \"The Dropout\" (Hulu)\n\nLEAD ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE\n\nColin Firth, \"The Staircase\" (HBO Max)\n\nAndrew Garfield, \"Under the Banner of Heaven\" (Hulu)\n\nOscar Isaac, \"Scenes from a Marriage\" (HBO)\n\nMichael Keaton, \"Dopesick\" (Hulu)\n\nHimesh Patel, “Station Eleven” (HBO Max)\n\nSebastian Stan, \"Pam & Tommy\" (Hulu)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES\n\nPatricia Arquette, “Severance” (Apple)\n\nJulia Garner, “Ozark” (Netflix)\n\nJung Ho-yeon, “Squid Game” (Netflix)\n\nChristina Ricci, “Yellowjackets” (Showtime)\n\nRhea Seehorn, “Better Call Saul” (AMC)\n\nJ. Smith-Cameron, “Succession” (HBO)\n\nSarah Snook “Succession” (HBO)\n\nSydney Sweeney, “Euphoria” (HBO)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES\n\nNicholas Braun, “Succession” (HBO)\n\nBilly Crudup, “The Morning Show” (Apple)\n\nKieran Culkin, “Succession” (HBO)\n\nPark Hae-soo, “Squid Game” (Netflix)\n\nMatthew Macfadyen, “Succession” (Netflix)\n\nJohn Turturro, “Severance” (Apple)\n\nChristopher Walken, “Severance” (Apple)\n\nOh Yeong-su, “Squid Game” (Netflix)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES\n\nAlex Borstein, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon)\n\nHannah Einbinder, “Hacks” (HBO)\n\nJanelle James, “Abbott Elementary” (ABC)\n\nKate McKinnon, “Saturday Night Live” (NBC)\n\nSarah Niles, “Ted Lasso” (Apple)\n\nSheryl Lee Ralph, “Abbott Elementary” (ABC)\n\nJuno Temple, “Ted Lasso” (Apple)\n\nHannah Waddingham, “Ted Lasso” (Apple)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES\n\nAnthony Carrigan, “Barry” (HBO)\n\nBrett Goldstein, “Ted Lasso” (Apple)\n\nToheeb Jimoh, “Ted Lasso” (Apple)\n\nNick Mohammed, “Ted Lasso” (Apple)\n\nTony Shalhoub, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon)\n\nTyler James Williams, “Abbott Elementary” (ABC)\n\nHenry Winkler, “Barry” (HBO)\n\nBowen Yang, “Saturday Night Live” (NBC)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE\n\nConnie Britton, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nJennifer Coolidge, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nAlexandra Daddario, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nKaitlyn Dever, “Dopesick” (Hulu)\n\nNatasha Rothwell, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nSydney Sweeney, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nMare Winningham, “Dopesick” (Hulu)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE\n\nMurray Bartlett, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nJake Lacy, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nWill Poulter, “Dopesick” (Hulu)\n\nSeth Rogen, “Pam & Tommy” (Hulu)\n\nPeter Sarsgaard, “Dopesick” (Hulu)\n\nMichael Stuhlbarg, “Dopesick” (Hulu)\n\nSteve Zahn, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nOUTSTANDING VARIETY TALK SERIES\n\n“The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” (Comedy Central)\n\n“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (ABC)\n\n“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (HBO)\n\n“Late Night With Seth Meyers” (NBC)\n\n“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (CBS)\n\nOUTSTANDING COMPETITION PROGRAM\n\n“The Amazing Race” (CBS)\n\n“Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” (Amazon Prime)\n\n“Nailed It!” (Netflix)\n\n“RuPaul's Drag Race” (VH1)\n\n“Top Chef” (Bravo)\n\n“The Voice” (NBC)\n\nHOST FOR A REALITY OR COMPETITION PROGRAM\n\nBobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, “Queer Eye” (Netflix)\n\nAmy Poehler and Nick Offerman, “Making It” (NBC)\n\nNicole Byer, “Nailed It!” (Netflix)\n\nBarbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, Kevin O'Leary, “Shark Tank” (ABC)\n\nPadma Lakshmi, “Top Chef” (Bravo)\n\nRuPaul, “RuPaul's Drag Race” (VH1)\n\nVARIETY SPECIAL, PRE-RECORDED\n\n\"Adele: One Night Only\" (CBS)\n\n\"Dave Chappelle: The Closer\" (Netflix)\n\n\"Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts\" (HBO)\n\n\"Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special\" (Netflix)\n\n\"One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga\" (CBS)", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2022/03/27/oscars-2022-full-winners-list/7183082001/", "title": "Oscar winners 2022 full list: Who won at the Academy Awards?", "text": "Favorite \"CODA,\" about a deaf fishing family and their hearing daughter, won best picture at Sunday's 94th Academy Awards. Will Smith and Jessica Chastain took home the top acting prizes and Jane Campion won for best director for her Western \"The Power of the Dog.\"\n\nThe Academy Awards returned to the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and had a host (three of them, actually) for the first time in four years.\n\nAmy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes co-hosted the festivities, which had strict COVID-19 protocols in place: Guests were required to show proof of vaccination, as well as undergo several rounds of testing.\n\nWho took home honors at the 94th annual Academy Awards? Check out the list of Oscar winners (in bold):\n\n'Was that real?' Social media is stunned about Will Smith smacking Chris Rock\n\n'Love will make you do crazy things':Will Smith apologizes to Oscars after hitting Chris Rock onstage\n\nBest picture\n\n\"Belfast\"\n\nWinner: \"CODA\"\n\n\"Don't Look Up\"\n\n\"Drive My Car\"\n\n\"Dune\"\n\n\"King Richard\"\n\n\"Licorice Pizza\"\n\n\"Nightmare Alley\"\n\n\"The Power of the Dog\"\n\n\"West Side Story\"\n\nBest actress\n\nWinner: Jessica Chastain, \"The Eyes of Tammy Faye\"\n\nOlivia Colman, \"The Lost Daughter\"\n\nPenélope Cruz, \"Parallel Mothers\"\n\nNicole Kidman, \"Being the Ricardos\"\n\nKristen Stewart, \"Spencer\"\n\nOscars 2022:'CODA' wins best picture, Will Smith and Jessica Chastain take acting honors\n\nThe Fresh Prince is crowned:Will Smith wins best actor on an infamous Oscar night\n\nBest actor\n\nJavier Bardem, \"Being the Ricardos\"\n\nBenedict Cumberbatch, \"The Power of the Dog\"\n\nAndrew Garfield, \"tick, tick ... BOOM!\"\n\nWinner: Will Smith, \"King Richard\"\n\nDenzel Washington, \"The Tragedy of Macbeth\"\n\nBest supporting actress\n\nJessie Buckley, \"The Lost Daughter\"\n\nWinner: Ariana DeBose, \"West Side Story\"\n\nJudi Dench, \"Belfast\"\n\nKirsten Dunst, \"The Power of the Dog\"\n\nAunjanue Ellis, \"King Richard\"\n\n'A place for us':Why Ariana DeBose's Oscar win is a major victory for LGBTQ community\n\n'Dreams really can come true':'West Side Story' star Rachel Zegler makes it to the Oscars\n\nBest supporting actor\n\nCiarán Hinds, \"Belfast\"\n\nWinner: Troy Kotsur, \"CODA\"\n\nJesse Plemons, \"The Power of the Dog\"\n\nJ.K. Simmons, \"Being the Ricardos\"\n\nKodi Smit-McPhee, \"The Power of the Dog\"\n\nBest director\n\nKenneth Branagh, \"Belfast\"\n\nRyusuke Hamaguchi, \"Drive My Car\"\n\nPaul Thomas Anderson, \"Licorice Pizza\"\n\nWinner: Jane Campion, \"The Power of the Dog\"\n\nSteven Spielberg, \"West Side Story\"\n\nAdapted screenplay\n\nWinner: \"CODA,\" Siân Heder\n\n\"Drive My Car,\" Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe\n\n\"Dune,\" Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth\n\n\"The Lost Daughter,\" Maggie Gyllenhaal\n\n\"The Power of the Dog,\" Jane Campion\n\nOriginal screenplay\n\nWinner: \"Belfast,\" Kenneth Branagh\n\n\"Don't Look Up,\" Adam McKay and David Sirota\n\n\"King Richard,\" Zach Baylin\n\n\"Licorice Pizza,\" Paul Thomas Anderson\n\n\"The Worst Person in the World,\" Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier\n\nInternational film\n\nWinner: \"Drive My Car\" (Japan)\n\n\"Flee\" (Denmark)\n\n\"The Hand of God\" (Italy)\n\n\"Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom\" (Bhutan)\n\n\"The Worst Person in the World\" (Norway)\n\nVisual effects\n\nWinner: \"Dune\"\n\n\"Free Guy\"\n\n\"No Time to Die\"\n\n\"Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings\"\n\n\"Spider-Man: No Way Home\"\n\nCinematography\n\nWinner: \"Dune\"\n\n\"Nightmare Alley\"\n\n\"The Power of the Dog\"\n\n\"The Tragedy of Macbeth\"\n\n\"West Side Story\"\n\nOriginal score\n\n\"Don't Look Up,\" Nicholas Britell\n\nWinner: \"Dune,\" Hans Zimmer\n\n\"Encanto,\" Germaine Franco\n\n\"Parallel Mothers,\" Alberto Iglesias\n\n\"The Power of the Dog,\" Jonny Greenwood\n\nMore:Brutally honest rankings of Oscars 2022 best song performances, from Billie Eilish to Beyonce\n\nMore:'We Don't Talk About Bruno' gets a Megan Thee Stallion remix at the Oscars. Why wasn't it nominated?\n\nOriginal song\n\n\"Be Alive\" (from \"King Richard\")\n\n\"Dos Oruguitas\" (from \"Encanto\")\n\n\"Down To Joy\" (from \"Belfast\")\n\nWinner: \"No Time To Die\" (from \"No Time to Die\")\n\n\"Somehow You Do\" (from \"Four Good Days\")\n\nFilm editing\n\n\"Don't Look Up\"\n\nWinner: \"Dune\"\n\n\"King Richard\"\n\n\"The Power of the Dog\"\n\n\"tick, tick ... BOOM!\"\n\nCostume design\n\nWinner: \"Cruella\"\n\n\"Cyrano\"\n\n\"Dune\"\n\n\"Nightmare Alley\"\n\n\"West Side Story\"\n\nMakeup and hairstyling\n\n\"Coming 2 America\"\n\n\"Cruella\"\n\n\"Dune\"\n\nWinner: \"The Eyes of Tammy Faye\"\n\n\"House of Gucci\"\n\nProduction design\n\nWinner: \"Dune\"\n\n\"Nightmare Alley\"\n\n\"The Power of the Dog\"\n\n\"The Tragedy of Macbeth\"\n\n\"West Side Story\"\n\nMore:Oscars best dressed: Shirtless Timothée Chalamet and shiny Zendaya stun on the red carpet\n\nMore:Mila Kunis honors Ukrainians 'who find strength to keep fighting' during Oscars ceremony\n\nSound\n\n\"Belfast\"\n\nWinner: \"Dune\"\n\n\"No Time to Die\"\n\n\"The Power of the Dog\"\n\n\"West Side Story\"\n\nDocumentary feature film\n\n\"Ascension\"\n\n\"Attica\"\n\n\"Flee\"\n\nWinner: \"Summer of Soul (... Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)\"\n\n\"Writing With Fire\"\n\nDocumentary short subject\n\n\"Audible\"\n\n\"Lead Me Home\"\n\nWinner: \"The Queen of Basketball\"\n\n\"Three Songs for Benazir\"\n\n\"When We Were Bullies\"\n\nAnimated feature film\n\nWinner: \"Encanto\"\n\n\"Flee\"\n\n\"Luca\"\n\n\"The Mitchells vs. the Machines\"\n\n\"Raya and the Last Dragon\"\n\nAnimated short film\n\n\"Affairs of the Art\"\n\n\"Bestia\"\n\n\"Boxballet\"\n\n\"Robin Robin\"\n\nWinner: \"The Windshield Wiper\"\n\nLive action short film\n\n\"Ala Kachuu – Take and Run\"\n\n\"The Dress\"\n\nWinner: \"The Long Goodbye\"\n\n\"On My Mind\"\n\n\"Please Hold\"\n\nMore:All 93 Oscar best picture winners (yes, all of them), ranked from worst to best\n\nRemember Bjork's swan dress? See the all-time most outrageous Oscars red carpet looks", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2022/07/12/emmy-nominations-snubs-2022/10012979002/", "title": "Emmy nomination snubs 2022: Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston", "text": "It's an honor to be nominated for an Emmy, but these people don't even get the consolation of saying that to themselves.\n\nThe 74th Primetime Emmy nominations were announced Tuesday, and the list of the series, actors and creators up for TV's biggest honor had usual suspects like \"Ted Lasso\" and \"Succession,\" and some up-and-comers, including \"Only Murders in the Building,\" \"The White Lotus\" and \"Squid Game.\" But among all those worthy contenders for TV's biggest award, there were some equally worthy people shut out of the race.\n\nThe Emmy Awards will air Sept. 12 on NBC, but Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston probably won't be attending. Here are the biggest snubs from this year's Emmy nominations list.\n\nJulia Roberts snubbed for 'Gaslit'\n\nIt pays to be a movie star working in television, but it's not always enough to get an Emmy nomination. Roberts brought her talents to TV for Starz's Watergate drama \"Gaslit,\" but didn't manage a nomination for lead actress in a limited series or TV movie, and the miniseries missed out, too.\n\nSee the full Emmy nominations list:'Succession,' 'Ted Lasso,' 'White Lotus' lead\n\nJennifer Aniston snubbed for 'The Morning Show'\n\nThe lead actress in a drama category was competitive this year, and while Aniston's co-star Reese Witherspoon made it in for Apple's \"Morning Show,\" Aniston did not, despite a previous nomination for the series.\n\nMandy Moore and 'This Is Us' snubbed\n\nNBC family drama \"Us\" has long been an Emmy favorite, but its final season didn't rate highly on voter's minds. The series did not garner a nomination for best drama, nor did Moore get one for her lauded, age-defying performance in the final episodes.\n\n'Atlanta' snubbed\n\nAfter a four-year hiatus, Donald Glover's beloved, experimental dark comedy \"Atlanta\" returned to FX. Glover nabbed a nomination for his performance as music manager Earn Marks, but the show missed out on a nod for best comedy series, despite getting one the last time it was eligible in 2017, when supporting actors Bryan Tyree Henry and Zazie Beetz also were nominated.\n\nSelena Gomez for 'Only Murders in the Building'\n\nThere's a trio of podcasting amateur detectives at the heart of Hulu's comical murder mystery series, but only two managed to make the nominations list. Veteran comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short each made it into the lead actor in a comedy category for their work in Season 1 of the series, but their co-star Gomez was left out for an acting nomination.\n\nMore:Daytime Emmys 2022: Soaps 'The Young and the Restless,' 'General Hospital' lead nominations", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2022/03/30/grammy-awards-2022-how-watch-livestream-performers-nominees/7218082001/", "title": "Grammys 2022: Miranda Lambert to miss show, everything else ...", "text": "This year’s Grammy Awards will spotlight a new location – Las Vegas – and an inching toward normalcy as it again unfolds in front of a live audience after a 2021 hybrid edition.\n\nSunday's 64th annual show, postponed from January amid a spike in omicron COVID-19 cases, marks the first time the ceremony has taken place anywhere other than Los Angeles or New York since a 1973 Nashville edition.\n\nAlong with the usual starry lineup of performers – BTS, newly minted Oscar winner Billie Eilish and Carrie Underwood among them – the 2022 Grammys might also witness history made by several performers.\n\nGrammy predictions:Who will win at Sunday's awards – and who should\n\nTaylor Swift could become the first artist to win album of the year four times (with “Evermore”), and BTS could become the first K-pop group to win a Grammy. And Eilish would be the first person to take home record of the year three times in succession – and the first woman to do so – if “Happier Than Ever” wins the category.\n\nBut we know you have questions. So from the top nominees to the performance lineup, here's everything you need to know going into this year's Grammys:\n\nGrammy performers:Ye banned from performing at Grammy Awards after tangling with Trevor Noah, Instagram\n\nWhat time are the Grammy Awards?\n\nSunday's show airs live on CBS and Paramount+ at 8 EDT/5 PDT. The Grammys’ 2022 home, MGM Grand Garden Arena, is the substitute location because of difficulties rescheduling at LA’s Crypto.com Arena (formerly the Staples Center), the show’s usual home. The Vegas venue has also hosted the Latin Grammys every year since 2009.\n\nFrom Taylor Swift to BTS:All the ways history could be made at the 2022 Grammy Awards\n\nHow can I watch or livestream the Grammys?\n\nAlong with airing on CBS, the show can be streamed live and on demand on Paramount+ and is accessible via CBS.com and the CBS app (with a cable subscription).\n\nFans can tune into the premiere ceremony – when about 70 of the 86 awards are distributed – starting at 3:30 EDT/12:30 PDT at live.grammy.com and the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel. Jimmie Allen, Ledisi, Mon Laferte and Allison Russell are confirmed to perform, and LeVar Burton is hosting.\n\n'We welcome the feedback':Recording Academy exec teases Grammy night, talks Drake controversy\n\nHow can I watch the red carpet?\n\nArrivals will be streamed on grammy.com starting at 6:30 EDT/3:30 PDT, and E! starts its red carpet coverage at 4 EDT/1 PDT, with \"Live From E!: Grammys\" starting at 6 EDT/3 PDT.\n\nThe biggest winners: See which artists have won the most Grammys\n\nWho's performing live at the Grammys?\n\nLady Gaga, Jon Batiste, Eilish, Underwood, J Balvin, Silk Sonic, John Legend, BTS, Brandi Carlile, H.E.R., Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo, Chris Stapleton, Nas, Jack Harlow, Brothers Osborne, Leslie Odom Jr. and Cynthia Erivo are among the names set to take the stage. The Foo Fighters had been announced as performers before the unexpected death of drummer Taylor Hawkins; their representative confirmed to USA TODAY on Thursday that the band would not perform on the show. Producers told Variety they're working on a way to honor Hawkins during the ceremony.\n\nWho's presenting at the Grammys?\n\nThose handing out awards include MusiCares Person of the Year Joni Mitchell paired with recent Oscars winner Questlove, as well as Megan Thee Stallion, Dua Lipa, Lenny Kravitz, Bonnie Raitt, Avril Lavigne, Ludacris, Billy Porter, Keith Urban, Kelsea Ballerini, Jared Leto, Anthony Mackie and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez.\n\nDrake withdraws from Grammy vote:The hip-hop star had two Grammy Awards nominations for 2022 ceremony\n\nWho are the biggest Grammy nominees?\n\nBatiste is the leader this year with 11 nominations among multiple genres. The jazz/R&B veteran, best known as the bandleader on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” is followed by Justin Bieber, H.E.R. and Doja Cat, all of whom scored eight nods.\n\nEilish ties pop newcomer Rodrigo with seven nominations each. The Grammy-gobbling Eilish also landed in top categories including album, song and record of the year for her sophomore effort “Happier Than Ever” and its title anthem. Rodrigo has a notable showing in all four major categories: album (“Sour”), song and record of the year (“Drivers License”) and best new artist.\n\nIn addition, two new categories are being introduced this year: best global music performance and best música urbana album.\n\nMiranda Lambert, who is nominated for best country duo/group performance (\"Drunk [And I Don’t Wanna Go Home]\") and best country album (\"The Marfa Tapes\"), says she will miss Sunday's show to focus on her tour and upcoming \"Palomino\" album.\n\n“I’m not getting to go again. I’m slammed this month, with the record coming out and everything,\" the “Little Red Wagon” singer told ABC Audio on Friday,\n\n“I got to play on the Grammys last year, and I got to take one home, and I was just so thankful … I’m grateful for what I already have.”\n\nSong of the year stars: From Adele to Streisand, all of the Grammy winners\n\nWhich musicians got snubbed?\n\nMiley Cyrus’ valentine to the ‘80s, “Plastic Hearts,” boasted cameos from Steve Nicks, Joan Jett, Billy Idol and current pop whiz Dua Lipa. But despite a best pop vocal album Grammy nomination in 2015 for “Bangerz” (she lost to Sam Smith’s “In the Lonely Hour”), her seventh studio album received zero recognition.\n\nMachine Gun Kelly also missed out on Grammy love for his fifth studio album, “Tickets to My Downfall,” which established him as a pop-punkster and spawned the rock hits “Bloody Valentine” and “My Ex’s Best Friend.”\n\nBTS, meanwhile, can make history as the first K-pop group to win a Grammy, but they only have one chance: “Butter” earned a lone nod for best pop duo/group performance.\n\nJon Batiste leads 2022 Grammy nominations:Justin Bieber, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish vie for big awards\n\nWho's hosting the Grammys?\n\nTrevor Noah returns for an encore stint, though he’ll have a more traditional show to steer compared with last year's 2021 hybrid event at the Los Angeles Convention Center.\n\nThe Emmy Award-winning host of Comedy Central's “The Daily Show” proved himself a breezy emcee last year, bopping between the nominees outside and the performers inside.\n\nEven though the scene is different, Noah will still have a standard awards show setup as his playground.\n\nGiven Noah’s social media kerfuffle with Kanye West, viewers should stay tuned for any biting commentary.\n\nBig name, no Grammys: See which top artists have never won", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/30"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/12/entertainment/2022-emmys-nominees/index.html", "title": "Analysis: The 2022 Emmy nominees are a dizzying mix of old, new ...", "text": "(CNN) Some things old, some things new, something international and groundbreaking, and a whole lot of real-life-inspired drama.\n\nThis year's Emmy nominations juggled a seemingly impossible task, trying to identify standout new series, like \"Only Murders in the Building\" and \"Abbott Elementary,\" while acknowledging older ones, including past winners and a number of shows that were in or about to enter their final seasons.\n\nAdd to that an increasingly international flavor to the television landscape, with Netflix's South Korean sensation \"Squid Game\" securing a best-drama nomination -- the first non-English-language show to achieve that feat -- and you have a solid prescription for what an overwhelming task this has become.\n\nHow overwhelming? Well, for starters, the Television Academy dispensed with decades of tradition and didn't bother to break down the nominations by network, in part because the advent of streaming platforms has made tallying up who owns those bragging rights -- Netflix? Some combination of HBO and HBO Max? Disney's assorted platforms with Disney+, ABC and Hulu? -- too much of a headache to tackle.\n\nFor what it's worth, after a neck-and-neck race last year, HBO opened up a wider lead over second-place Netflix this time around, with a whopping 140 nominations, buoyed by the 25 for drama favorite \"Succession,\" followed by \"The White Lotus\" (20, including a staggering eight supporting-acting bids), \"Hacks\" (17), \"Euphoria\" (16) and \"Barry\" (14). Apple TV+'s \"Ted Lasso\" (20) was again the most-nominated comedy. (Like CNN, HBO is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.)\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Analysis Brian Lowry"], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2022/06/23/daytime-emmys-2022-the-young-and-restless-scores-18-nominations/7715518001/", "title": "Daytime Emmys 2022: 'The Young and the Restless' scores 18 ...", "text": "Beth Harris\n\nThe Associated Press\n\nPASADENA, Calif. — After two years of real-life drama and isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic, the stars and shows of daytime television are gathering in person to hand out trophies at the Daytime Emmys.\n\nKevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner of \"Entertainment Tonight\" host the awards, which return to a full-capacity live ceremony at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. The 2020 edition went virtual for the first time because of COVID-19. Last year's show was pre-taped with a limited audience on hand.\n\nThe 49th annual awards air Friday at 9 p.m. ET on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.\n\nPresenters include Drew Barrymore, Deidre Hall, Tamron Hall and Cameron Mathison. Michael Bolton will sing his new song \"Beautiful World\" and perform during the In Memoriam segment.\n\nDaytime Emmys 2021:Alex Trebek, Larry King win on same night they receive in memoriam tributes\n\n'American Song Contest':Michael Bolton kicks off premiere with 'silky smooth' vocals, wows Kelly Clarkson\n\nFor the first time, a soap and its spinoff are pitted against each other in the daytime drama series category. NBC's \"Days of Our Lives\" goes against the Peacock streamer \"Days of Our Lives: Beyond Salem.\" Also contending are \"The Bold and the Beautiful\" and \"The Young and the Restless,\" both on CBS, and ABC's \"General Hospital.\"\n\n\"The Young and the Restless\" headed into the show with a leading 18 nominations, including six in the main acting categories. \"General Hospital\" has 17 nods. Those are two of four remaining soaps still airing on the broadcast networks.\n\nPat Sajak is competing against himself and three others in the game show host category. He's nominated for his longtime gig on the syndicated \"Wheel of Fortune,\" as well as for the celebrity edition that airs on ABC.\n\nWith Ellen DeGeneres having recently retired from her talk show, Kelly Clarkson is poised to take over her mantle in addition to DeGeneres' old timeslot. The singer could nab a third straight entertainment talk show host trophy, and her syndicated show is vying for its second consecutive honor.\n\nMy dad has MS:Why watching 'Wheel of Fortune' together means so much to me\n\nThe 'Ellen' finale:DeGeneres’ last monologue (in full), Jennifer Aniston's Brad Pitt joke\n\nJohn Aniston, father of Jennifer, is being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his 37-year role as Victor Kiriakis on \"Days of Our Lives.\"\n\nLast week's Creative Arts and Lifestyle ceremony crowned some famous names.\n\nPatti Scialfa, wife of Bruce Springsteen, has her own trophy to add to the family shelf. She was an executive producer on PBS' \"Shelter Me: Soul Awakened,\" which won for daytime special.\n\nJohn Legend, already an EGOT winner (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony), added a Daytime Emmy as an executive producer of PBS' \"The Black Church,\" which won for short form daytime program.\n\nDeGeneres' eponymous show won for writing team for a daytime non-fiction series, earning the comedian the final Daytime Emmy of her decorated 19-year run.\n\nOn the road:Bruce Springsteen announces 2023 tour with the E Street Band, kicking off in U.S.\n\nJohn Legend:It's not radical to dream of a more free America, or to protect our basic rights", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/09/17/emmys-2021-everything-know-when-they-are-how-to-watch/8346977002/", "title": "Emmys 2021: Everything to know about TV's biggest awards show", "text": "TV's biggest night comes to small screens Sunday.\n\nWhen Emmy nominations were announced in July by father-daughter acting duo Ron Cephas Jones (\"This Is Us\" and \"Lisey's Story\") and Jasmine Cephas Jones (\"Blindspotting\" and \"Hamilton\"), Apple TV+'s upbeat \"Ted Lasso\" became the first new show to receive 20 nominations in its inaugural season, besting a freshman record set by Fox's \"Glee.\" HBO's horror drama \"Lovecraft Country\" received 18 nominations, shortly after it was canceled.\n\nThe year's biggest unscripted moments were also recognized. Oprah Winfrey's CBS sitdown with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle earned a nod for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special, and FX and The New York Times' documentary \"Framing Britney Spears\" earned two. HBO Max's \"Friends\" reunion, which brought together all six cast members, is a contender in four categories.\n\nHere's what else you need to know about the awards show.\n\nEmmys 2021:'The Crown,' 'Mandalorian' top nominees; see all the major categories\n\nA 'Ted Lasso' sweep? Who will win (and who should) at the 2021 Emmy Awards\n\nWhen are the Emmys and how can I watch?\n\nThe awards ceremony will air Sept. 19 on CBS (8 EDT/5 PDT) and stream on Paramount+. The show is to be broadcast from outside the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, and will include \"a limited audience of nominees and their guests,\" according to the TV Academy.\n\nWho is hosting the Emmy Awards?\n\nComedian and actor Cedric the Entertainer, who stars on CBS sitcom \"The Neighborhood,\" will emcee. He follows last year's ABC host Jimmy Kimmel, who started a trashcan fire that Jennifer Aniston extinguished.\n\nCedric, a first-time host, told USA TODAY Sunday's ceremony will be an \"intimate\" affair amid the mutating coronavirus. \"It was going to be a much bigger audience there,\" Cedric says. \"At first, the idea was to really bring it back full steam ahead and now, with the new variant, there’s been some sizing down.\"\n\nBut don't expect Cedric to poke fun at any stars the way Ricky Gervais and Jimmy Kimmel have done at previous awards shows.\n\n\"We’ve all been through a lot the past few years,\" he says, \"So the idea of cynicism and mean-spirited jokes is not going to be what the vibe is at all.\"\n\nThe comedian aims to bring a \"celebratory\" tone to the Emmys, a night to salute how \"TV got us all the way through (the pandemic) with most of us being stuck at home.\"\n\nMore from this year's Emmys host:Cedric the Entertainer says scaled-down Emmys will still be full of 'surprises'\n\nWhich limited series deserves the Emmy? We passionately defend all five contenders\n\nWho is nominated for an Emmy?\n\n“The Mandalorian,” the hit Disney+ series set in the “Star Wars” universe, tied the fourth season of Netflix's British monarchy series “The Crown\" with 24 nominations apiece, including best drama.\n\nBoth shows were trailed by Disney+'s inaugural Marvel show “WandaVision,” which earned 23 nods, including best limited series, best actress (Elizabeth Olsen) and best actor (Paul Bettany). \"Lasso,\" starring Jason Sudeikis as a soccer coach transplanted to London, was the most nominated comedy.\n\nThe limited series categories are stacked this year, with Netflix’s “The Queen's Gambit,” HBO’s “I May Destroy You” and “Mare of Easttown” all picking up multiple nominations. (See the list of all the nominees in the major categories.)\n\nHBO and HBO Max picked up the most nominations (130), followed closely by Netflix, with 129.\n\n'Tears of joy':Mj Rodriguez the first trans performer nominated for lead drama Emmy\n\nTV shows with the most Emmy wins of all time, from 'Game of Thrones' to 'SNL'\n\nWho was shockingly snubbed?\n\nFor all the worthy nominees, there were plenty of surprising omissions. Critically acclaimed and fan-favorite series and actors were left off the list, including Nicole Kidman (HBO's \"The Undoing\"), Ethan Hawke (Showtime's \"The Good Lord Bird\") and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Peacock's \"Girls5Eva\"), to name a few. USA TODAY'S TV critic Kelly Lawler has addressed several more snubs.\n\nWho will win at the Emmy Awards?\n\nThis year's Emmy race has been full of predictable frontrunners (\"Lasso,\" Jean Smart from \"Hacks\") and some hopeful spoilers (Bowen Yang of \"Saturday Night Live,\" \"The Boys\"). With many perennial Emmy winners not in contention this year because of COVID-related production delays – \"Succession,\" \"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,\" \"The Morning Show,\" \"Better Call Saul\" and \"Killing Eve\" among them – there are more chances for newer and lesser-known series to triumph.\n\nOur TV critic has shared her insight so readers can have the edge on their Emmy (virtual) office pools.\n\nEmmys 2021 snubs:'Girls5Eva,' Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke and more\n\nIt’s time to end gendered acting awards at Emmys and Oscars. Here’s why.\n\nContributing: Cydney Henderson, Kelly Lawler and Patrick Ryan", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2022/04/03/grammys-2022-live-updates-winners/7244155001/", "title": "Grammy recap: Jon Batiste, Silk Sonic, Olivia Rodrigo take top awards", "text": "Jon Batiste ruled on a Grammys night that celebrated young hitmaker Olivia Rodrigo and embraced the funk of Silk Sonic.\n\nBatiste, who went into music's biggest night with a leading 11 nominations, won five trophies including album of the year – the top prize of the night – for \"We Are\" at Sunday's 64th Grammy Awards. Silk Sonic, the super duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, took home record and song of the year – as well as R&B song and performance Grammys for \"Leave the Door Open.\" And Rodrigo was named best new artist as part of her three-win day, which also included best pop vocal album for \"Sour\" and pop solo performance for her hit \"Drivers License.\"\n\nIt was a night of many performances, by Justin Bieber, BTS, Lady Gaga and more, and also of important tributes. Billie Eilish wore a T-shirt honoring the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a prerecorded message at the Grammys paired with a rousing rendition of \"Free\" by John Legend.\n\nGrammy winners:See which stars took home gold on music's biggest night\n\nGrammys best dressed:Lil Nas X, Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga and more stars who made our hearts sing\n\nHere are all the highlights and winners from the prime-time Grammys:\n\nJon Batiste's 'We Are' wins album of the year\n\nAfter entering the night with 11 nominations and walking away with the Grammys' top prize. Batiste talks about how there shouldn't be such things as best new artist, best actor or best record because art is subjective. \"They have like a radar to reach that person when they need it the most,\" Batiste says. In regard to music, \"it's more than entertainment for me – it's a spiritual practice.\" He also left the crowd with a positive message: \"Be you. That's it. I love you even if I don't know you.\"\n\nGrammys red carpet:Hollywood still can't stop talking about Will Smith's Oscars slap\n\nCarrie Underwood debuts new song 'Ghost Story'\n\nHours after winning the Grammy for best roots gospel album, Underwood cranks up the wind machine so her dress can billow as she belts her new power ballad \"Ghost Story.\" (It's a'ight.)\n\nGrammy performances:Brutally honest reviews of everyone from BTS to Olivia Rodrigo\n\nBruno Mars, Anderson .Paak get a 'clean sweep' with Silk Sonic\n\nNot only did they win song of the year, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak take a second major Grammy. \"We're really trying our hardest to remain humble at this point,\" .Paak says. \"But in the industry, we call that a clean sweep.\"\n\nThe most memorable 2022 Grammy moments:From Gaga's Tony Bennett tribute to Zelenskyy's plea\n\nDoja Cat and SZA's 'Kiss Me More' wins a Grammy, H.E.R. bangs the drums\n\n\"I have never taken such a fast (pee) in my whole life,\" an out-of-breath Doja Cat says when accepting the honor for best pop duo/group performance. \"I'm glad you made it back in time!\" SZA adds. Doja Cat can't stop crying. \"This is a big deal,\" she says. Their win is followed by a performance from H.E.R., who sings \"Damage,\" plays drums on \"We Made It\" and is joined by Travis Barker and Lenny Kravitz for \"Are You Gonna Go My Way.\"\n\nJustin Bieber gets his ballad on at the Grammys\n\nDecked out in a backward baseball cap and hoodie, Justin Bieber sings his hit \"Peaches\" first at the piano when he's kicking it on the slow side and then is joined by R&B artists Daniel Caesar and Givēon.\n\nGrammys burning questions:What's Finneas' last name? How many BTS members are there? We answer 'em.\n\nJon Batiste gives a spirited rendition of 'Freedom'\n\nAfter going to town on the piano, Batiste joins a slew of backup dancers, his band and a bunch of candy-colored props for a joyful performance of \"Freedom.\"\n\n'In memoriam' segment honors Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, Stephen Sondheim\n\nTrevor Noah begins the \"In memoriam\" sequence with a tribute to Hawkins, the late Foo Fighters drummer, followed by an ode to Sondheim: Ben Platt performs \"Not a Day Goes By,\" Cynthia Erivo and Leslie Odom Jr. sing \"Send In the Clowns\" and \"West Side Story\" star Rachel Zegler comes in for \"Somewhere.\"\n\nBillie Eilish:Singer pays tribute to Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins during Grammys performance\n\nOlivia Rodrigo takes Grammy No. 3, for pop vocal album\n\nThe young singer's \"Sour\" wins the category, and Rodrigo thanks her parents, especially her mom \"for being supportive of my dreams, no matter how crazy.\"\n\nJazmine Sullivan wins best R&B album for 'Heaux Tales'\n\nBilly Porter presents Sullivan's win, though she responds in her acceptance speech, \"I don't know what I heard. I almost didn't believe it.\" Sullivan says the album was inspired by \"her own shame and decisions I made in my 20s that weren't favorable. But what it ended up being was a safe space for Black women to tell our stories.\" Backstage, Sullivan adds she was overwhelmed by her Grammy wins. (She also took best R&B performance.) “I’ve been wanting to win a Grammy since I was a kid,\" she says. \"After losing so many times, I kind of gave up, like maybe it’s not for me and I’ll just make my music. It’s surreal to hold these babies right now.\"\n\nLady Gaga gets jazzy for 'Love for Sale'\n\nTony Bennett couldn't appear but he introduces Gaga, who channels her inner swing goddess. She fronts a big band singing the uptempo \"Love for Sale\" then settles down for the string-laden ballad \"Do I Love You.\" She closes out her time with a message for Bennett: \"I love you, Tony. We miss you.\"\n\nUkrainian President Zelenskyy appears on screen at the Grammys\n\n\"Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos … but our music will break through anyway,\" Zelenskyy says in a virtual appearance asking to \"support us in any way you can\" as his country continues to fight the Russian invasion. John Legend then sings \"Free\" as he's joined by Mika Newton, whose sister is serving in the Ukrainian army, and Lyuba Yakimchuk, a poet from Donbas who fled Ukraine just days ago.\n\nZelenskyy addresses Grammys:'Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos'\n\nBaby Keem's 'Family Ties' wins rap performance Grammy, Chris Stapleton feels country 'Cold'\n\n\"Nothing could prepare me for this moment tonight,\" Baby Keem says of nabbing the best rap performance Grammy, which goes to his collaboration with Kendrick Lamar. From there, switching genres on a dime, Stapleton takes the stage to sing \"Cold\" – which won the best country song Grammy earlier in the day.\n\nNas brings old-school hip-hop back to the Grammys stage\n\nThe youngsters were gifted with an appearance from a legendary OG: With the help of a great horn section, rapper Nas performed a montage of tracks including \"I Can,\" \"Made You Look,\" \"One Mic\" and \"Rare.\"\n\nJoni Mitchell presents Brandi Carlile's performance of 'Right on Time'\n\nWith an opening from legends Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt, Carlile takes the stage to a stirring version of \"Right on Time,\" starting on piano and transitioning to guitar, accompanied by a string section.\n\nJoni Mitchell:MusiCares honors legendary singer as the 2022 Person of the Year\n\nOlivia Rodrigo (as expected) wins best new artist\n\nTwo previous winners in the Grammy category, Dua Lipa and Megan Thee Stallion, welcome the next best new artist to their fold: Olivia Rodrigo. \"Whoa. This is my biggest dream come true,\" she says.\n\nGrammys:Dua Lipa, Megan Thee Stallion recreate iconic Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey gag\n\nBillie Eilish performs 'Happier Than Ever' in the weirdest bedroom ever\n\nWith her brother Finneas on acoustic guitar, the multi-time Grammy winner first sings her hit tune in a room where a couch is on the ceiling and she's walking around in water and then winds up on the rooftop of this very strange home to rock out like a champ. Also of note: Eilish is wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Taylor Hawkins, the Foo Fighters drummer who was unexpectedly found dead while on tour last month.\n\nChris Stapleton rules the country album category\n\nAfter winning two Grammys earlier in the day, Chris Stapleton wins best country album for \"Starting Over.\" The dad of five says it's his 4-year-old twins' birthday so \"I'm thinking a lot about sacrifices,\" he says. \"I don't know how it is for everybody. ... It hurts sometimes but I hope it's making the world a better place.\"\n\nLil Nas X performs and seemingly calls out his haters\n\nJoined by Jack Harlow and rocking multiple glitzy costume changes, Lil Nas X performs a montage of his hits \"Dead Right Now,\" \"Montero (Call Me By Your Name)\" and \"Industry Baby,\" with voiceovers from his critics and a very large bust of his head in the middle of the stage. He owns it all, though, dancing up a storm in what's best described as the coolest drum major outfit ever.\n\nBTS unleashes 'Butter,' screaming crowds respond\n\nAfter one of the K-pop crew shares a moment with Olivia Rodrigo, the mega-popular group launches into a performance of \"Butter\" with a whole bunch of smooth dancing to melt everyone's hearts.\n\nSilk Sonic wins song of the year for 'Leave the Door Open'\n\nQuestlove tosses out another Oscars slap joke – \"I'm going to present this award and I hope that you people stay like 500 feet away from me\" – before song of the year goes to Silk Sonic. \"Andy, I couldn't be prouder of doing this song with you,\" Bruno Mars says to partner Anderson .Paak. The duo's tune also won for R&B song and tied for R&B performance.\n\nOlivia Rodrigo breaks out the 'Drivers License,' J Balvin goes 'In da Getto'\n\nRodrigo begins seated behind the wheel of a spiffy car as she performs a tender-turned-rockin' version of her huge hit song \"Drivers License.\" She also sings walking down a faux street looking like she's lost on the way to the prom but she's emoting like a champ so it's OK. Noah jokes that Rodrigo captures \"how heartbreaking it is to go to the DMV\" before J Balvin is joined by Maria Becerra for \"Qué Más Pues?\" then launches into \"In da Getto\" with an army of dancing arms.\n\nSilk Sonic begins the Grammys show by bringing the funk\n\n\"Vegas, baby! I can smell the bad decisions up here already,\" host Trevor Noah says kicking off the Grammys broadcast on top of the MGM Grand. He sends it to the Grand Garden Arena, where Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak) plays a brassy rendition of \"777\" – and evokes some James Brown feels – in a jam that feels right at home in the land of craps tables and roulette wheels. Afterward Noah makes the first Oscars slap joke of the night: \"We're going to be keeping people's names out of our mouths all night!\"\n\nSt. Vincent takes second best alternative music album Grammy\n\nA luminous St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) talks backstage about “Daddy’s Home,” her Grammy-winning best alternative music album. “I wanted the listener to feel like they were sitting in an old leather armchair with a glass of bourbon and luxuriate in the album,” she says.\n\nPosing in a floor-length pink gown accented with feathers, St. Vincent was proud that more women have landed in the category since her 2015 win there as the first female to do so since Sinead O’Connor 20 years prior. “I’m glad the times are a-changin’,” she says.\n\nKanye West rules two rap categories, Olivia Rodrigo gets her first Grammy\n\nYe wins for best melodic rap performance \"Hurricane\" and rap song (\"Jail\" with Jay-Z) but loses the rap album Grammy to Tyler, the Creator's \"Call Me If You Get Lost.\" Rodrigo's breakout \"Drivers License\" is named best pop solo performance while Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga's \"Love for Sale\" wins for pop vocal album.\n\nFoo Fighters sweep rock Grammys in wake of Taylor Hawkins' death\n\nDave Grohl's band wins best rock performance (\"Making a Fire\"), best rock song (\"Waiting on a War\") and rock album (\"Medicine at Midnight\"). Foo Fighters were supposed to perform at the Grammys but canceled their appearance as well as the rest of their tour after drummer Hawkins died unexpectedly last month. In addition, H.E.R.'s \"Fight for You\" is named best traditional R&B performance and Silk Sonic's \"Leave the Door Open\" takes best R&B song and ties for R&B performance.\n\nCeCe Winans wins three, George Harrison's 'All Things Must Pass' anniversary album takes honor\n\nWinans pulls a hat trick and wins for gospel performance/song, contemporary Christian music performance/song and best gospel album while Carrie Underwood's \"My Savior\" is named best roots gospel album. Plus George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass: 50th Anniversary Edition\" gets best boxed or special limited edition package, making it the first Grammy the former Beatle factored into since 2002, when “Marwa Blues,” from his final album “Brainwashed,” earned a nod for best pop instrumental performance.\n\n“This album has really endured,” his widow, Olivia Harrison, says backstage. “It’s full of hope and inspiration and good rock ‘n’ roll and great musicians. It’s George’s seminal work. He got his first Grammy 58 years ago (with The Beatles, who won best new artist) and it’s amazing that 58 years later I’m standing here. People have told me how (this music) has helped and healed them.\"\n\nJon Batiste runs his Grammy haul to four, 'Summer of Soul' gets Grammy love\n\nBatiste extends his streak, taking best music video for \"Freedom.\" \"We just wanted everybody to see it and be transformed by joy,\" he says of the video's New Orleans setting. And exactly seven days after winning best documentary at the Oscars, \"Summer of Soul\" snags the Grammy for best music film. \"What a journey for this film, from Sundance (Film Festival) until last week,\" director Ahmir \"Questlove\" Thompson says with a knowing laugh. (His Oscar win came directly after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock.)\n\nJoni Mitchell gets Grammy for best historical album\n\nAfter making an emotional return to the stage at Friday's MusiCares pre-Grammys tribute, Mitchell receives a Grammy for \"Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967).\" \"I didn't expect this,\" the legendary singer says, thanking Cameron Crowe (who did the liner notes) and \"my angel,\" her physical therapist who's been helping her since she suffered a brain aneurysm in 2015.\n\nChris Stapleton, Brothers Osborne win country Grammys\n\nStapleton shouts out the house band when accepting his best country solo performance for \"You Should Probably Leave.\" \"I was really slow so they had to play a long time,\" quips Stapleton, who also takes best country song for \"Cold.\" And Brothers Osborne takes the Grammy for country duo/group performance for “Younger Me,” written in response to T.J. Osborne coming out. “I never thought I would be able to do music professionally because of my sexual orientation,” says the first openly gay artist signed to a major country label. “And I never thought I’d be onstage accepting a Grammy after something I thought would be life-changing in a negative way. (But) I am here with a man I love and who loves me back. I don’t know what I did to be so lucky.”\n\nIn addition, Batiste runs his 2022 Grammy haul to three, winning for American roots performance and roots song.\n\nThe Police drummer Stewart Copeland takes new age album Grammy\n\n\"This has got to be a first: a rock drummer in a new age category,\" says Copeland, a founding member of The Police who wins for \"Divine Tides\" with Ricky Kej. Angelique Kidjo's \"Mother Nature\" takes the Grammy for global music album and the late Chick Corea receives two honors: best improvised jazz solo for \"Humpty Dumpty (Set 2)\" and Latin jazz album for \"Mirror Mirror\" with Eliane Elias and Chucho Valdés.\n\nJon Batiste snags Grammy win for 'Soul' soundtrack\n\n\"Tell the truth, you didn't expect Kunta to be this fine, did you?\" says host LeVar Burton, the \"Star Trek\" and \"Roots\" actor, to start the Grammys preshow. He points out the global unrest of the moment but also offers a positive message: \"Music is a balm for all our souls.\"\n\nBatiste grabs his first Grammy of the day – for \"Soul,\" which ties with \"The Queen's Gambit\" for score soundtrack for visual media. Bo Burnham's \"All Eyes on Me\" snags best song for visual media, \"The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical\" wins for best musical theater album and \"The United States vs. Billie Holiday\" takes the honor for compilation soundtrack for visual media.\n\nOlivia Rodrigo vs. Billie Eilish might be one for the ages\n\nTwo years after sweeping the major Grammy honors, Eilish returns with seven nominations this year, including album, song and record of the year for her “Happier Than Ever” and its title track. Rodrigo, the new kid on the scene, also has seven nods including those key categories. Plus she's favored for the prestigious best new artist – yep, which Eilish won in 2020 – against a field that includes Glass Animals, Saweetie and Eilish's own brother, Finneas.\n\nWondering how to watch the Grammy Awards? We got you\n\nYou can tune into the premiere ceremony – when about 70 of the 86 awards are distributed – starting at 3:30 EDT/12:30 PDT at grammy.com and the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel. Red carpet arrivals will be streamed on grammy.com starting at 6:30 EDT/3:30 PDT; E! starts its coverage at 4 EDT/1 PDT, with \"Live From E!: Grammys\" starting at 6 EDT/3 PDT. And then there's the prime-time show: That airs live on CBS and Paramount+ at 8 EDT/5 PDT, and is also accessible via CBS.com and the CBS app (with a cable subscription).\n\nContributing: Melissa Ruggieri", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2022/07/12/emmys-selena-gomez-zendaya-abbott-elementary-squid-game/10038978002/", "title": "Emmy nominations 2022: How Zendaya, 'Abbott Elementary's ...", "text": "Tuesday's Emmy Awards nominations were full of firsts.\n\nA-list stars including Andrew Garfield (FX's \"Under the Banner of Heaven\"), Amanda Seyfried (Hulu's \"The Dropout\") and Oscar Isaac (HBO's \"Scenes from a Marriage\") earned their first Emmy nods in acting categories, all for limited series.\n\nThe late Chadwick Boseman, who died of colon cancer in 2020, received his first nomination posthumously in the outstanding character voiceover category for Disney+ series \"What If?\", for which he reprised his role of T'Challa from Marvel's \"Black Panther.\" Norm Macdonald, who died of leukemia last year, also received his first Emmy nods for his own posthumously released Netflix standup project \"Nothing Special.\"\n\nAnd former President Barack Obama – already a two-time Grammy winner for his audiobooks – inched closer to EGOT status with his first Emmy nod for outstanding narrator for Netflix docuseries \"Our Great National Parks.\"\n\nEmmy snubs 2022:Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston among actors left off nomination list\n\nEmmy nominations 2022:See the nominees in top categories\n\nHere are five more notable milestones you need to know from this year's Emmys, which will be presented Sept. 12 on NBC:\n\nQuinta Brunson makes history with her 'Abbott Elementary' nominations\n\nThe creator and star of \"Abbott Elementary,\" ABC's breakout freshman sitcom, is the first Black woman to earn three nominations in comedy categories in the same year, according to Variety. Brunson, who plays a tenacious teacher at an underfunded public school, was recognized for best lead actress in a comedy, best writing for a comedy series (for the pilot episode) and best comedy series (as an executive producer).\n\nAt 32, she is also the youngest Black woman ever nominated as comedy actor. Brunson's \"Abbott\" co-stars Janelle James, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Tyler James Williams were also nominated in supporting actor categories.\n\nSelena Gomez lands 'Only Murders' nod, but not for acting\n\nThe pop star/makeup mogul is one-third of the central trio of Hulu's mystery comedy \"Only Murders in the Building,\" in which she co-stars with Martin Short and Steve Martin. While both funnymen were nominated for lead actor, Gomez was passed over, much to her fans' disappointment.\n\nBut there is a silver lining: Gomez still earned her first Emmy nod as an executive producer on \"Only Murders,\" which also was nominated for best comedy series. As Variety points out, she's only the second Latina to get a producing nom for comedy series, after Salma Hayek for ABC's \"Ugly Betty\" in 2007.\n\nZendaya sets two records with 'Euphoria' noms\n\nIn 2020, Zendaya made history as the youngest winner for best lead actress in a drama for HBO's controversial soap \"Euphoria,\" playing a teen drug addict in the throes of recovery. Now 25, she's setting two more records this year: becoming the youngest two-time acting nominee, as well as the youngest nominated producer, according to Deadline. (Zendaya is an executive producer on \"Euphoria,\" which was recognized in the best drama series category.)\n\nSydney Sweeney earns double nods for 'Euphoria,' 'White Lotus'\n\nSweeney, 24, became the meme queen for the 2021-22 TV season, thanks to her scene-stealing roles as dramatic and deadpteens in HBO's \"Euphoria\" and \"The White Lotus.\" Now, the fast-rising star is double-nominated in the supporting acting categories for drama and limited series, respectively.\n\nOthers doubly honored: Two-time Emmy winner Julia Garner won nods for both lead actress in a limited series (Netflix's scammer show \"Inventing Anna\") and supporting actress in a drama series (\"Ozark,\" also on Netflix). And \"Saturday Night Live\" alum Bill Hader was recognized for lead actor in a comedy series (HBO's \"Barry\") as well as guest actor in a comedy series (for the 11th season of Larry David's \"Curb Your Enthusiasm\" on HBO).\n\n'Squid Game' breaks ground with best drama series Emmy nomination\n\nThe Korean-made Netflix sensation notched a key milestone Tuesday, as the first non-English-language show nominated for best drama series in the awards' 74-year history. The brutal survival thriller, which has already been renewed for Season 2, made off with 14 nominations overall, including best lead actor in a drama series (Lee Jung-jae).", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_6", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:19", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/13/buchanan-county-flooding-virginia-storm-damage/10050754002/", "title": "Dozens of people unaccounted for, over 100 homes damaged after ...", "text": "Officials in southwestern Virginia say dozens of people are unaccounted for and likely over 100 homes were damaged after heavy rains caused devastating flooding in rural Buchanan County.\n\nFirst responders, including swift water rescue teams, from across southwest and central Virginia headed to the area as water levels rose overnight and early Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, the National Weather Service office in Charleston, West Virginia, had issued a flash flood warning lasting into early Wednesday for parts of West Virginia and Virginia and also warned of severe thunderstorms in the area.\n\nGov. Glenn Younkin declared a state of emergency on Wednesday to respond to the severe flooding.\n\nNo deaths have been reported as a result of the flooding, Buchanan County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Eric Breeding said at a Wednesday news conference.\n\nAuthorities were investigating reports of 44 people who were unaccounted for, the sheriff's office said later Wednesday.\n\n\"This does not mean the person is missing, it means we are attempting to reach and locate the person and check on their wellbeing,\" the sheriff's office said in a post on social media.\n\nBilly Chrimes, search and rescue specialist from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, said the storm caused \"significant flooding\" and damage to a \"well over 100\" homes. Hundreds of households were also without power Wednesday in Buchanan County, according to poweroutage.us.\n\nCrews continued to survey the damage Wednesday, Chrimes said, adding that landslides and road conditions were creating obstacles for the 18 search and rescue teams that responded to the flooding.\n\nSeveral roads in the area were closed due to flooding, Breeding said, urging residents to avoid driving unless absolutely necessary. A family reunification center and emergency shelter was set up at a local elementary and middle school, he said.\n\n\"We ask that everyone please pray for this area,\" Breeding said. \"Please pray for those affected by this flooding.\"\n\nYoungkin said in a Twitter statement he was \"deeply saddened\" by the flooding in Buchanan County.\n\n\"We are making every resource available to help those impacted,\" he said. \"While rescue and recovery operations continue, please join me in prayer as we lift up our fellow Virginians impacted by this tragedy.\"\n\nThe flooding comes less than a year after Buchanan County suffered serious flooding damage when the remnants of a hurricane hit the area in August 2021, washing away homes and leaving one person dead.\n\nContact News Now Reporter Christine Fernando at cfernando@usatoday.com or follow her on Twitter at @christinetfern.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/08/21/middle-tennessee-nashville-weather-water-rescues-and-flooding/8227162002/", "title": "Middle Tennessee Flash Floods: 21 dead, dozens missing in ...", "text": "EDITOR'S NOTE: The Tennessean is on the ground in Humphreys County to cover the aftermath of the devastating floods that rocked parts of Middle Tennessee. Here's how to get Tuesday's most recent updates as damage is assessed and recovery begins:\n\nTwenty-one people are dead and dozens are missing in Humphreys County after severe flooding rocked the community Saturday.\n\nCrews were going house to house in search of the missing people late Saturday, Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told The Tennessean. Davis said the flooding event is the worst he has seen in his 28 years with the department.\n\nPower outages and a lack of cell phone service have compounded the problems. Portable units will be brought in to help establish communication lines, Davis said.\n\nTENNESSEE FLOOD VICTIMS:How to help residents as extreme flash floods devastate Middle Tennessee\n\nRural roads and highways throughout Humphreys County were washed away Saturday.\n\nThe Tennessee National Guard was deployed to the county to assist residents there after up to 12 inches of rain fell in parts of Middle Tennessee on Saturday and caused catastrophic flooding.\n\nMore than 15 inches fell in Humphreys County, prompting water rescues, flooding roadways and briefly closing a large section of Interstate 40. The Piney River also shattered record water levels, the National Weather Service in Nashville reported.\n\nMore:Waverly residents recount harrowing flood escapes: 'I thought I was going to drown with my baby'\n\nA state of emergency is in effect for Dickson, Hickman, Houston and Humphreys counties. A flash flood warning remains in effect until 11 p.m. The severe weather spurred a tornado warning Saturday evening.\n\nHumphreys County Chief Deputy Rob Edwards said several people were missing in a text message early Saturday afternoon.\n\nThe Tennessee Valley Authority said 14.5 inches fell in McEwen, which is in Humphreys County, and local totals may approach 17 inches as reports come in. NWS Nashville meteorologist Krissy Hurley told The Tennessean parts of Hickman County got 11.66 inches of rain early Saturday. Lyles, also in Hickman County, got 9.05 inches, according to volunteers who help measure rainfall for the agency.\n\nThe river gauge on the Piney River at Vernon in Hickman County measured nearly 32 feet Saturday, shattering the river's record crest in 2019 by close to 12 feet, the NWS reported.\n\n'I'M A NERVOUS WRECK':Dickson, Centerville residents anxious as flooding prompts water rescues\n\nIn Humphreys County, Hurley called the situation in cities like Waverly and McEwen a \"dire, catastrophic situation.\"\n\n\"People are trapped in their homes and have no way to get out,\" she said. \"Water is up to their necks. It is catastrophic — the worst kind of situation.”\n\nThe Tennessee Highway Patrol and Williamson County assisted affected counties Saturday. The Tennessee Department of Health is working with local nursing homes to make sure staff can access the facilities.\n\nA large portion of Interstate 40 near mile marker 153 reopened after being closed in both directions near Bucksnort in Hickman County and part of Humphreys County due to the rain. Highway 70 in Waverly remained closed Saturday night from flooding.\n\nShelters open\n\nFour shelters opened Saturday to help people affected by the storms:\n\nWaverly Church of Christ - 438 West Main St., Waverly\n\nYMCA of Dickson County - 225 Henslee Drive, Dickson\n\nFirst Baptist Church - 300 East Main St., Waverly\n\nFairfield Church of Christ - 1860 TN-100, Centerville\n\nLee tells people to stay cautious\n\nTennessee Gov. Bill Lee tweeted about the situation around 12:30 p.m. Saturday.\n\n\"Tennesseans, please stay cautious of rising floodwaters caused by heavy rainfall in parts of Middle TN,\" Lee wrote. \"We are actively working with emergency response officials & first responders as they support Tennesseans in flooded areas.\"\n\nThe Tennessee Emergency Management Agency called the situation \"dangerous and evolving\" and urged people to avoid travel in the affected counties.\n\n\"We are working with local officials and first responders to provide resources and support,\" TEMA said in a tweet.\n\nDickson County flooding subsides\n\nMost flooding in Dickson had subsided by early afternoon Saturday after inches of rain prompted road closures and at least 11 water rescues. Old Pond Road was just one of the few roads that remained closed Saturday afternoon.\n\nRoadways into Waverly were closed due to flooding and debris that littered two-lane\n\nserpentine roadways throughout Dickson. Trucks and ATVs crawled along Little Blue Creek Road in Dickson in an attempt to reach Waverly but were forced to turn around due to a flooded bridge.\n\nCorn fields in Dickson were filled with rivers of water. Several driveways along the road were washed away by swift water.\n\nSeveral people posted on social media in search of family members they were unable to reach in Waverly.\n\nMultiple water rescue teams deployed\n\nThe Tennessee Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team has deployed three teams to Humphreys County to help with water rescues, at the request of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.\n\nThe Nashville Fire Department and the Nashville Office of Emergency Management is also sending four swift water rescue teams to Humphreys County, alongside teams from Williamson County.\n\nThe City of Dickson, where nearly 7 inches of rain fell, reported that emergency crews responded to 11 water rescue calls as of 8 a.m. Dickson County Emergency Management Director Rob Fisher said Dickson swift water rescue team was deployed all over the county.\n\nDickson County Public Works reported most flooding had subsided as of 12:30 p.m. with the exception of Old Pond Road.\n\nRare 'flash flood emergency' alert issued\n\nThe drastic rainfall prompted the NWS to issue a rare flash flood emergency for Houston, Humphreys, Dickson and Hickman counties.\n\n\"That’s about 20-25% of the yearly rain fall total that this area sees in a year, and we saw this morning,\" Hurley, the meteorologist, said.\n\nShe said another 2-4 inches are possible as rain continues to pelt the area, but that the intensity of the rain will wane throughout the day.\n\nSeveral roadways throughout Hickman County were also closed due to flooding, Hickman County Emergency Management reported.\n\nAreas on the west side of Interstate 24 are likely to see the highest possibility of flooding. The NWS said Saturday morning there were multiple reports of water rescues, washed-out roads and significant flash flooding.\n\nMeteorologists expect rain to persist through the morning and afternoon Saturday. Sunday might produce some drizzles, NWS said, but the most action is expected Saturday.\n\nMiddle Tennessee weather radar\n\nReach Brinley Hineman at bhineman@tennessean.com and on Twitter @brinleyhineman. To stay updated on Williamson County news, sign up for our newsletter.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/21"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/weather/buchanan-county-virginia-floods-thursday/index.html", "title": "All missing people have been found after severe flooding in Virginia", "text": "(CNN) Everyone has been found after reports of more than 40 people missing in a rural Virginia county inundated by a torrential downpour that tore homes from their foundations and damaged roads and bridges.\n\nCrews worked overnight and through the morning in the flooded areas to help locate the 44 people who had been reported missing, Buchanan County Sheriff Chief Deputy Eric Breeding said in a news conference Thursday.\n\n\"We are happy to report that zero people are unaccounted for in the impact area,\" Breeding said. \"We're also happy to report we are at zero fatalities.\"\n\nSix inches of rain in just hours Tuesday caused extensive damage in the western Virginia county, CNN meteorologist Robert Shackelford said. \"Combined with the fact that the area is mountainous, rainfall is able to collect quickly, and dangerous runoff occurred,\" he said.\n\nThe \"monumental\" search effort for missing persons in Buchanan County covered about 30 miles and 400 structures, Virginia Department of Emergency Management search and rescue specialist Billy Chrimes said.\n\nA truck sits on the edge of a river, Thursday, July 14, 2022, in Whitewood, Virginia, after being swept away in a flash flood.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Aya Elamroussi", "Michelle Watson", "Alaa Elassar"], "publish_date": "2022/07/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/08/19/fred-flooding-missing-people-north-carolina-tornado-warning-northeast/8191424002/", "title": "Fred flooding: 2 dead, 17 missing in North Carolina; tornado warnings", "text": "ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The remnants of Tropical Storm Fred soaked the Northeast on Thursday as Southern states assessed the damage from severe flooding, which in North Carolina had left two people dead and 17 missing.\n\nGov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency as western North Carolina saw intense flooding, with nearly 100 people rescued, after Fred drenched the state as a tropical depression earlier in the week.\n\nCooper planned to survey flood damage later Thursday afternoon. U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis toured the area earlier in the day.\n\nThe storm that blew through the area Tuesday made roads impassible, washed out bridges and swamped homes and businesses.\n\nMeanwhile, the remnants of Fred were forecast to bring up to 5 inches of rain from New York State across New England on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. Flash flood watches were in effect for much of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and parts of Maine.\n\nThe weather service also warned a tornado was possible, and tornado warnings were issued across several New York and New England counties Thursday.\n\nIn North Carolina and West Virginia, power had largely been restored after about 37,000 customers were without electricity Wednesday, according to the utility tracker poweroutage.us. But about 17,000 customers in Pennsylvania and New York didn't have power as of Thursday afternoon, the tracker reported.\n\nMonday and Tuesday marked the heaviest two-day rainfall in more than 50 years in Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, and neighboring Haywood County endured the worst of the storm, Cooper said in a news conference Wednesday.\n\nMore from North Carolina:Tropical Depression Fred prompts state of emergency, with 35 missing in Haywood County\n\nThe number of people unaccounted for in Haywood County since the start of Tropical Depression Fred has gone from 20 to 17 as of late Thursday, said Allison Richmond, Haywood County Emergency Services spokeswoman.\n\nRichmond also confirmed the two fatalities and said officials were still working with the medical examiner on identifications.\n\nDamage to roadways and bridges was significant, with at least 10 to 15 bridges damaged or destroyed, she said. About 200 search and rescue personnel were going home to home along the Pigeon River.\n\n“We have homes that are completely destroyed and off their foundations,” Sheriff Greg Christopher said. “Mobile homes that were moved, and mobile home parks that I would call completely destroyed.”\n\nHaywood County Board of Commissioners Chair Kevin Ensley said damage done to structures as a result of the storm totals about $300 million in the small Haywood unincorporated community of Cruso, which is considered the hardest hit by Fred. Ensley said 225 structures, including homes, were destroyed.\n\nRonnie Hannah, who has lived on Cruso Road for 74 years, had his chain-link fence ripped from the ground and his lawn destroyed in the storm.\n\n\"I’ve never seen anything this devastating,” Hannah said of the damage to the community. “I get depressed. I come out here and sit down and just think of what it looked like.\"\n\nJessica Vecchio, her two sons, two dogs and five cats slept in an SUV after their apartment was destroyed by flooding on Tuesday. “We we’re just putting stuff in bags that we could, trying to save what we could,” she said.\n\nIn Buncombe County, there were about 70 water rescues, and 911 call centers fielded double the typical volume of calls in a 24-hour period, spokesperson Lillian Govus said.\n\nThe storm caused rockslides and downed trees, including on the Blue Ridge Parkway.\n\nThe popular national park, which winds directly through Asheville, was almost completely closed in western North Carolina during the peak of the storm Tuesday, said spokesperson Leesa Brandon. Much has been cleared since, but the most of the main corridor through Asheville remained closed Wednesday, Brandon added.\n\nVideos shared on social media also showed a river in the Pisgah National Forest with waters raging as river levels rose from the rainfall.\n\n“What really caught us by surprise was how quickly the water rose, the tremendous amount and intensity of it,” said Zeb Smathers, mayor of the town of Canton, where water rescues also were needed.\n\nHurricane and COVID-19:Here's what you need to protect yourself.\n\nFred has been blamed for at least one other death after a driver hydroplaned and flipped into a ditch near Panama City, Florida.\n\nThe storm roared ashore Monday near Cape San Blas in the Florida Panhandle as a tropical storm. Fred flooded streets, knocked down power lines and trees and destroyed houses, mobile homes and other buildings across the South during its march north.\n\nThe storm caused more than a dozen tornadoes in Georgia and the Carolinas, according to the National Weather Service.\n\nTwo other storms, Tropical Storm Grace and Tropical Storm Henri, were active in the Atlantic Basin on Thursday. Grace made landfall in Mexico as a hurricane on Thursday, and Henri could be a threat to the Northeast and New England early next week.\n\nContributing: Karen Chávez, Asheville Citizen Times; Doyle Rice, USA TODAY; The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/09/03/ida-death-toll-rises-northeast-flooding-biden-visits-louisiana/5710804001/", "title": "Ida death toll rises after Northeast flooding; Biden visits Louisiana", "text": "President Joe Biden visited hard-hit Louisiana, telling officials, \"We're going to have your back.\"\n\nThe death toll was highest in New Jersey, where at least 25 people died.\n\nAt least a dozen deaths due to flooding and carbon monoxide poisoning were also reported in the South.\n\nFlooded cars and strewn debris were hauled away Friday as cleanup continued after Hurricane Ida battered the Northeast and the South, leaving over 60 people dead across eight states.\n\nIda, one of the strongest storms to ever hit the mainland U.S., rushed ashore Sunday in Louisiana with 150 mph winds, then shocked the Northeast with torrential rainfall, surging rivers and tornado damage on Wednesday and Thursday.\n\nThe storm drowned dozens of people in their cars. Others were swept away by floodwaters, killed under a falling tree, or submerged by rising water in basement apartments.\n\nThe death toll was highest in New Jersey, where at least 25 people died. At least 16 deaths were reported in New York. Deaths were also reported in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut, where a state police sergeant died after his cruiser was swept away by floodwaters early Thursday morning.\n\nOver a dozen deaths due to flooding and carbon monoxide poisoning were also reported in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. In Louisiana, officials launched an investigation into the deaths of four nursing home residents who evacuated to a warehouse as Hurricane Ida approached. Three of those deaths were related to the storm.\n\n'I have no words':Ida leaves a path of heartbreak, horror across 8 states.\n\nSome good news emerged in Louisiana on Friday: Power should be restored to almost all of New Orleans by Wednesday, 10 days after Ida destroyed the city’s electrical grid and left more than 1 million customers in Louisiana without power, utility officials said Friday. That number had dropped to nearly 850,000 customers as of Friday afternoon, according to utility tracker poweroutage.us.\n\nMeanwhile, President Joe Biden was visiting hard-hit Louisiana on Friday. Biden met with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and other local officials to tour a neighborhood in LaPlace, a community between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain that was inundated by storm surge flooding that left people trapped in attics. Republicans Sen. Bill Cassidy and Rep. Steve Scalise were also present.\n\nThe path from the airport where Air Force One touched down to LaPlace was dotted with uprooted trees and destroyed power line poles, making the devastation from the hurricane apparent.\n\n\"I promise we’re going to have your back,\" Biden said as he was briefed by officials.\n\nIn an address Friday afternoon, Biden stressed the importance of modernizing infrastructure to better prepare communities for future superstorms and pledged that his administration would pressure insurance companies to cover living expenses for displaced Louisianans.\n\nHe also completed a flyover tour of hard-hit areas including Lafitte, Grand Isle, Port Fourchon and Lafourche Parish, where Parish President Archie Chaisson said 25% of the homes in his community of 100,000 were gone or had catastrophic damage.\n\nNationwide, the storm likely caused tens of billions of dollars in damage from flooding, high winds and electrical grid wreckage.\n\nBuildings had collapsed as water burst through seams in brick walls. People clung to trees, stranded as they watched rising waters. Dozens of vehicles plunged into a sinkhole that opened along a southeastern Mississippi highway.\n\nIn New York City, police Det. Fahed Alfalhi was heading home from his precinct in Queens when he found himself shivering in water up to the SUV’s steering wheel. When his engine stalled and water rushed in, he jumped into the water and swam to refuge at a neighbor's home.\n\nIn New Jersey, Anthony Lauro, owner of Anthony’s Cheesecake & Restaurant in Bloomfield, said he hasn’t been this upset since his mother died.\n\nHis restaurant, which was remodeled in March after a dismal year due to COVID-19, is destroyed following the rain and floods from Ida. Water and mud cover the floors of the kitchen and dining room. The basement is submerged in 5 feet of water.\n\nAll the storage, stock and food in the restaurant is unsalvageable. The outdoor café is toppled and muddy. “We lost pretty much everything,” said Lauro.\n\nMore:Mold a concern days after Hurricane Ida passes through Louisiana\n\nMore:Catastrophic photos and video show Hurricane Ida's path of destruction across Louisiana\n\nAs heavy rain subsided, millions of people across the Northeast remained under flood warnings Friday as rainwater continued to gush through rivers and streams. Crews continued cleanup efforts as they hauled debris, washed mud from streets and tried to restore service on transportations systems that had been overwhelmed by rushing floodwaters.\n\nBiden late Thursday approved disaster declarations for New York and New Jersey. The federal action was issued to mobilize agencies to provide assistance to areas hardest-hit by the storm.\n\nNew York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday called Ida \"the biggest wake-up call we could possibly get\" as the intensity and frequency of storms rise.\n\n\"We are in a new world now, let's be blunt,\" he said.\n\nNew York Gov. Kathy Hochul urged people to turn their attention to storm systems unprepared to handle more frequent flash flooding due to climate change.\n\n\"One thing I want to make clear: we’re not treating this as if it’s not going to happen again for 500 years,\" she said Thursday.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press; Peter D. Kramer, Rockland/Westchester Journal News; Rebecca King, NorthJersey.com\n\nContact News Now Reporter Christine Fernando at cfernando@usatoday.com or follow her on Twitter at @christinetfern.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/08/21/tennessee-north-carolina-flooding-catastrophic-multiple-people-missing/8229220002/", "title": "Multiple people dead, dozens missing amid 'catastrophic' flooding in ...", "text": "Multiple people are missing across Tennessee and North Carolina amid heavy rainfall that brought on severe flooding. North Carolina was recently battered by the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred, causing at least four deaths in Haywood County.\n\nAt least eight people are dead and 40 missing in Humphreys County, Tennessee, after severe flooding Saturday. Sheriff Chris Davis told The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, the flooding is the worst he has seen in 28 years with the department.\n\nRainfall in middle Tennessee has shattered records for water levels on the Piney River, according to the National Weather Service. More than 11 inches of rain was dumped on parts of Hickman County early Saturday morning. A state of emergency is in effect through Saturday afternoon in Dickson, Hickman, Houston and Humphreys counties.\n\nMcEwan, Tennessee, saw 14.5 inches of rain, the Tennessee Valley Authority said. A flash flood emergency is also in effect in Waverly, McEwen and Tennessee Ridge through Saturday evening.\n\nThe situation was \"life-threatening,\" the Nashville National Weather Service said in a tweet Saturday.\n\n\"People are trapped in their homes and have no way to get out,\" NWS Nashville meteorologist Krissy Hurley told The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. \"Water is up to their necks. It is catastrophic, the worst kind of situation.”\n\nSeveral people are missing in the region, according to Hickman County Chief Deputy Rob Edwards.\n\nAn additional 1 to 2 inches of rain is possible in areas that already received between 8 and 12 inches Saturday morning, the National Weather Service said.\n\nIn North Carolina, four people have been confirmed dead in the flooding brought on by Fred this week, after two bodies were recovered Saturday. Their identities have not been made public. Franklin McKenzie, 67, and Frank Mungo, 86, were previously identified among the dead.\n\nSeven people are still missing in Haywood County, including Judy Ann Mason, who has been missing since around 3 p.m. Tuesday from Laurel Bank Campground in Canton, a family friend told The Asheville Citizen Times.\n\nMason's daughter, Naomi Haney, said the last text she got from her mother was, \"Anything can happen to anyone any time.”\n\nDay three of search and rescue was underway Saturday in Haywood, with teams from the other side of the state assisting in the search of miles of riverbank and rugged terrain.\n\nHaywood County flood survivor:'I just saw everything floating away'\n\nCruso, North Carolina, is a small town that received some of the worst damage in the storm.\n\n\"It's gone. There's nothing there,\" Sherrie McArthur, who owns Laurel Bank Campground in the area, told the Citizen Times. \"I had 100 sites, and they're all gone. I had campers in there — most all of them are gone, except maybe 10. What is still left is squashed, crushed. Some of them went totally down the river — I don't know where they'll be.\"\n\nEmergency officials with cadaver dogs were on site Thursday, McArthur said.\n\nContributing: Brinley Hineman and Rachel Wegner, Nashville Tennessean; John Boyle and Joel Burgess, Asheville Citizen Times", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/08/19/afghanistan-taliban-updates-dozens-missing-n-c-amid-floods-5-things-podcast/8194558002/", "title": "Afghanistan, Taliban updates, Dozens missing in N.C. amid floods: 5 ...", "text": "Taylor Wilson\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nOn today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: The Taliban marks Afghanistan's Independence Day as challenges rise. Food shortages there are already an acute concern. Plus, booster shots are coming (for some), dozens are missing in North Carolina after Fred flooding, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer continues to face a civil hearing on alleged abuse and Mark Zuckerberg has a big announcement.\n\nHit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nMorning, I'm Taylor Wilson. And this is 5 Things you need to know, Thursday, the 19th of August, 2021. Today, early days of Taliban rule plus booster shots are coming, but only for some, and more.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nHere are some of the top headlines.\n\nWashington state is expanding its COVID-19 vaccine mandate to include all teachers and staff, including in public and private schools, and universities. Those who are not fully vaccinated by October 18th risk losing their jobs. Turkey-backed Syrian forces and Syrian Kurdish fighters shelled one another in Northern Syria on Wednesday. At least five people were killed and a dozen injured. And Disney World is getting rid of its FastPass. The park, along with Disneyland, will instead shift to a new tool that allows guests to join virtual queues.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nIt's Independence Day in Afghanistan. The Taliban celebrated Thursday by declaring they had defeated the United States. But amid their celebrations, there are new challenges for the Taliban. There are food concerns and ATM's are out of money in major cities. The Taliban now must run an already complicated civilian government, without the same international aid the overthrown government had. On Thursday, the Taliban said, \"Today we are celebrating the anniversary of independence from Britain. We, at the same time, as a result of our jihadi resistance, forced another arrogant power of the world, the United States, to fail and retreat from our holy territory of Afghanistan.\" But similar to pass Taliban rule, their words aren't quite matching their actions.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nThey have not acknowledged their violent suppression of a protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad. At least one person was killed after demonstrators lowered the Taliban flag and replaced it with Afghanistan's tri-color. And there are reports of 24-hour curfews in some rural parts of the country. A drought has also destroyed about 40% of the country's food, and it appears the vast majority of Afghanistan's $9 billion in foreign reserves is frozen in the US. The head of the Afghan Central Bank said there are nearly no physical US dollars left in the country, which could mean devastating inflation for its currency, the Afghani.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nThere has been no armed opposition to the Taliban's weeks-long blitz through the country, but new videos appear to show a stronghold of Northern Alliance militants who allied with the US during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. They're gathering in the Panjshir Valley part of the only province in the country that has not fallen to the Taliban. Meanwhile, the US is still in the country, continuing its work at Kabul's airport before leaving at the end of the month. State Department Spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday that the US is in contact with the Taliban.\n\nNed Price:\n\nSo we know that time is of the essence. We will do everything we can, in the first instance, to make the most of the time we have, but to potentially even explore if there is more time that we may have. And we will do that in any number of ways. You've heard the Deputy Secretary, you've heard me talk about the channels of communication we have, excuse me, with the Taliban. That, at first, was primarily conducted through Doha. That channel continues to exist. Now, we have an additional channel, the US Military has a channel with the Taliban as well. These channels have been constructive. We have used these channels to good effect. It is our intent to continue to use these channels, to pursue what is in our interest, of course, but also what is in the interest of the Afghan people.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nAs for immediate US actions over the next few weeks, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that the US can no longer extend security forces beyond the airport to help get more Afghan civilians out of the country.\n\nLloyd Austin:\n\nWe will continue to deconflict issues with the Taliban, and we will stay focused on securing the airfield. We cannot afford to either not defend that airfield or not have an airfield that's secure, where we have hundreds or thousands of civilians that can access the airfield at will and put our forces at risk. But we're going to do everything we can to continue to try to deconflict and create passage ways for them to get to the airfield. I don't have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul.\n\nSpeaker:\n\nYou have the capability to go out and collect Americans.\n\nLloyd Austin:\n\nWe don't have the capability to go out and collect up large numbers of people. We're really working hard to get as many people through as possible. And quite frankly, it's obvious we're not close to where we want to be in terms of getting the numbers through, so we're going to work that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and we're going to get everyone that we can possibly evacuate evacuated. And I'll do that as long as we possibly can, until the clock runs out, or we run out capability.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nPresident Joe Biden said Wednesday, that US troops will stay in Afghanistan beyond the end of the month if necessary, to make sure all Americans are evacuated. Stay with usatoday.com for the latest from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nBooster shots are coming. President Joe Biden said Wednesday, that booster doses will be offered, beginning September 20th, for American adults who received the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, at least eight months after their second dose. mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna are still extremely effective at reducing severe illness, hospitalizations, and death from the virus. But federal officials said that new data does show the vaccine's effectiveness decreases over time. People who got the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will probably also need a booster shot, but health officials said Wednesday, that they're still collecting data because the federal rollout of that vaccine didn't begin in the US until March. Like early rounds of vaccinations earlier this year, initial booster doses will go to people who were fully vaccinated first. They include healthcare workers and older Americans. Booster shots for now will also only be offered to Americans aged 18 and older. Officials are waiting on an FDA review before giving guidance on vaccinated people aged 12 to 17.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nThe move to offer boosters is not without criticism, particularly abroad. The World Health Organization has called for a booster shot moratorium to allow poorer under vaccinated countries to catch up. But Biden said the US will continue to ship huge amounts of vaccine doses around the world. He said the US will administer some 100 million booster shots to Americans in the coming months, but will donate more than 200 million doses abroad in that same timeframe.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nAt least 35 people are missing in North Carolina after Fred tore through the state on Wednesday. That's in Haywood County, in the western part of the state, near Tennessee. The Pigeon River there is still flooding and around 100 people were rescued this week. The County's Sheriff, Greg Christopher, also said that some homes in the area have been completely destroyed. Fred is next expected to move from Central Pennsylvania to Southern New York State, and then east onto New England. Behind it, Grace was upgraded to a hurricane on Wednesday in the Caribbean. It's the second hurricane of the 2021 season and heading for Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, a popular tourist destination. It could make landfall Thursday with up to a foot of rain.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nLos Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer continues to face a civil hearing this week. A woman has given more than nine hours of testimony in front of him. A warning, the following details are graphic. She says Bauer punched her face and vagina during a sexual encounter at his home in May. She then sought a temporary restraining order in June because she feared what he might do after he learned she went to the hospital with injuries, including scratches on her face and bruises on her buttocks. Bauer has not been arrested or charged. His representatives have said the encounter was consensual, and that she's motivated to get a money settlement. They cited text messages between the two that show she was asking for rough sex. But the accuser said text messages don't mean consent, and that she did not consent to bruises all over her body, or things done to her while unconscious. Pasadena, California Police and Major League Baseball are still investigating the matter. And Bauer has been on paid leave since July 2nd.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nAt the civil hearing, a judge will decide whether to erase the restraining order or extend it up to five years. Bauer has not yet spoken in the hearing. The question of whether or not he will, could be answered on Thursday. The woman's legal team has said they will call Bauer to the stand, but his lawyer say he'll decline using the Fifth Amendment.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nFacebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg, will make a big announcement on Thursday about the company. He'll do so on CBS This Morning. And before his appearance, he already told host Gayle King, that the social media giant has removed some 18 million posts for misinformation about COVID-19. It's been a profitable year for the company so far, but as Money and Tech Editor Brett Molina says, Facebook has its sights set well beyond 2021.\n\nBrett Molina:\n\nFacebook recently reported quarterly earnings and shocker, they made a ton of money. Specifically, as the Associated Press reports, second quarter profits doubled thanks to a massive increase in advertising revenue. More interesting though than the tons of money Facebook's pulling in, are comments made by Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently, on the metaverse, which many people believe will ultimately replace the internet. In a conference call with analysts, Zuckerberg called the metaverse, the \"next generation of the internet and next chapter for us as a company\", and he talked a little bit more about how he thinks the metaverse will create entirely new experiences, and new economic opportunities. So new ways to make money for Facebook.\n\nBrett Molina:\n\nBut that's not all, Zuckerberg has talked quite a bit about the metaverse in recent weeks. He conducted an interview with tech site, The Verge, where he explained his vision of what the metaverse looks like. \"You can think about the metaverse as an embodied internet, where instead of just viewing content, you are in it. And you feel present with other people as if you were in other places, having different experiences that you couldn't necessarily do on a 2D app or webpage, like dancing, for example, or different types of fitness.\" We've already seen hints of what the metaverse might look like in various forms. For example, if you play the video game Fortnite, or if you know people that play Fortnite, they have hosted multiple live concerts within the game, featuring stars such as Marshmello and Travis Scott. And what happens is, players will log into the game as if they're going to play and they'll go attend this virtual event.\n\nBrett Molina:\n\nWe've also seen other experiences do this too, Roblox, for example, has talked a lot about pushing into this area where it works kind of similarly, where players use their avatar and they go attend events that are within the Roblox universe. It's a very interesting space. I think people are still trying to figure out what exactly the metaverse is. It's definitely very different than what we're used to. But again, a lot of people see this as the next step past the internet.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nYou can hear more of Brett on the Talking Tech podcast. Find the show wherever you're listening right now. And same goes for 5 Things, you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your pods. Thanks as always to Shannon Green and Claire Thornton, for their great work on the show. 5 Things is part of the USA TODAY Network.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2021/08/21/middle-tennessee-flash-floods-deaths-triggered-by-heavy-rain/8227696002/", "title": "Tennessee flooding: Location, damage, victims from August flash ...", "text": "EDITOR'S NOTE: The Tennessean is on the ground in Humphreys County to cover the aftermath of the devastating floods that rocked parts of Middle Tennessee. Here's how to get Tuesday's most recent updates as damage is assessed and recovery begins:\n\nThe Tennessee National Guard was deployed to Humphreys County to assist residents after 15 inches of rain devastated the area on Saturday, killing 21 people and leaving dozens missing.\n\nAn estimated 40 people are missing in Humphreys County after severe flooding rocked the community and surrounding areas in Middle Tennessee.\n\nBetween 8 and 15 inches of rain fell across Houston, Humphreys, Dickson and Hickman counties, according to the National Weather Service. In McEwen, located in Humphreys County, 14.5 inches of rain fell over 12 hours, according to the Tennessee Valley Authority. Local totals may approach 17 inches as more reports come in, TVA said.\n\nThe Tennessee Emergency Management Agency declared a state of emergency as it coordinated the statewide effort to help the affected counties.\n\nWater rescue teams from across the state deployed to Humphreys County, including the Tennessee Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team. Water rescue crews from Nashville, Dickson County and Williamson County were also dispatched.\n\nNWS Nashville meteorologist Krissy Hurley said the NWS heard reports of Humphreys County residents trapped in homes with water up to their necks.\n\nFlooding damages homes:Middle Tennessee flash flooding forces families to be rescued: it was 'hell'\n\nLive updates:'Dire, catastrophic situation'\n\nMiddle Tennessee flooding:Aerial shots show extent of flooding in Middle Tennessee\n\n\"It is catastrophic,\" Hurley said. \"The worst kind of situation.\"\n\n'I have nothing': Waverly woman shares harrowing rescue\n\nA Waverly couple was rescued from the attic of their home after being stranded for several hours.\n\n“Hell. That’s what we had to go through,” said 48-year-old Cindy Dunn.\n\nShe and her husband, Jimmy Dunn, 49, were rescued by a crew driving a bulldozer that raised the bucket up to their attic window. Now, they are heading to Clarksville with family.\n\nShe said they lost everything.\n\n“I have no credit cards. I have no bank cards. No IDs. I have nothing,” she said.\n\nTheir morning began normally enough, according to Cindy Dunn said.\n\n“My husband said one minute he was (watching TV news) and the next minute we had no garage,” she said.\n\nHer husband woke her up to say her car had floated to the backyard. The water in their house rose to at least 6 feet high, forcing them into the attic. She said climbing onto their rooftop was not an option.\n\n“My husband is dealing with cancer. He’s going through chemotherapy,\" she said. \"And I am an amputee. So there was no going anywhere besides the attic.\"\n\nCindy Dunn said their home and the neighboring houses “are gone.”\n\nRiver level records broken:Rainfall, river level records shattered in Middle Tennessee flash flood\n\nRare 'flash flood emergency' issued; records broken\n\nNWS Nashville issued a rare \"flash flood emergency\" for Houston, Humphreys, Dickson and Hickman counties as the rain fell.\n\nHurley said a record-level buildup of moisture in the atmosphere helped drive Saturday's rainfall. She said the floods were aggravated by storms that \"trained,\" meaning they moved across the same areas over and over again.\n\nHurley said it's difficult to determine a daily rainfall record in the four affected counties because the NWS does not have official observation sites in the area. Volunteers help relay reports of rainfall totals.\n\nStill, Hurley was confident Saturday easily surpassed the daily rainfall record for the region.\n\nThe Piney River, which runs through Hickman County, shattered its record high as it reached 31.8 feet by midday, NWS Nashville said. The previous record was 20.08 feet, set in February 2019.\n\nBy comparison, Saturday's rainfall totals surpass that of the deadly March 2021 flash flooding in the Nashville area, which averaged between 6 and 8 inches. In September 2020, the Nolensville and Mt. Pleasant areas experienced flooding after 5 to 8 inches of rainfall.\n\nIn the historic May 2010 flood in Tennessee, the heaviest rainfall averaged between 14 and 15 inches in just two days across Davidson, Williamson, Dickson, Hickman, Benton, Perry and Humphreys counties.\n\nAgencies statewide rush to help\n\nAn emergency operations center was set up in Nashville to coordinate response to the floods, TEMA reported. Shelters were also opened in Dickson, Hickman and Humphreys counties. The Tennessee Highway Patrol was on hand in all four of the affected counties to help with traffic, water rescues and general law enforcement duties, TEMA said.\n\nGov. Bill Lee tweeted about the situation around 12:30 p.m. Saturday and urged caution for those in the affected areas.\n\n\"We are actively working with emergency response officials & first responders as they support Tennesseans in flooded areas,\" Lee wrote.\n\nThe Tennessee National Guard, Tennessee Department of Transportation, Tennessee Department of Education, Tennessee Department of Human Needs, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Tennessee Fire Mutual Aid, and more were involved, according to TEMA.\n\nReach Rachel Wegner at rawegner@tennessean.com and on Twitter @rachelannwegner. Reach Brinley Hineman at bhineman@tennessean.com and on Twitter @brinleyhineman.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/08/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/07/15/floods-europe-kill-over-20-leave-dozens-missing/7975568002/", "title": "Flooding in Germany, Belgium kills over 50, leave dozens missing", "text": "Frank Jordans\n\nAssociated Press\n\nRecent storms across parts of western Europe made rivers and reservoirs burst their banks, triggering flash floods.\n\nSchuld is among the worst-hit German villages, with homes collapsed and dozens of people missing.\n\n52nd Civil Engineer squadron and volunteers from U.S. air base at Spangdahlem, Germany, are helping.\n\nBERLIN — More than 50 people have died and dozens were missing Thursday as heavy flooding in Germany and Belgium turned streams and streets into raging torrents that swept away cars and caused houses to collapse.\n\nRecent storms across parts of western Europe made rivers and reservoirs burst their banks, triggering flash floods overnight after the saturated soil couldn't absorb any more water.\n\n\"I grieve for those who have lost their lives in this disaster,\" German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a visit to Washington, expressing shock at the scope of the flooding. \"We still don't know the number. But it will be many.\"\n\nShe pledged that everything would be done to find those still missing, adding: \"'Heavy rain and flooding' doesn't capture what happened.\n\nHomes crushed, people rescued from roofs\n\nAuthorities in North Rhine-Westphalia state said at least 30 people had died, while 19 deaths were reported in Rhineland-Palatinate state to the south. Belgian media reported eight deaths in that country.\n\nAmong the worst-hit German villages was Schuld, where several homes collapsed and dozens of people remained unaccounted for.\n\nRescue operations were hampered by blocked roads and phone and internet outages across the Eifel, a volcanic region of rolling hills and small valleys. Some villages were reduced to rubble as old brick and timber houses couldn't withstand the sudden rush of water, often carrying trees and other debris as it gushed through narrow streets.\n\nKarl-Heinz Grimm, who had come to help his parents in Schuld, said he had never seen the small Ahr River surge in such a deadly torrent.\n\n\"This night, it was like madness,” he said.\n\nRelated:'Farewell visit'? Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to meet as she prepares to leave office\n\nDozens of people had to be rescued from the roofs of their houses with inflatable boats and helicopters. Germany deployed hundreds of soldiers to assist.\n\n\"There are people dead, there are people missing, there are many who are still in danger,\" the governor of Rhineland-Palatinate state, Malu Dreyer, told the regional parliament. \"We have never seen such a disaster. It's really devastating.\"\n\nThe 52nd Civil Engineer squadron and several volunteers from the U.S. air base at Spangdahlem filled and distributed hundreds of sandbags to help protect homes and businesses in the area, the U.S. European Command said.\n\nIn Belgium, the Vesdre River spilled over its banks and sent water churning through the streets of Pepinster, near Liege, where a rescue operation by firefighters went wrong when a small boat capsized and three elderly people disappeared.\n\n“Unfortunately, they were quickly engulfed,” said Mayor Philippe Godin. “I fear they are dead.”\n\nIn Verviers, the prosecutor’s office said several bodies had been found but could not confirm local media reports that four people were killed there.\n\nMajor highways were inundated in southern and eastern parts of the country, and the railway said all trains were halted.\n\nIn Liege, a city of 200,000, the Meuse River overflowed its banks Thursday and the mayor asked people living nearby to move to higher ground.\n\nEuropean Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to help, tweeting: \"My thoughts are with the families of the victims of the devastating floods in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands and those who have lost their homes.\"\n\nThe full extent of the damage was still unclear, with many villages cut off by floods and landslides that made roads impassable. Videos on social media showed cars floating down streets and houses partially collapsed.\n\nMany of the dead were only discovered after floodwaters receded. Police said four people died in separate incidents after their basements were flooded in Cologne, Kamen and Wuppertal.\n\nAuthorities in the Rhine-Sieg county south of Cologne ordered the evacuation of several villages below the Steinbachtal reservoir amid fears a dam could break.\n\nTwo firefighters died in rescue operations in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany's most populous state.\n\nClimate change may play role in devastating storms\n\nGov. Armin Laschet paid tribute to them and pledged swift help for those affected.\n\n\"We don't know the extent of the damage yet, but we won't leave the communities, the people affected alone,\" he said during a visit to the flood-hit city of Hagen.\n\nLaschet, a conservative who is running to succeed Merkel as chancellor in this fall's election, said the unusually heavy storms and an earlier heat wave could be linked to climate change.\n\nPolitical opponents have criticized Laschet, the son of a miner, for supporting the region's coal industry and hampering the expansion of wind power during his tenure.\n\nStefan Rahmstorf, a professor of ocean physics at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said it was unclear whether the extreme rainfall seen in Germany was a direct result of planetary warming.\n\n\"But one can state that such events are becoming more frequent due to global warming,\" he told The Associated Press, noting that warmer air can absorb more water vapor that eventually falls as rain.\n\n\"The increase in heavy rain and decrease in days with weak rain is now also clearly seen in observational data, especially in the mid-northern latitudes, which includes Germany,\" Rahmstorf said.\n\nThe weakening of the summer circulation of the atmosphere, causing longer-lasting weather patterns such as heat waves or continuous rain, might also play a role, he added.\n\nRainfall eased later Thursday across Germany, although water levels on the Mosel and Rhine rivers were expected to continue rising.\n\nDutch troops help with evacuations\n\nIn the Netherlands, King Willem-Alexander and his wife, Queen Maxima, visited the hard-hit Dutch town of Valkenburg on Thursday evening to support residents and emergency services. Flooding turned the main street into a torrent of brown water, inundating homes and businesses.\n\nThe Dutch government sent about 70 troops to the southern province of Limburg late Wednesday to help with evacuations and filling sandbags. Authorities said they expect to evacuate homes near swollen rivers Friday as water from Germany and Belgium churns through the Netherlands.\n\nIn northeastern France, heavy rains flooded vegetable fields, many homes and a World War I museum in Romagne-sous-Montfaucon. Firefighters evacuated people from campgrounds around the town of Fresnes-en-Woevre, according to the local firefighter service. Bastille Day fireworks were canceled in some small towns.\n\nThe Aire River rose to its highest levels in 30 years in some areas, according to local newspaper L'Est Republicain.\n\nThe equivalent of two months of rain has fallen in some areas over two days, according to the French national weather service, with flood warnings issued for 10 regions. No injuries or deaths have been reported, but forecasters warned of mudslides and more rain on Friday.\n\nA train route to Luxembourg was disrupted, and firefighters evacuated dozens of people near the Luxembourg-German border and in the Marne region, according to broadcaster France Bleu.\n\nAssociated Press writers Raf Casert in Brussels, Angela Charlton in Paris, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen and Mike Corder in The Hague contributed.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/10/07/alabama-flooding-one-child-dies-after-intense-rain-near-birmingham/6032566001/", "title": "Deadly Alabama floods and heavy rain leaves communities ...", "text": "Jay Reeves\n\nAssociated Press\n\nPELHAM, Ala. – Terrified drivers climbed out of swamped cars and muddy floodwater flowed through neighborhoods after a stalled weather front drenched Alabama for hours, leaving entire communities underwater Thursday and killing at least four people.\n\nDozens of people had to be rescued Wednesday night in central Alabama, where the National Weather Service said as much as 13 inches of rain fell, and a south Alabama town temporarily lost its main grocery store when a creek came through the doors of the Piggly Wiggly. Near the coast, heavy rains caused sewage to bubble out of underground pipes.\n\nMetro Birmingham remained under a flash flood watch much of the day until storms moved into Georgia. Another 3 inches of rain could fall there and in western South Carolina by nightfall, the weather service said, and the Florida Panhandle could get doused.\n\nA 4-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman died in separate incidents when floods carried away vehicles in northeast Alabama, said Marshall County Coroner Cody Nugent. Searchers found the bodies of a boyfriend and girlfriend, both 23, inside a car that was swept away by a swollen stream in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover, said Shelby County Coroner Lina Evans.\n\n“Normally it’s just a trickle. It was raging,” she said. Evans identified the victims as Hoover residents Latin Marie Hill and Myles Jared Butler.\n\nThe deluge produced wild scenes on social media: floodwaters flowing between Christmas trees inside a Lowe’s store in Hoover, refrigerator bins full of brown water in a home and dozens of cars with their headlights submerged. Rescue crews helped motorists escape as low visibility and standing water made travel life-threatening in some areas.\n\n'They can occur in all 50 states':Here's what you need to know about flash floods\n\nSome of the worst flooding happened in Pelham, outside Birmingham, where 82 people were rescued from homes and more than 15 were pulled from vehicles after creeks and streams overflowed, the Pelham Fire Department said early Thursday. More than 100 rescuers with 16 boats were involved, the statement said.\n\n“Water was coming in the car so fast I had to bail out the window,” said Jill Caskey, who watched Thursday morning as a tow truck hauled away her sport utility vehicle from a low-lying parking lot in Pelham. The car stalled as she tried to navigate floodwaters during the deluge.\n\nA police officer helped her to high ground, and Caskey’s husband picked her up on a roadside. But it took them three hours to travel a few miles home because of flooded roads.\n\nCaskey has heard the weather safety mantra of “turn around, don’t drown,” but said “it really happened so fast I didn’t have time to think about it.”\n\nThe Alabama deluge came about seven weeks after flooding killed more than a dozen people in Tennessee. Such floods may be more common in the future because of global warming, scientists say.\n\nFederal research has found that man-made climate change doubles the chances of the types of heavy rains that swamped Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with 26 inches of rain in 2016, killing a dozen people and damaging 150,000 homes.\n\nIn south Alabama near the Florida line, water covered streets in the flood-prone Escambia County towns of Brewton and East Brewton, inundating a shopping center and sending as much as 3 feet of water into the Piggly Wiggly. Two schools had to cancel classes, said Escambia Sheriff Heath Jackson.\n\nTo the south, in Baldwin County, as much as 250,000 gallons of waste water overflowed from sewage systems along Mobile Bay, officials said.\n\nThe Alabama deluge comes about seven weeks after flooding killed more than a dozen people in Tennessee. These types of floods may be more common in the future because of global warming, scientists say.\n\nFederal research has found that man-made climate change doubles the chances of the types of heavy rains that swamped Baton Rouge, Louisiana with 26 inches of rain in 2016, killing a dozen people and damaging 150,000 homes.\n\nIn south Alabama near the Florida line, water covered streets in the flood-prone Escambia County towns of Brewton and East Brewton, inundating a shopping center and sending as much as 3 feet of water into the community’s main grocery store, Piggly Wiggly. Two schools had to cancel classes, said Escambia Sheriff Heath Jackson.\n\n“We’re hoping that the rain is going to stop so we can get some of this water ... out of here,” Jackson told WKRG-TV.\n\nTo the south, in Baldwin County, as much as 250,000 gallons of waste water overflowed from sewage systems along Mobile Bay, officials said.\n\nFlash flooding:Videos show historic flooding in New York after Ida blasts the Northeast\n\nIn Georgia, the National Weather Service said as many as 6 inches of rain fell in a crescent-shaped area from Columbus to Macon and then northeast toward Athens, Gainesville and South Carolina.\n\nOn Wednesday, news outlets reported rising waters forced people to evacuate from a motel in Macon, Georgia, after ground floor rooms flooded. In adjoining Jones County, schools canceled classes Thursday as floodwaters submerged some roads. Rising waters on the Ocmulgee River led Jones County deputies to rescue people trapped in their home Wednesday.\n\nFlood warnings were posted along rivers in six states, and gates were opened at the dam on Lake Sinclair in central Georgia to reduce water levels.\n\nRains should end by late Thursday in Alabama as storms move eastward. Flash flood warnings were in effect through Friday along the weather front, stretching from the Florida Panhandle through northern Georgia and mountainous regions of easter Tennessee and the western Carolinas.\n\nBack in Pelham, Michael Halbert waded through his neighborhood to a townhome filled with more than 40 inches of water. He tried to get items off the floor, but still lost some of his belongings, and his Jeep was filled with water outside.\n\n“Flood insurance is going to have fun,” he said.\n\nAssociated Press reporter Jeff Martin in Marietta, Georgia, contributed to this report.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/10/07"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_7", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:19", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/politics/biden-administration-ukraine-military-assistance/index.html", "title": "Biden administration announces $450 million in additional military ...", "text": "(CNN) The Biden administration on Thursday announced an additional $450 million in military aid for Ukraine, with the US giving the war-stricken country four more multiple launch rocket systems and artillery ammunition for other systems.\n\nThe package, which will be drawn from existing Defense Department stocks, also includes 18 patrol boats for monitoring coasts and rivers, and small arms.\n\nThe most significant part of the package is the four additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, wheeled vehicles capable of launching barrages of guided rockets at targets up to approximately 40 miles away.\n\nThe US approved the first four rocket systems at the beginning of the month. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov announced Thursday on Twitter that they had entered the country. Training for 60 Ukrainian soldiers on the systems concluded last week.\n\nSince the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration has approved more than $6 billion in security assistance.", "authors": ["Barbara Starr", "Oren Liebermann"], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/16/politics/us-ukraine-aid-fact-check/index.html", "title": "Fact check: Trump's misleading claims on Obama-Biden aid to Ukraine", "text": "Washington (CNN) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky virtually address ed members of Congress on Wednesday to press the United States for more assistance as his country attempts to counter Russia's invasion. Afterward, President Joe Biden detailed the latest aid package, which includes both defensive equipment and lethal weapons.\n\nThe last time Russia invaded Ukraine, then-President Petro Poroshenko also addressed a joint session of Congress and famously said in 2014 that \"one cannot win the war with blankets,\" as part of an emotional plea for help arming his troops. In response, the Obama administration announced $46 million in security assistance to Ukraine, which included body armor and night vision goggles but no lethal aid.\n\nOver the weekend, former President Donald Trump criticized the Obama-Biden aid efforts to Ukraine by saying, \"They sent blankets. I sent Javelins.\"\n\nTrump's complicated history with aid to Ukraine aside, it's a misleading oversimplification for him to suggest his predecessor did not provide any military aid to Ukraine. While the Trump administration was the first willing to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, the Obama administration did provide defense and military equipment. By March 2015, the US had pledged $75 million worth of equipment including UAVs, counter-mortar radars, night vision devices, medical supplies and 230 armored Humvee vehicles, according to the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency.\n\nAs Biden contemplates what additional assistance to provide Ukraine in its latest fight with Russia, here's a look at the aid the US has previously provided Ukraine.\n\nSince Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, the US has committed more than $3 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. These aid packages have included military equipment to \"enhance Ukraine's defensive capabilities,\" according to a March 14 report from the Congressional Research Service.\n\nThrough the Presidential Drawdown Authority and the Department of Defense's Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, the US has provided sniper rifles, grenade launchers, Javelins and small arms in addition to essential nonlethal equipment. The Biden administration in particular sent Stinger anti-aircraft weapons as part of the first PDA package of 2022 and has committed to redirect Mi-17 helicopters originally intended for Afghanistan through the Excess Defense Articles program.\n\nOver the past year, the US has given more than $1 billion in total security assistance to Ukraine, according to a February 26 statement from Secretary of State Antony Blinken.\n\nIn 2021, Blinken authorized $260 million in military assistance to Ukraine and after the invasion began, he authorized an additional aid package of $350 million for \"immediate support\" for Ukraine.\n\nBiden administration officials have said they are continuing to send security assistance to Ukraine, even as the Russian invasion continues. Just last week, Congress approved a $13.6 billion emergency aid package for Ukraine and lawmakers have indicated bipartisan support for more aid.", "authors": ["Tara Subramaniam"], "publish_date": "2022/03/16"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/19/politics/senate-vote-ukraine-aid-package/index.html", "title": "Senate votes to pass $40 billion Ukraine aid package | CNN Politics", "text": "(CNN) The Senate voted Thursday to pass a roughly $40 billion bill to send aid to Ukraine as the country fights back against Russia's brutal and unprovoked attacks .\n\nThe measure passed the House earlier this month and will now go to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The final tally in the Senate was 86 to 11.\n\nBiden will sign the aid package while he is in South Korea, an official says, with the bill being flown overseas to the President's location. Biden left Thursday on his first trip to Asia while president.\n\nThe legislation provides money for military and humanitarian aid, including funding to assist Ukrainian military and national security forces, help replenish stores of US equipment sent to Ukraine, and provide public health and medical support for Ukrainian refugees.\n\nAid to Ukraine has been a rare area of bipartisan consensus on Capitol Hill with many Democrats and Republicans rallying around calls to help the embattled nation.\n\nNot all lawmakers are on board with the push to send an additional $40 billion in aid to Ukraine, however. Some Republican senators have taken issue with the high price tag of the legislation and the fact that the cost is not offset, and have expressed concerns that European countries are not contributing enough funds.\n\nEleven Republican senators voted against final passage of the bill: Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, John Boozman of Arkansas, Mike Braun of Indiana, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mike Lee of Utah, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.\n\nAhead of the vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rebuked lawmakers \"concerned about the cost\" of helping Ukraine, making clear he thinks that voting against the roughly bill is a big mistake.\n\n\"Anyone concerned about the cost of supporting a Ukrainian victory should consider the much larger cost should Ukraine lose,\" he said in remarks on the Senate floor.\n\nWhat's in the bill\n\nThe bill includes an increase in presidential drawdown authority funding from the $5 billion the Biden administration originally requested to $11 billion. Presidential drawdown authority funding allows the administration to send military equipment and weapons from US stocks.\n\nThe bill also provides $6 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding, another way the Biden administration has been providing Ukraine with military assistance. The funding allows the administration to buy weapons from contractors and then provide those weapons to Ukraine, and as a result does not draw directly from US stocks.\n\nAccording to a fact sheet from House Democrats, the funding will be used to assist Ukrainian military and national security forces and will go toward weapons, equipment, training, logistics and intelligence support as well as other needs.\n\nThere will also be roughly $9 billion to help restock US equipment that has been sent to Ukraine, which comes as many lawmakers have raised concerns about replacing US stocks of weapons the US is giving to Ukraine, especially stingers and javelin missiles.\n\nThe bill provides $3.9 billion for European Command operations, which includes \"mission support, intelligence support, hardship pay for troops deployed to the region and equipment, including a Patriot battery,\" according to a House Democrat fact sheet. The Department of Defense has added additional US troops in Eastern European countries to bolster support for NATO allies near Ukraine since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.\n\nTo address humanitarian needs, the bill will include $900 million to bolster refugee assistance, including housing, trauma support and English language instruction for Ukrainians fleeing the country.\n\nThe measure provides an additional $54 million that will be used for public health and medical support for Ukrainian refugees.\n\nBiden administration announces $100 million security package as Biden set to sign aid bill\n\nThe Biden administration announced another $100 million security package for Ukraine on Thursday as Biden is set to sign the new bill authorizing billions more in assistance.\n\nIn a statement, Biden said the additional security assistance will \"provide additional artillery, radars, and other equipment to Ukraine, which they are already using so effectively on the battlefield.\"\n\n\"These weapons and equipment will go directly to the front lines of freedom in Ukraine, and reiterate our strong support for the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their country against Russia's ongoing aggression,\" Biden said.\n\nThe Biden administration has made it a top priority to get shipments into Ukraine as quickly as possible, cutting down the approval and delivery process from weeks to days. But officials had warned that money was running out from the last supplemental funding package and that Congress had to act quickly to keep the critical weapons shipments flowing.\n\nThe announcement of the latest security package comes as Biden is set to sign the new $40 billion aid bill into law.\n\nUkraine aid delayed in Senate\n\nBipartisan Senate leaders had hoped to approve the emergency funding bill last week to swiftly send billions in military aid to Ukraine as the war enters almost its third month.\n\nBut Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, blocked passage of the aid package until Thursday, which is the day the Biden administration said additional funds must be approved to avoid a lapse in support for Ukraine.\n\nPaul has demanded that language be added to the bill that provides a special inspector general new authority to oversee how the Ukraine aid is being spent. And while members from both parties broadly agree with that notion, forcing a change to the bill at such a late stage is time consuming and would slow getting the needed emergency aid to country.\n\nUnder Senate rules, any one senator can slow down the process. It took about a week to overcome Paul's objection through timely procedural steps that the majority leader had to take on the Senate floor.\n\n\"I think we should have an inspector general,\" Paul told CNN earlier this week. \"We have one out there and overseeing Afghan waste. He's been very good at it. You don't have to wait for an appointment. He's got a team up and running. And I think that's what we should do.\"\n\nSenate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed Paul for delaying the emergency funding aid, arguing it was for \"purely political motives\" and only \"strengthens Putin's hand.\"\n\nSchumer said ahead of the vote that he expects that on Thursday the Senate would \"finish the critical task of approving another round of military, humanitarian and economic aid for the people of Ukraine.\"\n\nHe continued to say, \"This should already have been done and over with, but it is repugnant that one member from the other side, the junior senator from Kentucky, chose to make a show and obstruct Ukraine funding knowing full well he couldn't actually stop its passage.\"\n\nPaul said in a floor speech before objecting to the legislation's passage last week that his \"oath of office is the US constitution not to any foreign nation\" and, \"we cannot save Ukraine by dooming the US economy.\"\n\nThis story and headline have been updated to reflect additional developments Thursday.", "authors": ["Ali Zaslav", "Clare Foran", "Ellie Kaufman"], "publish_date": "2022/05/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/13/politics/us-weapons-ukraine-war/index.html", "title": "Why the Biden administration is giving new, heavier weapons to ...", "text": "(CNN) For the first time since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the US is providing Kyiv with the types of high-power capabilities some Biden administration officials viewed as too much of an escalation risk a few short weeks ago.\n\nThe $800 million list is driven not only by direct requests from Ukraine, but also in preparation for a new type of fight on the open plains of southeast Ukraine right next to Russia, terrain that plays into Russia's natural military advantages.\n\nThe new weapons package represents the starkest sign to date that the war in Ukraine is shifting -- and with it the weapons Ukraine will need if it hopes to continue to stymie a Russian military that has regrouped and resupplied after its initial failures in the opening weeks of the war.\n\nThe Biden administration announced the new package included 11 Mi-17 helicopters that had initially been earmarked for Afghanistan, 18 155 mm Howitzer cannons and 300 more Switchblade drones, in addition to radar systems capable of tracking incoming fire and pinpointing its origin.\n\nThis package stands out from previous security assistance in part because this tranche includes more sophisticated and heavier-duty weaponry than previous shipments. A US official tells CNN that's by design, arguing that because Russia, which was unable to capture Kyiv, has shifted its strategy to concentrate forces in eastern Ukraine, the US is shifting its own strategy in what it gives Ukraine.\n\n\"The contours of what they need is very different,\" the US official said.\n\nThe newly authorized package was announced days after national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley spent more than two hours on the phone with their Ukrainian counterparts reviewing requests. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also spoke with Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov twice in the last week. Reznikov gave an update of the situation on the ground, which allowed Austin to determine what weapons Ukraine most needed.\n\nBiden delivered the news of the assistance package during a 58-minute phone call with Zelensky from the Oval Office on Wednesday. There was one item Zelensky asked Biden for directly: Mi-17 helicopters. According to a source familiar, the helicopters had initially not been included in the package as of Tuesday night because US officials weren't clear on whether the Ukrainians wanted or needed them at this time. Zelensky made clear to the President on Wednesday that they did.\n\n'A little bit like Kansas'\n\nThe weapons being provided are focused on the type of fighting that's likely to take place in the Donbas region -- open terrain rather than the close fighting in urban and wooded areas that's occurred in areas around Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. The region also borders southwest Russia, allowing Russian forces to avoid the sorts of sustainment, logistics and communication problems that derailed their all-out invasion of the country nearly from the beginning.\n\nPentagon press secretary John Kirby said Wednesday that the package was tailored to the fight in Donbas, a topography he described as \"a little bit like Kansas.\"\n\n\"It's a little bit flatter. It's a little bit more open. And it's the kind of place where we can anticipate that the Russians will want to use tanks and long-range fires, artillery and rocket fire to achieve some of their objectives before committing ground troops,\" Kirby said.\n\nThe new weapons package, Kirby added, was \"very much an effort to give the Ukrainians every possible advantage in this fight that's coming.\"\n\nThe Biden administration has faced bipartisan pressure to do more to help Ukraine, particularly in calls to send more powerful weapons. But the administration resisted for weeks, wary of how Russian President Vladimir Putin, with his forces already deployed, would respond. Officials warned the Kremlin may see it as escalatory or an indication that the United States was joining the fight.\n\nThe issue was most acutely felt with the MiG-29 fighter jets Ukraine requested. The administration refused to take part in a transfer of the Soviet-era jets from a third country to Ukraine via the United States, rejecting a proposal from Poland.\n\nThe US worried, Kirby said on March 9, that \"the transfer of combat aircraft right now could be mistaken by Mr. Putin and the Russians as an escalatory step.\" A large part of the concern internally was over the proposal to fly them into Ukraine from a NATO air base.\n\nNow the rhetoric of the Biden administration appears to have shifted along with the scope of the war. As the US prepares to send in the types of weapons it has not sent since the invasion began, the Pentagon insisted this was part of the US commitment \"from the very beginning\" to help Ukraine defend itself.\n\n\"How that gets interpreted by the Russians -- you can ask Mr. Putin and the Kremlin,\" Kirby said Wednesday.\n\n'Very quickly in a different place'\n\nFor weeks, Zelensky pleaded with world leaders for more arms and equipment. In March, he spoke with the parliaments of 17 countries, as well as three international organizations. He never strayed far from his core message: Ukraine needs more weapons.\n\nHe asked Congress for new air defense systems to help defend Ukraine's skies. He requested 1% of NATO's tanks and planes to fight back against Russian forces. And he sought more weapons from Belgium, warning that if Ukraine loses, the European Union loses.\n\nBut his calls for heavier firepower went largely unanswered. For the most part, countries sent more small arms ammunition, anti-armor missiles and anti-aircraft missiles, as well as protective and medical equipment.\n\nNow, with Russian forces preparing for a massive assault on the Donbas region, the tide is turning.\n\n\"The envelope of what people are prepared to provide has grown considerably in the last couple of weeks,\" the US official said. Once Ukrainian forces were able to hold off the Russian invasion for the first few days, it put the options for security assistance \"very quickly in a different place.\"\n\nSlovakia provided Ukraine with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. The Czech Republic sent in T-72 tanks. The United Kingdom announced that it would ship 120 armored vehicles to Ukraine. And now the United States has authorized a range of new and more powerful weapons.\n\nAs a sign of the coordination on assistance to Ukraine, the European Union announced it would provide another $544 million in aid on the same day the White House authorized its own $800 million.\n\nPentagon says it's working as quickly as possible\n\nThe package announced Wednesday marked the first time the US was providing Ukraine with howitzer cannons. Kirby said that several systems would require additional training for the Ukrainians to use them, including the howitzers and counter-artillery radars.\n\nMany of the weapons that are being directed toward Ukraine are heavier, making them more difficult to transport across the country. Ukraine has collected the weapons provided to date from the US and other countries at its western border before moving them to forces around the country.\n\nKirby said the Pentagon knows \"time is not our friend\" as Russia prepares its next offensive but that it's working to move equipment into Ukraine's hands as quickly as possible:\n\n\"Even before this was announced, we had been moving at very, very fast speed all the other security assistance that we've been providing, frankly at an unprecedented rate.\"\n\nThe Pentagon hosted the CEOs of the military's eight largest prime contractors Wednesday to figure out how to arm Ukraine faster, according to a readout of the classified meeting. The roundtable discussion, led by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, focused on the Pentagon's objectives to keep supplying Ukraine with arms while being able to maintain the readiness of US forces and support the defense of allies.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional developments Wednesday.", "authors": ["Oren Liebermann", "Jeremy Herb", "Kaitlan Collins"], "publish_date": "2022/04/13"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/19/politics/us-ukraine-military-assistance/index.html", "title": "US prepping another $800 million weapons package for Ukraine ...", "text": "Washington (CNN) The US is prepping another $800 million military assistance package for Ukraine, according to three senior administration officials and two sources familiar with the planning.\n\nDetails of the latest package are still being privately discussed and could change, but earlier Tuesday, President Joe Biden said the US plans to send more artillery to Ukraine.\n\nUpon arrival in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Biden was asked by reporters on the tarmac if he plans to send more artillery to Ukraine.\n\nBiden told reporters, \"Yes,\" before boarding his motorcade.\n\nThe senior administration official said the newest package could be approved within the next 36 hours, though another administration official said the timing isn't locked down and it could come within the coming days.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Kylie Atwood", "Alex Marquardt", "Kaitlan Collins", "Oren Liebermann", "Jennifer Hansler"], "publish_date": "2022/04/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/28/politics/biden-ukraine-congress/index.html", "title": "Biden to ask Congress for $33 billion in aid to Ukraine as war enters ...", "text": "(CNN) President Joe Biden on Thursday asked Congress for a $33 billion supplemental funding bill aimed at supporting Ukraine over the next several months as Russia's brutal and unrelenting war enters a new phase.\n\nIn another significant request, Biden outlined a proposal that would further pressure Russian oligarchs over the war in Ukraine , including using money from their seized assets to fund Ukraine's defense.\n\nThe size and scope of the President's latest proposed package comes as his administration prepares to provide long-term support to Ukraine as Russia's invasion of the nation stretches into its third month. The package is significantly larger than the other packages that have been put forward, and is more than twice as much as the $13.6 billion infusion of military and humanitarian aid that Congress approved last month.\n\n\"The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen. We either back Ukrainian people as they defend their country, or we stand by as the Russians continue their atrocities in Ukraine,\" Biden said.\n\nHe added, \"We need this bill to support Ukraine in this fight for freedom.\"\n\nThe massive proposal comes as Russia refocuses its campaign to seize new territory in the country's eastern region. The President said last week Russia's war has entered a \"critical window,\" making western military aid all the more essential.\n\nThe $33 billion request includes $20.4 billion requested for military and security assistance, including $5 billion in additional drawdown authorities, $6 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and $4 billion for the State Department's Foreign Military Financing Program, a senior administration official told reporters ahead of Biden's remarks.\n\nThe President added that the new package would provide more artillery, armored vehicles, anti-armor systems and anti-aircraft capabilities to the Ukrainian military, as well as humanitarian assistance, including food, water, medicine and shelter to Ukrainians displaced by the war.\n\nThe goal of the funding is to both address the immediate needs of the Ukrainian military and Ukrainian people as well as help the nation \"transition to longer-term security systems,\" Biden said.\n\nThe President said the US was working with other nations -- including Korea, Japan and Qatar -- to support European allies being threatened by Russia \"with gas blackmail,\" in order to help the countries get their energy needs met. Russia has started to suspend natural gas supplies to certain European countries after they rejected Putin's ultimatum to pay in rubles, rather than euros.\n\n\"We will not let Russia intimidate or blackmail their way out of these sanctions. We will not allow them to use their oil and gas to avoid consequences for their aggression,\" Biden said.\n\nBillions in aid for Ukraine's defense\n\nThe official said a portion of the $20 billion in military assistance could be used to backfill contributions of munitions and equipment from other countries, allowing those countries to \"be able to defend themselves fully.\"\n\nAlso included in the request is $8.5 billion in economic assistance \"to help the government of Ukraine respond to the immediate crisis and continue to provide basic services to the Ukrainian people,\" the official said. A fact sheet from the White House suggested that funding would also help counter Russian disinformation and propaganda narratives and support independent media.\n\nAdditional humanitarian assistance and food security funding will be included as well, to the tune of $3 billion, including \"wheat and other commodities\" for those in need, per the official. Part of that funding will go to job training, mental health services and resources for US school districts to help support Ukrainians arriving in the US and other efforts to support Ukrainian refugees and the countries providing them sanctuary.\n\nIt also includes targeted funding \"to address economic disruptions at home and around the world due to Putin's aggression,\" which will help increase US production of food crops like soybeans, as well as funding to allow the use of the Defense Production Act to expand US production of critical reserves of minerals and other materials disrupted by the war.\n\n\"It's going to help support American farmers produce more crops like wheat and oil seed, which is good for rural America, good for the American consumer and good for the world,\" Biden said.\n\nThe President announced last week the US would send an additional $800 million in military assistance to Ukraine. The President said the package included heavy artillery weapons, dozens of howitzers -- longer-range weapons -- and 144,000 rounds of ammo for those howitzers and more tactical drones.\n\nThe US had earlier this month announced another roughly $800 million security assistance package. That package included Mi-17 helicopters, Switchblade drones, protective equipment to guard against chemical attacks, Javelin anti-tank missiles, M113 armored personnel carriers, counter-artillery radars and body armor and helmets.\n\nHolding Russian oligarchs to account\n\nThe President said another one of his proposals would strengthen US law enforcement capabilities to seize property linked to Russia's kleptocracy.\n\n\"It's going to create new expedited procedures for forfeiture and seizure of these properties and it's going to ensure that when the oligarchs assets are sold off, funds can be used directly to remedy the harm Russia caused and help rebuild Ukraine,\" Biden said.\n\nThe package -- developed through an interagency process including the Treasury Department, Justice Department, State Department and Commerce Department -- will \"establish new authorities for the forfeiture of property linked to Russian kleptocracy, allow the government to use the proceeds to support Ukraine and further strengthen related law enforcement tools,\" the White House said in a fact sheet.\n\nOne element of the package would streamline the federal government's efforts for seizing the assets of Russian oligarchs by creating a new administrative process through Treasury and the Justice Department \"for the forfeiture of property in the United States that is owned by sanctioned Russian oligarchs and that has a connection to specified unlawful conduct.\" It would make it a criminal offense for people to \"knowingly or intentionally possess proceeds directly obtained from corrupt dealings with the Russian government.\"\n\nThe proposal would also help direct proceeds from \"forfeited funds related to corruption, sanctions and export control violations, and other specified offenses to remediate harms of Russian aggression toward Ukraine,\" with the Justice Department, Treasury and State working together on these efforts. Earlier this week, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Biden administration would support legislation allowing for some of the proceeds from assets the DOJ seizes from Russian oligarchs \"to go directly to Ukraine.\"\n\nThe proposed package would allow for \"forfeiture of property that Russian oligarchs can use to facilitate the evasion of sanctions,\" a shift from the current US law which only allows for the US to forfeit the proceeds of sanctions violations. It also would categorize sanctions evasion as \"racketeering activity,\" extend the statute of limitations for pursuing money laundering prosecutions based on foreign offense from five to 10 years, and would enhance the US ability to work with allies and partners to recover assets linked to foreign corruption.\n\nOfficials said the Department of Justice has the authority to seize assets involved in criminal wrongdoing. They said they were seeking from Congress an \"expanded and expedited administrative process\" that would allow for the forfeiture of property.\n\nPeople with an interest in the property will be able to conduct judicial review and other safeguards to ensure due process, but the first official said the administration feels \"confident\" the set-up will satisfy constitutional requirements.\n\nWhile members have agreed that more money for Ukraine is necessary, it's still not clear how the supplemental would move swiftly through Congress nor is it clear how quickly this proposal on oligarchs could move. A likely path would be to tie the two pieces of legislation together, but Republican and Democratic leaders are in the early stages of talks on how to pass the broader funding for Ukraine.\n\nAsked whether the Ukraine funding should move alongside new money for the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, a second official said, \"it certainly makes sense for them to move together,\" but declined to get ahead of the legislative process. Biden said he doesn't care if his administration's requests for Covid funding and aid to Ukraine are tied together or in separate pieces of legislation as long as Congress approves both.\n\n\"I don't care how they tie -- how they do it,\" Biden told reporters on Thursday. \"I'm sending them both up. I mean, I they can do it separately or together, but we need them both.\"\n\nHowever, his letter to Congress requesting the Ukraine funding suggested that the Covid assistance and Ukraine support be tied together: \"To avoid needless deaths in the United States and around the world, I urge the Congress to include this much needed, life-saving Covid funding as part of this supplemental funding request,\" the letter states.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional information.", "authors": ["Kate Sullivan", "Arlette Saenz", "Betsy Klein", "Kevin Liptak"], "publish_date": "2022/04/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/04/14/ukraine-aid-has-surpassed-3-billion-under-biden/7318010001/", "title": "Ukraine aid has surpassed $3 billion under Biden", "text": "Since August, U.S. military aid to help Ukraine repel Russia has surpassed $3 billion under Biden.\n\nThe aid has provided more than 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft systems and some 5,500 Javelin missiles.\n\nBiden provided another $800M Wednesday to widen Ukraine's military capabilities for a drawn-out war.\n\nWASHINGTON – More than 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft systems. About 5,500 Javelin missiles. More than 7,000 small arms. And 50 million rounds of ammunition.\n\nVowing to \"stand with Ukraine,\" President Joe Biden and his administration have committed nearly $2.6 billion in U.S. military aid to Ukraine since Russia's invasion Feb. 24, supplying a range of weapons for Ukraine's defense against Russian aggression.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/14"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/15/politics/biden-military-assistance-ukraine/index.html", "title": "Biden announces hundreds of millions in new security aid for ...", "text": "Washington (CNN) President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced an additional $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine as he sought to answer his Ukrainian counterpart's impassioned call for help and leadership delivered to Congress earlier in the day.\n\n\"The world is united in our support for Ukraine and our determination to make (Russian President Vladimir) Putin pay a very heavy price,\" Biden said before signing a presidential memorandum at the White House to deliver the military assistance. \"America is leading this effort, together with our allies and partners, providing an enormous level of security and humanitarian assistance that we're adding to today and we're going to continue to do more in the days and weeks ahead.\"\n\nThe new details about the US' military assistance to Ukraine comes hours after Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, addressed US members of Congress , renewing his calls for more assistance as his homeland continues to battle Russian military's invasion.\n\nBiden, in his remarks on Wednesday, attempted to level with Americans about the long road ahead in the war.\n\n\"I want to be honest with you,\" the President said. \"This could be a long and difficult battle. But the American people will be steadfast in our support of the people of Ukraine in the face of Putin's immoral, unethical attacks on civilian population.\"\n\nAccording to the White House, the $800 million in security assistance will provide Ukraine with: 800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 100 drones, \"over 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenade launcher and mortar rounds,\" 25,000 sets of body armor, 25,000 helmets, 100 grenade launchers, 5,000 rifles, 1,000 pistols, 400 machine guns, 400 shotguns, as well as \"2,000 Javelin, 1,000 light anti-armor weapons, and 6,000 AT-4 anti-armor systems.\"\n\nThe US will specifically provide Switchblade drones to Ukraine, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The small, portable, so-called kamikaze drones carry warheads and detonate on impact. The smallest model can hit a target up to 6 miles away, according to the company that produces the drones, AeroVironment. It's unclear which model the US will send to Ukraine.\n\nThe Switchblade drones were added to Ukraine's extensive list of requested military and technological assistance after Ukrainian officials consulted with congressional partners over the weekend on a draft of the list.\n\nThe assistance stops short of the no-fly zone or fighter jets that Zelensky has said are necessary to sustain Ukraine's fight against Russia.\n\nNews of the additional assistance, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal , comes as the White House continues to face intense pressure from Congress and Zelensky to find new ways to aid Ukraine.\n\nThe Ukrainian President, who remains in his country, delivered an impassioned message for Biden at the end of his remarks to Congress.\n\n\"You are the leader of your grand nation,\" Zelensky told Biden. \"I wish you to be the leader of the world. Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.\"\n\nBiden said later Wednesday that he watched Zelensky's speech from the White House residence, calling it \"convincing\" and \"significant.\"\n\n\"He speaks for a people who have shown remarkable courage and strength in the face of brutal aggression, courage and strength that's inspired not only Ukrainians, but the entire war,\" Biden continued.\n\nThe $800 million in security assistance comes from the massive spending bill the President signed into law on Tuesday, which includes $13.6 billion total in new aid to Ukraine.\n\nThe Biden administration will look to get these hundreds of millions in new aid to Ukraine as quickly as possible, with the President noting Tuesday that it is becoming \"exceedingly difficult\" to get new supplies into Ukraine, though they are still able to do so.\n\nThe Biden administration is also continuing to develop sanctions targeting top Russian officials and those in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, with plans to ramp up the number of targets in the coming days and weeks, according to multiple US officials.\n\nThe process has been ongoing, and has taken into account specific suggestions of targets provided by top Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky, the officials said. In a call with Biden last week, Zelensky laid out a more specific range of targets for individual sanctions, one of the officials said. The administration is currently working to address those requested targets.\n\nIn his virtual remarks to Congress, Zelensky went further when he requested the US impose sanctions on all Russian politicians who continue to support the government. While some Zelensky requests, including the implementation of a no-fly zone, remain off the table for Biden, the sanctions are viewed by the administration as a tool they can readily deploy.\n\nSince the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US has slapped sanctions on dozens of top Russian officials and oligarchs, as well as their family members. Biden also signed off on targeting Putin directly with individual sanctions, in coordination with the European Union and United Kingdom.\n\nJUST WATCHED Biden calls Putin a war criminal Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Biden calls Putin a war criminal 01:19\n\nIn a sign of the speed with which US officials are looking to move to support Ukraine, the administration has sent about $300 million of the $350 million Biden recently authorized for Ukraine in a little over two weeks.\n\nAs Russia's invasion has raged on, Zelensky has pressured Biden and NATO to do more, expressing frustrations over Western allies' concerns about provoking Putin. He renewed those calls on Wednesday.\n\n\"Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people,\" he told Congress as he described the use of missiles, bombs and drones by Russian troops to inflict brutal and deadly attacks on his country. \"We are asking for a reply to this terror from the whole world.\"\n\n\"To create a no-fly zone over Ukraine to save people, is this too much to ask?\" he said. Zelensky went on to say, \"You know how much depends on the battlefield, on the ability to use aircraft, powerful strong aviation to protect our people, our freedom, our land, aircraft that can help Ukraine, help Europe. You know they exist and you have them, but they are on Earth not in the Ukrainian sky.\"\n\n\"I need to protect our sky,\" he said.\n\nThis story has been updated with additional reporting on Wednesday.", "authors": ["Kaitlan Collins", "Kevin Liptak", "Phil Mattingly", "Paul Leblanc", "Maegan Vazquez"], "publish_date": "2022/03/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/03/16/ukraine-invasion-live-updates-zelenskyy-congress/7056525001/", "title": "Ukraine recap: Biden calls Putin 'war criminal', pledges $800M", "text": "Editor's note: This page recaps the news from Ukraine on Wednesday, March 16. Follow here for the latest updates and news from Thursday, March 17, as Russia's invasion continues.\n\nPresident Joe Biden announced Wednesday that an additional $800 million in military aid will be sent to Ukraine, just hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's address to the U.S. Congress, a speech Biden called \"convincing.\"\n\nBiden said the U.S. is adding to its assistance, which now totals $1 billion just this week, to help \"fend off Russia's assault.\"\n\n\"America is leading this effort, together with our allies and partners, providing enormous levels of security and humanitarian assistance that we're adding to today, and we're going to do more in the days and weeks ahead,\" he said, adding the fight is \"about the right of people to determine their own future, about making sure Ukraine never will be a victory for Putin, no matter what advances he makes on the battlefield.\"\n\nBiden, speaking for just over seven minutes early Wednesday afternoon, said the war in Ukraine is “a struggle that pits the appetites of an autocrat against humankind’s desire to be free.”\n\nOn a day when he called Russian President Vladimir Putin a \"war criminal'' for the first time publicly, Biden also stressed the U.S. will not get involved militarily, but added that it will help Ukraine for as long as it takes.\n\n\"We're going to stay the course,\" he said, while warning, \"This could be a long and difficult battle.''\n\nUSA TODAY ON TELEGRAM: Join our new Russia-Ukraine war channel to receive updates straight to your phone\n\nTHE NEWS COMES TO YOU: Get updates on the situation in Ukraine. Sign up here.\n\nEarlier Wednesday, Zelenskyy gave an impassioned address to an overwhelmingly supportive Congress, pleading for more military support, a \"no-fly\" zone over his country and even tougher sanctions on Russia. Zelenskyy's presentation included a gripping video showing graphic images of the brutal human and property damage inflicted by the Russians as the invading forces continued their relentless attack.\n\nIn his virtual address — three weeks into his nation's fierce struggle to repel invading Russian troops — Zelenskyy drew parallels to horrific moments in American history to explain his country's plight and called on the U.S. to ramp up its aid to Ukraine.\n\n\"Right now, the destiny of our country is being decided, the destiny of our people,\" said Zelenskyy, who drew a standing ovation from Congress at the start of his speech from Kyiv. \"Whether Ukrainians will be free, whether they will be able to preserve their democracy.\"\n\nLatest developments:\n\n►Ukrainian military forces have hit the airport in Kherson, which Russian troops had seized early in the war, the General Staff said late Wednesday. It said the Russians were trying to remove any surviving military equipment.\n\n►Ivan Fedorov, the 33-year-old mayor of the southeastern city of Melitopol (pop. 150,000), was freed from Russian captivity, Ukrainian officials said.\n\n►The 2015 Ukrainian satirical comedy series \"Servant of the People,\" which Zelenskyy starred in, is available on Netflix. Zelenskyy plays a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president after a video of him complaining about corruption goes viral.\n\n►The International Chess Federation suspended the national teams of Russia and Belarus from participation in official tournaments \"until further notice.\" Chess is extremely popular in Russia.\n\n►Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law allowing foreign planes to be seized and used domestically, Russia's Tass News Agency reported. Most foreign airlines have paused service to Russia due to the war and sanctions.\n\n►At least 103 children have died and more than 100 others have been injured, said Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova.\n\nFULL COVERAGE:Latest updates, analysis, commentary on Ukraine\n\nBiden calls Putin ‘a war criminal’ for the first time\n\nFor the first time in public, President Joe Biden on Wednesday called Russian President Vladimir Putin “a war criminal” for his continued assault on Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of civilians.\n\n“I think he is a war criminal,” Biden said in response to a question from a reporter after delivering remarks at the White House on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.\n\nEarlier in the afternoon, Biden authorized an additional $800 million in military aid for Ukraine. He vowed that the American people will be “steadfast in our support of the people of Ukraine in the face of Putin's immoral, unethical attacks on civilian populations.”\n\n“We are united in our abhorrence of Putin's depraved onslaught,” he said.\n\nWhite House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president was “speaking from his heart and speaking from what you’ve seen on television, which is barbaric actions by a brutal dictator through his invasion of a foreign country.”\n\nThe State Department has said it is reviewing Russia's actions for potential war crimes, a legal process Psaki said is ongoing.\n\n-- Joey Garrison\n\nMissile strike destroys theater that served as shelter in besieged Mariupol\n\nThe fate of hundreds of Ukrainians hung in the air Wednesday as the Mariupol theater where they were sheltering was destroyed by Russian forces, Ukrainian authorities said.\n\nThere was no immediate word on deaths or injuries in what the Mariupol city council said was an airstrike on the theater. The word “children” in Russian was written in large white letters in front of and behind the theater, as shown by an image taken Monday by the Maxar space technology company, in what appeared to be an attempt to dissuade the Russians from targeting the theater.\n\nMariupol, a southern port city of 430,000, has been the site of some of the fiercest attacks since the invasion began Feb. 24. Local officials say missile strikes and shelling have killed more than 2,300 people, and a siege that has lasted more than two weeks has left people struggling for food, water, heat and medicine.\n\nLocal authorities said Russian forces took hundreds of people hostage at a Mariupol hospital and were using them as human shields.\n\nIn central Kyiv, a 12-story apartment building burst into flames after being hit by shrapnel. And in the northern city of Chernihiv, 10 people were killed while standing in line for bread, the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s Office said.\n\nPresidential adviser warns Russia not to deploy chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine\n\nPresident Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, warned a Russian counterpart against the use of chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine, the White House said Wednesday.\n\nSullivan \"warned General (Nikolay) Patrushev about the consequences and implications of any possible Russian decision to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine,\" said a White House readout of a phone call with Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council.\n\nBiden did not mention Russian threats of chemical and biological weapons during his remarks on U.S. assistance to Ukraine on Wednesday.\n\nIn the call, Sullivan repeated \"the United States’ firm and clear opposition to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine,\" the readout said.\n\nIt added: \"Mr. Sullivan clearly laid out the United States’ commitment to continue imposing costs on Russia, to support the defense of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank, in continued full coordination with our Allies and partners.\"\n\n— David Jackson\n\nRussia ponders how to replenish; Odesa now in its sights\n\nRussian commanders are deliberating how to replace troops, equipment and aircraft they’ve lost in their invasion of Ukraine, a senior Defense Department official said Wednesday.\n\nThe losses mount daily due to spirited resistance from Ukrainian forces, said the official, who discussed intelligence assessments on condition of anonymity. However, the Russians still have the majority of the combat forces they deployed for the invasion.\n\nThe Russian advance on Ukraine’s major cities, including Kyiv, remains largely stalled. In the south, Russian naval vessels have begun shelling towns around the port city of Odesa, possibly in advance of an attack by ground forces, the official said.\n\nMeantime, the United States and its allies continue to send weapons to Ukraine on a daily basis, the official said. The latest shipment of war materiel, announced Wednesday by President Joe Biden, includes 100 drones. The official indicated the drones will be armed, saying they will “deliver a punch.”\n\nU.S. Defense officials are working with other European countries to provide Ukraine with air defense systems. Among those systems are S-300 surface-to-air missiles launchers, according to a congressional source.\n\n-- Tom Vanden Brook\n\nBiden: We're providing up to $1 billion in new military assistance\n\nPresident Joe Biden on Wednesday emphasized the strength of the new military assistance, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons aimed at helping Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.\n\nBiden said the $800 million package, combined with a previous appropriation, adds up to $1 billion \"just this week.\" In total, the administration has committed $2 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Biden took office.\n\nThe new package includes:\n\n800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems\n\n2,000 Javelin, 1,000 light anti-armor weapons, and 6,000 AT-4 anti-armor systems\n\n100 Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems\n\n100 grenade launchers, 5,000 rifles, 1,000 pistols, 400 machine guns and 400 shotguns\n\nOver 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenade launcher and mortar rounds\n\n25,000 sets of body armor\n\n25,000 helmets\n\n\"More will be coming,\" Biden said.\n\n— David Jackson\n\nBiden: Humanitarian aid will continue to flow\n\nPresident Joe Biden on Wednesday spelled out the $300 million in humanitarian assistance – “tens of thousands of tons of food, water, medicine and other basic supplies” – that the U.S. has provided both to Ukraine and the neighboring countries that have harbored their refugees. He said that aid, which is separate from the $800 million announced Wednesday in security assistance, would not stop.\n\n“We're going to continue to mobilize humanitarian relief to support people within Ukraine and those who have been forced to flee Ukraine,” he said. “Our experts on the ground in Poland and Moldova and other neighboring countries are there to make real-time assessments of a rapidly evolving crisis to get urgently needed humanitarian supplies to the people in need when they need it.”\n\n“And we will support Ukraine's economy with direct financial assistance as well,” Biden said, though he did not provided specifics.\n\n— Ledyard King\n\nPutin: The West ‘underestimates’ Russia, laments losses on battlefield\n\nIn a speech aired on Russian TV, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia’s so-called “special operation” in Ukraine is going according to plan, again declining to call it an invasion.\n\n“The West thinks we will step back,” Putin said, according to a translation from Meduza, a Latvia-based media outlet. “The West does not understand Russia.”\n\nPutin repeated a number of false claims about the invasion, including the conspiracy theory that Ukraine was developing “weapons of mass destruction” like nuclear and bioweapons. There is no evidence, though Russia watchers note the argument may be a reference to Putin’s continued anger over the U.S. invasion of Iraq.\n\nPutin said that in enacting sanctions, the West is trying to “cancel” Russia and that measures targeting Russia’s Central Bank showed that foreign currency reserves can be “stolen.”\n\nSignaling an even greater crackdown on Russian civil liberties at home, Putin called for a purge of “traitors” by “patriots,” arguing that “such a natural and necessary self-purification of the society will only strengthen our country.\"\n\n— Matthew Brown\n\nMcConnell: US not doing enough, says it’s ‘depressing’ to compare Biden to Zelenskyy\n\nAfter listening to Zelenskyy’s speech, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said President Joe Biden needs to “step up his game.”\n\n“Were not doing enough, quickly enough to help the Ukrainians. And I think comparing Zelenskyy (to Biden) is depressing. President Biden needs to step up his game – right now – before it’s too late.”\n\nThe Kentucky Republican said he agrees with the president on one point: the U.S. shouldn’t be creating a no-fly zone over Ukraine due to concerns that it could potentially escalate a direct confrontation with Russia.\n\n— Ledyard King\n\nLindsey Graham's resolution would pressure Biden on jets for Ukraine\n\nSouth Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham is planning to bring a resolution to the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon that would put pressure on the Biden administration to reverse course and accept Poland's proposal to provide up to 28 Soviet-built MiG-29 fighter jets to the U.S. to give to Ukraine.\n\nZelenskyy has asked the U.S. for more air power and Graham believes there’s enough bipartisan support to pass the nonbinding resolution calling for the administration to deliver the planes and change the trajectory of the war.\n\n“Control of the skies is the missing link,” Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill shortly after listening to Zelenskyy's address to Congressional lawmakers. “It’s the biggest advantage the Russians have.”\n\n— Ledyard King\n\nNATO chief: Efforts aimed at stopping war between allies, Russia\n\nNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said his alliance’s main goal with the invasion of Ukraine is to keep it from escalating into “full-fledged war between NATO and Russia.”\n\nStoltenberg told CNN that he understands Zelenskyy’s desperation and pleas for help, noting that NATO has provided “significant support” to Ukraine.\n\n“NATO's core responsibility, main responsibility is to protect 1 billion people living 30 NATO allied countries,” he said, adding that the alliance has “implemented the biggest reinforcements on collective defense since the end of the Cold War” to prevent Russian attacks from spilling over Ukraine’s borders.\n\nStoltenberg declined to give specifics on what military aid is being sent to Ukraine beyond describing “advanced systems also to protect them in the air, air defense systems, drones and other means to also deal with attacks that are faced within the airspace.” He said he welcomed President Joe Biden’s announcement on increased military aid from the U.S.\n\n— Katie Wadington\n\nRussian assault continues as Zelenskyy pleads US for more help\n\nAs Zelenskyy spoke to Congress, Kyiv residents huddled in homes and shelters amid a citywide curfew while Russian troops shelled neighborhoods, homes and businesses.\n\nIn central Kyiv, shrapnel from an artillery shell slammed into a 12-story apartment building, obliterating the top floor and igniting a fire, according to a statement and images released by the Kyiv emergency agency. The neighboring building was also damaged. The agency reported two victims, without elaborating.\n\nRussian forces also have intensified fighting in Kyiv suburbs, notably around the town of Bucha in the northwest and a highway leading west, said Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv region.\n\nTo the south, Russian forces also continued pounding beleaguered Mariupol, a seaport city of 430,000 that has faced three weeks of siege, leaving people struggling for essentials including food, water and heat. It has also has forced the digging of mass graves.\n\nRemember Pearl Harbor': Zelenskyy invokes US tragedies as he pleads with Biden, Congress for help\n\nZelenskyy speech draws rave reviews from Congress\n\nSen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Zelenskyy’s address to Congress differed from his past remarks in that it was “not a more desperate ask, but a more resolved ask.”\n\n“Zelenskyy was very firm, very clear in what he needed,” Murkowski said. “And if his words were not enough, if you did not look at that video and feel that there is an obligation for not only the United States, but for countries of the world to come together in support for Ukraine, you had your eyes closed.”\n\nSen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said the U.S. needs to do more, specifically mentioned MIG-29’s, anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems and armed drones.\n\n\"There’s a powerful message that came out of that video,\" Portman said. \"For all that we’ve done, it’s not enough to protect innocent lives.\"\n\n“We need to do more and specifically we need to provide them the armaments they need at a minimum to be able to protect themselves,” he added.\n\nSen. Murphy questions public US debate over military support\n\nSen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, said he doesn’t think it’s wise for Congress and the Biden administration to broadcast disagreements over the best military support for Ukraine.\n\n“I'm open to increasing our level of military commitment to Ukraine, I just don't think it is wise policy for all of those debates to play out in public in the United States Congress,” Murphy said.\n\n“This is a bit of a strange way to prosecute a war to have daily, open, public debates about exactly which weapons and exactly which planes we're sending,” Murphy said. “Russia is not doing that, Russia is not having a public debate about how many planes they send in Ukraine and exactly what weapons systems they send in.”\n\n– Dylan Wells\n\nEurope's human rights group expels Russia\n\nThe Council of Europe's ministers has decided to exclude Russia as a member following its invasion of Ukraine. The council, focused on human rights and democracy, was founded after World War II and Russia joined in 1996, following the Soviet Union's collapse.\n\nA day after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the group began to assess Russia's membership. On Tuesday, Russia informed the council it would be withdrawing and the ministers formally expelled Russia on Wednesday.\n\n“As leaders of the Council of Europe we expressed on several occasions our firm condemnation of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine,\" the council said in a statement. \"This unjustified and unprovoked aggression led to the decision of the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly to initiate the procedure of expulsion.\"\n\n– Katie Wadington\n\nUkraine terrain adds to Russian military struggles\n\nRussia’s invading troops are struggling with Ukrainian terrain, forcing them to remain on roads where Ukrainian forces have slowed their progress, according to British Defense Ministry assessment. The Russians have been reluctant to drive off-road in Ukraine, and Ukrainians have further stalled their advance by blowing up bridges, British defense attache Mick Smeath said in a statement Wednesday morning.\n\nRussian warplanes have failed to control Ukrainian airspace, according to the British and U.S. military, further limiting the invaders’ ability to protect its ground forces.\n\n“The tactics of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have adeptly exploited Russia’s lack of maneuver, frustrating the Russian advance and inflicting heavy losses on the invading forces,” Smeath said in the statement.\n\n– Tom Vanden Brook\n\nZelenskyy calls for new alliance, U24\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for the creation of a “United for Peace” alliance of \"responsible countries that have the strength and consciousness to stop conflict immediately.\"\n\n\"We need to create new tools to respond quickly and stop the war the full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine,\" he said.\n\nDubbing it “U-24,” Zelenskyy referenced 24 nations that are actively working with Ukraine to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis.\n\n– Matthew Brown\n\nZelenskyy asks US companies to pull out of Russia\n\nSaying Russia is “flooded with our blood,” Zelenskyy called on U.S. companies to abandon their operations in Russia.\n\nAs he made his address to a joint session of Congress, the Ukrainian president asked for more U.S. sanctions against the Kremlin and to establish a no-fly zone in Ukraine.\n\n“We propose that the United States sanctions all politicians in the Russian federation who remain in their offices and do not cut ties with those who are responsible for the aggression against Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.\n\n– Rick Rouan\n\nBlinken: Russia, Ukraine peace deal must be 'irreversible'\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken stressed that a diplomatic solution ending Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will require “irreversible” moves on Moscow’s part should global backlash to the conflict end.\n\n“We will want to make sure, (the Ukrainians) will want to make sure, that anything that’s done is in effect irreversible. That this can’t happen again,” Blinken said during an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep.\n\nBlinken left the door open to lifting crippling Western sanctions on Russia’s economy should the invasion end while cautioning that the moves are already making global business and finance hesitant of investing in Russia in the long term.\n\n“If the war ends, Ukraine’s independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty are restored then many of the tools that we’re using to get to that result — of course, that’s the purpose of them, they’re not designed to be permanent,” Blinken said.\n\nBlinken declined to say whether the U.S. is in active communication with the Kremlin over Putin's invasion but said “there are always ways of communicating” should it be necessary.\n\n— Matthew Brown\n\nMom who fled Ukraine now worries about life in US: 'I don't know what to do'\n\nLast week, single mom Olga Kovalchuk was hunkered down in a Ukraine basement with her children in a basement while bombs and missiles rained over Cherkasy, a city of 278,000 on the Dnieper River.\n\nThis week, they are in a foreign land – San Diego – where Kovalchuk has no place to live, no relatives, no job. But her kids are safe.\n\nLike more than 3 million other Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, the 37-year-old says she is simultaneously looking back and ahead. In Ukraine, a career as an interpreter allowed Kovalchuk to work mostly from home, looking after the children. Now, the kids will need to find schools, learn English, adapt to a new culture.\n\n“I was very angry. I didn’t want to leave. I’m a patriot,\" she says, adding that she had to go \"to save the lives of our children. Still, sometimes I feel shame because I left.\" Read more here.\n\n– Dennis Wagner\n\nInternational students trapped at Ukraine university finally get home\n\nInternational students who had been studying at Ukraine's Sumy State University have finally returned to their home countries after being trapped in the school's six hostels for two weeks with little food and water as the war raged.\n\nThe students — from India, Nigeria, Turkey and South Africa, among other countries — eventually found their way home over the course of last week and weekend after many days of travel by bus, train and plane throughout Ukraine and across borders.\n\nStudents had turned to social media to plead for help, using the hashtag “SaveSumyStudents.” But with limited access to electricity, calling attention to their plight was also difficult.\n\n\"We never had a plan, and every method of communication was lost, I couldn't communicate with my parents,\" said Samuel Olaniyan, a fourth-year student who returned to Nigeria a few days ago. \"It was very, very scary.\" Read more here.\n\n– Christine Fernando and Cady Stanton\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/03/06/russia-ukraine-invasion-updates/9401259002/", "title": "Ukraine news recap: Russia holds fire, opens some Ukraine corridors", "text": "Editor's note: This page recaps the news from Ukraine on Sunday, March. 6. Follow here for the latest updates and news from Monday, March 7, as Russia's invasion continues.\n\nNATO countries supporting Ukraine against the Russian invasion have a “green light” to send fighter jets as part of their military aid, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday.\n\nThe push for more air support comes as Russia battered a string of southern cities in Ukraine, throttling evacuation efforts and leading to rising numbers of civilian deaths and displacement. Ukraine’s military has used fighter jets, drones and anti-aircraft systems largely supplied by NATO to down the Russian aircraft bombing the area.\n\n“We're talking with our Polish friends right now about what we might be able to do to backfill their needs if, in fact, they choose to provide these fighter jets to the Ukrainians,” Blinken said during an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”\n\nBut Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's call for a no-fly zone over his country continues to draw no support. Zelenskyy said in a video address on Sunday that “the world is strong enough to close our skies.\" He also appealed for stronger sanctions on Russia.\n\nNATO countries have ruled out policing a no-fly zone, which would bar all unauthorized aircraft from flying over Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow would consider any third-party declaration of a no-fly zone over Ukraine as \"participation'' in the armed conflict.\n\nBlinken also said the U.S. and its allies are in talks to ban Russian oil imports, a move that would require successful efforts to provide an \"appropriate supply of oil on world markets.\" Russia supplies about 30% of Europe's oil and 40% of its natural gas.\n\nOver the weekend, the Russian military continued seeking to isolate Ukraine’s major cities, including Kyiv, a senior Defense Department official said Sunday. But forces attacking near Kyiv, Kharkiv and Chernihiv in northern and eastern Ukraine are facing strong resistance, the official said.\n\nThe airspace over Ukraine remained contested, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence findings.\n\nContributing: Tom Vanden Brook\n\nLatest developments:\n\n►Netflix said Sunday it’s suspending service in Russia, joining the growing list of companies shunning the country. Earlier in the day, TikTok and American Express said they would suspend operations in the country. TikTok also said it will start labeling content from accounts used by state-controlled media.\n\n►The State Department is urging Americans to leave Russia immediately, citing the “unprovoked and unjustified attack” against Ukraine and the potential for harassment of U.S. citizens by Russian government security forces.\n\n►Gas in the U.S. has topped $4 a gallon for the first time in over a decade as the price continues to soar in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The national average of a regular gallon of gas is $4.009, according to AAA, up 8 cents from Saturday and up 40 cents from last week.\n\n►Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett returned from a surprise trip to Russia where he discussed the war with Putin. The trip was “in coordination and with the blessing” of the Biden administration, the latest attempt at diplomacy in the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Israel is one of few countries that has good working relations with both Russia and Ukraine.\n\nQuick links:\n\nGET UKRAINE UPDATES: We'll email you the latest news once a day\n\nVISUALS: Mapping and tracking Russia's invasion of Ukraine\n\nUKRAINE WAR DIARY:Illarion Pavliuk checks in with his family. He's ready to fight\n\nRussian military to hold fire, open corridors in several Ukrainian cities\n\nRussia's military will hold fire and open humanitarian corridors in several Ukrainian cities Monday. This comes a day after hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians attempting to flee to safety were forced to shelter from Russian shelling that pummeled cities in Ukraine's center, north and south.\n\nThe corridors will open at 10 a.m. Moscow time Monday, the 12th day of the war, for civilians from the capital Kyiv, the southern port city of Mariupol, Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, and Sumy. According to Reuters, the corridors are being set up at the personal request of French President Emmanuel Macron who spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday.\n\nThe announcement follows two failed attempts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, from which the International Committee of the Red Cross estimated 200,000 people were trying to flee. Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the failure.\n\nBut despite the announcement, Russia's armed forces continued to pummel Ukrainian cities, with multiple rocket launchers hitting residential buildings. Officials from both sides planned a third round of talks Monday.\n\n— Kelly Tyko\n\nNew Zealand will rush through new law to sanction Russia\n\nNew Zealand's government said Monday it plans to rush through a new law that will allow it to impose economic sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.\n\nUnlike many countries that have already introduced sanctions, New Zealand's existing laws don't allow it to apply meaningful measures unless they're part of a broader United Nations effort. Because Russia has U.N. Security Council veto power, that has left New Zealand hamstrung.\n\nPrime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the new legislation would allow it to target people, companies and assets connected to those in Russia associated with the invasion, including oligarchs. It would allow New Zealand to freeze assets and stop superyachts or planes from arriving.\n\nThe bill will be specific only to the Ukraine invasion but could allow New Zealand to impose sanctions on countries seen to be helping Russia, such as Belarus.\n\nUkraine evacuations stall as Russia shelling pummels cities\n\nHundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians attempting to flee to safety were forced to shelter from Russian shelling that pummeled cities in Ukraine's center, north and south, leaving corpses in the streets. Ukrainian officials said the shelling only worsened as darkness fell Sunday and described a \"catastrophic\" situation during failed evacuation efforts in Kyiv's suburbs.\n\nOfficials from both sides planned a third round of talks Monday.\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to fight on, urging his people in a weekend television address to take to the streets to \"drive this evil out of our cities, from our land.\"\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow's attacks could be halted \"only if Kyiv ceases hostilities.\" As he has often done, Putin blamed Ukraine for the war, telling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday that Kyiv needed to stop all hostilities and fulfill \"the well-known demands of Russia.\"\n\nAustralian missiles 'on the ground' in Ukraine\n\nAustralia’s prime minister has described Russia and China’s closer relationship as opportunistic rather than strategic.\n\nPrime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday labeled the alliance an “Arc of Autocracy” and said Russia and China would prefer a new world order to the one that has been in place since World War II.\n\nMorrison has criticized Beijing’s failure to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s expansion of trade in Russian wheat while other countries are imposing sanctions.\n\nAustralia last week promised Ukraine $50 million in missiles, ammunition and other military hardware to fight Russian invaders.\n\nMorrison said on Monday: “Our missiles are on the ground now.”\n\nOil prices jump $10 a barrel\n\nThe price of oil jumped more than $10 a barrel late Sunday as the conflict in Ukraine deepened amid mounting calls for harsher sanctions against Russia.\n\nBrent crude oil briefly surged over $10 to nearly $130 a barrel late Sunday. Benchmark U.S. crude was up nearly $9 at more than $124 a barrel.\n\nThe surge followed a warning from Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukrainian statehood was imperiled as Russian forces battered strategic locations.\n\nA temporary cease-fire in two Ukrainian cities failed — and both sides blamed each other\n\nGAS PRICES ARE RISING:What can Biden do to lower costs at the pump amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine?\n\nOIL FROM RUSSIA:How much oil does the US buy from Russia? Not much, but gas prices are rising amid Ukraine invasion\n\nBiden administration to request $10B in aid to Ukraine\n\nThe Biden administration has requested $10 billion in humanitarian, military, and economic support for Ukraine, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced in a news release Sunday evening.\n\nBiden has strongly affirmed that he will not send U.S. troops to fight in Ukraine, but the funds, which will be part of the federal government’s omnibus funding legislation, will likely provide military equipment and support U.S. allies who are supplying airplanes to Ukraine, Pelosi’s release said.\n\nShe also said the U.S. House of Representatives is exploring “strong legislation” that would ban the import of Russian oil and energy products into the U.S., repeal normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus, and take the first step in denying Russia access to the World Trade Organization.\n\n— Celina Tebor\n\nZelenskyy appeals for stronger sanctions as Russians boost attack\n\nWith his requests for a no-fly zone over Ukraine falling on deaf ears, President Volodymyr Zelensky is appealing for stronger sanctions against Russia as the invaders boost their shelling.\n\nZelenskyy criticized Western leaders in a video statement Sunday for not responding to the Russian Defense Ministry’s announcement that it would strike Ukraine’s military-industrial complex. Zelenskyy also told employees of those defense plants not to go to work.\n\n“I didn’t hear even a single world leader react to this,” Zelenskyy said. “The audacity of the aggressor is a clear signal to the West that the sanctions imposed on Russia are not sufficient.”\n\nWestern sanctions have damaged the Russian economy and cratered the ruble, but the country's attack on its neighbor has continued undeterred.\n\nCease-fire in Mariupol collapses as Russians keep up offensive\n\nA second attempt at a cease-fire meant to allow civilians and the wounded to be evacuated from besieged Mariupol in southern Ukraine came apart under shelling from Russian forces Sunday, leaving the port city in dire need of food, water, medicine and other supplies.\n\nUkrainian officials said Russian attacks quickly closed the humanitarian corridor that had been negotiated, dashing hopes that more people could escape the fighting.\n\n“There can be no ‘green corridors’ because only the sick brain of the Russians decides when to start shooting and at whom,“ Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko said on Telegram.\n\nEfforts to evacuate civilians also fell through in Volnovakha in the east as well as the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, where presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich described the situation as “catastrophic.”\n\nAlthough the Ukrainians were putting up stiff resistance and ruining Russian plans for a quick takeover, the conflict has taken a heavy toll as the invading forces have launched 600 missiles since the war started Feb. 24.\n\nRussian airstrikes damaged the Donetsk-Mariupol gas pipeline, likely leaving dozens of Ukrainian towns and villages in the area without gas or heat, officials in the Donetsk region said. A Russian missile strike hit a gas line in Irpin, 15 miles west of Kyiv, cutting off gas and heat to local residents, the government said.\n\nAlso, Ukraine notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that regular staff operates the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, but that plant management is now under orders from the commander of the Russian forces that took control of the site last week. Ukraine reports that any action of plant management – including measures related to the technical operation of the six reactor units – requires prior approval by the Russian commander.\n\nIAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi expressed \"grave concern\" about the reorganization, saying professional staff must have the \"capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure.\"\n\nUkraine defense minister: 'Myth' of Russian might destroyed\n\nUkraine Defense Minister Alexei Danilov said his country has survived the first wave of Russia's large-scale offensive but Russia is preparing a second wave. Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Mariupol, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Odesa remain strategically important cities for Russia's war, he said. Russian troops want to encircle key cities, bleed the Ukrainian army and create a humanitarian catastrophe, Danilov said.\n\n\"The myth of Putin's most modern and powerful army in the world has been destroyed and burned on the roads of Kyiv and Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mykolaiv,\" Danilov said. \"But the enemy is still dangerous.\"\n\nAmerican Express suspends operations in Russia\n\nAmerican Express said Sunday that it is suspending all operations in Russia \"in light of Russia’s ongoing, unjustified attack on the people of Ukraine.\" Globally issued American Express cards will no longer work at merchants or ATMs in Russia. Additionally, cards issued in the country by Russian banks will no longer work outside of Russia on the American Express global network. The company said it is also terminating all business operations in Belarus.\n\nOn Saturday, Visa and Mastercard said they will drop any cards issued by Russian banks off their networks and not allow their cards issued outside of Russia to work with Russian vendors or ATMs.\n\nCREDIT CARDS NOT ACCEPTED:'We don't take this decision lightly': Mastercard, Visa are suspending operations in Russia\n\nSALES SUSPENDED:Joining Apple and others, Microsoft stops sales in Russia amid invasion: 'We stand with Ukraine'\n\nMore than 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine\n\nOver 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine into neighboring nations, the U.N. refugee agency said, making it the worst such crisis in Europe since World War II. The Polish prime minister's office said 922,400 people had crossed its border alone since fighting began 11 days ago. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is in Moldova to discuss security and humanitarian assistance for the refugees, said officials have seen \"very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians\" that could constitute war crimes.\n\nBlinken said the U.S. is investigating and documenting the reported attacks to determine whether war crimes are being committed.\n\nHELP FOR UKRAINE:Support to Ukrainian refugees comes in different forms: Online groups, financial aid, housing\n\nDRIVING REFUGEES:He 'drove for 12 hours to save us': One man's efforts to transport Ukrainian refugees to safety\n\n'We have to stop Putin all together': Kyiv mayor says world must unify\n\nKyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko on Sunday urged the world to rally around Ukraine as it fights to remain independent amid Russia’s invasion of the country.\n\n“We see our future as a democratic, modern European country, and we expect support from (the) whole world, because we are fighting not just for Ukraine, we are fighting for wellness,” he said on ABC’s \"This Week.'' “We are fighting for all (the) world. We have to stop Putin all together.”\n\nIn addition to global unity and the weapons Ukraine has requested from its global allies, Klitschko said the country needs more pressure and sanctions on Russia, and that despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat made Saturday to eliminate Ukraine, the country has “great ambition” to remain independent from Russia.\n\n“Our country is not just buildings; people (are our) main power,” he said. “Ukraine was always a friendly nation, we (were) always a friendly country. We never (were) aggressive to anyone. But right now we have a huge motivation to defend our future and our country.”\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nRubio warns 'no-fly' zone over Ukraine means World War III\n\nSen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Sunday warned that those calling for a \"no-fly\" zone over Ukraine may not fully understand the ramifications of the act.\n\n“That means flying AWACS 24 hours a day. That means the willingness to shoot down and engage Russian airplanes in the sky. That means, frankly, you can't put those planes up there unless you're willing to knock out the anti-aircraft systems that the Russians have deployed, and not just in Ukraine, but in Russia, and also in Belarus,'' Rubio said on ABC’s \"This Week.\"\n\n“Basically, a no fly zone – if people understand what it means – means starting World War III,” he continued.\n\nThe Florida senator also responded to online criticism he faced Saturday for sharing pictures of a Zoom call with Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy after the Ukrainian ambassador asked Congress to refrain from doing so for security reasons, saying the ambassador made that request late into the call and that he does not believe he put Zelenskyy at risk.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nENTERING UKRAINE:Thousands of people are fleeing the fighting in Ukraine. Here's who is trying to get in.\n\nUN ambassador: Offer to negotiate with Putin is ‘still on the table’\n\nU.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Sunday doubled down on the United States’ position that it will not be enacting a no-fly zone over Ukraine.\n\n“President Biden has been very, very clear that American troops will not be put on the ground or in the air to escalate this war and make this an American war against the Russians,” she said on ABC’s \"This Week.\" “But we've also been very clear that we will support Ukraine in every other way possible.”\n\nThomas-Greenfield said the U.S. is in talks with Poland and NATO to provide jets to Ukraine or crack down on tougher sanctions for Russia but stopped short of confirming that help is guaranteed. She added that despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continued aggression in Ukraine, negotiation is still on the table.\n\n“We have been working since the beginning of this to bring the Russians to the negotiating table, and that offer is still on the table – not just by us but also by our European colleagues,” Thomas-Greenfield said.\n\n– Ella Lee\n\nUK: Russian tactics mimic Syria, Chechnya\n\nDefense officials in the United Kingdom said they believe Russia is targeting populated areas in multiple locations, including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol in an effort to break Ukrainian morale, according to a statement released early Sunday.\n\n\"Russia has previously used similar tactics in Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016, employing both air and ground-based munitions,\" the statement said. It also credited the scale and strength of the Ukrainian resistance for targeting Russian supply lines and slowing the advance of ground forces.\n\n\"There is a realistic possibility that Russia is now attempting to conceal fuel trucks as regular support trucks to minimise losses,\" the statement read.\n\nMoody's slashes Russia's credit rating\n\nMoody's on Sunday again slashed Russia's credit rating and listed its future outlook as \"negative.\" The financial services company downgraded Russia's rating based on expectations that the Central Bank will further restrict payments across borders, including debt service on government bonds.\n\nThe rating – Ca – is now closer to junk status, \"driven by severe concerns around Russia's willingness and ability to pay its debt obligations,\" Moody's said in a statement issued early Sunday.\n\n\"Concerns around the government's willingness to pay and the unpredictability of government actions could result in larger than historical average losses for investors,\" the statement said.\n\n– Katie Wadington\n\nRadio Free Europe suspends operations in Russia\n\nRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is suspending operations in Russia because of government pressures since the start of the war in Ukraine.\n\nRFE/RL, which describes itself as an editorially independent media company supported by a grant from Congress and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, issued a statement late Saturday saying it had stopped operating in Russia “after local tax authorities initiated bankruptcy proceedings against RFE/RL’s Russian entity on March 4 and police intensified pressure on its journalists.”\n\nThe media entity also referenced a law signed Friday by Russian President Vladimir Putin that could subject journalists to prison sentences if they deviate from Kremlin-approved descriptions of the war. It said RFE/RL journalists would “continue to tell the truth about Russia’s catastrophic invasion of its neighbor,” reporting on developments from outside Russia.\n\n“This is not a decision that RFE/RL has taken of its own accord, but one that has been forced upon us by the Putin regime’s assault on the truth,” President and CEO Jamie Fly said.\n\nRussia’s federal communications agency announced Friday that it would block the websites of RFE/RL, the BBC, Voice of America and other foreign outlets for spreading what it termed “fake” information.\n\nRFE/RL, which has maintained a physical presence in Russia since 1991, said nine of its Russian language websites have been blocked in the last week after it refused to comply with demands to delete information about the invasion of Ukraine.\n\n– Bill Keveney\n\nContributing: The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/06"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_8", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:20", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2022/02/27/tom-holland-uncharted-wins-box-office-again-spider-man/6966130001/", "title": "Tom Holland's 'Uncharted' wins box office again after 'Spider-Man'", "text": "Jake Coyle\n\nAssociated Press\n\nNEW YORK — For the eighth time in the last two and a half months, a movie starring Tom Holland is No. 1 at the box office.\n\nThe Sony Pictures videogame adaptation “Uncharted,” starring Holland and Mark Wahlberg, led ticket sales for its second weekend of release with $23.3 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.\n\n“Uncharted” held well, too, dropping a modest 46% from its $44 million debut. In two weeks, it’s made $83.4 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters.\n\n“Uncharted,” a long-in-development adventure film about lost treasure that cost $120 million to make, is packing theaters overseas, too. With a mid-March China release date still looming, “Uncharted” added $58.3 million overseas, bringing its worldwide gross to $226.4 million so far.\n\nLast week:'Uncharted' wins holiday box office with $51M, riding the appeal of Tom Holland's 'Spider-Man'\n\nThe film’s robust international sales includes $46.7 million in two weeks in Russia, where studios have thus far elected to keep movies in release after the country invaded Ukraine earlier in the week. The Ukrainian Film Academy on Saturday called for a boycott of the Russian film industry following the invasion.\n\nOn the heels of the blockbuster business for “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the success of “Uncharted” has minted the expanding star power of the 25-year-old Holland.\n\n'I'm trying to age gracefully':Mark Wahlberg passes shirtless torch to Tom Holland in 'Uncharted'\n\n“No Way Home,” which led the box office six times over December and January, is still one of the top draws in theaters. This weekend, it landed in third place with $5.8 million, edging it closer to $800 million in domestic ticket sales.\n\nWhile both “Uncharted” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” have benefitted from brand recognition, rarely has one movie star reigned so much over a 12-week span in theaters.\n\nReview:Tom Holland's action-packed 'Uncharted' maps out a forgettable Indiana Jones knockoff\n\nStar power, too, has kept the Channing Tatum-led “Dog” at the number two spot. The MGM release, which Tatum co-directed with Reid Carolin, declined just 32% with $10.1 million in its second weekend of release.\n\nSo far, the film — in which Tatum plays an Army Ranger paired with an Army dog on a road trip — has made $30.9 million against a $15 million budget.\n\n'I can't edit myself':Channing Tatum on directing 'Dog,' 'Magic Mike 3' and Zoë Kravitz\n\nWith the release of Warner Bros.′ “The Batman” coming on Friday, few new wide releases opened in theaters — and the ones that did struggled to make an impression.\n\nThe Foo Fighters’ horror-comedy “Studio 666,” released by Open Road and Briarcliff Entertainment, went the widest, opening in 2,306 theaters. The movie, starring Dave Grohl and company as themselves while making their 10th record in a haunted house, debuted with $1.5 million.\n\nThe repeated delayed “Cyrano,” starring Peter Dinklage, launched in 797 theaters and totaled $1.4 million for MGM.\n\nThe musical, directed by Joe Wright, has been warmly received by critics, might have benefitted from a boost in Oscar nominations, but after several major Golden Globe nominations, it landed only a nod for costume design.\n\nMore:The best movie musicals of 2021, ranked (including Peter Dinklage's 'Cyrano')\n\nThe new release that performed best is five decades old. Paramount’s 50th anniversary, remastered release of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather” debuted with $900,000 in 156 theaters.\n\nEstimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.\n\n1. “Uncharted,” $23.3 million.\n\n2. “Dog,” $10.1 million.\n\n3. “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” $5.8 million.\n\n4. “Death on the Nile,” $4.5 million.\n\n5. “Jackass Forever,” $3.2 million.\n\n6. “Sing 2,” $2.1 million.\n\n7. “Marry Me,” $1.9 million.\n\n8. “Studio 666,” $1.6 million.\n\n9. “Cyrano,” $1.4 million.\n\n10. “Scream,” $1.3 million.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/27"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/19/media/lightyear-box-office-pixar-disney/index.html", "title": "Pixar's 'Lightyear' fizzles at the box office - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) \"Lightyear\" wasn't able to get enough buzz at the box office this weekend.\n\nThe latest film from Disney's Pixar — which features the voice work of Chris Evans as Buzz Lightyear — opened to an estimated $51 million at the North American box office this weekend.\n\nDisney DIS That number came in way under industry expectations, which projected the film to make around $70 million. The movie took in $85.6 million worldwide, according to\n\nThe film also failed to grab the top spot at the box office, opening at No. 2 behind the second weekend of Universal's \"Jurassic World: Dominion,\" which made an estimated $58.6 million.\n\nThe opening is a disappointing launch for Pixar — one of the most successful and popular studios in all of Hollywood. The animation studio — which has produced hits including \"Toy Story,\" \"The Incredibles\" and \"Finding Nemo\" — has made $14.7 billion at the global box office.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Frank Pallotta", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/19"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/29/media/top-gun-maverick-box-office/index.html", "title": "'Top Gun: Maverick' soars to a big opening at the box office - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) \"Top Gun: Maverick\" felt the need for speed at the box office this weekend.\n\nThe sequel to the 1986 blockbuster , which has Tom Cruise reprise his most iconic role of Pete \"Maverick\" Mitchell, made an estimated $124 million domestically for its three day opening weekend, according to Paramount.\n\nThat not only jets past expectations, which initially projected \"Maverick\" to make closer to $80 million, but stands as Cruise's biggest opening weekend in his more than 40-year career. It's Cruise's first $100 million opening weekend and the third biggest debut of the year.\n\nParamount said that \"Maverick\" is projected to make $151 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend at the US box office. If the sequel, which has Cruise's Maverick teaching a new group of Top Gun pilots, lands at that number Monday, it'll be one of the highest openings ever for a Memorial Day weekend.\n\nGlobally the film has earned $248 million so far, according to Paramount, which said that 55% of the US total came from ticket buyers over age 35.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Frank Pallotta", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/05/29"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/31/media/top-gun-maverick-box-office-record/index.html", "title": "'Top Gun: Maverick' jets to new box office records - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) \"Top Gun: Maverick\" took off at the box office this weekend — setting a new record in the process.\n\nThe sequel to the 1986 blockbuster, which has Tom Cruise reprise his most iconic role as Pete \"Maverick\" Mitchell, made an estimated $156 million domestically for its four-day opening weekend, according to\n\nThat gives the film the record for biggest opening over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, overtaking \"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End,\" which made $153 million in 2007.\n\nOn top of all of that, \"Maverick\" is the third-biggest debut of the year behind two superhero films, Marvel's \" Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness \" and Warner Bros.' \" The Batman .\"\n\nStudios and theaters couldn't ask for a better way to dive into the summer — the film industry's most lucrative season.\n\nRecently, Paramount has struggled to find its footing in an ever-evolving Hollywood.\n\nThat's not the case in 2022.\n\nFilms such as \"Scream,\" \"The Lost City\" and \" Sonic the Hedgehog 2 \" have helped give a boost to Paramount and \"Maverick\" continues that trend.\n\nAs for theaters, \"Maverick\" is another blockbuster helping the industry rebound from two brutal years of the pandemic decimating the business.\n\n\"Top Gun: Maverick,\" which garnered a stellar 96% score on review site Rotten Tomatoes, now has a clear runway to rack up even more success at the box office. There's not another major film on the docket until Universal's \" Jurassic World: Dominion ,\" which opens June 9.", "authors": ["Frank Pallotta", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/05/31"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/12/media/jurassic-world-dominion-box-office/index.html", "title": "'Jurassic World: Dominion' roars to big opening weekend at the box ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) The end of the Jurassic era arrived with a deafening roar at the box office.\n\nThe opening for \"Dominion\" roughly falls in line with the debut of the prior film in the series, \"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,\" which opened to $148 million in 2018. That's impressive considering how different the box office marketplace is compared to just five years ago.\n\nAnother impressive feat is that the film found an audience despite some pretty awful reviews . \"Dominion\" notched the lowest critics score of the series on review site Rotten Tomatoes, bringing in a 30% rating.\n\nThe big weekend adds to the film's worldwide haul of $389 million since opening overseas last week.", "authors": ["Frank Pallotta", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2016/01/17/box-office-ride-along-2-star-wars-13-hours/78823394/", "title": "Box office: 'Ride Along 2' coasts to No. 1", "text": "Patrick Ryan\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nStar Wars: The Force Awakens hit a minor speed bump at the box office.\n\nThe sci-fi blockbuster ended its four-week run at No. 1 over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, relinquishing the throne to Ride Along 2, which cruised to $34 million, according to estimates from box-office tracking firm Rentrak.\n\n\"It's inevitable — no movie can stay No 1 forever,\" Rentrak senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian says. \"There are no tears being shed over at Disney. They rewrote the record books with Star Wars,\" which fell to third place this weekend, but still managed $25.1 million.\n\nJ.J. Abrams on Rey's Monopoly controversy, 'Star Wars' success\n\nForce has now amassed $851 million in the USA since mid-December and nearly $1.9 billion worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing movie ever behind Avatar ($2.8 billion) and Titanic ($2.2 billion). But could the record-breaking franchise entry eventually overtake James Cameron's juggernauts?\n\n\"Avatar is a billion dollars away — that's a lot of box office,\" Dergarabedian says. It should easily enter the $2 billion club, \"but where it ends up in that very rarefied air remains to be seen. The most impressive thing is the speed at which it's broken these records.\"\n\nBox-office champ Ride Along 2 opened below the $41.5 million its predecessor made the same weekend in January 2014. That movie also starred Kevin Hart and Ice Cube, and became a sleeper hit with $134.9 million total, despite abysmal reviews. Ride Along 2 was similarly panned by critics, earning just 14% positive reviews on aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes; audiences liked it better, giving the movie a 65% approval rating.\n\nKevin Hart, Ice Cube hit the gas for 'Ride Along 2'\n\nAfter leading the Oscar nominations with 12 nods Thursday, The Revenant persisted with an impressive $29.5 million and a No. 2 finish in its second weekend of wide release. The wilderness survival film starring Leonardo DiCaprio earned Golden Globe Awards last weekend for best actor in a drama (DiCaprio), director (Alejandro González Iñárritu) and movie drama and has overperformed with $87.7 million so far.\n\nBoosted by DiCaprio's star appeal, \"there's no question that it's going to ride this wave of awards season buzz — the momentum is just building,\" Dergarabedian says. \"Oscar nominations are never a bad thing, and for those that may be on the fence about seeing the movie, 12 nominations is a pretty healthy motivator.\"\n\nHere's why John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are the baddest couple alive\n\nRounding out the top five, Michael Bay's 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi launched with $16 million in fourth place, well below the national releases of other true-life modern war films American Sniper ($89.3 million) and Lone Survivor ($37.8 million) in previous Januarys. Meanwhile, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg's Daddy's Home held strong with $9.3 million ($129.3 million to date) in fifth place.\n\nFinal numbers are expected Monday.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/01/17"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/04/media/minions-the-rise-of-gru-box-office/index.html", "title": "'Minions: The Rise of Gru' breaks box office records | CNN Business", "text": "New York (CNN Business) The Minions went bananas at the box office this weekend.\n\nIllumination's \" Minions: The Rise of Gru \" — the latest animated film in the Despicable Me franchise — made an estimated $125 million domestically for its four-day opening weekend, according to Universal.\n\nThat gives the film the record for biggest opening over the July 4th holiday weekend, overtaking \"Transformers: Dark of the Moon,\" which made $115 million in 2011.\n\nDisney DIS The opening is a huge shot in the arm for theaters. The industry has been anxiously waiting to see if families — who have been somewhat reluctant to bring their children to the movies during the pandemic — would return to theaters. While there have been family-friendly hits such as \" Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ,\" this question became more pressing after's and Pixar's \"Lightyear\" flopped at the box office last month.\n\nBut the performance of \"Minions\" shows that not only do families want to come back, but they'll come back in large numbers for the right film.", "authors": ["Frank Pallotta", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/07/04"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/05/media/top-gun-maverick-box-office-second-weekend/index.html", "title": "'Top Gun: Maverick' soars to big second weekend, crosses $500 ...", "text": "The sequel to the 1986 blockbuster — which has Tom Cruise 's Pete \"Maverick\" Mitchell teach a new set of recruits about the need for speed — made an estimated $86 million domestically in its second weekend, according to\n\nThat's a drop of just 32% from the film's record setting opening last weekend. That type of a drop for a blockbuster is pretty remarkable since most are front loaded — making a lot of their money in the opening weekend.\n\n\"Maverick\" notched the lowest percent change for any film that's opened to $100 million, according to Paramount.\n\nTo put the second weekend of \"Maverick\" into further context, other major films such as May's \" Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness \" dropped 67% in its second weekend and March's \"The Batman\" dropped 50%, according to\n\nGlobally, the film has earned $548.6 million so far, according to Paramount.\n\nWhy the film — which also stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm — has retained much of its draw makes sense considering that it has notched acclaim from both critics and audiences.\n\nIt also had relatively no competition at the box office this weekend. However, that will change next week when Universal's \" Jurassic World: Dominion \" hits theaters.\n\nYet, the success of \"Maverick\" so far can't be overstated.\n\nThe film made $160.5 million domestically for its four-day opening over Memorial Day last weekend — a new record for biggest opening over the holiday.\n\n\"Maverick\" was supposed to hit theaters in 2020, but was delayed multiple times because of the pandemic. While other theatrical films pivoted to streaming, \"Maverick\" waited until audiences could experience it on the big screen — a strategy Cruise was adamant about.\n\nSo far, that strategy has helped \"Maverick\" hit heights rarely seen by other films.", "authors": ["Frank Pallotta", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/05"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/10/media/jurassic-world-dominion-box-office-opening/index.html", "title": "'Jurassic World: Dominion' looks to roar at the box office with the ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) An adventure 65 million years in the making comes to a conclusion this weekend when \" Jurassic World: Dominion \" stomps into theaters.\n\nThe Universal film explores a world in which dinosaurs are not just running amok on a remote island, but all over Earth. That concept — alongside a brand that has raked in about $5 billion worldwide over five films — could be enough to pull viewers into theaters.\n\nBut dinosaurs and name recognition aren't the only things \"Dominion\" has working for it.\n\n\"Dominion\" brings back the three stars from the original \"Jurassic Park,\" Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, alongside the younger characters of the series played by Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.\n\nIf the cast from the original — one of the highest-grossing films of all time — wasn't enough, \"Dominion\" is also billed as the final movie of \"the Jurassic era.\"\n\nThe film is expected to take in roughly $125 million domestically in North America this weekend, and has already made more than $55 million overseas after opening internationally last week. It notched $18 million domestically in preview screenings on Thursday night.\n\n\"What has always made the Jurassic films special is the age-old trope: man vs beast,\" Jeff Bock, senior analyst at entertainment research firm Exhibitor Relations, told CNN Business. \"It's a horror film. It's an adventure film. It's an action film. It's a drama. It's an existential comedy at times. It's all the things.\"\n\nAnd it's yet another film that's banking on nostalgia to bring in older moviegoers — an important demographic that has been mostly absent from theaters since the pandemic's onset.\n\n\"You're really trying to get everybody\"\n\n\"Jurassic World: Dominion\" is trying to break the box office this weekend.\n\nNot many films have changed the course of cinema. \"Jurassic Park\" did.\n\nThe 1993 film directed by Steven Spielberg transformed the movie industry with its unprecedented use of special effects. Its impact — much like the film's famous scene where reverberations in a glass of water signal the potentially deadly approach of a T-Rex — are still felt today.\n\nSo bringing back the cast from that film is a smart box office strategy for Universal.\n\nBut \"Dominion\" isn't trying to specifically reach those over the age of 35 who watched the first film in theaters.\n\n\"With the movie of this size, you're really trying to get everybody,\" according to Michael Moses, the chief marketing officer for Universal Pictures. \"It is at once both meant to attract audiences who have been with us from the very beginning, but also ones who joined along the way.\"\n\nAnd having the legacy cast members join in the adventure is not just a gimmick to pull in an older audience.\n\n\"They're not in the movie as window dressing or in a single scene. They are actually fully integrated into the narrative of the movie,\" Moses said. \"It really is trying to honor the entirety of the franchise.\n\nThat said, reaching out to an older audience has been a successful move at the box office lately.\n\n\"'Jurassic World: Dominion' is not only trying to bridge the gap between trilogies, but also between demographics,\" Bock said. \"The hope here is that the same audiences that have returned to theaters for perhaps the first time since the pandemic began with 'Top Gun' are now ready to frequent theaters on a more regular basis.\"\n\nThe end of the Jurassic era... maybe\n\nThe film is hoping that bringing back the original cast of \"Jurassic Park\" could boost ticket sales.\n\nThere is one menace, however, that \"Dominion\" still faces: it could get eaten alive by bad reviews. The film currently has a 34% score on Rotten Tomatoes — the worst score in the series.\n\n\"The nostalgia factor gives the movie an initial jolt, and there are, of course, some dino-sized thrills, but not enough to lift this XL-sized mediocrity out of the gene pool's shallow end,\" Brian Lowry, CNN's media critic, wrote in his review.\n\nThen again, only two films in the series have had positive review scores on Rotten Tomatoes (the 1993 original and 2015's \"Jurassic World\"), and that hasn't stopped the series from selling tickets.\n\nSo a film like \"Dominion\" may be review-proof — this weekend, at least — especially if audiences want to get one last glimpse at the series.\n\nBecause if this really, really is the end of the Jurassic series (don't forget, the 9-film \"Fast & Furious\" franchise has been doing \"one last ride\" over multiple films) the films' legacy will be its status as a pop culture touchstone as well as a huge moneymaker.\n\n\"When you picture a dinosaur, or when you imagine what a dinosaur sounds like, it's almost certain that that memory is formed by the Jurassic movies more than anything else,\" Moses said. \"And so, that's a very powerful thing to reach that kind of cultural status beyond just a cinematic moment.\"", "authors": ["Frank Pallotta", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2016/01/24/revenant-survives-winter-storm-jonas-win-box-office/79123894/", "title": "'Revenant' survives winter storm Jonas to win weekend box office ...", "text": "Bryan Alexander\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nIt’s fitting that a grueling survival movie would endure a weekend box office decimated by winter storm Jonas.\n\nLeonardo DiCaprio and The Revenant pulled through the elements, earning $16 million to take No. 1 after a historic blizzard closed cinemas on the East Coast.\n\nIt's the first time in The Revenant's five weekends in theaters (its third nationwide) that the movie has topped the box office, with a haul to date of $119.2 million.\n\n\"Studios often blame poor weekends on bad weather, but that was truly the case during Jonas. It was a big deal for a number of movies,\" says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Rentrak. \"But The Revenant did something astonishing this weekend taking the top spot with this intense wilderness epic. It's flourishing.\"\n\n'The Revenant': Who was the real Hugh Glass?\n\nDirector Alejandro González Iñárritu's film focusing on rugged frontiersman Hugh Glass (played by DiCaprio) boasts 12 Academy Award nominations, leading all films.\n\nStar Wars: The Force Awakens landed in second place for the weekend with $14.3 million, bringing its record-breaking domestic total to $879.3 million.\n\nKevin Hart and Ice Cube's Ride Along 2, which was heavily favored to win the box office for a second consecutive weekend, ended up in third with nearly $13 million ($59.1 million total).\n\nThe rest of the Jonas-affected slate included several newcomers, which already had modest expectations typical of January releases.\n\nZac Efron and Robert De Niro's spring break comedy Dirty Grandpa sputtered into fourth with $11.5 million in its opening weekend.\n\nThe R-rated movie did not screen early for critics and was beaten up severely in reviews. It scored a paltry 8% favorable critical rating on aggregate site RottenTomatoes.com and a B audience grade on CinemaScore.\n\nBox office: 'Ride Along 2' coasts to No. 1\n\nHorror film The Boy rounded out the top five with $11.3 million in its opening weekend, pulling a heavily Latino (41%) and female (62%) audience. The Boy, made on a budget of less than $10 million, scored a 29% critical rating on RottenTomatoes.com and a B- on CinemaScore.\n\nChloë Grace Moretz's sci-fi fantasy The 5th Wave opened in sixth with $10.7 million. Moretz told East Coast fans on Twitter not to brave the elements to see the young-adult film, based on the books by Rick Yancey.\n\nThe 5th Wave sputtered with a 19% critical rating on RottenTomatoes.com and a B- on CinemaScore.\n\n\"Jonas had an impact on what would already have been some bland January openings, including Dirty Grandpa,\" says Jeff Bock, box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. \"The Boy cost $10 million, so it will be fine. The 5th Wave was disappointing; Sony had hoped to start a franchise with this film, and you can't do that with a $10 million opening.\"\n\nFinal numbers are expected Monday.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/01/24"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_9", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:20", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/06/energy/record-gas-prices-causes/index.html", "title": "Why US gas prices are at a record and why they'll stay high for a ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a major reason that US drivers are paying record prices for gasoline . But it's not the only cause of the spike.\n\nNumerous factors are pushing prices up, with regular gasoline hitting a record $4.87 a gallon Monday according to AAA's survey — up 25 cents a gallon in just the last week.\n\nGas prices were already expected to breach the $4 a gallon mark for the first time since 2008, with or without shots fired in Eastern Europe or economic sanctions imposed on Russia. But now the national average is expected to hit $5 a gallon within the next two weeks, said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for the OPIS, which tracks gas prices for AAA.\n\n\"I think we reach $5 somewhere between this weekend and Juneteenth/Father's Day weekend,\" he said.\n\nIt was back in March that prices first broke the record of $4.11 a gallon, which had stood since 2008. That now seems like the good old days: The national average has been rising steadily for the past month, setting 27 records in the last 28 days.\n\nMore than one out of every five gas stations nationwide is now charging more than $5 a gallon for regular, and just more than half are charging $4.75.\n\nThere are 10 states, plus Washington, DC, where the average price is already at $5 or more: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Several more are within a penny of $5, so those states' prices are likely only a day or two at most from crossing the mark.\n\nThat's because there's a number of reasons beside the disruption of Russian oil exports driving prices higher according to Kloza. And making predictions about where prices will go has proved difficult. As school let out and summer travel picks up, so will gasoline demand and price, he said.\n\n\"Anything goes from June 20 to Labor Day,\" Kloza said. \"We could certainly see the national average approach $6.\"\n\nHere's what's behind the record price surge:\n\nRussia's invasion of Ukraine\n\nRussia is one of the largest oil exporters on the planet. In December it sent nearly 8 million barrels of oil and other petroleum products to global markets, 5 million of them as crude oil.\n\nVery little of that went to the United States. In 2021 Europe got 60% of the oil and 20% went to China. But oil is priced on global commodity markets, so the loss of Russian oil affects prices around the globe no matter where it is used.\n\nThe concerns about disrupting global markets led Western nations to initially exempt Russian oil and natural gas from the sanctions they put in place to protest the invasion.\n\nChina lockdowns ending\n\nOne factor keeping oil prices somewhat in check has been the surge of Covid cases, and strict lockdown rules in much of the country. That was a major drag on demand for oil.\n\nBut as the Covid surge has started to retreat, the lockdowns are being lifted in major cities such as Shanghai. And more demand without increased supply can only drive up prices.\n\nJUST WATCHED This is what determines the price of gas Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH This is what determines the price of gas 01:57\n\nLess oil and gas from other sources\n\nUS oil companies don't adhere to those types of nationally mandated production targets. But they have been reluctant or unable to resume producing oil at pre-pandemic levels amid concerns that tougher environmental rules could cut future demand. Many of those stricter rules have been scaled back or failed to become law.\n\n\"The Biden administration is suddenly interested in more drilling, not less,\" Robert McNally, president of consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group, said earlier this spring. \"People are more worried about high oil prices than anything else.\"\n\nIt takes time to scale up production, particularly when oil companies are facing the same supply chain and hiring challenges as thousands of other US businesses.\n\n\"They can't find people, and can't find equipment,\" McNally added. \"It's not like they're available at a premium price. They're just not available.\"\n\nOil stocks have generally lagged the broader market over the last two years, at least until the recent run-up in prices. Oil company executives would rather find ways to boost their share price than increase production.\n\n\"Oil and gas companies do not want to drill more,\" Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James, said earlier this spring. \"They are under pressure from the financial community to pay more dividends, to do more share buybacks, instead of the proverbial 'drill baby drill,' which is the way they would have done things 10 years ago. Corporate strategy has fundamentally changed.\"\n\nExxonMobil XOM One of the starkest examples:last month announced first quarter profits of $8.8 billion, more than triple the level of a year ago when excluding special items. It also announced a $30 billion share repurchase plan , far more than the $21 billion to $24 billion it expects to spend on all capital investment, including searching for new oil.\n\nNot only is oil production l agging behind pre-pandemic levels, US refining capacity is falling. Today, about 1 million fewer barrels of oil a day are available to be processed into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum-based products.\n\nState and federal environmental rules are prompting some refineries to switch from oil to lower carbon renewable fuels. Some companies are closing older refineries rather than investing what it would cost to retool to keep them operating, especially with massive new refineries set to open overseas in Asia, the Middle East and Africa in 2023.\n\nAnd the fact that diesel and jet fuel prices are up far more than gasoline prices shows that refiners are shifting more of their production to those products.\n\n\"Economics mandate you make more jet and diesel fuel to the detriment of gasoline,\" said Kloza.\n\nAnd with prices in Europe even higher than in the United States, both Canadian and US oil producers have increased exports of oil and gasoline to the continent. That has also limited the US supply.\n\nStrong demand for gas\n\nBut supply is only part of the equation for prices. Demand is the other key, and while it's very strong right now, it's still not back to pre-pandemic levels.\n\nJUST WATCHED How to save money on gas by being more fuel efficient Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH How to save money on gas by being more fuel efficient 01:40\n\nThe US economy had record job growth in 2021, and while those gains have slowed, they remain historically strong. Demand is getting another boost as the many employees who have been working from home for much of the last two years return to the office\n\nThe start of the summer travel season on Memorial Day weekend likely sparked the typical annual increases in demand for gas and jet fuel. US airlines all report very strong bookings for summer travel, even with airfares climbing above pre-pandemic levels.\n\nThe end of the Omicron surge and the removal of many Covid restrictions is encouraging people to get out of the house for more shopping, entertainment and travel.\n\n\"Come hell or high gas prices, people are going to take vacations,\" said Kloza.\n\nCommuting may remain down slightly. Many who plan to return to the office will be there only three or four days a week, and the total number of jobs is still a bit below 2019 levels. But there will be periods, most likely this summer, with higher demand for gas than during comparable periods before the pandemic, Kloza predicts.\n\n\"Even before Ukraine, I was expecting to break the record,\" Kloza said. \"Now it's a question of how much we break the record by.\"", "authors": ["Chris Isidore", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/06/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/01/12/cpi-2021-consumer-prices-climbed-7-2021-fastest-pace-since-1982/9178235002/", "title": "Inflation reaches highest level since 1982 as consumer prices jump ...", "text": "Inflation hit a fresh 39-year high in December.\n\nThe consumer price index jumped 7% last year, the fastest pace since 1982.\n\nBefore volatile food and energy items, prices rose 5.5% in 2021.\n\nAnother month, another record-setting leap in prices.\n\nInflation hit a fresh 39-year high in December as a drop in energy costs wasn’t enough to offset a steady march upward for staples such as food, rent and cars amid stubborn supply-chain bottlenecks and worker shortages.\n\nThe consumer price index jumped 7% last year, the fastest pace since 1982, the Labor Department said Wednesday. That's up from 6.8% annually in November, which was also a nearly four-decade high.\n\nCOVID-19’s fast-spreading omicron variant likely intensified the price increases by spawning more worker absences in global delivery networks and slowing shipments, says Wells Fargo economist Sam Bullard. That more than erased any easing of demand and prices in COVID-19-sensitive industries like travel, Bullard says.\n\n►Save better, spend better:Money tips and advice delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here.\n\n►Empty shelves? Grocery stores still have bare shelves amid supply chain disruptions, omicron and winter storms\n\nExcluding volatile food and energy items, so-called core prices rose 5.5% in 2021, a new 30-year high. On a monthly basis, overall consumer prices increased 0.5% in December while core prices advanced 0.6%.\n\nOverall inflation may ease soon\n\nEconomists expect overall inflation to ease in coming months as gasoline and other energy prices continue to pull back and crude oil prices fall. But core inflation is expected to drift higher before edging down as the supply snags are ironed out.\n\n\"Buckle up,\" says economist Leslie Preston of TD Economics. \"After reaching new highs core inflation is likely to get even higher in the first quarter of 2022 on a year-on-year basis.\"\n\nInflation's cost:How much more are you paying and what's the damage for Biden?\n\nGas prices down\n\nLast month, energy prices declined for the first time in six months, dipping 0.4%, with gasoline prices falling 0.5%. That still left pump prices up 49.6% the past year.\n\nBut other costs continued to climb. Hotel rates leaped 23.9% annually. Used car and truck prices rose 3.5% monthly and 37.3% for the year. Prices increased 11.8% annually for new cars, 7.4% for household furnishings, 5.8% for apparel and 6.3% for groceries.\n\nChicken and fish prices jumped 10.4% and 8.4%, respectively, over the past year after further monthly advances. Beef was up 13% and pork, 15.1%, despite dips last month.\n\nFood prices up, shelves empty\n\nAdditional food price increases may lie ahead with reports of empty store shelves in the Northeast as a result of omicron-related worker absences and winter storm disruptions, says economist Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics.\n\nThe pandemic has been behind the stomach-churning inflation.\n\nConsumers who were already snapping up goods such as TVs and appliances while stuck at home during the health crisis began dining out and traveling more. Many were ready to splurge after they built up more than $2.5 trillion in additional savings from federal stimulus checks and enhanced unemployment benefit, as well as cutting back during the lockdowns.\n\nSupply snags hit consumer price index\n\nBut a supply network still hobbled by the pandemic wasn’t prepared for the buying binges. Many overseas factories are running at partial capacity. Shipping containers are in short supply. And many truck drivers and warehouse workers are still caring for kids at home or fearful of contracting COVID-19.\n\nThe rare collision of robust demand and skimpy supplies has triggered widespread product shortages and higher prices that are outpacing solid wage increases for low- and middle-income Americans.\n\nFed prepared to hike interest rates\n\nAt his confirmation hearing for a second term Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers the central bank is prepared to raise interest rates more rapidly than planned to contain inflation. The Fed already has accelerated the phaseout of its bond-buying stimulus, a move that would clear the way for interest rate hikes as early as March.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/01/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/15/politics/energy-independence-fact-check/index.html", "title": "Fact check: Despite claims of Trump-era 'energy independence,' the ...", "text": "Both before and after Russia's invasion of Ukraine contributed to a spike in US gas prices , various Republicans bashed President Joe Biden for abandoning Trump-era \"energy independence.\" These Republicans have fostered the impression that the \"energy independent\" US did not need energy from Russia and elsewhere under Trump, but then, under Biden, has been forced to buy this foreign energy once more.\n\nThe truth is that the US was never close to genuine independence from foreign energy in the Trump era.\n\n\"Energy independence\" is a political phrase, not a literal phrase. Despite how Trump and others have made it sound, it does not mean the US was ever going it alone.\n\n\"A horrible term,\" said Jeff Colgan, professor and director of the Climate Solutions Lab at Brown University and an expert on the geopolitics of oil.\n\n\"This stupid term,\" said Amy Myers Jaffe , an energy expert and a research professor at The Fletcher School at Tufts University.\n\nThe term has various non-literal definitions. And the US did satisfy some of these definitions under Trump in 2020 — as it did again in the 11 months of 2021, mostly under Biden, for which we have complete data.\n\nFor example, in both periods, the US exported more crude oil and petroleum products than it imported. It also produced more primary energy than it consumed.\n\nBut none of that means that the Trump-era US did no energy importing at all. From the beginning of Trump's term to the end, the US very much relied on oil and gas from abroad.\n\nIn 2020, Trump's last full year in office, the US imported about 7.9 million barrels per day of crude oil and petroleum products. That was down from prior years -- the US imported more than 10 million barrels per day in 2016, President Barack Obama's last full year -- but still a whole lot of foreign energy.\n\nIn fact, contrary to prominent Republicans' suggestions over the last month that the US had just recently started consuming Russian energy under Biden, US energy imports from Russia spiked during the Trump presidency.\n\nAnd that isn't the only thing Republicans have gotten wrong.\n\nContrary to claims from Trump and other Republicans, Biden has not \"shut down\" American energy: US crude oil production in Biden's first year was higher than in each of Trump's first two years and just narrowly shy of production in Trump's last year, though substantially lower than production in Trump's record-setting third year. And experts say it is economic factors and cautionary pressures from Wall Street, not anything Biden has done, that has made US oil companies reluctant to dramatically ramp up production from current levels.\n\nMultiple reasons for foreign imports\n\nAmid the US boom in oil and gas production from hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, the quantity of US imports of crude oil and petroleum products has been trending downward since early in the second term of President George W. Bush. But there are numerous reasons why the US doesn't just stop importing entirely.\n\nAnother reason is that domestic energy production isn't sufficient to fulfill the needs of all US refineries -- for which it can be profitable to buy low-cost unfinished energy from abroad, turn it into higher-value petroleum products, and then export some of those products. Colgan noted in an email that even at moments when the US is a net exporter of oil, \"it remains tightly integrated into the world market for oil, constantly exporting some grades of oil to foreign customers while importing other grades of oil into the United States. Same for oil products like gasoline and diesel.\"\n\nGeographic factors are also at play. For example, refineries in California have relied on imports some from Russia , because importing has been cheaper than getting oil shipped from various parts of the US, such as the Permian Basin in the Southwest, to which California has no pipeline connection.\n\nUnless the US shifts completely to renewable or nuclear energy, Krane said in an interview, \"we are going to be tethered to supply lines that stretch halfway around the world whether we like it or not.\"\n\nRussian imports never ceased under Trump\n\nBefore Biden announced ban on imports of Russian energy last Tuesday, some Republicans suggested that the US had suddenly started importing Russian oil under Biden.\n\nFor example, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at an event in late February: \"We were, before Biden took office, for the first time in any of our lifetimes, actually energy independent. Putin didn't matter. Now, they're importing millions of barrels of oil from Russia.\"\n\nIowa Sen. Joni Ernst said on Fox News on March 6 that Biden's choices when he first came into office \"put us in this tenuous position with energy independence in the United States. Instead of being an exporter of energy, we became a consumer of Russian oil.\"\n\nImports from Russia did increase again, to 245.2 million barrels, in 2021.\n\nWhat is true is that, under both Trump and Biden, imports from Russia made up a fraction of total US petroleum imports -- about 8 percent in 2021 , just about tied with Mexico for second place.\n\nThe US reliance on foreign energy is in large part a reliance on close ally Canada, which provided 51 percent of US imports in 2021.\n\nBiden's impact has been overstated\n\nRepublicans have portrayed Biden as an all-powerful enemy of the US oil and gas industry.\n\nTrump claimed in a speech in late February that Biden \"shut down American energy.\" Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted a Wednesday suggestion that Biden was stopping oil companies from increasing production, writing: \"If Biden would let America get back to 2019 production we won't need a single drop of oil from #Venezuela or #Iran or anyone else.\"\n\nThere is no doubt that Biden's attitude toward the US oil and gas industry is less friendly than Trump's was. But the truth is that Biden isn't stopping US energy companies from increasing production and certainly never \"shut down\" US energy production.\n\n\"President Biden hasn't done anything yet -- no offense -- because he can't get anything passed through the Congress,\" Jaffe said in an interview.\n\n\"Oil and gas companies do not want to drill more,\" Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James, told CNN Business for an article in early March, before Biden announced the Russia ban. \"They are under pressure from the financial community to pay more dividends, to do more share buybacks instead of the proverbial 'drill baby drill,' which is the way they would have done things 10 years ago. Corporate strategy has fundamentally changed.\"\n\nKrane, the energy studies fellow from Rice University, concurred in an interview after Biden announced the ban.\n\n\"It's not a lack of leasing that's holding back US crude. It's Wall Street,\" he said. \"The federal government is like a third-tier player in the US oil market. Market signals themselves are the main driver of energy production and decision-making in the US.\"\n\nEven still, US field production of crude oil in 2021 , about 11.2 million barrels per day, was only slightly lower than US production under Trump in 2020, when it was about 11.3 million barrels per day -- and 2021 production was higher than production in 2017 and 2018, Trump's first two years in office, though well below the record 12.3 million barrels per day in 2019.\n\nNumerous Republicans have castigated Biden's decision to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have carried crude oil from Canada's oil sands to the US. But the long-delayed pipeline would almost certainly not have been ready this year even if Biden had allowed construction to proceed.\n\nThe federal Energy Information Administration projected this month that US crude oil production will hit 12 million barrels per day again in 2022, then set a new record of 13 million barrels per day in 2023.\n\nMoratorium put on hold\n\nBiden has called for a shift away from fossil fuel production and toward renewable energy sources, and he has put forward policies toward that end. Those policies have included an attempted temporary moratorium on new leases for oil and gas drilling on public lands and offshore waters.\n\nAs CNN's Ella Nilsen reported last week, the Biden administration approved more drilling permits in its first year than the Trump administration approved in 2017, 2018 and 2019, though fewer than it approved in 2020.\n\nSince late February of this year, there has been a pause on the issuance of new leases and permits on federal territory. That pause, however, was prompted by a judge's injunction in a lawsuit filed by Republican state attorneys general.", "authors": ["Daniel Dale"], "publish_date": "2022/03/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2022/03/07/gas-prices-high-crude-oil-russia/9412104002/", "title": "Gas prices hover near record high pushing stocks to biggest loss in ...", "text": "Stan Choe and Alex Veiga\n\nThe Associated Press\n\nNEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street had its biggest drop in more than a year Monday as another leap for oil prices threatened to squeeze inflation’s grip on the global economy.\n\nThe S&P 500 fell 3%, its biggest decline in 16 months, after a barrel of U.S. oil surged to $130 overnight on the possibility the U.S. could bar imports from Russia. Stocks around the world also fell earlier in the day, taking their cue from oil’s movements, though their losses moderated as crude receded toward $120 per barrel.\n\nThe benchmark S&P 500 fell 122.78 points to 4,201.09. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 797.42 points, or 2.4%, to 32,817.38.\n\nThe Nasdaq composite slid 482.48 points, or 3.6%, to 12,830.96. The tech-heavy index is now 20.1% below its record set in November. Such a decline means the index is now in what Wall Street calls a bear market. The S&P 500 is down 12.4% from the peak it set in early January.\n\nHIGH GAS PRICES:Gas prices top $4 a gallon nationwide, all-time record could be broken this week\n\nRUSSIAN OIL:How much oil does the US buy from Russia? Not much, but gas prices are rising amid Ukraine invasion\n\nGold and a measure of nervousness on Wall Street also rose, though not by quite as much as when oil prices hit their peak. The price of gold briefly touched $2,007.50 per ounce before settling at $1,995.90, up 1.5%.\n\nHow high will gas prices go?\n\nOil prices have soared recently on worries that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will upend already tight supplies. Russia is one of the world’s largest energy producers, and oil prices were already high before the attack because the global economy is demanding more fuel following its coronavirus-caused shutdown.\n\nU.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to her colleagues on Sunday that “the House is currently exploring strong legislation” to further isolate Russia because of its attack on Ukraine. That could include a ban on imports of Russian oil and energy products, she said.\n\nIt’s a major step that the U.S. government has not yet taken, despite a long list of moves to punish Russia, as the White House has said it hopes to limit disruptions to oil markets. It wants to limit price jumps at the gasoline pump.\n\nLIVE UPDATES:Russia reveals harsh demands for ending war as talks begin; Ukraine calls evacuation routes 'unacceptable'\n\nFIGHTING INFLATION:Powell says Fed is poised to hike interest rates to fight inflation despite Ukraine war, market sell-off\n\nReports also said U.S. officials may be considering easing sanctions against Venezuela. That potentially could free up more crude oil and ease concerns about reduced supplies from Russia.\n\nA gallon of regular already costs an average of $4.065 across the country after breaching the $4 barrier on Sunday for the first time since 2008. A month ago, a gallon averaged $3.441, according to AAA.\n\nA barrel of U.S. crude oil settled at $119.40 per barrel, up 3.2%, after earlier touching $130.50. Brent crude, the international standard, settled at $123.21 per barrel, up 4.3%, after earlier topping $139.\n\nMarkets worldwide have swung wildly recently on worries about how high prices for oil, wheat and other commodities produced in the region will go because of Russia’s invasion, inflaming the world’s already high inflation. In the United States, prices for consumers jumped last month from their year-ago level at the fastest rate in four decades.\n\nThe conflict in Ukraine also threatens the food supply in some regions, including Europe, Africa and Asia, which rely on the vast, fertile farmlands of the Black Sea region, known as the “breadbasket of the world.”\n\nFed takes aim at inflation\n\nThe war puts extra pressure on central banks around the world, with the Federal Reserve on course to raise interest rates later this month for the first time since 2018. Higher rates slow the economy, which hopefully will help rein in high inflation. But if the Fed raises rates too high, it risks forcing the economy into a recession.\n\n“Their reaction to geopolitics can't really be measured, so there's uncertainty around that,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.\n\nSome investors have seen the war in Ukraine as potentially pushing the Fed to go easier on rate increases. Investors love low rates because they tend to boost prices for stocks and all kinds of markets.\n\nBut that may not necessarily be the case this time, Goldman Sachs economists wrote in a report. With prices for oil, wheat and other commodities potentially rising even more, the threat is higher for a sustained, high inflation to settle on the economy. That could flip the Fed's traditional playbook.\n\n“After several decades in which economic, financial, or political shocks invariably caused interest rates to fall, markets may have to re-learn that the opposite can also be true,” Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius wrote.\n\nNetflix, credit card companies step out fo Russia\n\nBeyond sanctions brought on Russia by governments because of its invasion of Ukraine, companies are also levying their own punishments. The list of companies exiting Russia has grown to include Mastercard, Visa and American Express, as well as Netflix.\n\nThe value of the Russian ruble continued to slide amid all the financial pressure, falling 12% to 0.7 cents.\n\nOn Wall Street, shares of Bed Bath & Beyond soared after the investment firm of billionaire Ryan Cohen took a nearly 10% stake in the company and recommended big changes. Cohen is the co-founder of Chewy, and he's amassed somewhat of a cult following after he took a stake in GameStop, the struggling video game chain that eventually named him board chairman.\n\nShares of Bed Bath & Beyond jumped 34.2% to $21.71.\n\nTreasury yields climbed, with the 10-year rising to 1.78% from 1.72% late Friday.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/07"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/15/energy/us-gas-price-drop/index.html", "title": "Gas prices fall -- a little - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) After more than a month of surging prices, Tuesday brought some modest -- very modest -- relief to drivers.\n\nThe average price of a gallon of regular gas fell to $4.32 a gallon, down from $4.33 a gallon Monday, according to AAA. Even at just nine-tenths of a cent, it was the biggest single-day decline in gas prices since August 2021.\n\nOf course, gas prices remain historically high. Before last week, the record high had been $4.11 a gallon, a level first reached in 2008. Last week, gas set four records in a row before prices stayed virtually unchanged through the weekend and Monday.\n\nThe drop in retail gas prices follows a sharper drop in oil prices in Monday trading as prices fell 8%. If oil prices stay at this level, there could be more meaningful relief on the way at the pump, perhaps as much as 20 cents a gallon, predicted Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Analysis, which tracks gasoline prices for AAA. But it's not surprising the drop in gasoline prices has trailed the drop in oil prices.\n\n\"Gasoline prices can go up like a rocket and come down like a feather,\" said Kloza.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Chris Isidore", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/03/15"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/16/business/gas-prices-biden/index.html", "title": "Biden demands faster drop in gas prices as oil tumbles - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) President Joe Biden is using his bully pulpit to call out the tendency for gasoline prices to go up like a rocket when oil spikes, but only drop like a feather when crude crashes.\n\nBiden fired off a tweet Wednesday morning highlighting the painfully slow decline in gasoline prices in a bid to draw scrutiny to a decades-long trend that critics say hurts consumers by failing to pass savings along to drivers.\n\n\"Oil prices are decreasing, gas prices should too,\" Biden said on Twitter. \"Last time oil was $96 a barrel, gas was $3.62 a gallon. Now it's $4.31. Oil and gas companies shouldn't pad their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans.\"\n\nOil prices are decreasing, gas prices should too. Last time oil was $96 a barrel, gas was $3.62 a gallon. Now it's $4.31. Oil and gas companies shouldn't pad their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans. pic.twitter.com/uLNGleWBly\n\nThe administration's focus on the intricacies of energy prices shows the level of frustration inside the White House with one of the central drivers of high inflation.\n\nGas prices skyrocketed to record highs last week, following a spike in crude oil to levels unseen since 2008.\n\nPrices at the gas pump are going down -- but only very gradually. The national average for regular gas dipped to $4.31 a gallon on Wednesday, according to AAA . That's down a penny from Tuesday and two pennies from Monday.\n\nThat's despite the fact that Brent oil collapsed by 28% between the March 6 intraday peak and Tuesday's close.\n\n'It just seems to take a long time'\n\nThis is nothing new. The industry even has a nickname for this practice: Rockets and feathers.\n\n\"This has been going on for 40 years,\" Andy Lipow, president of consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates, told CNN. \"Prices do dip, it just seems to take a long time. You can't deny the data that is out there.\"\n\nOld or new, Biden isn't a fan, especially after observing this phenomenon last fall when gas prices retreated slowly after the administration released emergency oil reserves and Omicron hit.\n\n\"Try explaining how it's just rockets and feathers to President Biden, and you'd better be ready to hear, 'That's a bunch of malarkey' coming back at you,\" a senior White House official told CNN. \"The president is very much within his rights to point out that if you're going to have rockets on the way up, you need to have rockets on the way down, not feathers.\"\n\nBut it may be unreasonable to say pump prices should change instantly just because oil prices do. It takes time for price swings to filter through the supply chain.\n\nA gas station owner may be selling fuel today that was purchased days earlier when oil prices were much higher. (That's especially true in today's extremely volatile market.)\n\n\"Don't get me wrong. There would be some lag,\" Lipow said. \"What if I was the guy who just bought my tanker load yesterday and the next two days crude oil dropped?\"\n\nTom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service, said gas stations have little choice but to pass along the impact of higher oil prices on the way up because of the pressure on their profit margins.\n\n\"And on the way down, It's like, 'We'll be as patient as we can,'\" Kloza said. \"They will fall, but at a much slower pace.\"\n\nJoe Brusuelas, chief economist at consulting firm RSM, noted that gasoline prices are a function of past purchases and expectations around the cost of future deliveries -- and there is vast uncertainty right now about the direction of oil prices.\n\n\"Criticism of price setting at gasoline stations is somewhat misguided,\" Bruseulas said.\n\n$1,300 hit to households\n\nThere are real economic consequences here.\n\nEvery 10-cent increase in the price of gasoline costs consumers at least $11 billion over the course of a year, according to Moody's Analytics.\n\nGas prices have surged over the past year and a half, and at the end of last week, they stood about $1.50 a gallon higher than the 2019 average. If prices stay this high, consumers will pay $165 billion more over the course of 2022 than they did in 2019, according to Moody's Analytics.\n\nPut another way: Annual average spending on gasoline would climb by roughly $1,300 per US household, Moody's told CNN.\n\nThe senior White House official suggested gas station owners are not passing along savings to consumers as quickly as they could.\n\n\"This is using price power in a way that is not particularly fair from the perspective of the consumer,\" the official told CNN.\n\nGasBuddy's Patrick De Haan said earlier this week the gas price drop should accelerate if oil stays below $100 a barrel.\n\n\"Stations lost their shirt on the way up, but now margins are improving and they will start passing the discounts on to you,\" De Haan wrote on Twitter\n\n'Uneven' link between oil and gas prices\n\nOf course, the oil industry was in deep distress just two years ago. Oil prices crashed, with US crude turning negative for the first time ever, driving gasoline prices dramatically lower.\n\nThe National Association of Convenience Stores, a trade group that represents the fuel retailing industry, acknowledged in a blog post Wednesday that retailers might not immediately slash prices after an oil rally \"to make up for the margin they lost during the price increase.\"\n\n\"On any given day, retailers don't know where wholesale prices could be heading, so they try to recapture lost margin as quickly as possible—because they don't know if wholesale prices may rise and margins could tighten,\" the NACS said in the post.\n\nThe industry group also pointed out that one complicating factor is that the fuels industry is currently going through its annual government-mandated transition to summer-blend fuels.\n\n\"Retailers want lower gas prices just as much as their customers,\" the NACS said. \"When prices are low, consumers have more disposable income to make in-store purchases. They're also happier, which is also good for business.\"\n\nThe American Petroleum Institute, the trade group representing the oil and gas industry, said in a statement that retail prices in many industries go down slower than they go up.\n\n\"On gas prices, the American people are looking for solutions, not finger pointing,\" said Frank Macchiarola, API's senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs.\n\nThere is some academic research that supports the argument from the White House.\n\nThe Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis published a report in 2014 pointing out there is an \"uneven\" relationship to how oil prices impact gas prices. That report was based on a review of academic work measuring the so-called pass-through of oil and gasoline.\n\n\"When oil prices rise after being steady for some time -- gasoline prices shoot up quickly,\" the Fed paper said. \"In contrast, when oil prices fall after being steady for some time, gasoline prices retreat slowly.\"\n\nWho owns the gas?\n\nBiden's focus on this issue comes after House Democrats wrote a letter last week urging Congressional leadership to immediately investigate and hold hearings on \"alleged price gouging within the oil and gas industry.\"\n\nDemocrats also introduced a Big Oil Windfalls Profit Tax that would aim to \"curb profiteering\" by oil companies.\n\nAlthough gas stations are often emblazoned with the logo of a major oil producer like Exxon or Shell, they are often owned and operated by independent retailers. Gas station owners are licensed to represent that household brand.\n\nExxonMobil XOM For example,says it does not own or operate retail gas stations in the United States, even though there are countless Exxon and Mobil gas stations throughout the country. As of the end of 2020, Exxon listed nearly 11,000 distributor sites in the US.\n\nOil refiners own less than 5% of the nation's roughly 150,000 retail gas stations, according to the American Petroleum Institute . Many gas stations are owned by an individual or a family, while others fall under a corporate entity that owns hundreds.\n\nAt the end of the day, Kloza said people who can wait before buying gas will benefit.\n\n\"If you can hold off five days to fill up your tank, you will get a lower price,\" Kloza said.", "authors": ["Matt Egan", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/03/16"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/06/01/record-gas-prices-after-eu-ban-russia-oil/7454541001/", "title": "US gas prices continue to rise to record highs. Expect a 'cruel ...", "text": "Consumers will likely continue seeing record gas prices this summer.\n\nEU's plan to ban Russian oil will crimp already shallow supplies.\n\nChina's demand will rise as it emerges from COVID lockdowns.\n\nBrace yourselves for more pain at the pump this summer.\n\nCrude oil prices jumped to a more than two-month high after the European Union approved a plan to ban most Russian oil imports for its invasion of Ukraine, and China showed signs of easing its COVID-19 lockdowns – meaning even less oil will be available on the world market.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/03/07/why-gas-prices-rising/9417091002/", "title": "Why are gas prices rising so quickly? And how high are they ...", "text": "The national average cost for a regular gallon of gas may reach an all-time high this week.\n\nThe higher prices at the pump can be attributed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.\n\nGas prices are expected to continue to rise, with the national average over $4 for much of 2022.\n\nAs national averages for a gallon of regular gas and diesel broke records in the United States this week, many are wondering how long the surge may continue and when prices at the pump will finally drop.\n\nThe dramatic rise in cost has sent drivers into a frenzy; Gasbuddy, the popular fuel-savings app that gives users the cost of gas in their area, had its online services go down temporarily on Monday because of record-breaking traffic as people look for the cheapest place to fill up their tanks.\n\nAs of Wednesday morning, the average cost for a gallon of gas in the country was $4.25, according to AAA. The price is up about 8 cents from Tuesday and more than 60 cents from last week.\n\nCosts are expected to continue to rise throughout the year.\n\nHere is what we know about gas prices and what to expect next:\n\nNational average:Gas prices are high and up another 7 cents nationwide. Here is the average price in each state.\n\nFor subscribers: Are oil and gas companies price gouging consumers at the pump?\n\nWhy are gas prices rising?\n\nThere are a few factors contributing to the increase, but the main reasons are the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the rise of inflation.\n\nPatrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told USA TODAY last week that sanctions put on Russia by the U.S. and European Union severely hindered Russia's ability to sell crude oil, one of the biggest determiners for gas prices. Because the country is one of the biggest energy suppliers, crude oil prices have dramatically risen.\n\nThe cost for a barrel of crude oil had ups and downs on Monday. A barrel of U.S. crude oil settled at $119.40 a barrel, up 3.2%, after earlier touching $130.50. Brent crude, the international standard, settled at $123.21 a barrel, up 4.3%, after earlier topping $139, The Associated Press reported.\n\nThe U.S. imported about 209,000 barrels per day of crude oil in 2021, according to the White House.\n\nWhile that is only 3% of the import market in the U.S., Russia plays a big role because it produces \"heavier, sour crude,\" Ramanan Krishnamoorti, a professor at the University of Houston, said. He added Russian crude is needed because U.S. refineries are not designed to use 100% of the light, sweet crude it produces.\n\nAnother contributing factor De Haan mentioned is the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions across the country. With mandates lifted or softened, people will be out more, coinciding with the typical rise of gas costs as summer approaches.\n\nAAA also said Monday that the increase in gas demand and a reduction in total supply contribute to rising pump prices.\n\n'Be prepared for months of these high prices':How to save money as gas prices smash records\n\nIs it time to buy or sell?:High gas prices are sending stocks lower.\n\nHow long will gas prices be this high? How high will gas prices get?\n\nGasbuddy projects the worst is yet to come when looking at average prices.\n\nGasBuddy's 2022 gasoline forecast predicts the average cost of a gallon of gas will peak in May at $4.25, a price point already realized as of Wednesday morning.\n\nEven as prices are expected to decline after May, the average is expected to remain over $4 until November. The average for 2022 is expected to be $3.99. De Haan told CNN on Tuesday the national average could reach $5 a gallon due to the situation in Ukraine.\n\n\"It’s a dire situation and won’t improve any time soon. The high prices are likely to stick around for not days or weeks, like they did in 2008, but months. GasBuddy now expects the yearly national average to rise to its highest ever recorded,\" De Haan said in a news release Monday.\n\nOn Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced a ban on the U.S. import of all Russian energy products, including the purchases of Russian crude oil, certain petroleum products, liquefied natural gas and coal. Experts say the decision will contribute to the cost increase.\n\n\"In the short term, you're going to see prices definitely go up,\" energy expert Gianna Bern said. \"How much, it remains to be seen, and where and how the void gets filled.\"\n\nGas prices and inflation have you down?: Here's how to sell your car to Carvana, Autonation\n\nWhere is gas the most and least expensive?\n\nGas remains the most expensive in California, with the average cost at $5.57, the only state with an average above $5.\n\nThe most expensive county in the state is Mono County, which borders Nevada. The average cost in the county is $6.14. Stations across the state are seeing prices above $6, including a Shell gas station in Los Angeles, which had regular gas costing $6.99 a gallon.\n\nAs of Wednesday, only 15 states are averaging under $4 a gallon, primarily in the Gulf Coast and Midwest.\n\nThe states with the cheapest gas are Kansas and Oklahoma, each averaging $3.79 a gallon.\n\nContributing: Marina Pitofsky, USA TODAY; USA TODAY staff reports; The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/03/07"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/07/05/inflation-prices-wont-drop-soon/7778227001/", "title": "Inflation's easing won't lower high prices. Here's what will happen.", "text": "Consumers should get used to higher prices on goods and services.\n\nOnce those prices rise, the new prices typically stick.\n\nEasing inflation doesn't mean prices will drop. It just means prices aren't rising as fast.\n\nWhen it comes to prices during inflation, what goes up, doesn't always come down.\n\nWhen talking about inflation, it’s important to remember that inflation is a rate that measures how fast prices are rising. If the consumer inflation rate drops from its 40-year high of 8.6% in May, prices are still rising – just not as fast.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/07/12/high-gas-prices-squeeze-travel-dining-spending/10031863002/", "title": "High gas prices are squeezing experience spending on travel and ...", "text": "When pandemic-related restrictions lifted, people were ready to spend on experiences at any cost.\n\nThat 'revenge spending' on travel and leisure has been carrying the economy.\n\nNow, data show high gas prices is taking a toll on services spending, which may hurt the economy..\n\n“Revenge spending” – spending on experiences such as travel and restaurants despite the cost to make up for time lost during the pandemic – is showing signs of buckling as inflation pressures settle in, new data suggest.\n\nLast month, as the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline reached a record high of $5.016, Bank of America saw in its monthly debit and credit card data the first decline in consumer spending on travel and restaurants since January. January was the peak of the omicron wave.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_10", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:20", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2022/07/12/james-webb-space-telescope-explained/10038756002/", "title": "James Webb Telescope photos are dazzling. What to know about ...", "text": "From cosmic cliffs to the birthplace of stars, the James Webb Space telescope is stunning stargazers and non-stargazers alike with its breathtaking views of a universe never glimpsed before.\n\nThe world's largest and most powerful space telescope is capturing images of thousands of galaxies – some of which formed billions of years ago after the Big Bang – and some of the faintest objects ever observed.\n\nThe telescope will explore every phase of cosmic history, NASA says.\n\nHere's what you should know:\n\nWhat do the images show?\n\nThe first pictures from the telescope, released Monday and Tuesday, show thousands of galaxies, some of which formed nearly 13.2 billion years ago. They are seen in part because the James Webb Telescope targeted a cluster called SMACS 0723, which has a gravitational field so strong it magnifies the light of older, more distant galaxies.\n\nNASA also plans to release imagery of a “stellar nursery” where the Carina Nebula, the Southern Ring Nebula and Stephan’s Quintet formed.\n\nSee first images:What the James Webb Space Telescope has captured\n\nWhere is the James Webb Telescope now?\n\nThe Webb telescope is pretty far away – 1 million miles from Earth to be exact. It launched in December 2021 from French Guiana.\n\nWhat is the James Webb Telescope?\n\nThe James Webb Space Telescope was built through an international partnership between the Canadian, European and American space agencies. It has been in development since the 1990s and, according to NASA, aims to explore cosmic history, taking a deeper look at our own galaxy and the many that came before it.\n\nRead more NASA News:NASA 'strongly rebukes' pro-Russian separatist flag display on International Space Station\n\nHow does the telescope look back in time?\n\nThe telescope looks back in time using gravitational lensing. The latest image from the Webb telescope looks much bigger than it is: The picture is about the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length and shows only an infinitesimally small bit of our vast universe, NASA says.\n\nBut the galaxy cluster captured in the image, known as SMACS 0723, serves as a gravitational lens, bringing to light more distant galaxies. Its gravity is so strong that it distorts the light coming from other galaxies, making them appear brighter and therefore visible to us.\n\nHow long will the James Webb telescope last?\n\nThe Webb facility is expected to operate for five years but is not capped at that, and it has the materials to operate for more than 10 years, according to NASA.\n\nIs James Webb much better than Hubble?\n\nThe James Webb telescope is the most powerful space telescope in history. It is better in resolution and detail than its predecessor, the Hubble Telescope. It has a larger collecting area and can capture longer wavelengths in infrared.\n\nBoth of these space photographers take “deep field” images, pictures with long exposure times (12½ hours in Webb's case) that allow even the most faint form of incoming light to be seen.\n\nThe Hubble Telescope, which had its own dramatic reveal in the 1990s, is now second fiddle. The James Webb telescope is designed to capture light 100 times fainter than that captured by Hubble.\n\nCheck out Hubble Telescope's discoveries:'Needle-in-a-haystack' search finds possible phantom-like black hole roaming the Milky Way\n\nCan the James Webb Telescope see planets?\n\nYes! New images show a distant gas giant planet. Evidence of water, clouds and haze gave scientists an unprecedented observation point for planets hundreds of light-years beyond Earth that would be habitable.\n\nAs for the planets in our own solar system – the Webb telescope can see those too, of course. \"Because it is so powerful, it has capabilities that we can apply everywhere in the cosmos, even in our local neighborhood, the solar system,\" said Heidi Hammel, an interdisciplinary scientist working on Webb, in an interview with Space.com.\n\nWhat is the temperature of the James Webb Space Telescope?\n\nThe Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI)) employed by the telescope is cooled to below 7 kelvins, or minus 447 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASA. Since the operation of the telescope produces heat, a cryocooler of gaseous helium is required to offset that and maintain temperature stability.\n\nWho funded the James Webb Telescope?\n\nThe Webb telescope cost $10 billion. About $9.7 billion is from the U.S.; $810 million came from the European Space Agency; and $160 million came from the Canadian Space Agency.\n\nJWST isn't only funding recipient:Scientists are searching the universe for signs of alien civilizations: 'Now we know where to look'\n\nWho was the James Webb Telescope named after?\n\nThe James Webb Telescope was named after James E. Webb, who was NASA's administrator from February 1961 to October 1968. NASA's website describes Webb as the government official who did more for science than perhaps any other and a fitting recipient to be the namesake of the Next Generation Space Telescope.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/12/jan-6-hearings-back-mob-focus-new-dhs-abortion-rule-5-things-podcast/10035952002/", "title": "Jan. 6 hearings resume with mob focus, more images from Webb ...", "text": "On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Jan. 6 hearings resume, expected to examine pro-Trump mob\n\nThe House committee will take a deeper dive on how the mob came to be. Plus, Supreme Court correspondent John Fritze looks at an upcoming case that could upend election laws, health officials tell hospitals they must perform abortions in emergencies, education reporter Chris Quintana looks at the cost of college and a space telescope brings back unprecedented images from the cosmos.\n\nPodcasts:True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here.\n\nHit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nGood morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Tuesday, the 12th of July, 2022. Today, the latest on January 6th. Plus, the Supreme Court could make a huge decision on elections this fall, and more.\n\nHere are some of the top headlines:\n\nNew security camera footage from Uvalde gives the clearest view yet of what happened inside Robb Elementary School in the buildup and even during the massacre that left 19 students and two teachers dead. Video shows what experts have called one of the worst police failures in American history, as officers gathered in a school hallway, increasingly armed, but not entering the classroom to take down the gunman for more than an hour. Two people were killed and three injured before dawn yesterday in shootings at four 7-Eleven stores in Southern California. Authorities said they were seeking a lone gunman in at least three of the shootings. And the father of a teenager killed in the 2018 Parkland shooting interrupted President Joe Biden yesterday during an event at the White House marking new gun legislation. The father said, \"More needs to be done.\"\n\n♦\n\nJanuary 6th committee hearings will continue today. Committee member, Congressman Adam Schiff said the panel will now focus on \"The efforts to assemble that mob on the mall, who was participating, who was financing it, how it was organized.\" He added that the committee will give new information about the potentially critical roles played by the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys in the attack. The hearing will also focus on whether anyone in the White House engaged in a seditious conspiracy with leaders of the two groups to overturn election results by storming the Capitol. Former President Donald Trump's White House counsel Pat Cipollone's testimony from Friday will also be featured. His comments come after other testimony that he tried to prevent Trump from challenging the 2020 election results and worked to stop the defeated president from joining the violent mob.\n\n♦\n\nThe Supreme Court will consider a bombshell appeal this fall that legal experts say could fundamentally change how federal elections are run. Supreme Court correspondent, John Fritze has the details.\n\nJohn Fritze:\n\nYeah, I mean, this is kind of a technical thing, but I think it's really important because it could have pretty big implications for how elections are run and how states make rules about elections.\n\nIn the 2020 election, there were a bunch of state courts that weighed in to sort of change the rules in response to COVID. And they did things, most notably in Pennsylvania, like saying that if your absentee ballot was postmarked by Election Day, it'd be okay if it took three or four extra days to get to the clerk's office. Because at the time, as everybody remembers, there were a lot of delays in the post office. It did things like in Rhode Island saying that you don't need to have two signatures witnesses on your absentee ballot because at the time maybe during COVID you didn't want to go out and find two people to stand next to you to sign your ballot. And so the court stepped in and made these changes.\n\nAnd what conservatives say is like, \"Look, you can't do that because the law is the law, and courts can't just interpret words out of the law.\" What the other side says is courts have always done this. They've done it for a long time and they should be able to continue doing it in limited circumstances. And what the Supreme Court will decide is who's right.\n\nI think the most significant thing that could happen is if the Supreme Court embraces this doctrine, it's known as the independent state legislature doctrine, kind of a wonky term. But what it basically means is that state legislatures get to act alone. And what does that mean? Well, the court could fully embrace this and in that situation, basically, any other entity that's not the state legislature would have a very hard time acting as a check on the state legislature. And that includes the governor, which in most other instances, the governor would sign a law passed by the state legislature. It includes state courts, which like every other law passed by a state legislature would review what the lawmakers did, what the bill is. And it could even include federal courts to some extent, although I think that'd be pretty limited.\n\nSo in its biggest impact here, the court could say, all of these entities cannot act as a check on the state legislature when it comes to things like voting hours, early voting, absentee ballots and how those get cast, redistricting, and also by the way, which a slate of electors get sent to the electoral college for electing the president. You'll remember in 2020, President Trump and some of his allies were looking for state legislatures to send sort of a slate of electors that didn't really represent how the state voted. And that could have changed the outcome of the presidential election.\n\nNow, no state legislature did that. And most experts that I talked to think that political pressure is unlikely to make such a thing happen. But if the Supreme Court fully embraces this, legally it could happen.\n\n♦\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nThe Department of Health and Human Services yesterday issued guidance to hospitals and doctors, reminding them of obligations to perform abortions and emergencies, regardless of state laws. In a letter to healthcare providers, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote, \"Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care, including abortion care.\" He stressed that federal law preempts state abortion bans when it comes to emergency care.\n\nThe advisory comes just two weeks after the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe versus Wade, the 1973 once landmark decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. The Biden Administration is facing strong pressure from advocates to protect access to reproductive care. President Joe Biden on Friday announced several steps, including protecting access to medication and making legal representation available to those who choose to travel out of state for the procedure.\n\n♦\n\nAccording to a USA TODAY and Public Agenda poll, Americans say they value higher education, but it's too expensive for many. Education reporter, Chris Quintana has more.\n\nChris Quintana:\n\nPeople have conflicted feelings about college, right? People believe that college is too expensive, especially for low income people and somewhat so for middle income folks who don't benefit for financial aid. But also at the same time, there's a desire to make college more affordable and make it such that more people can go. But at the same time, there's a lot of skepticism towards the value of the degree. Only about half of the people polled think having a college education or having more people college educated could improve the economy or the nation's democracy, but at the same time, that's about half of people who don't feel that way. Right?\n\nAnd so a lot of research indicates that people who have a bachelor's degree tend to be more engaged with their community, they tend to vote at higher rates. There's also a question of earnings. People with a college degree or more are likely to earn more than folks without it. And then that's just sort of born out by earnings data, right? And so it's a challenging place for people in the business of providing a college education as well.\n\nThe conversation around student loan debt is just sort of continuing to go on. And this poll also kind of addressed that as well. I think it was interesting to see that roughly 60% of Americans are in favor of canceling student loan debt when it's excessive. And what excessive means will vary from person to person. But we are seeing more support from Democrats and Republicans on that one, which is really interesting to me.\n\nAnother really interesting stat is people want college education to be available, but they don't want to be forced. So it's something about like it's close to like nine in 10 people believe you should be able to get a job without a bachelor, to find a good paying job without having to get the bachelor's degree. And I totally understand where people are coming from with that. When you look at the costs and the student loan debt associated with it.\n\nBut there's also this other piece where, if you're going to a traditional four-year college, that's like at least four years out of the workforce. And jobs are hiring really aggressively right now. And yeah, it's a challenging decision for young people at this point.\n\n♦\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nThe first image from NASA's $10 billion James Webb space telescope was released yesterday at a White House briefing. The image shows thousands of galaxies, including the faintest objects ever observed. It's the deepest view of the cosmos ever captured. President Joe Biden.\n\nJoe Biden:\n\nSix and a half months ago, a rocket launch from Earth carrying the world's newest, most powerful, deep space telescope on a journey 1 million miles into the cosmos. First of all, that blows my mind. A million miles into the cosmos.\n\nTaylor Wilson:\n\nThe telescope uses a massive 21-foot mirror made up of hexagonal tiles to study the cosmos. Its main capability is infrared observation, allowing it to look through obstacles like dust clouds to see the early phases of star formation. Scientists also hope the telescope will allow them to see the atmospheric compositions of far off planets. More images are set to be released today.\n\nThanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us seven mornings a week on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whatever your favorite podcast app is. Thanks to PJ Elliot for his great work on the show and I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/23/world/hubble-universe-expansion-rate-scn/index.html", "title": "Hubble identifies unusual wrinkle in expansion rate of the universe ...", "text": "(CNN) Measuring the expansion rate of the universe was one of the Hubble Space Telescope's main goals when it was launched in 1990.\n\nOver the past 30 years, the space observatory has helped scientists discover and refine that accelerating rate -- as well as uncover a mysterious wrinkle that only brand-new physics may solve.\n\nHubble has observed more than 40 galaxies that include pulsating stars as well as exploding stars called supernovae to measure even greater cosmic distances. Both of these phenomena help astronomers to mark astronomical distances like mile markers, which have pointed to the expansion rate.\n\nIn the quest to understand how quickly our universe expands, astronomers already made one unexpected discovery in 1998: \"dark energy.\" This phenomenon acts as a mysterious repulsive force that accelerates the expansion rate.\n\nAnd there is another twist: an unexplained difference between the expansion rate of the local universe versus that of the distant universe right after the big bang.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/05/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/01/24/nasas-james-webb-telescope-arrives-home-hubble-telescope/9203842002/", "title": "NASA's James Webb telescope arrives at home 1 million miles from ...", "text": "After a nail-biting 29 days of travel and ultra-precise deployments, the James Webb Space Telescope fired its thrusters one more time Monday to reach its final parking spot a million miles from Earth.\n\n\"Webb, welcome home,\" NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement after a five-minute burn added just 3.6 mph to the telescope's speed. \"Congratulations to the team for all of their hard work ensuring Webb’s safe arrival at L2 today.\"\n\nL2 refers to a kind of stable orbit known as a Lagrange point. Technically, Webb is now orbiting the sun and is staying in line with Earth about a million miles away.\n\n\"We’re one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can’t wait to see Webb’s first new views of the universe this summer,\" Nelson said.\n\nNew advancements:How the Webb Telescope will build on Hubble's observations of the universe\n\nThe arrival at L2 capped off a treacherous 29 days in which everyone involved in the $10 billion program — from scientists to NASA officials to companies involved in building the infrared telescope — readily admitted the technical challenges were daunting. Every single thing had to work perfectly in order to launch, deploy mirror segments, and reach its final position.\n\nMission partners NASA, the European Space Agency, and Canadian Space Agency described the process as \"29 days on the edge.\" Officials before launch said there were potentially 344 points of failure during that period.\n\nMoving forward, engineers will spend about three months aligning Webb's 18 gold-coated hexagonal mirrors to the final configuration.\n\nWebb uses a massive, 21-foot primary mirror made up of hexagonal tiles to study the cosmos. Its main capability is infrared observation, meaning it will be able to peer through obstacles like dust clouds to see the early phases of star formation. Scientists even hope to see the atmospheric compositions of promising far-off planets.\n\nWebb is the successor to Hubble Space Telescope, which revolutionized science with the Hubble Deep Field that famously captured thousands of galaxies in a single image.\n\nTotal cost to NASA: $10 billion over its 25-year development history, which doesn't include costs incurred by ESA and CSA. Northrop Grumman was the prime contractor for the project while Lockheed Martin built the main infrared instrument known as Near Infrared Camera, or NIRCam.\n\nThe telescope took flight on Christmas Day with help from a European Ariane 5 rocket. The European Space Agency operates the liftoff site in French Guiana, a territory of France just north of Brazil.\n\nContact Emre Kelly on Twitter: @EmreKelly.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/01/24"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/12/25/nasa-james-webb-telescope-launches-south-america/9016763002/", "title": "NASA's James Webb telescope launches from South America", "text": "Emre Kelly\n\nFlorida Today\n\nThe world's flagship science instrument took flight from South America early Saturday, a high-stakes mission that, from well beyond the moon, will peer deeper into the universe's 13.8 billion-year history than ever before.\n\nOfficials from three agencies and dozens of countries watched in anticipation as the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope vaulted off the pad, a European Ariane 5 rocket lighting up the Christmas Day sky in the South American territory of French Guiana. The 7:20 a.m. liftoff marked the first true test for the 10-year mission.\n\n\"Go, Webb, go!\" Jean-Luc Voyer, director of operations for rocket builder Arianespace, said as he confirmed good separation of the telescope from the upper stage 27 minutes after liftoff.\n\nOnce unfurled and in its orbit beyond the moon about a million miles from Earth, Webb will use a massive, 21-foot primary mirror made up of 18 gold-coated hexagonal tiles to study the cosmos. Its standout capability is infrared observation, meaning obstacles like dust clouds won't be an issue. Scientists will be able to see the early phases of star formation and even the atmospheric compositions of promising far-off planets.\n\n'NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE':NASA anxious to send a $10 billion telescope to space\n\nWebb is the successor to Hubble Space Telescope, which revolutionized science with the Hubble Deep Field that famously captured thousands of galaxies in a single image. The project is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and Canadian Space Agency.\n\nTotal cost to NASA: $10 billion over its 25-year development history. And that doesn't include costs incurred by ESA and CSA.\n\n\"Whenever we look at launches, they're both a beginning and an ending,\" Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator of science, said after the launch. \"They're an ending of an engineering project on the ground ... but they're the beginning of one of the most amazing missions that humanity has conceived.\"\n\nDespite the nail-biter of a launch, Webb's truly dramatic moments are still ahead of it. Over the next 29 days – referred to as \"29 days on the edge\" – the telescope will have to perform a perfect series of maneuvers to unfurl out of its launch configuration and into the sunflower-like instrument seen in renderings.\n\nHUBBLE'S IMAGE:NASA Hubble Space Telescope is back with a stunning image after a long mysterious glitch\n\nWebb and other spacecraft have to be able to fold origami-style to fit in the protective payload fairings, or nose cones, of rockets. One of the reasons Ariane 5 was chosen for this mission was its larger-than-usual fairing, which measures 17.7 feet in diameter.\n\nAbout 10,000 people from dozens of countries have worked on the Webb program. Some have seen their entire careers elapse just for this telescope, while others have moved onto other fields.\n\nOne thing is certain for all of them, according to Project Scientist Klaus Pontoppidan: the discoveries Webb promises will likely lead to even more questions – and people wanting to help answer them.\n\n\"Webb will probably also reveal new questions for future generations of scientists to answer, some of whom may not even be born yet,\" he said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/12/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/11/17/woman-f-k-trump-sticker-jailed-day-after-sheriff-threatened-arrest/873695001/", "title": "Woman with 'F--k Trump' sticker arrested day after sheriff Facebook ...", "text": "Marcelino Benito, Jason Miles and staff\n\nKHOU-TV, Houston\n\nFORT BEND COUNTY, Texas — A Texas woman who donned a \"F--k Trump\" sticker on her truck was released from jail Thursday night, a day after a local sheriff threatened to press charges against her for the display.\n\nMike Fonseca said his wife, Karen, was picked up Thursday afternoon for an outstanding warrant from August. He posted her bond Thursday night, and she was released from jail about an hour later.\n\nRecords show Karen Fonseca is accused of fraud. The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office said they made the arrest after getting a tip about the warrant.\n\nKaren Fonseca made headlines Wednesday after Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls threatened to arrest her for the anti-Trump sticker on her pickup. Records show Karen Fonseca is accused of fraud.\n\nThe sticker says “F--k Trump and f--k you for voting for him.”\n\nRead more:Chinese rooster statue looks a lot like Trump\n\nNehls posted a photo of the truck on Facebook Wednesday: \"I have received numerous calls regarding the offensive display on this truck as it is often seen along FM 359. If you know who owns this truck or it is yours, I would like to discuss it with you,\" the post read. \"Our Prosecutor has informed us she would accept Disorderly Conduct charges regarding it, but I feel we could come to an agreement regarding a modification to it.\"\n\nAfter the story went viral and thousands of commenters defended the sticker as free speech, Nehls deleted the post.\n\n“The objective of the post was to find the owner/driver of the truck and have a conversation with them in order to prevent a potential altercation between the truck driver and those offended by the message. Since the owner of the truck has been identified, the Sheriff took down the post,” a Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said Thursday.\n\nThe Fort Bend County District Attorney said his office had no plans to file charges over the sticker.\n\n“It’s hard to believe that a simple sticker could cause so much arousal,” Fonseca said Thursday before her arrest. \"I have no regrets.\"\n\nShe and her husband have had the sticker for nearly a year.\n\n\"I'm almost certain it does have to do with this,\" said Karen Fonseca after her release. \"People abuse the badge, and in my opinion, money talks. When you're in politics, people know how to work the system.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/11/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/12/20/nasa-preps-10-billion-james-webb-telescope-space/8972047002/", "title": "NASA preps to send powerful $10 billion James Webb telescope to ...", "text": "VIERA, Fla. – The numbers are staggering: Ten billion dollars. Twenty-five years of design and development. The ability to see billions of years into the past.\n\nBut there's also this figure: 344. That's how many potential \"points of failure\" there are, any one of which could doom the James Webb Space Telescope.\n\nNASA scientists and officials have for decades anticipated this space-based observatory, seen as successor to the famous Hubble, and the discoveries it could bring as it peers even deeper into the universe's multibillion-year-old story.\n\nBut they are equally nervous about the precision required for its success.\n\nDespite not even being at its eventual million-mile orbital distance from Earth, the telescope has already seen its fair share of challenges: delays caused by hardware hiccups like loose screws, work pauses due to its sheer complexity, the coronavirus pandemic, and general cost overruns leading to multiple federal investigations.\n\nWater on Mars: Orbiter discovers 'significant amounts of water' in Grand Canyon-like area of Mars\n\n'Moon cube!': China's moon rover spots a mysterious cube-shaped object, and the internet is intrigued\n\nBut the results its 18 gold-plated hexagonal tiles promise to help deliver could be staggering in scope – and bring a burst of public excitement not seen since the famous Hubble Deep Field that captured thousands of galaxies in a single image.\n\n\"I am almost as nervous about this launch as I was for my own launch 36 years ago,\" NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who flew on a space shuttle mission, told FLORIDA TODAY, part of the USA TODAY Network.\n\nIf schedules hold, Webb will start its 10-year mission on Christmas Eve. A European Ariane 5 rocket is slated to launch the 13,000-pound telescope from French Guiana, located just north of Brazil, at 7:20 a.m. ET.\n\nPoints of failure\n\nAfter liftoff, Webb will spend nearly a month running through post-launch checkouts and unfurling maneuvers. The three agencies responsible for the telescope – NASA, European Space Agency, and Canadian Space Agency – call it \"29 days on the edge.\"\n\nAccording to the Space Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for space activities and conducts studies, there are 22 active space telescopes operated by more than a dozen countries. Webb, however, will need to differentiate itself from those by executing the most complex set of deployment maneuvers ever attempted.\n\nThe roughly $10 billion telescope has to be folded and stowed to exact specifications in Ariane 5's payload fairing, survive the vibrations of launch, then spend 29 days unfurling into a sunflower-like telescope with a massive 72-foot sunshield below.\n\n\"There are 344 single-point failure items on this observatory,\" said Mike Menzel, NASA's lead systems engineer for Webb, noting that 80% of them are during that period of unfolding from its launch configuration.\n\nHundreds of parts will be responsible for unfolding, each one of which has to work perfectly in sequence.\n\n\"Unfolding Webb is hands-down the most complicated spacecraft activity we've ever done,\" Menzel said. \"Then again, nothing about Webb is easy. We've never done any of this before.\"\n\nThe Northrop Grumman-built telescope's activities will need to follow a strict schedule of powering up, deploying the many components, and firing thrusters to reach its final destination about a million miles from Earth.\n\n\"We performed multiple deployment testing over several years on both small and full-size models,\" Krystal Puga, a spacecraft systems engineer at Northrop Grumman, said during a pre-launch conference. \"We practiced not only deployment but the stowing process. This gives us the confidence that Webb is going to deploy successfully in orbit.\"\n\nIf something goes wrong during any of those processes, Webb will be on its own for now. As it stands, there are no companies or countries capable of launching a servicing mission to fix Webb in its orbit well beyond the moon. Missions like those launched in the 1990s to repair Hubble won't be possible for at least several years – assuming officials agree to fix it in the first place.\n\nWebb's promises\n\nWebb's 21-foot gold-coated mirror is the star of the show, but the Lockheed Martin-built Near Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, is what will enable scientists to peer through cosmic debris and dust clouds using the infrared spectrum.\n\nOverall, the telescope is touted as being roughly 100 times more powerful than Hubble.\n\n\"This telescope is so powerful that if you were a bumble bee hovering 240,000 miles away, which is the distance from the Earth to the moon, we would be able to see you,\" said John Mather, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.\n\nBut what specifically do scientists want with such a powerful telescope unencumbered by Earth's volatile atmosphere and light pollution? To look at everything there is to see.\n\n\"We want to know how we got here from the Big Bang,\" Mather said. \"So we'll look. We have ideas, we have predictions, but we don't honestly know.\"\n\nFrom the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies to our solar system and life itself, Mather said the universe's 13.8 billion-year-long story is nowhere near being told. Webb's infrared imager means scientists can peer not only farther than ever before, but also deep into clouds of gas and dust that eventually give birth to stars.\n\n\"Dark areas of dust are obscuring our view of those earliest times when the stars are growing. But we can see them with infrared. Infrared light will go around the dust grains instead of bouncing off,\" Mather said. \"It's one of our top goals to see how stars grow with their young planets.\"\n\nAll in all, some 10,000 people have worked to make Webb possible. Some started early on and have since moved onto other careers or fields; others have stayed with the program throughout.\n\n\"We're about to go on this amazing journey of discovery and we really mean discovery because Webb has this broad power to reveal the unexpected,\" said Project Scientist Klaus Pontoppidan, noting that Hubble's discoveries created entirely new fields of study. \"We think Webb will be no different.\"\n\n\"Webb will probably also reveal new questions for future generations of scientists to answer, some of whom may not even be born yet.\"\n\nFollow Emre Kelly on Twitter: @EmreKelly.\n\nLaunch Friday, Dec. 24", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/12/20"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/24/world/james-webb-space-telescope-orbit-scn/index.html", "title": "James Webb Space Telescope reaches milestone orbit beyond the ...", "text": "(CNN) The James Webb Space Telescope has reached its final destination, almost a month after launch.\n\nThe telescope's point of observation is nearly a million miles away from Earth and beyond the moon itself. The space observatory experienced its final burn on Monday to enter this orbit called L2.\n\n\"Webb, welcome home!\" said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a statement. \"Congratulations to the team for all of their hard work ensuring Webb's safe arrival at L2 today. We're one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can't wait to see Webb's first new views of the universe this summer!\"\n\nAlthough it doesn't sound like it would take almost a month for the telescope to reach orbit, Webb is unique.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/01/24"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2013/09/19/albanian-riviera-adriatic-coast-resort/2837337/", "title": "A cheap vacation in the Riviera? Try Albania", "text": "David A. Andelman\n\nSpecial for USA TODAY\n\n\n\n\n\nSARANDA, Albania -- Nestled in the remote eastern corner of the Adriatic, where it joins the Ionian Sea, is a 125-mile stretch of beachfront real estate unlike most others in the world. This little-known edge of Europe is called the Albanian Riviera. It differs sharply from its counterparts, the French and Italian Rivieras, by its cost — a week there could give you barely a few hours in its snazzier, snootier namesakes.\n\nCertainly there are other vacation beach fronts along the brilliant blue waters of the Adriatic: the increasingly popular Dalmatian Coast of Croatia, for example. But few visitors uncover the beauty and simplicity of Albania, which at one time was Europe's most thuggish communist gulag but is now America's most slavishly devoted ally on the continent.\n\nWhile the Albanian seaside scenery is quite extraordinary, above all the area is cheap — easily one-tenth the cost of its French and Italian counterparts and half the cost of the Croatian coast.\n\nSeafood, caught that very morning, is served at beachfront cafes and grilled to perfection before your eyes for less than $8 per person. Fresh fruits and vegetables, grown in roadside fields, are for sale at stands for pennies. In the hills behind the charming little coastal villages are towns that date back to Greek and Roman times.\n\nMy wife, Pamela, and I begin our trip from the north in the capital, Tirana, an hour's drive east of Durrës and work our way down the coast. Durrës is effectively Albania's Marseilles, a thriving commercial container-seaport. Boats have been landing here since at least the seventh century BC. The Roman imprint is still visible in a mini-coliseum built to entertain those ancient colonizers. The Amfiteatri, at barely a third the size of Rome's Coliseum, is a pocket-sized replica uncovered only in 1966. Today, modern apartments surround it.\n\nPamela rushes down into the grottoes, with me in tow, arriving in a series of \"green rooms\" for the Roman gladiators, who could see through tiny slit windows up into the arena where they'd shortly emerge before 15,000 cheering, bloodthirsty fans. It's a chilling experience in more ways than one, and a relief from the 80-degree heat above ground.\n\nOnce we pull out of town headed south, we get our first real taste of the coast and its beachfront. Much like Nice or some other Riviera towns, there are stretches where new apartments face the sea (and go for less than $100,000). They're lined with sand-and-pebble beaches.\n\nTo the left, we spot the first of thousands of small domed, concrete pillboxes set into the hills. They're among the few visible legacies of Enver Hoxha, the paranoid communist dictator, who'd counted on them to repel invasions from the sea that he saw as imminent. Other similar legacies remain. Embedded in the rocky hills lining the tiny inlet of Porto Palermo halfway down the coast are two deep tunnels — safe havens for the Albanian submarine fleet.\n\nWe make nightfall at the town of Vlora, mid-point of the coast and check into the Hotel Vlora International. Although its balconies overlook the Adriatic, right in front of it we spy a newly renovated vest-pocket jewel, the Bologna (for a third the price), which is just accepting its first guests and from whose terrace we can step right onto the seashore. So that night, we dine at the Bologna's seaside café. We leave our choice of dishes — whatever has been caught that afternoon — to the young English-speaking waiter, one of scores of college students eager to try out the language on \"real\" Americans. We're not disappointed. As we watch two old men reel in their dinner from the beach in front of us, dish after dish appears — thinly sliced carpaccio of octopus marinated in native olive oil, a huge steaming bowl of fresh mussels and a platter of whole grilled redfish that we easily fillet.\n\nSeafood is certainly the food of choice, and the next day, as we work our way down the coast toward the Riviera's southern anchor at Saranda, we fly past tiny seafront cafes interspersed with beaches lined with chaise lounges and colorful beach umbrellas — all largely empty in the early summer days. We're eager to reach Saranda since a half hour outside of town is the UNESCO World Heritage site of Butrint, whose impeccably preserved or restored remains span more than 2,500 years. Past the row of olive trees and a 16th-century watch tower, built by the Venetians, who then ruled the Adriatic, to ward off Ottoman attacks, we stumble into a 3rd-century B.C. Greek theater. The town spirals outward from there as it changed hands to the Romans, who built bathhouses and villas four centuries later. We stand at what would have been the theater's center stage, my actress wife gazing up in awe at what might have been an appreciative audience.\n\nThat afternoon, back in Saranda, we stumble on another ancient site — Mosaica, a 5th-century synagogue complex that was once the center of a thriving Jewish community, including a Yeshiva. From there, it's a short stroll down to the palm tree-dotted concrete boardwalk that winds along the beachfront, lined with yellow awnings and delightful cafes.\n\nWe return to Tirana through the mountainous interior, stopping off in Gjirokastra, another UNESCO World Heritage site whose striking stone homes date back 200 years. We begin with the hilltop citadel. As we poke our heads into ancient stone prison cells, used most recently by Hoxha's communist secret police, we stumble upon an American woman of Albanian origin, whose father himself had been imprisoned here for nearly four decades for being a threat to the state. Together we stroll through the castle, emerging finally on a small grassy knoll where the hulk of a World War II-vintage American jet trainer is resting. An American spy plane brought down by the Albanian air force was the story at the time. The truth is more mundane: it developed engine trouble, was forced to land at a nearby airfield, was then seized and the pilot quickly released.\n\nHeading \"home,\" we encounter some truly challenging roads in the process of being rebuilt or desperately needing work. So there are two choices for visitors. Wait just a few years until it's smooth-sailing from end-to-end with prices to match. Or visit now when there are still gems to be uncovered for a song.\n\nIf you go\n\nGetting there: You can fly into the capital, Tirana, and rent a car (there are trains and buses but they are painfully slow). Avis, Hertz and Eurocar all operate there. You can also fly into the Greek island of Corfu and take a hydrofoil ferry to Saranda (a 30-minute trip) which, depending on the time of year, ranges from $25 to $40 each way. There are also ferries that take both cars and passengers from Brindisi, Italy, to Vlora, though round-trip by car costs more than $400, compared with barely $100 for a passenger, so you're better off renting the car on the Albanian side.\n\nMost of the coastal towns are sufficiently compact that you can easily walk from end to end, but taxis are also available and a trip from town down the coast to a seaside bistro is less than $10. Make sure you have small bills since few can change large denominations.\n\nWhere to stay: If you are staying for a week or more, you may want to make your base in one of the hundreds of apartments that face the Adriatic. Companies like Rent Holiday Homes have apartments ranging from $30 a day to $900 a week depending on the size and the season, with discounts as high as 25% for multiple weeks in low season. For hotels, try the Vlora International where a double with an ocean view ranges from $80 to $120. The smaller, recently renovated Hotel Bologna is half the price. For a real bargain, try the Hotel Paradise Beach, 10 miles south of Vlora, for for $27 to $55 a night. Nearby, at the Sunny Beach Hotel, a family room with fridge that sleeps four is $80 in high season ($20 in off season) per day, or $33 a day when booked by the month. It's difficult to book in an advance for any but the top hotels, since many don't have a website. But all are family-run and if they can't accommodate you, they will lean over backwards to find you a congenial spot nearby. In Saranda, the Hotel Butrinti, at $90 to $120 a night, is just across the road from a beach and some lovely beachside cafes. It's within easy walking distance of the town center and has a magnificent view across the bay to Corfu from the balconies in most of its rooms, which are small.\n\nWhere to eat: Just about any place along a beach has fresh-caught fish and shellfish. For the most part, stay away from the hotel dining rooms which are expensive with spotty service. The exception is the wonderful beachfront café of the Hotel Bologna in Vlora where fresh seafood is the order of the day. About 12 miles down the coast road from Vlora is the Ibiza restaurant where a meal of squid, octopus, clams, mussels and fresh tomatoes followed with homemade cinnamon ice cream with fresh strawberries costs about $25 for three. Atop a hill overlooking Saranda and its harbor is the 16th-century Castle of Lëkurësi with a marvelous bar/restaurant, where during the high season service is out on the spacious terrace overlooking the countryside and the Adriatic far below. There you can feast on seafood and grilled meat for $10-$15 a person. The Italian influence in the region is quite clear and there are pizza joints up and down the coast. Choose one on the beach overlooking a beautiful view of the Adriatic, like the Pizzeria Limani in front of the Butrinti Hotel. Thin crust with fresh toppings goes for less than $10 for an enormous pie that serves two or three healthy appetites.\n\nFor more information:albaniantourism.com\n\nDavid A. Andelman a former New York Times and CBS News correspondent, is the editor in chief of World Policy Journal and author of A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2013/09/19"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2022/05/19/southern-hills-all-time-best-often-crowned-in-dull-fashion/50251065/", "title": "Southern Hills: All-time best often crowned in dull fashion", "text": "AP\n\nTULSA, Okla. (AP) — About a month before Dave Stockton won the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, his father gave him the self-help classic “Psycho-Cybernetics” by Maxwell Maltz, and he went through page by page highlighting various passages.\n\n“It was not a fun read,” Stockton said. “It was like reading sandpaper.”\n\nHe came away with two tangible ideas, though, that applied perfectly to golf. The first was simple: Be aggressive. The second was something athletes have championed for decades: Visualize that you have already won.\n\n“So rather than coming out here and hoping that I played well, hoping I made the cut, all these different things, I stepped on the first tee on Monday morning at about 7:00 — because I finished by 10:45 — and I visualized I had already won the tournament,” Stockton said. “My mindset was I had already won it and I was going to go out and enjoy it.”\n\nHe made it seem that easy, too. Stockton was tied for the lead after the second round, led Raymond Floyd by three after the third and coasted to a two-shot win over Arnold Palmer and Bob Murphy in the 1970 championship.\n\nIn doing so, Stockton helped shape what has become a recurring theme at Southern Hills: The venerable Perry Maxwell layout near downtown Tulsa has crowned some of the game's greatest players during more major championships than just about any other American venue, and for the most part, they've been a dreadful bore.\n\nIn four previous PGA Championships and three U.S. Opens, Stockton and Tiger Woods are the only ones who did not have at least a share of the lead after the opening round. And none were out of the lead heading into the final round.\n\nOklahoma native Tommy Bolt led after every round at the 1958 U.S. Open, turning a three-shot lead over Gene Littler after the third into a four-shot win over Gary Player by the end. It wound up being Bolt's only major, though he also played two Ryder Cups and, like everyone else but Stockton who have won at Southern Hills, ended up in the Hall of Fame.\n\nHubert Green also had at least a share of the lead for every round of the 1977 U.S. Open, holding off Lou Graham by a shot on Sunday. But that tournament is best remembered for what few knew at the time: There'd been a phone call threatening to assassinate Green if he played the 15th hole. He courageously did anyway on his way to his first major title.\n\nNearing his 40th birthday, Floyd likewise went wire-to-wire at the 1982 PGA Championship, finishing three clear of former champion Lanny Wadkins. He opened with a 63 and was never really threatened the rest of the week.\n\nNick Price might have had the easiest way with the field in 1994.\n\nSure, he was tied for the first-round lead with Colin Montgomerie, but he was five shots clear of everyone else after the second round. Price went on to finish 11 under for a six-shot lead over Corey Pavin, becoming the first player to capture the British Open and the PGA in the same year in seven decades.\n\nWhen majors returned to Southern Hills in 2001, Retief Goosen needed a Monday playoff with Mark Brooks to win the first of his two U.S. Opens. Thrilling in theory, but nobody seemed to want to win on Sunday. Goosen ran a 10-footer past for birdie on the 72nd hole, then missed a 2-footer coming back, leaving him tied with Brooks, who had bogeyed his final hole. And both were a shot clear of Stewart Cink, who missed his own 2-footer to join the playoff.\n\nThere were two dominant story lines the last time the PGA Championship was at Southern Hills.\n\nThe first was the heat, which neared or exceeded triple digits all four days. The other was Woods, who seized control with a second-round 63. He led by as many as five in the third and fourth rounds before finishing ahead of a largely forgettable cast of characters that included Woody Austin, Aaron Oberholser and John Senden.\n\n“I remember playing behind (John Daly) the first day, which was awesome,” Woods recalled this week. “It was, what, 109 I think that first day? And I asked JD how many waters he drank out there. He said, ‘No, I had 13 Diet Cokes.’”\n\nMemorable stuff, indeed.\n\nThere are reasons to believe Southern Hills will finally produce a classic this week, though. The field has 95 of the top 100 in the world even after Bryson DeChambeau withdrew late Wednesday. The course itself has had an extensive restoration, returning it to its former glory. The forecast looks clear and pleasant for most of the week.\n\n“It's tough. It's going to be really hard,” said Xander Schauffele, the Olympic gold medalist, who had two top-10s in majors last year. “I think PGA Championships for the most part, people feel like you can kind of shoot lower in them than most majors. But I think this year is going to be a different story.”\n\n___\n\nMore AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/19"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_11", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:20", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/10/tech/elon-musk-twitter-trump-ban/index.html", "title": "Elon Musk says he would reverse Twitter's Trump ban - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN Business) Elon Musk said Tuesday that he would restore former President Donald Trump's banned account on Twitter if his deal to acquire the company is completed.\n\nMusk's remarks at Financial Times' Future of the Car conference mark his first public acknowledgment of what had been widely expected since the billionaire announced plans to buy the social media giant for $44 billion.\n\nMusk has previously said he thinks Twitter should be more \"reluctant to delete things\" and \"very cautious with permanent bans.\" On Tuesday, he called Twitter's decision to ban Trump in January 2021 a \"mistake.\"\n\n\"I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump, I think that was a mistake,\" Musk said. \"I would reverse the perma-ban. ... But my opinion, and Jack Dorsey, I want to be clear, shares this opinion, is that we should not have perma-bans.\"\n\nDorsey, Twitter's cofounder and former CEO, tweeted Tuesday following Musk's remarks that he does \"agree\" there shouldn't be permanent bans on Twitter users. \"There are exceptions ... but generally permanent bans are a failure of ours and don't work,\" he said.\n\nTwitter declined to comment on Musk's remarks.\n\nTrump was permanently suspended from Twitter following the January 6 Capitol Riot for violating the platform's rules against violence incitement, a decision the company has said was headed by Dorsey. Other social platforms followed in banning or suspending Trump's account.\n\nTrump, for his part, has said he would not return to Twitter even if his account were restored, instead promoting his own social media venture, Truth Social , which has so far appeared to struggle to get off the ground\n\n\"Banning Trump from Twitter didn't end Trump's voice, it will amplify it among the right and this is why it's morally wrong and flat out stupid,\" Musk said at the event on Tuesday.\n\nThe Tesla and SpaceX CEO acknowledged that his acquisition of Twitter, and Trump's return, are not yet a done deal. \"I will say that I don't own Twitter yet, so this is not a thing that will definitely happen, because what if I don't own Twitter?\" he said.\n\nTesla TSLA Twitter TWTR There remain some questions about whether Musk will indeed go through with the deal, or whether the decline inshares over the past month could negatively impact his ability to finance the deal stock was trading around $47.70 on Tuesday afternoon, well below Musk's offer price of $54.20 per share, suggesting some investor skepticism about the likelihood that the deal gets completed.\n\nThat hasn't stopped Musk from continuing to expound on his plans for the platform in recent weeks. Musk has said his goal is to bolster free speech on the platform and to make it clearer to users when the platform takes actions that impact what people see on Twitter.\n\nOn Tuesday, he reiterated his desire to rid Twitter of bots promoting spam or scams, and his plan to make Twitter's algorithm publicly available for anyone to view and comment on.\n\n\"I would literally put the Twitter algorithm on GitHub and say like, 'Hey, anyone want to suggest changes to this? Please go ahead,'\" Musk said, adding that he sees such a move as a way to \"build transparency and trust.\"\n\nHe also criticized what he views as Twitter's political bias, echoing claims from some prominent figures on the right.\n\n\"I think Twitter needs to be much more evenhanded. It currently has a strong left bias because it's based in San Francisco,\" he said. \"I don't think the people there necessarily intend, or at least some of them don't intend, to have a left bias. They just, from their perspective, it seems moderate, but they're just coming after it from an environment that is very far left.\"\n\n(Twitter has previously said its algorithms and employees do not discriminate against any particular political point of view.)\n\nIn addition to reversing the Trump ban, Musk said he would make permanent bans \"extremely rare,\" reserving them for \"bots or spam, scam accounts where there's just no legitimacy to the account at all.\"\n\nJUST WATCHED Does kicking bad actors off social media platforms work? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Does kicking bad actors off social media platforms work? 04:29\n\nMusk also expanded on his vision for Twitter's content moderation. Previously, Musk has said he intends for Twitter to limit its content moderation to that which governments have deemed explicitly illegal — and not to go much further.\n\nBut on Tuesday, Musk conceded that there could be a wide range of objectionable content that he would want Twitter to enforce against. In addition to illegal content, Musk identified two other categories of content that could be subject to penalties: speech that is \"destructive to the world\" and \"wrong and bad.\"\n\n\"If they say something that is illegal or otherwise just destructive to the world, then there should be perhaps a timeout, a temporary suspension, or that particular tweet should be made invisible or have very limited traction,\" Musk said. He added: \"I think if there are tweets that are wrong and bad, those should be either deleted or made invisible, and a suspension, a temporary suspension is appropriate but not a permanent ban.\"\n\nMusk didn't say what metrics Twitter might use to determine if a tweet may be \"wrong and bad\" or \"destructive to the world,\" and when it might opt for one type of penalty over another.", "authors": ["Brian Fung", "Clare Duffy", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/05/10"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/13/tech/trump-twitter-elon-musk-social-media/index.html", "title": "If Elon Musk restores Trump's Twitter account, it could pave the way ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) In the days following the January 6 Capitol riot, Twitter became the first major social media platform to permanently suspend then-President Donald Trump for violating its rules against inciting violence. It was a huge step and one that instantly put pressure on other big platforms to take action.\n\nWithin days, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and Twitch had all either banned or indefinitely suspended Trump's accounts. It marked a sweeping and unprecedented set of actions against a sitting world leader by platforms that had previously taken only limited actions against Trump as he repeatedly pushed the limits of their rules.\n\nLess than two years later, it appearscould be poised to take a similar role in reversing the bans on Trump. Elon Musk on Tuesday confirmed what many in the tech, media and political spaces have been predicting for weeks: If his deal to acquire Twitter succeeds, he plans to restore Trump's account\n\nAlthough Trump has suggested he wouldn't return to Twitter and will instead remain on his struggling social platform Truth Social , it's not hard to imagine him changing his mind. Even before he was elected, Twitter was central to Trump's image , providing him a platform to rally his base, criticize opponents, discuss policy plans and bypass the traditional media to explain his (sometimes untruthful) version of events to tens of millions of followers.\n\nMusk's acquisition of Twitter is still far from set in stone. There have been questions about the Tesla CEO's ability to finance the deal if his car company's stock keeps falling, and Twitter's share price has hovered well below Musk's offer price of $54.20. On Friday, Musk said the deal was \"temporarily on hold\" pending details about the number of spam accounts on the platform. Still, Musk said Friday he remains \"committed to acquisition.\"\n\nIf Musk's deal is completed, restoring Trump's Twitter account could give the former President back his online megaphone ahead of another possible run for the White House. Even more than that, such a move would also likely open the door for other platforms to follow suit.\n\nBeyond the issue of Trump's own accounts, reversing the ban could reignite a series of other thorny debates for Twitter and its rival platforms, including whether permanent bans should ever be used as a moderation tactic and if public figures or elected officials should be subject to different rules than other people.\n\nReversing the Trump bans\n\nEven before Musk made his stunning bid to buy Twitter, there was pushback in some quarters, including from those politically at odds with Trump, for banning a sitting world leader.\n\nThen-German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the time that Twitter's ban on Trump was \"problematic.\" And on Tuesday, after Musk said he would restore Trump's account, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero lauded the plan.\n\nIf Elon Musk fulfills his promise to return former President Donald Trump to Twitter, other major social media platforms could quickly follow suit.\n\n\"You'd be hard-pressed to find a more steadfast opponent of Trump and his policies than the ACLU, but Elon Musk's decision to re-platform President Trump is the right call,\" Romero said in a statement . \"Like it or not, President Trump is one of the most important political figures in this country, and the public has a strong interest in hearing his speech.\"\n\nTwitter founder and then-CEO Jack Dorsey said at the time of the ban that permanently suspending Trump was a difficult decision that came in response to \"extraordinary\" circumstances. The decision, which was quickly praised by a number of civil rights groups, was made \"with the best information we had based on threats to physical safety both on and off Twitter\" and after a clear warning to Trump, he said.\n\nIn the nearly 18 months since then, there has been widespread speculation that Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other platforms would eventually review their suspensions of Trump, especially if he decides to launch another bid for the White House in 2024. Unlike Twitter, Facebook and YouTube had implemented indefinite, but not necessarily permanent, suspensions.\n\nFacebook, in particular, is set to review its Trump ban early next year. After the company initially suspended Trump indefinitely, it faced pushback from its oversight board. The company decided it would maintain the suspension until at least January 7, 2023 — two years after Trump was initially removed. Nick Clegg, now the president of global affairs at Facebook-parent Meta, previously said that once the two years ended, Facebook would \"look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded\" to decide whether to restore Trump's account.\n\nYouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has also said that its suspension on Trump's account — which was initially implemented for one week and then extended to an indefinite ban — would eventually be lifted when any \"risk of violence\" had subsided.\n\nMusk's deal to acquire Twitter is set to close by the end of this year, and if he acts quickly to reverse the Trump ban, it could give Meta and YouTube an opportunity to observe potential fallout from users and advertisers. Perhaps more importantly, it could also give the rival platforms political cover to make the same move.\n\nTech platforms tend to move in packs on everything from tricky policy decisions to new features. And this may be especially true when Twitter is leading the way.\n\nAlthough far from perfect, Twitter has, at least historically, been viewed as \"more nuanced in their content moderation\" and as \"trying to do the right thing more often than other platforms,\" said Kristin Martin, professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame. \"So I do think that whether they reverse the ban or start to allow certain content through, it will make a difference in the industry because they're leaders.\"\n\nMeta and YouTube declined to comment on this story.\n\nTwitter on Tuesday declined to comment on Musk's plans to restore Trump's account. Musk said on Twitter Thursday that, \"even though I think a less divisive candidate would be better in 2024, I still think Trump should be restored to Twitter.\"\n\nElon Musk has said that if his acquisition deal succeeds, he would return Trump to Twitter and do away with \"perma-bans\" on the platform.\n\nMoving away from 'perma-bans'\n\nRestoring Trump's account could be the start of a broader shift for Twitter under Musk's ownership — and for any other platforms that may choose to follow its example on content moderation.\n\nMany of the platforms have also banned far-right figures such as Milo Yiannopolous and Alex Jones for violating their policies against hateful or abusive behavior, and have removed other accounts — some prominent, some not — for repeatedly sharing conspiracy theories or misinformation.\n\nUnbanning Trump would likely raise questions about whether others should be brought back, and how the companies should handle accounts for whom smaller penalties don't appear to discourage policy violations. Currently, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube all rely on some form of a strike policy for users who violate their rules various warnings and short-term suspensions before permanently removing repeat offenders.\n\nTrump had for years pushed the limits of social media platforms' content moderation rules before the issue came to a head following January 6. In the immediate aftermath of the insurrection, Twitter suspended Trump for 12 hours before letting him post again and then ultimately banning him. (Facebook and Instagram, similarly, blocked Trump for 24 hours before indefinitely suspending him.)\n\nMusk, who has repeatedly said his goal is to bolster free speech on Twitter, has expressed a general opposition to the idea of permanent bans for all content except that which violates applicable laws. He said Tuesday that \"permanent bans should be extremely rare\" and reserved for \"bots or spam, scam accounts where there's just no legitimacy to the account at all.\"\n\nBut high-profile suspensions make up only a small portion of the moderation decisions Twitter and other platforms must make. Much more often, they're dealing with regular users who get suspended or banned for things like frequent harassment or spreading of misinformation, behavior that doesn't necessarily break any laws but nonetheless makes for an unpleasant experience on the platform for other users.\n\nIf Musk does bring Trump back, online safety experts say it will be important for him to articulate a clear policy around why the decision was made and how the company will handle future violations, with or without a permanent ban as an option. Musk said Tuesday that the Trump ban was a mistake because it \"alienated a large part of the country\" and did not stop the former President from posting elsewhere online.\n\n\"Trump used Twitter to foment a violent attack on Congress,\" said Katie Paul, director of the online safety advocacy group Tech Transparency Project. \"Others were prevented from using the platform to spread medical misinformation that cost countless lives, from organizing violent militias, inciting violence or persecuting victims of tragedies like Sandy Hook. If he succeeds in buying Twitter, Elon Musk cannot simply shirk the responsibility to ensure that his products don't kill people.\"\n\nMusk is well known for making grand promises, working out the details as he goes, if at all. The same appears to be happening with his thinking on moderation. While generally positioning himself as a free speech absolutist, Musk has so far offered only vague explanations of how he would handle violative content — whether it be from the President or an everyday user — without using permanent bans. \"I think if there are tweets that are wrong and bad, those should be either deleted or made invisible, and a suspension, a temporary suspension is appropriate but not a permanent ban,\" Musk said Tuesday.", "authors": ["Clare Duffy", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/05/13"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/09/politics/fact-check-canadian-convoy-protest-ottawa/index.html", "title": "Fact check: Debunking false claims about the Canadian convoy ...", "text": "Washington (CNN) Canadian protests against vaccine mandates, Covid-19 restrictions and the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have captured attention in the US and abroad -- and prompted a flurry of misinformation, including a false claim that was promoted by prominent podcaster Joe Rogan and on Fox.\n\nWe'll debunk some of that misinformation below. First, here's some quick background:\n\nThe protests involve a minority of Canada's truck drivers, some far-right activists and a variety of other citizens. The demonstrations began in late January as a \"Freedom Convoy\" of trucks and other vehicles. The convoy then turned into an ongoing demonstration in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, whose mayor declared a state of emergency on Sunday. It has also sparked protests elsewhere and inspired plans for a similar convoy in the US.\n\nThe protests have been touted on right-wing US television station Fox and have been cheered by some prominent Republican officeholders and conservative pundits; organizers have raised millions of dollars . Former President Donald Trump even weighed in with a statement praising the protesters and denouncing Trudeau.\n\nThe convoy started after Canada began requiring truckers who cross the US border to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or have two-week quarantines upon returning home. The Canadian Trucking Alliance, the primary advocacy group for Canadian truckers, has opposed the protests and has said that more than 85% of Canadian truckers who regularly cross the border were fully vaccinated as of late January.\n\nFalse claims about the number of trucks\n\nOrganizers claimed in late January that the convoy had grown to tens of thousands of trucks -- even that the number was around 50,000 . Others repeated this \"50,000\" figure.\n\nTheo Fleury, a retired hockey star who's a frequent critic of Trudeau, said on Fox in late January that there were \"50,000 truckers\" heading to Ottawa. Rogan, who has been criticized for his show's role in promoting Covid-19 misinformation, said on the show in late January that the convoy involved \"apparently some insane amount of people, like 50,000 trucks.\" Even larger figures, like \" 80,000 \" or \" over 130,000 \" trucks, swirled on social media.\n\nFacts First: The number of trucks involved in the protest was never anywhere close to 50,000; such a number of trucks would have taken up : The number of trucks involved in the protest was never anywhere close to 50,000; such a number of trucks would have taken up hundreds of miles more road space than this protest occupied . Canadian journalists put the number of trucks in the hundreds in late January. Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly told reporters on January 31 that it was impossible to provide exact crowd-size figures but that he had \"heard\" numbers as high as 18,000 total demonstrators -- not just truckers -- present in the city at the peak of the protest on January 29. No credible source has reported that the number of participating trucks in particular ever approached tens of thousands, let alone \"50,000.\"\n\nPolice in Kingston, Ontario, a city through which a portion of the protest convoy passed, tweeted on January 28 that they had counted 17 full tractor-trailers, 104 tractors without trailers, 424 passenger vehicles and 6 RVs. The same day, Global News chief political correspondent David Akin tweeted that police sources had told him there were \"230 tractors / tractor-trailers & 725 personal vehicles from Toronto and Western Canada,\" plus 200 vehicles from the eastern provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (he added that there were an \"unknown\" number of others involved).\n\nRogan could not be immediately reached for comment. When Fleury was asked for comment about how he had repeated the false \"50,000 truckers\" claim on Fox, he emailed a reply in which he attacked CNN and the Trudeau government and said, \"Ever heard of a little thing called marketing??? It worked.\"\n\nFalsely captioned photos and videos\n\nNumerous social media posts put inaccurate captions on photos and videos of events that had occurred prior to 2022 -- such as truck demonstrations, other protests, even a parade in support of the Special Olympics -- to falsely claim these images were connected to the Canadian convoy protest.\n\nFacts First: One video that has been shared on various social media platforms was captioned to claim that it showed South Carolina truckers heading to Ottawa to join the convoy -- but it actually showed an August 2021 truck parade in support of the Special Olympics, USA Today : One video that has been shared on various social media platforms was captioned to claim that it showed South Carolina truckers heading to Ottawa to join the convoy -- but it actually showed an August 2021 truck parade in support of the Special Olympics, USA Today reported . A video of honking Brazilian truckers that circulated on Facebook was from a May 2021 demonstration in support of President Jair Bolsonaro, not a demonstration in solidarity with the Canadian truckers as some captions claimed, USA Today also reported . A photo of a massive protest crowd, shared in Twitter posts in both English and Spanish as if it were from Ottawa this year, actually depicted a 1991 demonstration in Moscow against the Communist government of the Soviet Union, Reuters reported . And another photo, which has been described in Facebook posts as a group of Amish people driving to support the convoy, is a shot of Old Order Mennonites simply going to church, PolitiFact reported\n\nEven billionaire Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk got in on the game, though without making an explicitly false claim himself.\n\nMusk, who has more than 73 million followers on Twitter and has expressed support for the Canadian protest, tweeted out an aerial image on January 30 that showed a long line of trucks on a road surrounded by snowy land. The image included the words, \"Taking a break from politics for a while. Here's a nice photo of trucks.\"\n\nMusk didn't say anything about where and when the image had been taken, but the replies to his tweet -- which generated more than 40,000 retweets -- showed that a significant number of people believed that it was a shot of the Canadian convoy this year, as some others on social media strongly suggested in their own captions.\n\nA false claim about police resignations\n\nPat King, who was listed as one of the regional organizers of the convoy and has been one of its leading online promoters, has more than 293,000 followers on his Facebook page . During a Facebook livestream on Sunday, which had been viewed more than 204,000 times as of early Tuesday afternoon, King claimed that \"50% of the Ottawa police force have all turned in their resignation today\" -- suggesting these supposed resignations had happened because the officers support the protests.\n\nThat claim quickly made its way to other social media platforms . British actor John Bowe tweeted on Monday: \"Reports that 50% of @OttawaPolice have tendered their resignation and Canadian Armed forces reportedly vow allegiance to the people.\" Bowe's tweet generated more than 11,000 retweets before he deleted it.\n\nFacts First: These claims were entirely false. Ottawa police spokesperson Constable Amy Gagnon said in Monday emails to CNN that \"there have been no resignations in relation to the Demonstration\" and \"all available officers are working.\" And the Canadian Armed Forces have not made any vow of \"allegiance\" in relation to the protests nor issued any dramatic statements of any kind about this issue. \"In short, no, we have not made any such comment,\" a military spokesperson said in a Monday email to CNN.\n\nKing, who has a history of promoting conspiracy theories and other false claims, did not respond to CNN's requests for comment on Monday. After CNN fact-checked Bowe's tweet on Twitter on Monday, Bowe tweeted to another Twitter user that \"I wish it were (true) but it is disputed. Apparently the reports I read were posted by an imaginative trucker. But we can dream.\"\n\nA false claim about the government and hotels\n\nRupa Subramanya, who has more than 128,000 Twitter followers and writes columns for the National Post , a conservative Canadian newspaper, tweeted on Sunday: \"I've heard from so many today that some Ottawa hotels have been instructed by the city/feds not to give out rooms to the protestors. The Marriott downtown apparently is empty but evidently all the rooms booked. Someone should really investigate if this is true.\"\n\nFacts First: Regardless of what Subramanya may have been told, the claims she amplified were not true. The employees who took CNN's calls at the downtown Marriott and five other Ottawa hotels on Monday said their establishments had not been given any anti-protester instruction by any government; Patrick Champagne, press secretary to Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, told CNN that the claim \"is categorically false\"; Alexander Cohen, spokesperson for Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, called the claim \"ludicrous\" and said that \"no one from the federal government has done that\"; Steve Bell, president of the Ottawa Gatineau Hotel Association, said that \"to my knowledge there is no truth to this rumour.\" As for the Marriott in particular, it had rooms available at the time of Subramanya's tweet on Sunday evening and again on Monday evening.\n\nWhen CNN told Subramanya that the claims in her tweet seemed to be false, she said she was glad we had looked into the matter. She insisted she had herself made \"no claim\" and had merely issued a \"call for help\" for journalists to look into what she had been hearing from protesters, since \"frankly I've been working round the clock talking to people on the ground and so I haven't had the time or the opportunity to vet this claim.\"\n\nThe \"mainstream Canadian media should be fact checking these and debunking them if they're false,\" Subramanya said, though she herself writes for a national Canadian newspaper.", "authors": ["Daniel Dale"], "publish_date": "2022/02/09"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/politics/trump-gop-influence-primary-elections-what-matters/index.html", "title": "Trump's voice is still very much being heard in Republican primaries ...", "text": "A version of this story appeared in CNN's What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here\n\n(CNN) Donald Trump's moment of potential accountability won't come for a month, when the House committee documenting the effort to overturn the last election holds made-for-TV hearings.\n\nBut the former President's influence is currently having a resurgence.\n\nCandidates he had not endorsed are still swearing fealty to him.\n\nThe Reagan-era Republican primary election commandment that \"thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican\" has twisted into \"thou shalt not speak ill of Trump.\"\n\nAnd he may soon get an important bullhorn back: The mute button placed on him by Twitter may be lifted.\n\nUnbanning Trump on Twitter\n\nWhether Trump would return to Twitter is an open question. He's said he will focus on his own startup social media company, Truth Social.\n\nBut with more than 80 million followers on Twitter, I'm willing to bet he starts tweeting soon after free-speech absolutist Elon Musk takes over. Musk said he would restore the former President's banned account on Twitter if the acquisition deal is completed.\n\n\"Banning Trump from Twitter didn't end Trump's voice; it will amplify it among the right, and this is why it's morally wrong and flat-out stupid,\" Musk said at an event on Tuesday\n\nTrump's voice is heard in Republican primaries\n\nTrump-backed candidates have mostly won. He primarily backs safe incumbents, but in close races, he has picked the winner.\n\nJUST WATCHED These Senate candidates like to mention Trump. A lot Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH These Senate candidates like to mention Trump. A lot 03:19\n\nIn Ohio, where Republican Senate primary candidates were falling over themselves to praise Trump, it was Trump-backed J.D. Vance , the former Trump critic turned Trump evangelist, who won the primary on May 3.\n\nIn West Virginia on Tuesday, where redistricting forced two Republican incumbents into a primary face-off, it was Trump's pick -- Rep. Alex Mooney, who had voted to overturn the 2020 electoral votes -- who won the primary against Rep. David McKinley, who got support from moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.\n\nWhere Trump lost\n\nTip O'Neill's \"all politics is local\" -- that's being challenged. CNN's Gregory Krieg, Jeff Zeleny and Dan Merica argue that in Nebraska, Trump's power in the primaries suggests there's another old political adage -- the late House SpeakerTip O'Neill's \"all politics is local\" -- that's being challenged. CNN's Gregory Krieg, Jeff Zeleny and Dan Merica argue that in Nebraska, it's still local\n\nA Trump critic, Rep. David Bacon in Nebraska, won his GOP primary. While Trump had publicly criticized Bacon, the former President strategically stayed out of that race by not giving an endorsement. His preferred candidate did lose the Republican primary for Nebraska governor, Trump's first real loss of the primary season.\n\nFrom the CNN report:\n\nIn one of the most expensive and vicious political campaigns in recent Nebraska memory, it was the endorsement from (Nebraska Gov. Pete) Ricketts that mattered most. Ricketts not only supported (Jim) Pillen and guided his campaign from the start, he also invested millions of his own money to defeat (Charles) Herbster.\n\nTrump implored voters to ignore sexual misconduct allegations against Herbster, saying the claims from eight women were \"malicious.\" At a rally on May 1, Trump declared, \"He's been badly maligned and it's a shame. That's why I came out here.\"\n\nWhat have we learned about Trump's power in the GOP?\n\nI asked CNN Political Director David Chalian how he's assessed Trump's performance in the primaries so far.\n\nHe pointed to Trump's 2-1 endorsement record in the highest-profile Republican primaries so far. But Chalian said in an email that it's also important to look at the candidates Trump didn't endorse:\n\nMost Republican candidates -- running with or without the former President's backing -- are running campaigns that align themselves with Trump and his MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement. That means that irrespective of his endorsement win/loss record, Trump is still very much dictating the playing field and the rules of the game inside these Republican primaries.\n\nHe still faces some major upcoming tests about the power of his endorsement in places like Pennsylvania (on May 17), Georgia (on May 24) and Wyoming (on August 16) -- but the fact is that today's Republican Party is still very much a party crafted in his image.\n\nMAGA is now bigger than Trump\n\nThe Senate race in Pennsylvania proves Chalian's point. Trump has backed the celebrity doctor and former TV host Mehmet Oz in a hotly contested three-way race.\n\nWhile Oz has name recognition and fame that Trump respects, he's not the most MAGA candidate in the race. Merica writes in a separate CNN story that Trump's endorsement of Oz cleared a path to the right of Oz for Kathy Barnette:\n\n\"MAGA does not belong to President Trump,\" Barnette said at a recent debate to explain why she had not received the former President's endorsement. \"Although he coined the word, MAGA actually belongs to the people. Our values never, never shifted to President Trump's values. It was President Trump who shifted and aligned with our values.\"\n\nMore tests on the horizon\n\nIn particular, Georgia's governor race will test Trump's power.\n\nBrian Kemp is the incumbent Republican, who Trump has attacked for failing to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump has endorsed former Sen. David Perdue, who will have a tough time unseating Kemp -- and several other former or current Republican governors , including Ricketts from Nebraska, are uniting in an effort to help campaign for Kemp.\n\nA moment of accountability may be coming\n\nA prime-time event sure to trigger Trump believers will come in about a month, when the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection holds hearings based on evidence it has gathered.\n\nThe committee is still finalizing its witness list, but CNN is reporting that the hearings will be divided into topics, including what Trump was doing as the riot unfolded, the pushing of baseless election fraud claims that motivated rioters, how law enforcement responded to the attack, and the organizing and financing behind the January 6 rallies.\n\nIt's hard to imagine those hearings having much of an effect in the GOP primaries later this summer, since the party has almost entirely rejected the House committee. But they will be important moments for Americans to consider what happened during the last election before taking part in the next one.", "authors": ["Analysis Zachary B. Wolf"], "publish_date": "2022/05/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/07/08/elon-musk-not-buying-twitter/10018335002/", "title": "Elon Musk may be sued by Twitter; Donald Trump weighs in on deal", "text": "Billionaire Elon Musk called off his deal to buy social media company Twitter, according to a filing on Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.\n\nSkadden Arps attorney Mike Ringler said in a letter to Twitter's chief legal officer that “Twitter has not complied with its contractual obligations.\" For nearly two months, the company has failed to provide Musk with information about fake or spam accounts, the letter said.\n\nThe stock closed down 11.3% Monday, ending the day at $32.65.\n\n\"For Twitter this fiasco is a nightmare scenario and will result in an Everest-like uphill climb for (Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal) & Co. to navigate the myriad of challenges ahead around employee turnover/morale, advertising headwinds, investor credibility around the fake account/bot issues, and host of other issues abound,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note on Monday.\n\nTwitter contends Musk's argument for termination is \"invalid and wrongful,\" according to a letter sent on behalf of the company by law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Twitter is demanding Musk use his \"best efforts\" to complete the deal and says it reserves the right to force Musk to comply with the agreement.\n\n\"The Agreement is not terminated,\" the letter says. \"Twitter will continue to provide information reasonably requested by Mr. Musk under the Agreement and to diligently take all measures required to close the transaction.\"\n\nOn Saturday, former U.S. President Donald Trump, formerly one of Twitter's more infamous users reportedly called Musk a “bulls--- artist” Saturday during a campaign rally in Alaska.\n\nTrump said Musk told him he had voted for Trump for president but actually had never voted for a Republican before.\n\n\"I said, 'I didn’t know that,'\" Trump said. \"He told me he voted for me, so he’s another bulls--- artist.\"\n\nAll this comes as Twitter's stock has fallen sharply since the company's board accepted Musk's offer to buy the social media platform in April for $54.20 a share. On the day of the announcement, Twitter closed at $51.70 a share. On Friday, it closed at $36.81.\n\nThe Tesla and SpaceX CEO is also known for his polarizing online persona as his entrepreneurial endeavors.\n\nHe is popular on Twitter, where he has more than 100 million followers, and frequently chimes in on politics, talks business openly, and embraces the internet’s meme culture. Some of his tweets have landed him in legal trouble.\n\nWho is Elon Musk?:What to know about the Tesla CEO who wanted to buy Twitter\n\nElon Musk mocks Twitter - in a tweet of course\n\nIs this a case of he who laughs first, laughs last?\n\nMusk might think so. On Monday, some 72 hours after wanting to break his deal with Twitter, Musk emerged back on the platform.\n\nHe tweeted four images of him laughing next to intriguing captions that read: \"They said I couldn’t buy Twitter. Then they wouldn’t disclose bot information. Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court. Now they have to disclose bot information in court.\"\n\nThen Musk followed up the tweet with a picture of action star Chuck Norris playing chess with only a single pawn on his side of the board and a set of pieces on the other side, with Musk tweeting, \"Chuckmate.\"\n\nEither this means Musk is back in full-on tweet mode, or he'll strategically pick his spots that no doubt his 100 million followers will be watching.\n\nCan Elon Musk walk away from Twitter?\n\nAccording to the filing with the SEC on April 25, the deal calls for Musk to pay Twitter a $1 billion break-up fee if he terminates the deal.\n\nBut Musk may not be able to just walk away. Twitter may be able to force Musk to complete the deal, legal observers say.\n\nAt issue is whether the prevalence of bots on the social media platform is “fundamental to Twitter’s business and financial performance” as Musk's lawyers have argued.\n\n\"The question is whether or not this is really material information,\" UCLA law professor James Park said. \"It should be fairly obvious that there's potentially fake spam accounts at a company like Twitter.\"\n\n“(Musk) can make this argument, but I think it's a weak one,” he said. “To me, this is just a pretext for him to pull out of the deal.”\n\nAnd Twitter has “every incentive to enforce the deal,” Case Western Reserve business law professor Anat Alon-Beck told USA TODAY in an email.\n\n“If they don’t at least attempt to force Musk to close, they’ll have his allegations of false statements hanging around their necks unless they contest his statements,” Alon-Beck said. “This fight is just beginning and only time will tell on how steep a penalty each side will pay to close this deal.”\n\nJennifer Grygiel, a professor at Syracuse University, noted that Musk may not be through with the deal yet.\n\n“Who says he’s still not trying to acquire it?” Grygiel said. “We’re still very much in a limbo period and we have to wait and see where this all ends up.”\n\nWhat is clear: Musk will have a legal battle on his hands. Park said the case should move “very quickly” through the Delaware Court of Chancery, with a trial and a decision \"in just a few weeks.”\n\n– Bailey Schulz and Terry Collins\n\nTwitter users react to Elon Musk\n\nReaction on Twitter was mixed Friday.\n\nSome made jokes about Musk’s change of plans.\n\nProgressive nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen said Musk terminating the deal “is what a win for free speech actually looks like.” Musk in April tweeted \"I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter because that is what free speech means.\"\n\nAttorney Richard Signorelli said he hopes Musk pays a “hefty penalty” to get out of the deal. In another tweet, Signorelli identified himself as a Twitter shareholder and said he is glad Musk is trying to back out.\n\nIllinois Congressman Chuy García tweeted at the billionaire Friday, telling him “don’t let the door hit you on your way out.” García previously spoke out against the $44 billion deal on Twitter.\n\nOne avid Twitter user who has yet to tweet about the letter: Musk.\n\n– Bailey Schulz\n\nGOP: 'Elon Musk isn't going to save us'\n\nConservatives rejoiced in April when Elon Musk made an unsolicited $44 billion bid for Twitter, vowing to restore “free speech” on the social media platform.\n\nThe response was more muted late Friday when it became clear that Musk would not be the savior the political right had hoped for.\n\nIn a regulatory filing, Musk said he was terminating the Twitter deal over a disagreement about how many spam accounts are on the platform.\n\nTom Fitton’s take? The conservative activist and president of Judicial Watch said Musk was ditching the Twitter deal because the company refused to disclose details of “its censorship operation.”\n\nCharlie Kirk, founder, and president of the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA tweeted: “Maybe Elon never intended to buy Twitter at all. Maybe he just wanted to expose it.”\n\nDonald Trump Jr. declared that Musk walking away from the deal meant Twitter was caught lying about spam accounts. “So basically Twitter has a huge amount of spam accounts – way more than they let on – and has gotten busted for it!!!”\n\n“Bottom line,” tweeted Florida GOP congressional candidate Lavern Spicer, “Elon Musk isn’t going to save us.”\n\nOnly actor James Woods sounded a more critical note, tweeting: “Musk failed us.” He later deleted the tweet.\n\nIt was a far cry from the rousing way conservatives cheered on Musk at the start.\n\nConservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza began lobbying Musk to buy Twitter in January. His idea: That Musk would take over and censor liberals to teach them a lesson on “the imperative of free speech.”\n\nWhen D'Souza again urged Musk to buy a major social media platform to dramatically shift “the political and cultural landscape,” Musk replied: “interesting ideas.”\n\nSoon Musk was buying up shares of Twitter and being egged on by other conservative figures.\n\nAfter making a bid for Twitter, the billionaire Tesla CEO picked up millions of followers, many of them conservatives who for years have accused Twitter, Facebook, and Google of anti-conservative bias.\n\nConservative commentator Brent Bozell, founder, and president of the Media Research Center, tweeted: “Free at last. Free at last. Conservatives may be free at last!”\n\nAs of early Friday night, Bozell had not tweeted a reaction to the news that Musk was ending his bid for Twitter.\n\nOver on Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social, the former president posted: \"THE TWITTER DEAL IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE 'TRUTH.'\"\n\n– Jessica Guynn\n\nMusk deal termination a Twitter 'disaster'\n\n“Never in a million years would I have imagined this,” said Daniel Ives, senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities.\n\nIves predicts \"an uphill battle for Twitter\" and \"a lot of legal twists and turns.\"\n\n\"This is a disaster scenario for Twitter and its Board as now the company will battle Musk in an elongated court battle to recoup the deal and/or the breakup fee of $1 billion at a minimum,\"\n\nIves said Musk should likely share in some of the blame.\n\n“It’s going to be a black eye for Musk as well,\" Ives said. \"He doesn’t come out smelling like roses.”\n\nSyracuse University's Grygiel says she believed from the start that a powerful executive like Musk may have had cruel intentions for pursuing Twitter.\n\n“It turns out that he didn’t actually need to own it to destroy it,\" Grygiel said.\n\n– Terry Collins\n\nWho is Elon Musk?:What to know about the Tesla CEO who wanted to buy Twitter\n\nHow much was Musk going to buy Twitter for?\n\nMusk was to acquire Twitter in a deal worth $44 billion. Musk said he had lined up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter. Once the deal was complete, Twitter was to become a privately held company.\n\nWhen did Musk agree to buy Twitter?\n\nMusk’s $44 billion deal was confirmed in late April after he spent nearly three months buying up Twitter shares to increase his stake in the company.\n\nAt the time, the world's richest person said he wanted to “make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.\"\n\n– Bailey Schulz\n\nWhy isn't Elon Musk buying Twitter?\n\nIn a word, bots.\n\nMusk claims Twitter is vastly understating the prevalence of spam and fake accounts on the platform.\n\nTwitter says bots make up just 5% of its monetizable daily active users. In Friday's regulatory filing, Musk says that Twitter appears to be “dramatically understating” that figure. Musk previously contended that the count is 20% or higher.\n\nSome observers say Musk is using bots as a pretext to pull out of the deal.\n\n– Bailey Schulz\n\nTWITTER BOTS:What are they and how could they mess up Elon Musk's $44 billion Twitter deal?\n\nHow is the Twitter board responding?\n\nTwitter plans to sue Musk and is committed to closing the transaction, according to Bret Taylor, chair of Twitter's board.\n\n\"We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery,\" he said in a tweet.\n\nOne former Twitter executive told the Financial Times: “It seems Twitter is willing to go to war to make this deal happen.”\n\nIn its latest quarterly report, Twitter warned that its financial condition \"may suffer\" if the merger does not close. Tumbling stock prices, low investor confidence, stockholder lawsuits, and business disruptions were just a few of the possibilities the company laid out.\n\nTwitter employees were warned not to make any public statements. An internal memo from Twitter’s general counsel obtained by The Verge directed staffers to refrain from \"Tweeting, Slacking, or sharing any commentary about the merger agreement.”\n\n– Terry Collins and Bailey Schulz\n\nContributing: Sara Edwards", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2022/04/26/elon-musk-twitter-celebs-leaving/7450645001/", "title": "Elon Musk: Tucker Carlson, others leaving, rejoining after Twitter buy", "text": "Elon Musk struck a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on Monday.\n\nIn the hours following, Tucker Carlson, Mark Levin and more returned to the app.\n\nJameela Jamil wrote her \"last tweet,\" while other celebrities are also considering leaving.\n\nElon Musk struck a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on Monday. News of the new owner has led to a lot of discussion about who will stay on (or return to) the social media app – now set to become a privately-held company by the end of this year.\n\nThe Tesla CEO and billionaire, who has referred to himself as a \"free speech absolutist,\" calls for policies that might favor leaving up most tweets and some extremist accounts on the platform – bringing into question what Musk's ownership will mean for previously suspended users.\n\nFormer President Donald Trump, who Twitter permanently banned following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, said on Monday that he would not return to the app, even with Musk as the new owner. Instead, he will formally join his own Truth Social app in the coming days, Trump told Fox News on Monday.\n\nAs of Monday, Fox News' Tucker Carlson and Mark Levin have returned to the app.\n\nTwitter takeover:Will free speech mean more hate speech on Twitter under Elon Musk?\n\n'Did we just lose?': Twitter users react to Elon Musk buying the social media platform\n\nMeanwhile, some prominent names shared that they would consider leaving Twitter in light of Musk's deal – including actress Jameela Jamil, who sent her \"last tweet\" on Monday. Activist and author Amy Siskind said she is also considering leaving the app.\n\n\"People need to understand that this is no longer a public company,\" Siskind tweeted on Monday. \"Every post you make here is free content to enrich one man, Elon Musk.\"\n\nMusk's acquisition comes almost five months after founder and CEO Jack Dorsey stepped aside as CEO and named Parag Agrawal as his replacement. Both Dorsey and Agrawal have shared endorsements for Musk's takeover.\n\n\"In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company, however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness,\" Dorsey tweeted on Monday.\n\nHere's a list of who's leaving, returning to, or criticizing Twitter after the Musk takeover:\n\nWho's returning to Twitter?\n\nTucker Carlson\n\nFox News' Carlson returned to Twitter hours after Musk's deal was finalized. Carlson was suspended from Twitter in March, after violating the platform's rules for hateful content. Tweets from the Babylon Bee and Charlie Kirk referred to Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine – who is a transgender woman – as a \"man\" and, in a now-deleted Tweet, Carlson insisted that both posts were \"true.\"\n\nAs Musk's deal is not yet complete, it is unclear if Carlson's suspension ended because of the new owner.\n\nMark Levin\n\nLevin, host of the syndicated radio show \"The Mark Levin Show\" and \"Life, Liberty & Levin\" on Fox News, also returned to Twitter on Monday – for the first time since January 2021.\n\nLevin was not banned from Twitter, but he suspended his own account in January 2021 \"in protest against Twitter's fascism.\" \"Thanks to new ownership, I’ve decided to come back!\" Levin tweeted on Monday.\n\nAzealia Banks\n\nTwitter has suspended Banks multiple times. In 2016, the rapper was suspended following reported racist and homophobic tweets directed at Zayn Malik. She was also suspended in 2020 for a series of transphobic tweets.\n\nFollowing Musk's Monday acquisition, Banks took to her Instagram Stories on Tuesday, writing, \"I actually *have* to thank Elon for buying twitter, I actually got back on.....\" She also detailed her experience being banned, calling Dorsey \"racist AF\" and writing about \"his plot to capitalize off the first Black Lives Matter movement.\"\n\nOn Instagram, Banks posted a screenshot of what appeared to be a new Twitter handle early Tuesday, which is not verified on the platform yet.\n\nRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene\n\nTwitter permanently suspended Greene's personal account in early January for repeated violations of the social media platform's COVID-19 misinformation policy.\n\nAfter Musk's deal was finalized on Monday, Greene used her Congressional account, which is still active, to share screenshots of the five tweets flagged for misinformation that lead to the banning of her personal account. She then wrote, \"My personal freedom of speech was violated on this platform along with an unknown number of Americans, and I want my personal account back.\"\n\nAs of Tuesday, Greene's personal account has not returned.\n\nWho's leaving Twitter?\n\nJameela Jamil\n\n\"The Good Place\" actress, writer and activist Jamil wrote her \"last tweet\" on Monday.\n\n\"Ah [Musk] got twitter. I would like this to be my what lies here as my last tweet,\" Jamil tweeted. \"I fear this free speech bid is going to help this hell platform reach its final form of totally lawless hate, bigotry, and misogyny. Best of luck.\"\n\nSee celebrity reactions:Jameela Jamil posts her 'last tweet,' Ice-T jokes Musk should shut Twitter down\n\nWho has criticized Musk's acquisition?\n\nIt was reported that activist Shaun King deleted his Twitter account Monday, after tweeting, \"At its root, @ElonMusk wanting to purchase Twitter is not about left vs right. It’s about white power.... He’s upset that Twitter won’t allow white nationalists to target/harass people. That’s his definition of free speech.\"\n\nKing has continued to tweet Tuesday, confirming that he didn't delete his account. King has since shared articles detailing racism and civil rights lawsuits at Tesla.\n\nIn addition to Siskind, others shared that they were considering leaving the app – including actor and wrestler Mick Foley.\n\n\"I’ll be giving some serious thought to leaving @Twitter for good in the near future,\" Foley wrote on Monday. \"I do not have a good feeling about where this platform is heading.\"\n\nWhat's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day\n\nStill, some celebrities noted why they plan to stay.\n\n\"I’m not going anywhere,\" tweeted \"Star Trek\" actor and activist George Takei. \"Should this place become more toxic, I pledge to strive even harder to lift up reason, science, compassion and the rule of law. The struggle against fascism, misinformation, and hate requires tough fighters. I hope you stay in the fight, right beside me.\"\n\nMany also pointed to the enormous price tag on Musk's acquisition deal – stressing that $44 billion could have impacted the world in a multitude of other ways.\n\n\"Just a thought–next time we have $44 billion laying around, can we please spend it to solve the pandemic, climate change, hunger, poverty, and malnutrition?\" wrote Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, founder of World Health Network.\n\n\"$44 billion could help so many people, this greedy world disappoints me,\" actress, singer and transgender activist Plastic Martyr wrote.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/26"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/tech/elon-musk-twitter-sale-agreement/index.html", "title": "Elon Musk to buy Twitter in $44 billion deal - CNN", "text": "New York (CNN) Twitter said Monday it has agreed to sell itself to Elon Musk in a roughly $44 billion deal that has the potential to expand the billionaire's business empire and put the world's richest man in charge of one of the world's most influential social networks.\n\nThe deal, which will take the company private, caps off a whirlwind period in which the Tesla and SpaceX CEO became one of Twitter's largest shareholders, was offered and turned down a seat on its board and bid to buy the company — all in less than a month.\n\nUnder the terms of the deal, shareholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter stock they own, matching Musk's original offer and marking a 38% premium over the stock price the day before Musk revealed his stake in the company.\n\n\"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,\" Musk said in a statement Monday. \"Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.\"\n\nThe deal, which was unanimously approved by Twitter's board, is expected to close this year. It comes after Musk revealed last week he had lined up $46.5 billion in financing to acquire the company, an apparent turning point that forced Twitter's board to seriously consider the deal. The board met Sunday to evaluate Musk's offer.\n\n\"The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon's proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing,\" Twitter independent board chair Bret Taylor said in a statement, calling the deal \" the best path forward for Twitter's stockholders.\"\n\nTwitter stock was up nearly 6% following the announcement of the deal, hovering around $51.84, just shy of the offer price. The deal is pending approval from shareholders and regulators.\n\nIn an internal message to employees obtained by CNN, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said he would hold an all-hands meeting with Taylor on Monday afternoon to answer questions about the deal. \"I know this is a significant change and you're likely processing what this means for you and Twitter's future,\" he said.\n\nWhat Musk means for Twitter\n\nMusk is both a high-profile Twitter user and a controversial one. He has more than 83 million followers on the platform, which he has used over the years for everything from sharing memes and discussing his companies to insulting politicians, spreading misleading claims about Covid-19 and making offensive remarks about the transgender community.\n\nMusk has repeatedly stressed in recent days that his goal is to bolster free speech on the platform and work to \"unlock\" Twitter's \"extraordinary potential.\"\n\nIn his statement Monday, Musk said he wants to \"make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.\" Separately, he said in a tweet Monday that he hopes \"even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.\"\n\nStill, some industry experts worry that Musk's desire for free speech on Twitter could mean rolling back some of the platform's work to curb hate speech, misinformation, harassment and other harmful content. Others questioned whether Musk might restore former President Donald Trump's account, which was removed early last year for violating Twitter policies against inciting violence following the Capitol Riot. Such a move could have significant ramifications for the upcoming 2024 US presidential election.\n\nWhile Twitter is smaller than some social media rivals, it has an outsized influence in the online and offline worlds because it is used by many politicians, public figures and journalists, and has sometimes acted as a model for other platforms in how to handle harmful content.\n\n\"Do not allow Twitter to become a petri dish for hate speech, or falsehoods that subvert our democracy,\" Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, said in a statement directed at Musk Monday following the deal.\n\nA new and uncertain era for Twitter\n\nIn the days since Musk's initial bid, many following the company wondered whether Twitter would try to find another buyer, especially after the company put in place a poison pill to make it more difficult for Musk to acquire the company without its approval.\n\nBut CFRA senior equity analyst Angelo Zino said Monday that Twitter's board more seriously considering Musk's offer may have come \"from the Board's realization that an alternative bid from a 'white knight' may be difficult to come by, especially following the decline in asset prices from social media companies in recent weeks/months.\"\n\nIt's not clear whether Agrawal — who took over the CEO role from founder Jack Dorsey in November — will remain in the top job following the takeover. Musk previously tweeted a meme comparing Agrawal to former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Musk also said in his offer letter to buy Twitter that he does not \"have confidence in management.\"\n\nThe deal could, however, put an end to nearly a decade of chaos at Twitter as a public company, during which it has cycled through CEOs, grappled with an activist investor and struggled to ignite growth and successfully monetize its influential user base.\n\nAgrawal said in Monday's statement that \"Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world,\" He added: \"Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.\"\n\nCNN Business tech reporter Clare Duffy can be reached at clare.duffy@cnn.com.", "authors": ["Clare Duffy", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/04/25"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/03/opinions/canada-truckers-protests-covid-19-trudeau-cohen/index.html", "title": "Opinion: Canada's trucker protesters aren't who Americans might ...", "text": "Andrew Cohen is a journalist, a professor at Carleton University, and author of \" Two Days in June: John F. Kennedy and the 48 Hours That Made History .\" The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion articles on CNN.\n\nOttawa (CNN) For days, the army of truckers and their disciples has been honking, marching, demanding and posturing. The \"Freedom Convoy\" has come to this sleepy capital to protest a mandate that requires truckers entering the country to be vaccinated or comply with testing and quarantine requirements.\n\nAt first blush, their protest feels American. Some wave banners emblazoned with \"Make Canada great again,\" \"F--k Trudeau,\" or \"Trump 2024.\" Others carried a Confederate battle flag. They shout \"freedom,\" while authorities fear chaos and send the prime minister and his family to \"an undisclosed location,\" much like the Secret Service hid Vice President Dick Cheney on September 11, 2001.\n\nThis protest has been celebrated by some in the United States, perhaps in the hope that revolution is flowering in frozen Canada. Among the vocal are Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump . American truckers are said to be inspired to plan their own mobilized march in Washington, DC.\n\nThat conservatives in the United States are moved by a protest in Canada -- that they even notice Canada -- likely emboldens the Canadian truckers. After all, to fabulists such as broadcaster Tucker Carlson , Canada has become a dark, surveillance state led by \"no more fearful despot in the world than Justin Trudeau.\" O Canada! Truckers are your salvation!\n\nCarlson, Trump and Musk see something monumental here. They're wrong. Whatever the facile comparisons, familiar symbols and fearful words, this Canadian protest isn't a grassroots revolt or even a Prairie brushfire. More likely, it's a winter carnival, ephemeral, a flaring of anger -- and one that is very, very Canadian.\n\nA reporter roaming the crowd on Parliament Hill described a \"festive\" mood -- not just a gnarled, baying brigade of old-stock Canadians lugging a catalogue of grievance. She noted breathlessly that the leaders include a Jewish and an Indigenous Canadian.\n\nWhat unites them is their opposition to lockdowns and mask and vaccine mandates. Some, she found, distanced themselves from the more militant truckers who oppose vaccination outright, spread misinformation and traffic in hatred. Some 90% of Canadian truckers are vaccinated , and their umbrella association has disowned the protestors.\n\nThe reality is the truckers live in a country that is among the most highly vaccinated in the industrialized world. Canadians have embraced restrictive measures -- wearing masks, closing schools, shops, gyms, offices -- their governments have imposed, particularly measures targeting the unvaccinated. In Quebec, the most aggressive jurisdiction on the pandemic, which threatened (but this week dropped) a plan to tax the unvaccinated , the provincial government is popular.\n\nThe reason Canadians generally obey their government is not because we are \"better people,\" as one Canadian mocks his country's penchant for sanctimony. We do it because we are prudent, cautious and moderate, given to compromise and accommodation, sometimes to a fault. Canada is a progressive place of little social unrest where issues that remain contentious in the US -- abortion, same-sex rights, voting rights, immigration -- are settled.\n\nThe national consensus prefers a loss of liberty over a loss of life. As a society, Canada is less willing to accept the staggering number of deaths from the virus as the United States (which has some three times those in Canada, adjusted for differences in population).\n\nAmong the protesters in Ottawa, there were certainly bad people, as Trump would say. Some carried a swastika. Some danced on the War Memorial. Many urinated everywhere. And as professor Josh Greenberg incisively argues , the absence of violence does not make this peaceful. The protestors are intimidating and unsettling by their presence alone.\n\nBut there are no guns, no nooses, no body armor. No incidents, assaults, or fisticuffs. Vulgarity, yes, cacophony, yes, and a volley of taunts and threats from the many tribunes of the far right who have joined the parade.\n\nIf there has been no bloodshed it is perhaps because those with other opinions have stayed away (a counter-demonstration by pro-vaccination activists was canceled) and the authorities have stood by. \"Please leave,\" politicians implore , politely. Call this Canadian nice.\n\nAstonishingly, though, there have been no fines. No deadlines. No ultimatums or restrictions. The officials ask but do not act, frustrated residents complain but do not march, the protestors shrug and do not leave (at least not all of them).\n\nMeanwhile, roads are blocked and many businesses downtown are closed . The parliamentary precinct is paralyzed and so is the political class.\n\nCanadians, once said to defer instinctively to authority, now accept an absence of it. The city will not ticket trucks clogging roads because it may anger them. It will not impose a curfew or ban. The police talk about \"de-escalating\" and congratulate themselves that there has been no death or destruction.\n\nGet our free weekly newsletter Sign up for CNN Opinion's newsletter. Join us on Twitter and Facebook\n\nWith this laissez-faire strategy, the protesters might well occupy Ottawa, as they threaten , for months. But they will persuade few. They have little currency in a country where freedom matters less than order.\n\nIn fact, had freedom been so fundamental, Canadians would have elected the right-wing People's Party promising it last year. Instead, they re-elected Justin Trudeau and the Liberals, who denounce the mob.\n\nThe worst of the protesters may be deplorables, but they are our deplorables, peculiarly and certifiably Canadian. As long as they are not stopped by the police, tolerated by the public and ignored by lawmakers, they will be free to sit on the sidewalk, sleep in the cold and honk into the wind.", "authors": ["Opinion Andrew Cohen"], "publish_date": "2022/02/03"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/28/tech/elon-musk-twitter-leadership/index.html", "title": "Following Elon Musk's takeover, Twitter's leadership is likely in for a ...", "text": "New York (CNN Business) Assuming all goes to plan, Elon Musk won't actually own Twitter for another few months but his swift deal for the company left watchers wondering what his takeover will mean for its management team. Will CEO Parag Agrawal, who's only held that position for four months, stick around? Will Musk, who already helms multiple companies, try to run the platform himself? Could cofounder Jack Dorsey, who just left to focus on running payments company Block, return to an executive role?\n\nMusk, of course, is notoriously unpredictable but one thing seems clear: Twitter's leadership will likely look much different after the deal than it does today.\n\nThere are a few obvious initial indicators that this will happen. Twitter's board on Monday announced it had agreed to sell the social media company to Musk in a deal valued at $44 billion. The deal came just 11 days after Musk — who was initially offered a seat on the company's board but declined — made what he called his \"best and final\" offer for the company. In his offer letter, Musk said, \"I don't have confidence in management.\"\n\nIn an all-hands meeting for employees that Agrawal and board chair Bret Taylor held later Monday, Taylor said the company's board of directors \"no longer exists on the other side of this transaction.\"\n\nThen on Tuesday, Musk publicly criticized two of the company's top legal executives on Twitter, leading each to face a barrage of hateful comments on the platform.\n\n\"[Musk is] probably not happy with the management team and the board, and I think that's a big reason why the initial offer to sit on the board and see how things play out over the next two years is something he just wasn't interested in,\" said Angelo Zino, senior industry analyst at CFRA Research.\n\nTwitter declined to comment on this story. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.\n\nThe fate of Twitter's CEO\n\nMany analysts agree that Agrawal will probably be among those ousted when Musk's acquisition closes. Agrawal told employees on Monday that he is \"optimistic\" about the company's future, but it was already unclear what kind of working relationship he would have with Musk. After it was announced that Agrawal would take over the top job from Dorsey in November, Musk tweeted a photo comparing the new CEO to former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.\n\n\"It's hard for me to see a situation where [Agrawal] remains as CEO after the deal,\" said Daniel Newman, principal analyst at tech research firm Futurum Research. \"It's unfortunate because I don't think his tenure was long enough to actually fully indict him. ... I just think with Musk's comments, it's pretty clear that he wants to go in kind of a hard right from where the strategy was,\" he said.\n\nParag Agrawal has been Twitter's CEO for only four months but many followers of the company expect he's unlikely to remain in the role if Musk's acquisition is completed.\n\nTwitter TWTR Facebook FB In some ways, the leadership shakeup — if it does happen — may reflect Twitter's longstanding struggles to turn its powerful user base and outsized influence in the worlds of media and politics into a healthy business, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.shares are currently trading only 15% higher than their IPO price from nearly 10 years ago, compared to rivalwhose stock has gained 273% over the same period.\n\nMusk will also likely seek to shift the internal culture at Twitter to better align with his vision for the company\n\nIt's not exactly clear what that vision is. On one hand, Musk has said he wants to \"unlock\" Twitter's \"enormous potential.\" But on the other, he's said his acquisition is not about money and made suggestions for the platform, such as removing content restrictions, that could run counter to Twitter's core advertising revenue model. Whatever his plans, Musk will almost certainly want to stack the company's management team with leaders who are on the same page.\n\n\"He'll be hiring people that understand his vision, understand the kind of work, product and culture he's trying to create,\" Newman said. \"There's no question that this is going to be a 180-degree culture shift. Tesla is known as being a very hard culture, pretty demanding of people, [while] Twitter was kind of seen as a little bit of a softer culture, a little more thoughtful about people and obviously was very attentive to a lot of social issues. ... I think Musk is going to be very prudent to make sure he sorts out the talent who he thinks can help him carry his mission forward.\"\n\nBillionaire bromance?\n\nEven if Musk does clean house at Twitter, it seems unlikely that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO will want to run Twitter himself, at least not for long, given his many commitments.\n\nHe would also almost certainly learn quickly about the not-so-fun parts of being a social media CEO. Such a role faces intense scrutiny and risks being called to testify before lawmakers about decisions related to harmful content, data privacy and more. Already, Musk has received a warning from EU Commissioner Theirry Breton that Twitter must abide by Europe's heightened new standards for content moderation or else risk fines or even a possible ban.\n\nMusk may want to avoid putting himself in that position, given how reliant his other companies are on government contracts.\n\nMany followers of the company are now speculating about whether Musk might encourage Dorsey — who stepped down as CEO in November and is set to leave the board in May — to return to a leadership role at Twitter after the deal is complete. While the Twitter cofounder also has other things on his plate as the CEO of financial services firm Block, Musk and Dorsey seem to get along, and may agree on a vision for the platform.\n\nThe two eccentric, billionaire, crypto-loving tech titans have traded friendly remarks on Twitter over the years. When Twitter was facing pressure from an activist investor in 2020, Musk tweeted: \"Just want [to] say that I support @Jack as Twitter CEO. He has a good ❤️.\" More recently, Musk complimented the new \"Block Head\" title Dorsey has taken on at Block.\n\nOn Monday night, Dorsey responded to Musk's planned acquisition of Twitter in a somewhat cryptic tweet thread, which kicked off with a link to the Radiohead song \"Everything In Its Right Place.\"\n\n\"Elon's goal of creating a platform that is 'maximally trusted and broadly inclusive' is the right one,\" Dorsey said. \"This is the right path...I believe it with all my heart.\"\n\nJack Dorsey on stage at the Bitcoin 2021 Convention at the Mana Convention Center in Miami, FL, in June 2021.\n\nDorsey also noted that Twitter has been \"my sole issue and my biggest regret,\" saying, \"It has been owned by Wall Street and the ad model. Taking it back from Wall Street is the correct first step.\"\n\nIn recent weeks, Dorsey has criticized Twitter's board and suggested he takes issue with its stance as a public company.\n\n\"It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company,\" Dorsey said. \"Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust.\"\n\nIn some ways, a Dorsey return under Musk would seem surprising. The Twitter cofounder oversaw the platform during many of its struggles to grow its user base and increase profits. Dorsey has also undoubtedly had at least some influence on Twitter's existing culture, which Musk may try to overhaul. And Twitter has said Dorsey was responsible for many of the company's biggest and most controversial decisions, most notably removing former President Donald Trump's account, which Musk appears to oppose.\n\nStill, if Musk's plans for Twitter align with \"what Dorsey saw the company as but lost his handle on it over the years, it could be an interesting way for him to return and run the company that he always envisioned running but never had the support to do,\" Newman said.", "authors": ["Analysis Clare Duffy", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/04/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/08/14/mercks-ceo-quits-trumps-council-over-charlottesville/564125001/", "title": "Merck's CEO quits Trump's council over Charlottesville", "text": "Roger Yu and Herb Jackson\n\nUSA TODAY and USA TODAY NETWORK\n\nMerck CEO Ken Frazier quit President Trump's manufacturing jobs council on Monday, following the president's widely criticized response to violence that erupted after a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville over the weekend.\n\nThe resignation prompted an angry response from Trump on Twitter. \"Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!,\" Trump tweeted.\n\n\"Our country's strength stems from its diversity and the contributions made by men and women of different faiths, races, sexual orientations and political beliefs,\" Frazier tweeted.\n\n\"America's leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal,\" Frazier said. \"As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.\"\n\nOne of the world's largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, Merck develops and makes a wide variety of vaccines and drugs, including allergy medicine Clarinex and cholesterol treatments Zocor and Vytorin.\n\nMerck declined to comment on Trump's response tweet regarding lowering drug prices. U.S. Prices for the most popular brand-name drugs in the U.S. have risen 208% from 2008 to 2016, according to AARP. In January, Merck issued its own pricing report that showed seven years of price hikes. Prices for its drugs rose on average 9% since 2010, it said.\n\nThis isn't the first time Trump has clashed this year with high-profile CEOs over his handling of policy matters. In June, Disney CEO Robert Iger and Tesla CEO Elon Musk quit another White House business advisory council over Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from a global climate-change treaty, called the Paris Agreement.\n\nIn February, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick also quit advising Trump on business matters over the president’s proposal to ban travel from seven Muslim countries.\n\nElon Musk makes good on threat as he, Iger quit Trump council after Paris pullout\n\nPresident Trump condemns white supremacists after Charlottesville violence\n\nTrump came under fire over the weekend for his refusal to specifically denounce neo-Nazis, KKK and other racist groups after their rally in Charlottesville resulted in at least three people killed and dozens more hurt.\n\nTrump's statement over the weekend that condemned, \"this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, many sides\" was considered inadequate by numerous lawmakers -- including some Republicans. Some of Trump's political opponents called it a \"dog whistle\" to far-right and extremist supporters.\n\n\"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides,\" Trump said over the weekend, prompting his critics to wonder if he was implicitly criticizing the counter-protesters in Charlottesville.\n\nAfter repeated calls for a more forceful response, Trump finally addressed reporters in the White House on Monday afternoon and said \"racism is evil.\"\n\n\"And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups,\" Trump said before leaving the lectern without taking questions.\n\nHe also announced that the Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation over a car attack in Charlottesville Saturday that killed Heather Heyer, 32, and injured 19 others. James Alex Fields Jr., 20, who allegedly drove the car, was denied bail Monday.\n\nFrazier, who in the past has donated to both Republicans and Democrats, sat beside Trump in late January when the president had a roundtable discussion with pharmaceutical company executives.\n\nTrump urged the companies to lower their prices, but he also promised they would benefit from relaxed federal regulations, better trade deals and tax reform. He stopped short of repeating a campaign promise to have Medicare negotiate for drug discounts with manufacturers.\n\nFrazier also represented Merck at a White House event in July where his company and Pfizer announced an agreement with Corning to develop a new generation of stronger glass vials and an investment in manufacturing jobs.\n\nFrazier declined to comment further. The Harvard-trained lawyer took over the job in 2010 after he spent years working up the corporate ladder, including stints as general counsel and head of its global human health business.\n\nMost of the companies, which include Corning, Under Armour, Boeing and Caterpillar, whose CEOs are on the manufacturing council, declined to comment.\n\nBut AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the president’s manufacturing council hasn’t held “any real meeting” and the labor union group is “assessing our role.”\n\n“The AFL-CIO has unequivocally denounced the actions of bigoted domestic terrorists in Charlottesville and called on the president to do the same,” Trumka said. “There are real questions into the effectiveness of this council to deliver real policy that lifts working families.”\n\nGE, whose former CEO and current board chairman Jeff Immelt is a member of the manufacturing council, said Immelt plans to remain on the council while he's still board chairman. He will step down as the company's board chairman at the end of the year.\n\n\"GE has no tolerance for hate, bigotry or racism, and we strongly condemn the violent extremism in Charlottesville over the weekend,\" the company said in a statement. \"With more than 100,000 employees in the United States, it is important for GE to participate in the discussion on how to drive growth and productivity in the U.S.\"\n\nIn a statement, computer-maker Dell Technologies, whose CEO Michael Dell is a council member, said there was no change \"in Dell engaging with the Trump administration and governments around the world to share our perspective on policy issues that affect our company, our customers and our employees.\"\n\nThe Dow Chemical Company and Campbell Soup also confirmed that their CEOs will remain on the council but condemned expressions of racism.\n\nContributing: Kellie Ell", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/08/14"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_12", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:20", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/07/12/mount-vesuvius-crater-fall-selfie/10036472002/", "title": "US tourist falls into Mount Vesuvius crater after taking selfie", "text": "A 23-year-old American tourist fell into the crater of Mount Vesuvius while trying to retrieve his cellphone over the weekend, according to reports.\n\nThe man, who was visiting the famous volcano that towers over the Italian city of Naples, reached the more than 4,200 foot-high summit of the volcano, with two family members on Saturday, NBC reported.\n\nPaolo Cappelli, the president of the Presidio Permanente Vesuvio, told the outlet the man and his relatives hiked up Vesuvius from the town of Ottaviano and accessed the top of the volcano through a forbidden area.\n\nThe man, who NBC identified as Phillip Carroll of Maryland, survived the fall.\n\n\"This family took another trail, closed to tourists, even if there was a small gate and 'no access' signs,\" Cappelli told the outlet.\n\nWhen the family reached the top of the volcano, the man stopped to take a selfie when his phone slipped out of his hand and into the mouth of the volcano, the outlet reported. He then climbed down into the crater in an attempt to get his phone back, only to fall after losing his balance.\n\n“He tried to recover it, but slipped and slid a few meters into the crater. He managed to stop his fall, but at that point he was stuck,\" Cappelli told NBC.\n\nPresidio Permanente Vesuvio guides saw what happened with binoculars from the opposite side of the rim and rushed to help the man, The Guardian reported.\n\nAnother bison goring:Bison gores Yellowstone tourist in attack caught on video\n\nFamily cruise tips:'I feel safer with them on a cruise ship': How to take a cruise with kids\n\nPolice also responded to the scene and a mountain rescue helicopter was launched to assist the rescue operation, the outlet reported. Responders used a long rope to pull the man to safety.\n\nThe man reportedly suffered scratches and cuts to his arms and back in the fall. He was then reportedly taken into custody by the local police. The tourist and his relatives face charges after being reported by police for the invasion of public land.\n\nNatalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_13", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:20", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2022/07/10/beanie-feldstein-reveals-early-exit-from-funny-girl/10025981002/", "title": "Lea Michele in Funny Girl: Glee alum replacing Beanie Feldstein", "text": "It's official: After weeks of rumors, Lea Michele is officially replacing \"Funny Girl\" star Beanie Feldstein on Broadway.\n\nMichele, who got her start on Broadway as a child and is best known for playing musical theater enthusiast Rachel Berry on \"Glee,\" will take over the role beginning Sept. 6, the show announced Monday. Tovah Feldshuh is also joining the cast, replacing Michele's \"Glee\" co-star Jane Lynch as Mrs. Brice.\n\n\"A dream come true is an understatement,\" Michele wrote Monday on Instagram. \"I'm so incredibly honored to join this amazing cast and production and return to the stage playing Fanny Brice on Broadway.\"\n\nThe high-profile casting change represents another step toward a return to the spotlight and respectability for Michele after former “Glee” castmates in 2020 accused the actor of behavior that was interpreted as racist and bullying. Samantha Ware, the actress who first spoke out against Michele, seemingly addressed the casting news in a tweet Monday.\n\nYes, I’m online today,\" she wrote. \"Yes, I see y’all. Yes, I care. Yes, im affected. Yes, I’m human. Yes, I’m Black. Yes, I was abused. Yes, my dreams were tainted. Yes, Broadway upholds whiteness. Yes, Hollywood does the same. Yes, silence is complicity. Yes, I’m loud. Yes, I’d do it again.\"\n\nMore:Lea Michele apologizes after 'Glee's Samantha Ware accuses her of 'traumatic microaggressions'\n\nMichele, who started her career on Broadway in productions of \"Les Misérables,\" \"Ragtime,\" \"Fiddler on the Roof\" and starred in the original “Spring Awakening” recently returned to the work with the documentary “Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known.”\n\nOn \"Glee,\" Michele delivered a memorable rendition of the show's song \"Don't Rain On My Parade.\" Later on in the series, her character gets cast as Fanny Brice in a Broadway revival of \"Funny Girl.\"\n\nButt pics and marriage proposals:Lea Michele, Jonathan Groff revisit ‘Spring Awakening’ in HBO doc\n\nFeldstein confirmed her early exit from the Broadway revival of \"Funny Girl\" in an Instagram post Sunday, in which the Golden Globe-nominated actress expressed gratitude for the opportunity to portray lead Fanny Brice. Feldstein’s final show is July 31.\n\n“Playing Fanny Brice on Broadway has been a lifelong dream of mine, and doing so for the last few months has been a great joy and true honor,” Feldstein wrote.\n\nThe \"Booksmart\" star didn't go into too much detail, but cited creative differences as the reason for her bowing out of the production.\n\n“Once the production decided to take the show in a different direction, I made the extremely difficult decision to step away sooner than anticipated,” Feldstein explained. “I will never forget this experience and from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank every single person who came to the August Wilson for the love and support you have shown me and our amazing cast and crew.\"\n\n'Shocking and painful':Beanie Feldstein recounts prep to play Monica Lewinsky in 'Impeachment'\n\nMore:Should only Jewish actresses play Jewish roles? Some say Hollywood has a 'Jewface' problem\n\nShe added: \"The people I have had the great joy of bringing Funny Girl to life with every night, both on and off the stage, are all remarkably talented and exceptional humans and I hope you continue to join them on Henry Street after I depart.”\n\nFeldstein was originally slated to perform in the show through Sept. 25 alongside Lynch, according to the official “Funny Girl” Twitter account.\n\nA 'force of nature':Jane Lynch remembers her former 'Glee' castmate Naya Rivera\n\nFeldstein has missed several performances in recent weeks, including a weekend matinee. Last month, she missed a string of shows due to a positive COVID-19 test. She had said she would depart the show Sept. 25, but now won’t last past the end of July.\n\nFanny Brice standby Julie Benko will perform the title role from Aug. 2 to Sep. 4 before Michele takes on the role.\n\nBroadway is usually known for its quiet, seamless transitions after A-list stars depart shows — in part to protect multimillion-dollar shows — indicating that the backstage machinations at “Funny Girl” have been strained at best.\n\nFanny is one of musical theater’s more difficult roles to cast, needing both a set of pipes, a sense of humor and a spunky charm, perhaps why it has only now been revived on theater’s biggest stage. Streisand starred in it on Broadway in 1964 and then won an Oscar in the 1968 film version.\n\nThe bittersweet comedy tells the tale of a Jewish girl from New York in the 1920s who went from burlesque to Broadway stages despite criticism that she wasn’t conventionally beautiful. “Funny Girl” is a musical that celebrates the oddballs, the kooky and the misfits.\n\n2022 Tony Awards:'A Strange Loop,' 'The Lehman Trilogy' take Broadway's top honors\n\nReviews were mixed to poor, with many critics saying that while Feldstein brought excitement and spirit, her voice was simply not up to the task, with the Hollywood Reporter review saying “she never quite makes the material soar, and this is a rickety vehicle that needs a supernova to put gas in its tank.”\n\nFeldstein, who made her Broadway debut in 2017 in the Bette Midler-led revival of “Hello, Dolly!,” failed to secure a Tony nomination for “Funny Girl,” and the show itself was bushed off with a single nod — to Jared Grimes, a featured actor in a musical.\n\nBox office revenues have softened of late, with a slow decline since the Tony Awards in June. The latest data shows a weekly take slipping under $1 million for an eight-performance week with the show performing to a house only 75-percent filled.\n\nBarbra Streisand and Omar Sharif starred in a film adaptation of the show in 1968, which earned Streisand an Oscar for best actress in a leading role.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press\n\nMore:Barbra Streisand says Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga's 'A Star Is Born' had the 'wrong idea'", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/10"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/11/entertainment/beanie-feldstein-leaves-funny-girl-cec/index.html", "title": "Lea Michele will replace Beanie Feldstein in 'Funny Girl' - CNN", "text": "(CNN) Broadway's next \"Funny Girl\" will be Lea Michele, who is replacing Beanie Feldstein after the \"Booksmart\" star announced she'd exit the show earlier than expected.\n\nThe production revealed Monday that the \"Glee\" star would succeed Feldstein, whose run will end July 31, in the leading role of Fanny Brice, the famed comedian and vaudeville performer.\n\nFeldstein announced her departure on Sunday, writing that after the production \"decided to take the show in a different direction, [she] made the extremely difficult decision to step away sooner than anticipated.\" She said playing Fanny had been a \"lifelong dream.\"\n\nShe'll end her \"Funny Girl\" run almost two months earlier than her previously announced date of September 25.\n\nCNN reached out to representatives for Feldstein and \"Funny Girl\" for comment.\n\nMichele will begin her tenure on September 4. After Feldstein exits, her standby Julie Benko will perform until Michele joins the cast, the production said.\n\nFeldstein's costar Jane Lynch will depart the production in September, \"Funny Girl\" producers announced, and will be replaced by Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh. Lynch appeared on \"Glee\" alongside Michele.\n\nPoor reviews plagued 'Funny Girl' revival\n\nBroadway's first revival of \"Funny Girl\" has been beleaguered by poor reviews, many of them taking aim at Feldstein's performance. New York Magazine's Helen Shaw wrote that Feldstein's \"voice lets her down\" throughout the show and that when it comes to the musical's beloved melodies, \"Feldstein cannot sing them.\"\n\nEven if reviews had been more favorable, Feldstein had massive shoes to fill: Barbra Streisand originated the part on stage and in the film adaptation, winning an Oscar for her performance. The climactic Act One closer, \"Don't Rain on My Parade,\" became one of Streisand's most iconic songs, and Fanny became synonymous with Babs.\n\nThis year's production of \"Funny Girl,\" a musical retelling of Brice's career and love affair with a con artist, premiered in April. It received only one Tony nomination, for scene-stealing dancer and supporting actor Jared Grimes.\n\nMichele performed a well-known version of \"Don't Rain on My Parade\" on \"Glee,\" and her character angled to play the lead role on Broadway in a fictional revival. Her casting was expected among some Broadway fans, but not all welcomed the news.\n\nIn 2020, Michele was accused by \"Glee\" costar Samantha Marie Ware of creating a toxic environment on the set , and online, some \"Funny Girl\" fans said that her casting dishonored Ware's allegations.", "authors": ["Scottie Andrew"], "publish_date": "2022/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/07/11/funny-girl-steve-bannon-and-lake-mead-its-mondays-news/10026243002/", "title": "'Funny Girl,' Steve Bannon and Lake Mead. It's Monday's news.", "text": "Footage from a Robb Elementary security camera shows a view of what happened during the deadly mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Prosecutors express their doubts over Steve Bannon's motives for testifying before the Jan. 6 committee. And a World War II-era ship emerges in Lake Mead.\n\n👋 It's Julius here with Monday's news.\n\nBut first, get a free Slurpee today! 🥤 Celebrate 7-Eleven's 95th birthday with a free treat.\n\nThe Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.\n\nRobb Elementary footage offers clearest view of police response\n\nA school security camera captured the horror and devastating law enforcement mistakes during the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two teachers. Footage from the camera is at the center of a political struggle over what public information from that day should be released and by whom. A 77-minute recording, reviewed by the Austin American-Statesman, offers an unabridged view of police inaction, among the clearest accounts of what happened before and after the victims were gunned down. Amid a shifting official timeline of the law enforcement response and anger among Uvalde residents over questions about the shooting, it provides an unfiltered view of what transpired. State Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, and Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin have argued for its release, while Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee opposes its disclosure.\n\nBannon's desire to testify is not 'an effort at compliance,' prosecutors say\n\nFormer White House strategist Steve Bannon’s willingness to testify before a special House committee investigating the attack Jan. 6, 2021, on the Capitol was described by federal prosecutors as a stunt a week before his trial on a criminal contempt charges for defying a committee subpoena. “His actions are little more than an attempt to change the optics of his contempt on the eve of trial, not an actual effort at compliance,” prosecutors said in court documents. The former Trump aide is set to stand trial July 18 on two counts of contempt involving his refusal to appear for a deposition and produce documents, despite a subpoena from the House committee.\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\nMany Americans question value of college, according to poll\n\nAmericans say earning a bachelor’s degree may help people find good jobs and could improve society, but attending college can be too expensive and time-consuming for working adults, according to a poll from USA TODAY and Public Agenda. The survey found a little more than half of Americans agree that the benefits of a degree outweigh the costs. Undergraduate enrollment has fallen by more than a million students in the past two years, in part because of COVID-19 and more recently a surging workforce. The nation’s $1.7 trillion student loan debt portfolio continues to balloon.\n\nLea Michele joins 'Funny Girl' revival as Beanie Feldstein exits\n\nAfter weeks of rumors, Lea Michele is officially replacing \"Funny Girl\" star Beanie Feldstein on Broadway. Michele, who got her start on Broadway as a child and played musical theater enthusiast Rachel Berry on \"Glee,\" will take over the role Sept. 6, the show announced Monday. Tovah Feldshuh is also joining the cast, replacing Michele's \"Glee\" co-star Jane Lynch as Mrs. Brice. Feldstein confirmed her early exit from the Broadway revival of \"Funny Girl\" in an Instagram post Sunday, saying the role of Fanny Brice \"has been a great joy and true honor.\"\n\nReal quick\n\n🌤 What's the weather up to in your neck of the woods? Check your forecast here.\n\nSunken ship dating back to WWII emerges from Lake Mead\n\nA sunken boat dating back to World War II emerged from Lake Mead. The Higgins landing craft that had long been 185 feet below the surface is nearly halfway out of the water. The boat was used to survey the Colorado River decades ago, sold to the marina, then sunk, according to dive tours company Las Vegas Scuba. About 1,500 “Higgins boats” were deployed at Normandy on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day. The boat is the latest object unearthed by declining water levels in Lake Mead, the largest human-made reservoir in the USA, held back by the Hoover Dam.\n\nA break from the news", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/11"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_14", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:20", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/07/11/funny-girl-steve-bannon-and-lake-mead-its-mondays-news/10026243002/", "title": "'Funny Girl,' Steve Bannon and Lake Mead. It's Monday's news.", "text": "Footage from a Robb Elementary security camera shows a view of what happened during the deadly mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Prosecutors express their doubts over Steve Bannon's motives for testifying before the Jan. 6 committee. And a World War II-era ship emerges in Lake Mead.\n\n👋 It's Julius here with Monday's news.\n\nBut first, get a free Slurpee today! 🥤 Celebrate 7-Eleven's 95th birthday with a free treat.\n\nThe Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.\n\nRobb Elementary footage offers clearest view of police response\n\nA school security camera captured the horror and devastating law enforcement mistakes during the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two teachers. Footage from the camera is at the center of a political struggle over what public information from that day should be released and by whom. A 77-minute recording, reviewed by the Austin American-Statesman, offers an unabridged view of police inaction, among the clearest accounts of what happened before and after the victims were gunned down. Amid a shifting official timeline of the law enforcement response and anger among Uvalde residents over questions about the shooting, it provides an unfiltered view of what transpired. State Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, and Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin have argued for its release, while Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee opposes its disclosure.\n\nBannon's desire to testify is not 'an effort at compliance,' prosecutors say\n\nFormer White House strategist Steve Bannon’s willingness to testify before a special House committee investigating the attack Jan. 6, 2021, on the Capitol was described by federal prosecutors as a stunt a week before his trial on a criminal contempt charges for defying a committee subpoena. “His actions are little more than an attempt to change the optics of his contempt on the eve of trial, not an actual effort at compliance,” prosecutors said in court documents. The former Trump aide is set to stand trial July 18 on two counts of contempt involving his refusal to appear for a deposition and produce documents, despite a subpoena from the House committee.\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\nMany Americans question value of college, according to poll\n\nAmericans say earning a bachelor’s degree may help people find good jobs and could improve society, but attending college can be too expensive and time-consuming for working adults, according to a poll from USA TODAY and Public Agenda. The survey found a little more than half of Americans agree that the benefits of a degree outweigh the costs. Undergraduate enrollment has fallen by more than a million students in the past two years, in part because of COVID-19 and more recently a surging workforce. The nation’s $1.7 trillion student loan debt portfolio continues to balloon.\n\nLea Michele joins 'Funny Girl' revival as Beanie Feldstein exits\n\nAfter weeks of rumors, Lea Michele is officially replacing \"Funny Girl\" star Beanie Feldstein on Broadway. Michele, who got her start on Broadway as a child and played musical theater enthusiast Rachel Berry on \"Glee,\" will take over the role Sept. 6, the show announced Monday. Tovah Feldshuh is also joining the cast, replacing Michele's \"Glee\" co-star Jane Lynch as Mrs. Brice. Feldstein confirmed her early exit from the Broadway revival of \"Funny Girl\" in an Instagram post Sunday, saying the role of Fanny Brice \"has been a great joy and true honor.\"\n\nReal quick\n\n🌤 What's the weather up to in your neck of the woods? Check your forecast here.\n\nSunken ship dating back to WWII emerges from Lake Mead\n\nA sunken boat dating back to World War II emerged from Lake Mead. The Higgins landing craft that had long been 185 feet below the surface is nearly halfway out of the water. The boat was used to survey the Colorado River decades ago, sold to the marina, then sunk, according to dive tours company Las Vegas Scuba. About 1,500 “Higgins boats” were deployed at Normandy on June 6, 1944, known as D-Day. The boat is the latest object unearthed by declining water levels in Lake Mead, the largest human-made reservoir in the USA, held back by the Hoover Dam.\n\nA break from the news", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2015/03/12/ravens-retain-rb-forsett-who-agrees-to-3-year-deal/70222892/", "title": "Thursday's NFL free agent moves: Knighton lands with Redskins", "text": "Staff and wire reports\n\nThe Washington Redskins are adding another big man to bolster their defensive line after agreeing to a one-year deal with former Denver Broncos defensive tackle Terrance Knighton on Thursday evening, a person informed of the deal told USA TODAY Sports.\n\nThe person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team has not announced it.\n\nKnighton joins former Bears defensive end Stephen Paea and former Colts defensive Ricky Jean-Francois in signing free agent deals with Washington this week.\n\nKnighton was a productive starter for the Broncos over the past two seasons, and played his best during the Broncos' postseason run in 2013, when his fourth-quarter sack of New England Tom Brady helped clinch the AFC title for Denver.\n\nKnighton's deal in Washington is a raise from the $2.75 million he made in Denver last year, but it is likely less than he was expecting to collect on the open market. But now Knighton will have the chance to cash in again next year.\n\nThe Broncos on Thursday signed journeyman defensive tackle Vance Walker to a two-year deal, and he will join former first-round pick Sylvester Williams and Marvin Austin in replacing Knighton in Denver's new 3-4 defense.\n\n-Lindsay H. Jones\n\nCameron spurns Browns for Dolphins\n\nMIAMI (AP) — Former Pro Bowl tight end Jordan Cameron signed a two-year contract Thursday with the Miami Dolphins, giving them a possible replacement for Charles Clay.\n\nThe Dolphins gave Clay a transition tag last week, but he has since been courted by the Buffalo Bills.\n\nCameron missed five games last year with the Cleveland Browns because of a concussion, his third in three seasons. He made the Pro Bowl in 2013, when he had 80 catches for 917 yards and seven touchdowns.\n\nCleveland made an offer to Cameron, who expressed his desire to stay with the team at the end of last season. But he reached a deal with the Dolphins after visiting them Thursday.\n\nCameron had 130 career catches in four seasons with the Browns, who selected the former college basketball player in the fourth round in 2011.\n\n\"He is a young, proven Pro Bowl performer with playmaking ability,\" Dolphins general manager Dennis Hickey said in a statement.\n\nClay, a four-year starter for Miami, had 58 catches last season for 605 yards and three scores but was slowed by a knee injury.\n\nCornerback T.J. Heath, who played in two games late last season with Miami, signed a $585,000, one-year deal.\n\nTexans bolster secondary\n\nHOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Texans signed safety Rahim Moore on Thursday to a three-year deal worth about $12 million.\n\nThe 25-year-old Moore comes off a strong season in Denver, where he had a career-best four interceptions and also made 50 tackles (44 solo), forced two fumbles and had one fumble recovery.\n\nA second-round pick (45th overall) in the 2011 draft, Moore might be best known for misjudging a pass in a playoff loss to Baltimore after the 2012 season. The TD completion helped the Ravens tie a game they won in overtime, and they went on to win the Super Bowl.\n\nBut he performed well after that for the Broncos in 10 games in 2013 before a severe leg injury sidelined him. And he made a strong comeback from the injury last season.\n\nForsett back with Ravens\n\nOWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — Justin Forsett agreed to terms Thursday on a three-year contract with the Baltimore Ravens, who keep their leading rusher from 2014 after losing several key free agents earlier in the week.\n\nThe 29-year-old Forsett is coming off the finest season of his seven-year career. Thrust into a starting role after the Ravens released Ray Rice, Forsett shed his journeyman label to run for 1,266 yards and eight touchdowns.\n\nHe started 14 games, doubling the amount of career starts he had coming into the season. Forsett also had 40 carries in two playoff games, running for 169 yards, and was selected to his first Pro Bowl after replacing an injured Arian Foster.\n\nBefore the 2014 season, he totaled 1,692 yards rushing with Seattle, Indianapolis, Houston and Jacksonville.\n\nThe timing of his breakthrough year was perfect for the Ravens.\n\n\"Sometimes you have fortunate signings in this business and Justin was one of those,\" Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome said in a statement released by the team. \"We were fortunate because he became such a vital part of our on-field success and quickly became a steadying influence in the locker room at an uneasy time for us. He gave us more than we anticipated. From what we expected, he gave us unprecedented production.\"\n\nBrowner goes to Saints\n\nThe New Orleans Saints say they've agreed to sign free-agent cornerback Brandon Browner to a three-year contract and linebacker Ramon Humber to a two-year deal.\n\nThe 30-year-old Browner has been a starter on the past two Super Bowl winners: the 2013 Seattle Seahawks and 2014 New England Patriots.\n\nBrowner has started every game in which he has played and intercepted 11 passes during the past four seasons.\n\nA person familiar with Browner's contract said its total value is about $18 million. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because financial terms were not announced.\n\nHumber, who is 27, joined the Saints in 2010. He had his best season in 2014, when he started six games and was credited with 50 solo or assisted tackles.\n\nCromartie back to Jets?\n\nThe band is getting back together in the New York Jets' secondary.\n\nCornerback Antonio Cromartie agreed to terms with the Jets on a four-year contract, worth $32 million in base salary, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press. The move Thursday comes a day after New York finalized a deal to bring Darrelle Revis back on a five-year, $70 million deal.\n\nCromartie's contract can have a maximum value of $35 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the move.\n\nCromartie and Revis played together with the Jets from 2010-12, and Revis said during a conference call Wednesday night that he planned to reach out to his former teammate about reuniting in New York.\n\n\"I'm going to get in contact with him very soon here,\" Revis said, \"and try to convince him to hopefully come back and join our Batman-and-Robin tandem we had a couple of years ago.\"\n\nSaints trade Grubbs\n\nThe New Orleans Saints have traded starting left guard Ben Grubbs to the Kansas City Chiefs in exchange for a fifth-round draft choice.\n\nThe move gives the Chiefs a veteran offensive lineman who was named to Pro Bowls in 2011 and 2013, while giving the Saints not just an additional draft pick, but also more flexibility under the NFL's salary cap.\n\nGrubbs, an eight-year veteran out of Auburn, is due a base salary of $6.5 million this season.\n\nHe began his NFL career in Baltimore in 2007, starting 12 games as a rookie. Grubbs joined New Orleans in 2012.\n\nMelton goes to Bucs\n\nThe Tampa Bay Buccaneers have bolstered their defense with a pair of free agents very familiar to coach Lovie Smith, signing safety Chris Conte and tackle Henry Melton.\n\nBoth players entered the NFL as draft picks of the Bears when Smith coached in Chicago. Terms of the agreements Thursday were not disclosed.\n\nConte was a third round draft pick in 2011 who had nine interceptions in four years with the Bears. Melton played for Chicago from 2010 to 2013 before spending last season with the Dallas Cowboys.\n\nMelton has 20 1-2 sacks in 64 career games. He was a Pro Bowl selection in 2012, when he had six sacks for the Bears.\n\nThe Bucs signed former Dallas linebacker to a four-year, $20.5 million contract on Wednesday.\n\n49ers make some moves\n\nThe San Francisco 49ers have re-signed quarterback Blaine Gabbert to a two-year contract while also releasing wide receiver Stevie Johnson a day after acquiring Torrey Smith.\n\nSan Francisco announced the moves Thursday. The 49ers also signed tight end Garrett Celek to a one-year deal.\n\nGabbert, acquired in a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars last March, appeared in one game as relief to Colin Kaepernick and threw a touchdown pass.\n\nJohnson posted Wednesday on Twitter, \"Thank you (hashtag)SF,\" signaling his departure. The 28-year-old wideout had 35 catches for 435 yards and three touchdowns in his lone season with the Niners last year.\n\nRaiders get safety help\n\nThe Oakland Raiders have signed former Philadelphia safety Nate Allen in free agency to fill the hole created when former starter Tyvon Branch was released.\n\nThe Raiders announced the deal with Allen on Thursday. Allen says Oakland tried to sign him last year but that he stayed in Philadelphia because he was not offered a long-term deal.\n\nThe Raiders gave him a long-term contract this time and are counting on Allen to replace Branch as the starting strong safety alongside Charles Woodson.\n\nAllen had 10 interceptions, 28 passes defensed, four sacks, three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries in 74 games with the Eagles.\n\nJets keep Colon\n\nThe New York Jets have re-signed veteran guard Willie Colon to a one-year contract.\n\nColon has started every game at right guard for the Jets the past two years after seven seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The deal is for the veteran minimum of $870,000, plus a signing bonus.\n\nThe signing Thursday is somewhat of a surprise. New York signed James Carpenter, likely to be the starter at left guard, on Wednesday. Oday Aboushi and Brian Winters have started there the last two years, but figured to compete at right guard this summer. They still might — but with Colon back in the mix.\n\nColon, who turns 32 in April, has been a strong run blocker throughout his career, but led the Jets with 12 accepted penalties last season.\n\nFalcons add to defense\n\nThe Atlanta Falcons have signed two more free agents for their defense, cornerback Phillip Adams and defensive end Adrian Clayborn.\n\nClayborn, a first-round pick by Tampa Bay in 2011, played in only one game in 2014 due to a torn bicep. He had six sacks and ranked fourth in the NFL with 19 tackles for loss with the Buccaneers in 2013.\n\nThe Falcons tied for 30th in the league with only 22 sacks last season.\n\nAdams started four games for the Jets last season. He also has spent time with the 49ers, Patriots, Seahawks and Raiders. He had two interceptions with the Raiders in 2012.\n\nThe Falcons also signed linebackers Brooks Reed and Justin Durant, offensive lineman Mike Person and wide receiver Leonard Hankerson this week.\n\nPanthers re-sign TE\n\nThe Panthers have announced they've re-signed backup tight end Ed Dickson to a three-year contract.\n\nDickson's played in all 16 regular season games last season and had 10 catches for 115 yards and one touchdown. He caught three passes for 67 yards in two playoff games.\n\nPanthers coach Ron Rivera said in a release Thursday that Dickson played a \"valuable role\" down the stretch.\n\nDickson gives the Panthers a second receiving threat at tight end opposite Greg Olsen, a Pro Bowl player last season for Carolina. Dickson also proved he can play fullback, filling in for the injured Mike Tolbert.\n\nBills add another QB\n\nThe Buffalo Bills have signed free-agent quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who spent the past four seasons backing up Joe Flacco in Baltimore.\n\nTaylor signed a two-year contract Thursday, a day after arriving in Buffalo to meet team officials. He's the second quarterback the Bills have added this week, after acquiring veteran Matt Cassel in a trade with Minnesota.\n\nBoth will have an opportunity to compete with EJ Manuel for the starting job.\n\nTaylor is a 2011 sixth-round draft pick, who saw limited action in 14 games with the Ravens. He started more than three years at Virginia Tech and was named the ACC Player of the Year in 2010.\n\nQB depth in Cleveland\n\nThe Browns have signed free agent quarterback Thad Lewis, one of 22 QBs to start a game for the franchise since 1999.\n\nLewis spent the 2011-12 seasons with Cleveland. He made his first career NFL start in the 2012 season finale, a 24-10 loss to Pittsburgh. He completed 22 of 32 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown.\n\nThe 30-year-old Lewis was with Houston last season. He has also spent time with St. Louis and Buffalo. The Texans released him Monday, clearing the way for them to sign Ryan Mallett and former Browns quarterback Brian Hoyer.\n\nLewis returns to a Browns quarterback situation that remains a major problem for the team. Cleveland recently signed veteran Josh McCown, who went 1-10 last season with Tampa Bay, and Johnny Manziel, a first-round draft pick in 2014, remains in rehab for an undisclosed problem.\n\nJags cut Bryant\n\nThe Jacksonville Jaguars have released veteran defensive end Red Bryant, who was due a $500,000 roster bonus Sunday.\n\nBryant was scheduled to count $4.5 million against the salary cap in 2015.\n\nA fourth-round draft pick by Seattle in 2008, Bryant joined Jacksonville last year. The 6-foot-4, 323-pound run-stopper signed a four-year deal worth $17 million, started all 16 games and finished with 22 tackles and a sack.\n\nHe became expendable after the Jaguars signed free agent defensive end Jared Odrick to a five-year, $42.5 million deal that includes $22 million guaranteed. They also re-signed 2010 first-round draft pick Tyson Alualu to be Odrick's backup.\n\nGiants add LB depth\n\nWhen the struggling New York Giants blew a 21-point and lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars last season, co-owner John Mara felt like firing everyone on the team.\n\nMonths later, something good came out of the loss to a team that until that game had one win. The Giants got a glimpse of linebacker J.T. Thomas.\n\nThomas was one of five players New York signed in this opening week of free agency. The NFC East team confirmed the signings of Thomas, fellow linebacker Jonathan Casillas, running back Shane Vereen, return man/receiver Dwayne Harris, and offensive tackle Marshall Newhouse late Wednesday night.\n\nThomas, who can play all the linebacker spots, had a career-best 12 tackles and recovered a fumble for a touchdown against the Giants.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/03/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2022/02/01/brian-flores-sues-dolphins-alleging-ross-offered-pay-losses/9304789002/", "title": "Brian Flores lawsuit against Miami Dolphins claims racism in NFL", "text": "Fired Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a class-action suit against the Dolphins and the NFL on Tuesday, charging \"plantation\"-style racism within the league and alleging that team owner Stephen Ross offered to pay him $100,000 per loss to enhance the team’s draft position in 2019.\n\nFlores also alleges that Ross pressured him to recruit a “prominent quarterback in violation of League tampering rules.” The player is not named but a league source told The Palm Beach Post it was Tom Brady, who had not yet become a free agent and joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 2020 season.\n\nThe Dolphins released a statement that reads, “We are aware of the lawsuit through the media reports that came out this afternoon. We vehemently deny any allegations of racial discrimination and are proud of the diversity and inclusion throughout our organization. The implication that we acted in a manner inconsistent with the integrity of the game is incorrect. We will be withholding further comment on the lawsuit at this time.”\n\nFlores fired:Miami Dolphins fire coach Brian Flores, signaling another offseason shake-up\n\nPlayers react to the firing:Miami Dolphins players react to Brian Flores' dismissal: 'Surprising'\n\nBill Belichick's involvement: Patriots coach's struggles with texting inadvertently exposed the Giants' alleged sham Brian Flores interview\n\nWho is Stephen Ross?:Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has ties to West Palm Beach's growth. Here are five things to know\n\nHow can Ross stay?:Habib: If Brian Flores' allegations are true, Stephen Ross is done as Dolphins owner\n\nThe suit was filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, alleging unfair treatment of Blacks as head coaches, coordinators and general managers in the NFL. The suit was timed to coincide with the start of Black History Month on Feb. 1 and cites Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and Jackie Robinson.\n\nFlores is seeking unspecified damages.\n\nIn a statement, the NFL defended its commitment to achieve diversity but did not address the accusation of tanking.\n\n\"The NFL and our clubs are deeply committed to ensuring equitable employment practices and continue to make progress in providing equitable opportunities throughout our organizations,\" the league wrote. \"Diversity is core to everything we do, and there are few issues on which our clubs and our internal leadership team spend more time. We will defend against these claims, which are without merit.\"\n\nFlores, 40, the son of Honduran immigrants, was fired by the Dolphins the day after concluding the 2021 season 9-8, the second consecutive winning season under him.\n\nFlores acknowledged in a statement that his suit could jeopardize his future in the league.\n\n“God has gifted me with a special talent to coach the game of football, but the need for change is bigger than my personal goals,\" Flores wrote. \"In making the decision to file the class action complaint, I understand that I may be risking coaching the game I love.\"\n\nDolphins coaching search continues:Pierre Garcon once led the NFL in catches while playing for Dolphins HC candidate Mike McDaniel\n\nIs Harbaugh in play?:Habib: Stephen Ross moved heaven, Earth for Jim Harbaugh in 2011. Don't discount another fling\n\nStephen Ross 'mad' over Flores' success?\n\nThe suit takes exception to the Dolphins' assertion that Flores was fired because he wasn't collaborative in his approach.\n\n\"In reality, the writing had been on the wall since Mr. Flores’ first season as Head Coach of the Dolphins, when he refused his owner’s directive to 'tank' for the first pick in the draft,\" the suit says. \"Indeed, during the 2019 season, Miami’s owner, Stephen Ross, told Mr. Flores that he would pay him $100,000 for every loss, and the team’s General Manager, Chris Grier, told Mr. Flores that 'Steve' was 'mad' that Mr. Flores’ success in winning games that year was “compromising (the team’s) draft position.”\n\nLawsuit claims Bill Belichick text inadvertently alerted Flores\n\nThe suit also alleges that Flores' recent interview for the New York Giants' coaching job was conducted solely because of the Rooney Rule, which forces teams to interview minority candidates for key positions to promote diversity.\n\nFlores alleges he'd learned three days before the interview that the Giants were hiring Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who is white. Flores found out via a congratulatory text mistakenly sent by Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who confused the two men named Brian. Flores previously worked under Belichick in New England.\n\n“Sorry – I (bleeped) this up,\" the suit quotes Belichick as texting Flores. \"I double checked and misread the text. I think they are naming Brian Daboll. I’m sorry about that. BB.”\n\nAccording to the suit, Flores, who grew up in Brooklyn, initially told Giants co-owner John Mara that coaching the team would be “a dream job.” Coincidentally, Tim McDonnell, the Giants’ co-director of player personnel, suggested to Flores that Daboll was unhappy in Buffalo and might be available to serve under Flores if he landed the job.\n\nFlores alleges 'sham' interviews with New York Giants, Denver Broncos\n\nThe suit cites Flores' \"sham\" interview with the Giants and another with the Broncos in 2019 as examples of racist hiring practices.\n\n\"In certain critical ways, the NFL is racially segregated and is managed much like a plantation,\" the suit says. \"Its 32 owners—none of whom are Black—profit substantially from the labor of NFL players, 70% of whom are Black. The owners watch the games from atop NFL stadiums in their luxury boxes, while their majority-Black workforce put their bodies on the line every Sunday, taking vicious hits and suffering debilitating injuries to their bodies and their brains while the NFL and its owners reap billions of dollars.\"\n\nThe suit says that Flores was defamed in the media after being labeled by the Dolphins as difficult to work with.\n\n\"This is reflective of an all too familiar 'angry black man' stigma that is often casted upon Black men who are strong in their morals and convictions while white men are coined as passionate for those very same attributes,\" the suit says.\n\nTroy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, acknowledged in a Washington Post interview last month that the league has a \"double standard\" when it comes to hiring and retaining Black head coaches. Currently, Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin is the only Black head coach in the league.\n\n“There is a double standard,\" Vincent, a former Dolphin, said the day after Flores was fired. \"I don’t think that that is something that we should shy away from. But that is all part of some of the things that we need to fix in the system. We want to hold everyone to why does one, let’s say, get the benefit of the doubt to be able to build or take bumps and bruises in this process of getting a franchise turned around when others are not afforded that latitude?\"\n\nPatriots defensive back Devin McCourty, whose twin brother Jason played for the Dolphins this season, tweeted, \"Flo has always been a special individual…has been pivotal in my career and love that I can support him for calling out what we all already know.”\n\nRooney Rule violation? Art Rooney says he understands frustration\n\nSpeaking to The Post at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., Art Rooney II, the Steelers' owner and president, addressed diversity issues within the league rather than the suit specifically. The Rooney Rule is named after Art’s father, Dan, former chairman of the league's diversity committee.\n\n“We’ve taken a lot of steps in the last couple of years to try to address the problem,\" said Rooney, who has a Palm Beach home. \"We have progress in terms of increasing minority interviews in all positions across the league. We’ve increased the number of Black general managers for two years in a row now.\n\n\"So I’m not going to say we’re satisfied with the progress we’re making but certainly we’re trying to address it. I think over time with the steps we’ve taken that we will see progress.”\n\nHe added, “I understand there is frustration out there.\"\n\nFlores didn't want to pursue Tom Brady\n\nThe Dolphins finished 5-11 in Flores' first season in 2019 but won five of their final nine games despite a depleted roster. The wins came at a price, dropping their draft position potentially from No. 1 to No. 5. The Dolphins, who for years have been searching for a franchise quarterback, drafted Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa, who has had only a certain level of success. The first choice that year, Joe Burrow, has led the Cincinnati Bengals to this year's Super Bowl.\n\nThe suit describes Ross as so eager to land a quarterback that he invited Flores onto a yacht for lunch in early 2020.\n\n\"Shortly after he arrived, Mr. Ross told Mr. Flores that the prominent quarterback was 'conveniently' arriving at the marina,\" the suit alleges. \"Obviously, Mr. Ross had attempted to 'set up' a purportedly impromptu meeting between Mr. Flores and the prominent quarterback. Mr. Flores refused the meeting and left the yacht immediately. After the incident, Mr. Flores was treated with disdain and held out as someone who was noncompliant and difficult to work with.\"\n\nBrady and Flores were both in the Patriots' organization from 2008-18. A source said Flores respects Brady and did not want to recruit him because the Dolphins were rebuilding for the long term. Brady announced his retirement Tuesday.\n\nIn firing Flores on Jan. 10 with two years left on his contract, Ross said at a news conference, \"I think an organization can only function if it is collaborative and it works well together. I don’t think that we were really working well as an organization that it would take to really win consistently at the NFL level.”", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2014/03/29/indianapolis-baltimore-move-30-year-anniversary-mayflower/7053553/", "title": "Thirty years later, remembering how Colts' move went down", "text": "Phillip B. Wilson\n\nUSA TODAY Sports\n\nINDIANAPOLIS — Looking back three decades, it all happened so fast.\n\nRick Russell was having lunch at the Indianapolis Athletic Club on March 28, 1984, when a phone was brought to his table. It was Johnny B. Smith, Mayflower CEO and chairman. Russell, president of Mayflower's moving operations, had to return to the office immediately.\n\nThe Colts were coming.\n\nFourteen tractor-trailer trucks were dispatched to the Baltimore Colts facility in Owings Mills, Md. Drivers weren't told their destination until the next day: The soon-to-be-famous 600-mile trek to Indianapolis.\n\n\"It's probably the most famous sporting move ever,\" said Russell, 68 and retired in Longboat Key, Fla.\n\nDavid Frick, then Indianapolis Deputy Mayor, waited with Mayor Bill Hudnut for word that the Mayflowers were on the move.\n\n\"It's been a blur,\" said Frick, 69, a semi-retired lawyer for Faegre Baker Daniels. \"It's hard to imagine it was 30 years ago because so many of the events, I can still re-live.\"\n\nHudnut and Smith were next-door neighbors. They waited out much of the move together.\n\n\"You know, Bill, I feel just like Dwight D. Eisenhower on D-Day,\" Smith said to Hudnut according to a 2009 story in The Indianapolis Star. \"I know my troops are out there. I just don't know where they are.\"\n\n\"I was a nervous wreck,\" Frick said.\n\n\"I always say Baltimore lost the Colts,\" Hudnut said in a 2004 interview with The Star. \"We didn't steal them.\"\n\nBefore Rick Hite became Indianapolis Police Chief in 2012, he was a Baltimore cop for 31½years, 12½of those on protection detail for Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schaefer, who later became Maryland governor. It was Hite who phoned Schaefer in the wee hours of March 29 to deliver the bad news.\n\n\"I felt like I was the Grim Reaper on this one,\" Hite said Thursday.\n\nNot all the men involved or affected by Indianapolis landing an NFL team can share their thoughts on the 30-year anniversary of the Mayflower move. Colts owner Bob Irsay, Smith and Schaefer have died. Current Colts owner Jim Irsay was unavailable after checking into an out-of-state health care facility for treatment following his arrest on preliminary charges of driving while impaired and four counts of possession of a controlled substance.\n\nBut there are enough people who experienced what happened — from the months leading up to the Mayflower trucks' arrival at the Baltimore Colts complex on March 28, 1984 to when they were unloaded at Fall Creek Elementary School on the 4900 block of Kessler Boulevard East Drive two days later — to provide a detailed account.\n\nNot much notice\n\nIn the fall of 1983, Russell remembered Smith first broaching the subject of Indianapolis possibly landing the Colts.\n\nRussell: Johnny B. told me he had gotten together with the guys that were putting together an offer for the Colts; Mayor Bill Hudnut, the Capital Improvement Board and all the leaders in town. They were going to offer all these things to the Colts in order to get them to move to Indy.\n\nHe said, \"I just thought you ought to know, I threw in a free move of all their equipment, training center and offices and all.\" At that time, the Colts were negotiating with other cities, including Phoenix. I asked, \"Can you give me a contact so I can start to learn something about what needs to be done if we do get the team?\" He gave me (Bob Irsay attorney Michael) Chernoff's name. Chernoff said, \"Oh, no, no, no. We can't have any moving companies there.\" I said, \"Well, give me as much notice as you can if it's going to happen. It's a big move.\" I talked a little to him about what would need to be done, so I had some expectation. Then I kind of forgot about it.\"\n\nFrick handled the city's negotiations with Chernoff on finalizing the deal. But the lawyer recalls another date of importance, Feb. 23, 1984, when he brought Bob Irsay to the Hoosier Dome for the first time.\n\nFrick: He wanted to see the stadium and obviously we wanted to show him the stadium, that we were pretty serious. I took him over to the Hoosier Dome. We were about three or four months from having the project completed. It was sufficient that he could see the place he was going to play.\n\nWe walked through the vomitory out on the field and he was silent. It struck me as a little bit of an odd situation because he was so talkative most of the time. I asked him, \"Mr. Irsay, are you OK?\" There was a long pause. He said, \"You know, these are the Colts colors.\" The silver in the seats, the white roof and the dark blue seats were all Colts colors. He said, \"You know, this just might be meant to be.\" It struck me. I then realized we had moved up in his thinking from just being a bargaining chip in his dealings with Baltimore to a true, viable alternative to locate his franchise.\n\nMark Herrmann (former Purdue quarterback who joined the Colts in 1983): That whole season, we had heard rumblings something was going to happen. Mr. Irsay was not happy. There was not a smooth relationship between he and the city of Baltimore. The fan support was not great by any means. It was not a fun season. I had just come from Denver, where everybody was just so rabid about the Broncos. It was such a shock to me to have to go into a half-empty stadium and not have that support from a tremendously traditional franchise that had been behind that team forever.As players, we put those distractions on the back burner, but it was always being brought up and talked about.\n\nI think a lot of those fans were living back in those Johnny Unitas days, Artie Donovan, Tom Matte, the late-'50s and early-'60s. We were kind of underachievers and those guys still lived there, so it was always there, and there was always that comparison. That gave you an empty feeling. This is our team, but we're not there to support you really. We're kind of living in the past and you guys aren't living up to our view of what the Colts are in our minds.\"\n\nHite, who grew up in Baltimore: My first football was a Colts football. You have to remember, back in those days, this was before the multi-million dollar contract. It was not unheard of that the Colts players lived in the community where they played. They worked part-time in the off-season. They sold cars, some owned car dealerships. Some worked in the liquor business, they owned bars and restaurants. … People knew who these guys were.\n\nSpeculation was rampant about what Bob Irsay might do next. The owner was dissatisfied with outdated Memorial Stadium, where attendance had steadily declined. The Colts averaged 38,336 fans in the 52,860-seat venue. The last game drew 20,418.\n\nPete Ward (now the Colts chief operating officer, an administrative assistant in 1984): Bob Irsay had discussions with the governor of Arizona. We came really this close (holds fingers close together) to moving to Phoenix in late January of '84. That fell through. There was talk about Memphis, and that kind of dissipated. In March, the talk turned toward Indianapolis. We had to plan for minicamps, the draft, certainly training camp ... the schedule is about to come out. By late March, we never expected that we would actually move. We kind of thought it was a negotiating ploy to get a better deal with the city of Baltimore.\n\nIrsay's much-publicized visits to other cities to gauge interest in the franchise upset Baltimore city officials and fans. On March 27, Maryland's State Legislature started the process to seize the Colts through eminent domain, a law that allows government to claim private property for public use. Hello, Indianapolis.\n\nFrick: The Colts left Baltimore because they had a terrible stadium, they weren't drawing crowds and, most importantly, the city of Baltimore and Maryland Legislature sought to take the Colts away from Bob Irsay by using eminent domain. That really called the question for Mr. Irsay. He had to get out of Maryland or they were going to take the franchise away from him.\n\nThe city of Baltimore had promised not to use eminent domain, then they broke that promise by trying to get a bill through the legislature in expedited form in a timetable so they could take it away from him.\n\nChernoff said to The Star in 2004: They had put a gun to our head and cocked it. We couldn't wait to find out if it was loaded.\n\nChernoff, 78 and living in Glencoe, Ill., was asked about his memorable comment last year: That was absolutely accurate. I said it, and I meant it. We just didn't give the mayor (Schaefer) a chance to pull the trigger.Schaefer, however, insisted in a 2004 interview with The Star that he wouldn't have resorted to using eminent domain to keep the Colts in Baltimore.\n\nSchaefer (in 2004): That's a bunch of bull. There was some talk of that, but I never would have allowed it. That was never in the picture because I trusted (Irsay). Irsay just downright fooled me. He kept telling me he wasn't leaving. He kept negotiating with us, and all the time he had already made the deal with Indianapolis.\n\nMoving out\n\nEquipment manager Jon Scott, who is still with the Colts, received a call from general manager Jim Irsay in the early morning of March 28.\n\n\"Hey, I've just talked to my dad,\" Scott recalled Jim saying. \"We're mo-o-o-ving.\"\n\n\"Phoenix?\" Scott asked.\n\nAfter a long pause, Jim Irsay said, \"No-o-o. Indy-y-y.\"\n\nScott: I thought, \"Oh my God. I'm going to a city that I've never been to before. It's about to be our longest road trip ever.\" It woke me up, for sure. Instructions were to get as many boxes as I could. Don't tell anyone. Don't tell anyone in the building. Don't tell your parents. Don't tell your friends. You had to be very secretive. Sure enough, I was able to get a whole bunch of boxes, as many as I could put in my van. We closed the doors (at the complex) early that morning and I started packing football equipment all day and all night.\n\nRussell: I was having lunch at the Athletic Club and the maître d' brought the telephone to my table. In those days, we didn't have cell phones. It was Johnny B.\n\n\"Rick, you better get back to the office quick,\" Russell recalled Smith saying.\n\n\"What's the matter?\" Russell asked.\n\n\"We've got to move the Colts,\" Smith said.\n\n\"Good, good, that means we're going to get 'em,\" Russell said.\n\n\"I think so, but we've got to move 'em,\" Smith said.\n\n\"Well, I've got time to work on that, don't I?\" Russell said.\n\n\"No, we've got to move them tonight,\" Smith said.\n\nSo I jumped in the car and headed back to the office and spent a little bit of time with Johnny and then went to work pulling together all the people and the resources that we were going to need to get it done that night. It was some quick planning.\n\nChernoff used the Irsay jet to stop by Indianapolis and pick up a Mayflower contact to oversee the move in Baltimore. They flew to Washington, D.C.\n\nRussell: They landed in Washington rather than Baltimore, thinking they didn't want to be seen by the media when they landed. Everybody was on point on this thing, looking for the jet. The word got out that they had landed in Washington. Media guys were following them downtown from Dulles. They were going to cut through the city, but they couldn't lose these media people. They pulled into the front lobby of the hotel, and the two people jumped out and went in like they were going to check in, then went out the back door and caught a cab and took that to Alexandria, Va., where our Washington office was located.\n\nWe had already talked to Washington and they were busy putting together a crew. I think they got 30-some men to help load and pack everything. We had a bus to run them out to the training center.\n\nWard: Jim called me down to his office (later that afternoon). He said, \"Ten o'clock tonight, you need to be here. My dad says we're moving to Indianapolis. There's going to be a lot of Mayflower vans moving in. You need to be here to maintain some semblance of order.\"\n\nColts assistant cinematographer Marty Heckscher: It was kind of a queasy feeling. It was kind of open-ended. I was a young man, my wife and I had a baby on Feb. 13th. There were a lot of changes going on in my life then and now the Colts are moving to Indianapolis? What's Indianapolis? What am I getting myself into? Then you get yourself busy and you don't think about it. You're focused on moving everything. You're a professional. The emotion, you set aside.\n\nRussell: We had guys in our traffic department in Indianapolis searching for empty tractor-trailer units starting out within 100 miles of the Baltimore training facility. We probably had 3,000 trucks then (but) they had to get there quickly. We widened the circle to 200, 300 miles before we came up with 14 empty ones that were available to handle the job.\n\nWe didn't tell the drivers what they were going to be doing. We just gave them a location to head towards. They went to our Alexandria office and then gradually were sent out one at a time to the Baltimore facility in Owings Mills. I think the first tractor trailer was there in the 7 p.m. range, not long after dark. Then we just kind of sent them in one at a time. There wasn't room to have all 14 there. The media was onto it by 8 or 9 p.m. They started showing up, knew we were there and what we were doing. We had enough people on the scene to do the job fairly quickly.\n\nHeckscher: The first thing they loaded when the trucks got to the complex were the business records. That first truck went north, the shortest distance to the state line. They wanted to get the records out of state as soon as possible. They took the long way to Indianapolis.\n\nA bus also arrived at the complex.\n\nWard: I couldn't figure out what the bus was for. So I went up and got the door open and I went into the bus and there were about 40 Hell's Angels staring me in the face. They said, \"Is this an embassy, man?\" They thought it was an embassy moving, which happens in the middle of the night. They didn't know where they were, which was part of the plan really. They were the packers.\n\nScott: I had heard a rumor that these guys came from Washington, D.C. I'm in the other room, then I come back in and I'm noticing a lot of these workers have underneath their jackets Baltimore Colts T-shirts on. I'm thinking, \"Wait a minute. They're from D.C. Aren't they Redskins fans? We might be getting ripped off here a little bit.\"\n\nThe packers were given 10 minutes to return anything taken while Scott and others left the room.\n\nScott: We went back in there and there was a pile of stuff. Hats. T-shirts. Sweatshirts.\n\nHeckscher: The trucks were leaving as they were loaded. It was a snowy night. It was kind of yucky. It was kind of like seeing a UFO. Is this really happening? Am I dreaming?\n\nHeckscher, 58, retired in St. Augustine, Fla., with his wife Stephanie, says many Colts employees lived in the adjacent Morningside Heights apartments.\n\nHeckscher: We were all young and mobile. In that kind of realm, it made the nucleus of this organization very tight. We did a lot together. That made the move easier, to be with people you're comfortable with. They're like family.\n\nWard: I was young and I was single. I thought, \"OK, I can't believe it, but here we go.\" There was a lot going through your head at the time. We're uprooting on a very, very, very, very short notice. You're moving and you don't know what the situation is going to be like in Indy; where the offices are going to be, where your life is headed, but I went along with it and the rest is history.\n\nScott: I worked all night until about 4 a.m., went back to my apartment, which was fortunately right next to the complex. Got about an hour's sleep. Then back to work the next day.\n\nRussell: The last truck left at about 4 a.m. on March 29th. The drivers were instructed to scatter. We didn't want them to be in a caravan. We didn't want them hanging out together so as to draw attention to them. We told them to drive 100 miles or so and find a place to get some sleep, then call in the next morning and we would give them their next instructions.\n\nHite, who got the news of the move about the time the last truck departed and woke up Schaefer with a phone call: I remember it was a cold, blustery day, a little snow. There was some activity at the Colts complex. We had off-duty police working there at the time. … I've had to call the mayor on other occasions. We had the sinking of the clipper ship, Pride I (in 1986). I had to wake him to tell him the ship had sunk in the Caribbean.\n\nHite was amused when told how officials were wary of the trucks being stopped before they could leave the state, hence the secretive instructions.\n\nHite: The fear of the owner and the mayor of Indianapolis (was) that State Police may stop the vehicles and seize the Colts memorabilia. That was part of the discussion (afterward), the folklore.\n\nHerrmann: I was actually back in Denver. It wasn't a good season. Just like the rest of the country, we saw the trucks moving along (on TV) and headed for Indianapolis. Needless to say, we were thrilled; a chance to come back home where I grew up (in Carmel) and we left the city of Baltimore, where really I didn't have any relationship or feeling for the city. I had played some, was hurt some. It was just a tough, tough year. Nothing against the city, it just didn't feel right. The whole season was not what I expected.\n\nThis (move) is good. This is really good. You've got a willing city, an excited city. Granted, it was kind a novel approach and novel thing for this city to get pro football, but still, there was an excitement. We want you. We're excited to have you. It was the total opposite of what we had just come from in Baltimore.\n\nAdjusting on the fly\n\nWard, who stayed at the complex after the final Mayflower left: I fell asleep on the floor in my empty office. When I woke up, there were employees arriving for work. They didn't know what else to do, so they came in. It was 8:30 in the morning. I lifted my head off of the floor and here were my fellow employees staring at me. That was an emotional moment. They were all pretty broken up about it. They had no idea what was going on, what the future held for them. We had a company meeting and basically said who was going and who was not. I wasn't in charge of that, but that's how it went down.\n\nScott: As soon as we landed in Indianapolis, we got out of the Irsay jet and I couldn't believe all the photographers and all of the cameras. And they followed us all day long. We went to the Hoosier Dome. We went to Fall Creek Elementary School; we were supposed to set up camp (there) and make it an NFL complex. They followed us right over to where we stayed that night. They followed us into the hotel lobby, all the cameras, always on us, right into the elevator. I thought the guys were actually going to get into the elevator with us, but they didn't. Cameras on us. The doors shut. I had to look over at Jim and say, \"I wonder if this is how The Beatles felt back in 1964, coming over from Liverpool (England).\"\n\nRussell: At about 11 p.m. (on March 28), I went home to get some sleep and then came back to the office at 8 the next morning. I came up the side door to my office on the second floor and my secretary met me at my door and said, \"Have you been down to the lobby? There are two television crews from Baltimore down there who want to talk to you.\" I said, \"Oh, great. I can't tell them anything, but I'll be glad to go down and meet with them.\" I went down and explained to them that we were just instructed to load everything up and they would let us know where it's going. They didn't like that answer, but they accepted it.\n\nLater that day, the announcement was made (by Hudnut) that they were coming to Indianapolis. We had already told the drivers of the trucks to begin to head toward Indianapolis. We started giving that order to the drivers at about 9 in the morning. Most of them arrived later that day or that night. They were all there within 24 hours after we gave them that instruction. They parked out back at our Mayflower office on Michigan Avenue.\n\nIt was Friday when we moved them out to their temporary training center (at Fall Creek Elementary). The helicopters were flying over. We didn't tell anybody where they were going until the day we delivered at the temporary training center. We had them all come to our facility first and park back near the garage. They went by caravan to their place. That's when Hudnut was out there waving the trucks on, from in front of our facility, when they made the turn to go South on Michigan Avenue. All of our employees were out in front cheering on the drivers as they pulled out to take everything down to the training center.\n\nWard: When we got here, it was even more exhausting. It was like starting a franchise, really, from scratch, except that you already had your players and your coaches. We didn't have a telephone. We didn't know what our address was. We didn't have stationery. We didn't have a copier. We didn't have anybody to answer telephones. Worst of all, we had a hundred boxes piled up on the floor with no labels on them. So before we could ever start to work on planning for the upcoming season, we had to unload boxes and figure out where everything went. That was a real nightmare. There was not enough time in each day for months. You could have worked 24 hours a day for five months straight and still not get everything done.\n\nScott: As the first trucks pulled up, we would actually take all the boxes and put them in the gymnasium in a large pile, eight boxes high, and literally open each box, try to figure out what it was and then whose department it belonged to and then put it in the corner of the gymnasium. That took us many, many days.\n\nWard: My first meal in Indianapolis, Jim called me and he actually had one of the first cell phones, he was going through a Burger King or McDonald's (drivethru) and he called me and asked if I wanted something.\n\nHistoric legacy\n\nFrick and Chernoff struck a 20-year deal with two five-year options. The city guaranteed the Colts $7 million in annual revenue. Annual rent was $250,000. The Colts and city shared suite license revenue, the team receiving the initial $500,000 and the city getting the rest. Concessions as well as videoboard and signage revenue were shared. The city kept parking proceeds. Game-day operating expenses were the city's responsibility. Chicago's Merchant Bank loaned Bob Irsay $15 million to pay off a debt to a Baltimore bank. The city would help subsidize the interest payments. Frick estimates Indianapolis profited at least $2 million per year initially from the Colts coming to town.\n\nBaltimore tried unsuccessfully to sue Smith, Hudnut and Frick in Baltimore City Court. The case got moved to Federal Court and a settlement was eventually reached on Dec. 10, 1985, that included returning Johnny Unitas memorabilia.\n\nHudnut, Indianapolis mayor from 1976 to 1992, now lives in Chevy Chase, Md. He has said the six-week period of attracting and landing the Colts was his favorite time as mayor. While considered the driving influence in the city's sports boom and Downtown revitalization, Hudnut has downplayed his role and credited predecessor Richard Lugar for getting the proverbial ball rolling.\n\nHudnut in 2012: We, as a city, had begun to think bigger under Mayor Lugar. So when I came into office, we started talking about what more we could do to make a mark, to enhance our economy and, to use a phrase, become a major league city. I don't care what the economists say about the inability of a team to enhance a city's economic base. It sure seems to me that in this case it did. The city has so much more vitality and there has been so much revitalization Downtown. To me, it's all paid off.\n\nFrick: I've got to confess, every March I think about (the move). Not many people have an opportunity to make such an impact on their community. I was very fortunate to have that opportunity, so I can't put it out of my mind.\n\nThe impact is so profound. It's the visual image of going to a game on a Sunday afternoon and seeing solid blue throughout the stadium, or the streets filled and the bars filled or you look at the number of people working at the game. The economic impact has been incredible, but the impact on the national scene was even more. It communicated to the entire country that Indianapolis is a great place.\n\nI had a unique experience (last) week. My wife had finally got me to do some touch-up painting at our house. I went in to buy a gallon of paint and the guy recognized me. It was only because the guy was 58 years old.\n\nRussell: The day after the move out, I got calls from our agents in Baltimore. They were really mad at me for Mayflower handling the move of their team. \"Do you know what's going to happen to my business this year? It's just going to go to hell. Nobody is going to call me.\" I said, \"Hold on, you know what they say about PR. There's no such thing as bad PR. Let's follow up and talk again as the year goes by.\" And we did. That year, they had a 20 percent increase in his business. It didn't affect him negatively at all. The agent apologized later for giving me such a hard time about it.\n\nMy boss, Johnny B., is the one that donated (the move). He gets the credit for that because it turned out to be a great PR vehicle for the company over the years. When the Colts and Baltimore play and they show that tape of the van pulling out in the snowy night, it's just getting Mayflower back on TV. Thirty years, it's been happening like that.\n\nLast week, I had a policeman visit to verify the ID numbers on my vehicles so I could register them in Florida. About halfway through our conversation, I mentioned that I used to work for Mayflower. He said, \"Oh really, I was a cop in Baltimore for 25 years.\" So here we go through the story again. It happens all the time. People remember it.\n\nRussell and his family are still diehard Colts fans.\n\nRussell: That's one thing we got out of the move. Bob let us go pick our season ticket seats and I've still got them. We've been to almost every game since. My four kids are Colts fans, they use the tickets more than I do, but yeah, I'm still a Colts fan.\n\nSo, too, is Hite.\n\nHite: As long as I don't say that in Baltimore, I'm fine.\n\nThe move's 30-year anniversary opens an old wound for Baltimore Colts fans, many of whom will never forgive nor forget. They blame Bob Irsay for everything. It doesn't matter that the city eventually landed another team, the Ravens, and that franchise has since won two Super Bowls.\n\nWard: I think it's worked out for both cities. They've won some Super Bowls. You still have people who are bitter about the Dodgers' move from Brooklyn and the (Oakland) Raiders' move. It's not unprecedented. There's always going to be some sensitive feelings.\n\nYou can't put the cause or the blame on any one person. It was a perfect storm, it came together, a lot of different factors. For me, it was kind of a surreal night. You certainly don't want to go through something like that twice in your life. It certainly was a stressful time. We've been in Indy for 30 years, we'll be here forever and we're so happy to be here.\n\nHerrmann, 55, eventually retired in his hometown. He works at St. Vincent Sports Performance Center and is a Colts radio analyst.\n\nHerrmann on heartbroken Baltimore fans: There's part of me that thinks, \"Yeah, move on, get over it.\" But then, families have grown up cheering for the horseshoe. To see that horseshoe move to Indianapolis, it probably would have been easier for the fans if they would have changed the (Colts) mascot and left that there. That would have eased the pain a little bit. Generations grew up with the Colts. There was that relationship, that feeling that this is our team and you took our team away. As pathetic as it is for those folks to hold this venom against the city of Indianapolis, there's a part down deep that appreciates the loyalty.\n\nLet's face it, this was a basketball city, a basketball state. To think of pro football in Indianapolis, yeah, that was kind of outside the realm of your thinking. Everything was so new and kind of exciting but people didn't know how to react to that team. And to think what it is 30 years later: Super Bowl championship, Super Bowl appearance, Peyton Manning has been through here, now you've got Andrew Luck, the fan base is as good as there is in the country. To think we would morph into that back then, I would have thought, \"No chance.\" But now I think it's a big league city. It's fun to think back 30 years ago to what it was and to think about what it is now. Amazing.\n\n***\n\nWilson writes for The Indianapolis Star", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/03/29"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2016/06/27/nfls-100-most-important-people/86423006/", "title": "The NFL's 100 most important people", "text": "USA TODAY Sports\n\n1. Jerry Jones\n\nHere’s what can happen when a man risks his entire fortune to realize a dream of owning an NFL team: He instantly becomes the most despised man in Texas for firing legendary coach Tom Landry.\n\nBut then with the help of a former college roommate (Jimmy Johnson), his fortunes turn, and he finds Super Bowl gushers. He redefines the sports marketing game and transforms a money-sucking stadium into a profit center. Then he builds a new palace.\n\nHe generates a boatload of money with the most visible franchise in the NFL – and along the way becomes the ultimate game-changer at the heart of soaring league revenues.\n\nHe becomes the Jerry Jones of his wildest dreams.\n\nThe owner of the Dallas Cowboys has long maintained rank among the NFL elite – be it players, coaches or commissioner – and is USA TODAY Sports' choice atop the list of the NFL’s 100 Most Important People.\n\nThis has very little to do with football results, given the Cowboys haven’t won a Super Bowl in more than 20 years and, well, multiple general managers would have been fired during that span if not for the fact that Jones serves as his own GM.\n\nStill, the franchise that plays at sparkling AT&T Stadium – Jerry World, it is often called – is worth $3.2 billion, according to Forbes, second to soccer juggernaut Real Madrid ($3.26 billion) among sports franchises worldwide.\n\nA sparkling new team headquarters – dubbed \"The Star\" – is set to open in August.\n\nYet Jones’ impact goes far beyond being a look-at-how-I’ve-done-it model.\n\nNo owner was more influential in pushing others to sign off on the Los Angeles Rams' stadium deal in Inglewood, Calif. – rather than a Carson deal for the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders that was backed by a lot of “old school” owners. Jones was sold on Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s grand plan for solving the NFL’s conundrum in the nation’s second-largest market.\n\nIt was the same type of big-picture thinking Jones employed during the 1990s, when he spearheaded a new philosophy for the broadcast committee in selling the NFL’s network TV package – which is shared by all 32 teams – that bucked the traditional bidding process and resulted in then-fledgling Fox entering the game … and providing the impetus to blow the lid off the previous deal.\n\nAnd you can bet that Jones will be in the middle of the next big NFL deal. He’s already sent signals that he’ll back a potential move to Las Vegas by the Oakland Raiders.\n\nJones never rests in seeking ideas to up the ante – which is why he’s so important to the NFL.\n\n— Jarrett Bell\n\n2. Roger Goodell\n\nThe self-avowed defender of the NFL shield will reach the 10-year mark as commissioner on Sept. 1.\n\nThough Goodell works at the pleasure of the owners, he’s typically the face of the league’s triumphs and failures no matter the significance of his personal role.\n\nHe has overseen what seems to be runaway growth for the country’s most popular sports league with a stated goal of reaching $25 billion in annual revenue by 2027. A continued diet of massive television contracts, a steadily growing international footprint, this year’s return to the lucrative Los Angeles market and key events spread across the calendar that consistently place the NFL at the forefront of the sports news cycle are among the factors which could make his fiscal target a reality.\n\nBut Goodell’s reign has been turbulent.\n\nHe was hailed early in his tenure for taking a hard line against players who ran afoul of the law, issuing a season-long suspension to Adam “Pacman” Jones while docking Chris Henry and Tank Johnson eight games apiece during his first nine months on the job. However in 2014, Goodell was heavily criticized for the handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence incident.\n\nDistrust between the league office and NFL Players Association has been a hallmark of Goodell’s tenure. The two sides regularly find themselves in court with the NFLPA seeking avenues to curb the power the current collective bargaining agreement confers to Goodell’s office.\n\nGoodell has navigated prominent scandals with varying degrees of success – among them the Miami Dolphins’ workplace bullying episode, the New Orleans Saints’ Bountygate situation, the infamous lockout of game officials in 2012, Spygate and Deflategate, the latter two leaving Goodell opposed with a flagship franchise, the New England Patriots, and owner Robert Kraft, long one of his foremost allies.\n\nHeading into his second decade, Goodell must keep his golden goose happy while remaining the leading defender of football’s viability amid an onslaught of escalating questions about the sport’s safety.\n\n— Nate Davis\n\n3. Cam Newton\n\nThe NFL’s reigning MVP broke the quarterback mold when he entered the league as the No. 1 draft pick in 2011.\n\nExpect him to continue redefining the position well into the future.\n\nAt 6-5, 245 (plus) pounds, Newton lines up under center – or often in the shotgun – with an unprecedented combination of size and athleticism. He was the first rookie in league history to pass for 4,000 yards. He is tied with Hall of Famer Steve Young for the most career rushing touchdowns by a quarterback (43) as well as for the most games with a TD both through the air and on the ground (31). Young played in the NFL for 15 years. Newton is entering his sixth.\n\nWhile leading the Carolina Panthers to Super Bowl 50 last season, Newton became the first player to pass for 30-plus touchdowns (35) and rush for double-digit TDs (10) in the same year.\n\nBut though he’s the rare player who has thrived in the pros with a read-option attack, Newton continues to evolve into an adept pocket quarterback who need only fall back on his immense physical gifts only when a play breaks down.\n\nAnd while Newton continues to raise the bar with his play, the guy who used to sulk with a towel draped over his head amid a poor performance has also put his signature on the franchise quarterback label. Ever see Peyton Manning or Tom Brady doing The Dab or posing for team selfies before the final whistle? How about mocking or blowing off media questions at the Super Bowl? Hosting an offseason show on Nickelodeon? Maybe wearing Superman cleats while pretending to reveal the “S” on his chest after a score?\n\nNope, this isn’t the staid NFL of 2010. It’s Newton’s world, one where his gifts and charisma are likely to continue reshaping the most difficult and high-profile job of the sporting landscape.\n\n— Nate Davis\n\n4. Bill Belichick\n\nOne of the indelible images of the legendary New England Patriots coach shows him smirking from behind his hoodie, his face partially obscured by the cowl like the evil emperor from Star Wars. Appropriate, perhaps, given many football fans west of Connecticut consider Belichick’s ongoing dynasty an evil empire.\n\nStill, despite the occasional football scandal, Belichick’s influence and success are undeniable.\n\nDespite a relative lack of superstars during his 16 years in New England – Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Rob Gronkowski are rare exceptions – Belichick has built an AFC East champion 13 times, reached the conference championship game 10 times and won four of six Super Bowl appearances in that span. It’s a remarkable outlier of a feat in the post-free agency, parity-driven NFL. No other team has appeared in more than three Super Bowls or won more than two since 2000.\n\nSince Belichick’s team-centric approach took root, “Do Your Job” and “The Patriot Way” have become franchise-defining catchphrases. Perhaps no team better maximizes the abilities of players who might appear marginally talented – Troy Brown, Tedy Bruschi, Rob Ninkovich, Mike Vrabel, Wes Welker – than Belichick’s football factory.\n\nAs long as Belichick dons that hoodie, it stands to reason his team will remain the NFL’s crown jewel, maintaining a level of success the other 31 teams can only hope to approach.\n\n— Nate Davis\n\n5. DeMaurice Smith\n\nIn what is one of the toughest jobs in all of sports, NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith has navigated the union through uncertain – and often contentious – periods of labor relations.\n\nHis most lasting achievement is the ratification of a 10-year collective bargaining agreement that ended the 132-day lockout of 2011.\n\nThe CBA gave the players significant improvements in health and safety. Offseason programs were shortened. The amount of contact allowed during practices was reduced. To ensure those standards are being met, the NFLPA can now perform unannounced inspections of training camps. He also pushed for the inclusion of an anti-lockout insurance policy, which was a first among sports leagues in the country.\n\nBut, perhaps the most important victory of all from the 2011 CBA is the provision that gives the players the highest share of television contract revenues in league history.\n\nSmith has also seen his group secure valuable victories in conflicts against the NFL in player suspensions – most notably that of Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson. Under Smith’s direction, players have cashed in on the booming free-agent market that grows with each season.\n\nSmith first earned his post in 2009 after he beat out three candidates, including current NFL vice president of football operations Troy Vincent. In 2012, Smith ran unopposed. And in 2015, he topped eight other candidates, unanimously, for his third consecutive three-year term that concludes in the spring of 2018.\n\nCritics of Smith’s point to certain structures in the CBA that appear to cede more power to the league’s owners and Commissioner Roger Goodell. Those include the franchise tag and, as is currently being contested in the court system, Article 46, which gives Goodell the authority to act as the discipline officer under the language of “conduct detrimental” to the league.\n\nFans may lament the ongoing arguments in Deflategate, but Smith and the union have a duty to uphold and protect the players’ rights. Taking its case to court is the best method the NFLPA has to ensure that the league doesn’t abuse its power.\n\n— Lorenzo Reyes\n\n***\n\n6. Robert Kraft\n\nPatriots owner. As chairman of the NFL’s broadcast committee as well as an active member of the league’s NFL Network, finance, compensation and management council executive committees, Kraft is one of the most powerful owners in the sport. And his team is just as powerful with four Super Bowl titles during his reign. He was a central figure in Deflategate and often at odds with Goodell and the league office over the matter.\n\n7. Dr. Robert Stern\n\nProfessor of neurology and neurosurgery at Boston University. A leading researcher in the field of concussions, he has been critical of the league. He will be involved in a $16 million study to try and diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in living patients. Currently, CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated hits to the head, can only be found after death. Funding for the study became controversial when an ESPN report said the NFL did not want money it had donated used. The league denied the report.\n\n8. Stan Kroenke\n\nLos Angeles Rams owner and a member of the NFL’s broadcast committee. Kroenke fought hard to bring the Rams from St. Louis back to L.A. and, in doing so, showed the rest of the league what a force he can be. His new stadium, scheduled to open for the 2019 season, will host the 2021 Super Bowl and is expected to host many other major events.\n\n9. John Elway\n\nGeneral manager of the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos. The Broncos have won the AFC West every year since Elway took over in 2011 and reached the Super Bowl twice in that stretch. Elway won the Peyton Manning sweepstakes when the record-setting quarterback became a free agent in 2012, a major coup that catapulted the franchise to sustained success. Elway, in building the roster, has shown he is as adept in the front office as he was on the field.\n\n10. Tom Brady\n\nPatriots quarterback. Since 2001, Brady has led the team to four Super Bowl titles, winning game MVP honors in three of them, and has also been the league MVP twice. He currently faces a four-game suspension for his alleged role in Deflategate. Widely regarded as the best quarterback in the game and perhaps of all time.\n\n11. Sheldon Adelson\n\nBillionaire owner of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Adelson’s company, along with Majestic Reality, has been pushing to build a stadium in hopes of luring the Oakland Raiders to Vegas.\n\n12. John Mara\n\nPresident, CEO, and co-owner of the New York Giants. He also serves as chairman of the NFL management council executive committee. Considered one of the classiest owners in the league. His grandfather, Tim Mara, founded the Giants in 1925.\n\n13. Tod Leiweke\n\nChief operating officer of the NFL. Leiweke left his role as CEO of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning in 2015 to join the NFL and has been aggressively restructuring the league’s front office since.\n\n14. Andrew Luck\n\nIndianapolis Colts quarterback. As if the pressure of being a franchise quarterback (and successor to Peyton Manning) coming off an injury-marred season isn’t enough, the eyes of the league are upon Luck now that he's become the highest-paid player in NFL history after agreeing to a record six-year, $140 million megadeal.\n\n15. Dean Blandino\n\nLeague’s vice president of officiating. A major force in setting and implementing often complex rules, including the complicated and often misunderstood catch rule. Blandino is also the face of the league when a controversial call decides or impacts a game.\n\n16. Lisa Friel\n\nLeague’s senior vice president for investigations. Friel, who was previously in charge of sex crime prosecutions for the New York County district attorney’s office, took her current job when the NFL created it after being roundly criticized for the way it handled the Ray Rice investigation in 2014.\n\n17. Von Miller\n\nBroncos linebacker. The MVP of Super Bowl 50, he almost singlehandedly shut down league MVP Cam Newton and the Panthers with 2½ sacks and two forced fumbles. Miller received the franchise tag from Denver in March but could soon be the league’s highest-paid defensive player … assuming he gets a new contract and doesn’t follow through on a threat to sit out the 2016 season without one.\n\n18. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit\n\nNow the new main players in Deflategate. After the court ruled 2-1 to reinstate Tom Brady’s suspension, the quarterback’s lawyers appealed en banc, meaning seven of the court’s 13 judges would have to agree to hear the appeal. If that fails, Brady could turn to the Supreme Court in a final attempt to fight his four-game suspension.\n\n19. Richard Sherman\n\nSeattle Seahawks cornerback. One of the league’s top defensive backs and one of the most outspoken, too – from calling himself the best corner in football, to taunting players such as Brady, to calling Goodell a “suit.” Sherman, a Stanford grad who grew up in Compton, is also opinionated on a variety of social issues.\n\n20. Kathryn Smith\n\nBuffalo Bills quality control and special teams coach. She is the first full-time female assistant coach in league history. Smith was Buffalo coach Rex Ryan’s administrative assistant last season and served several roles before that under Ryan with the New York Jets, including college scouting intern in 2005 and, two years later, a full-time player personnel assistant.\n\n21. Dean Spanos\n\nPresident and CEO of the San Diego Chargers. Spurned by fellow owners in his attempt to move the team to the Los Angeles area, he is now hoping San Diego voters approve a new stadium initiative in November. Spanos still currently has the option to move the Chargers to L.A. next year.\n\n22. Ron Rivera\n\nPanthers head coach. Two-time coach of the year just signed new contract, which makes him among highest-paid in league, after leading Carolina to Super Bowl 50. A former NFL linebacker, Rivera is highly respected by his players for his direct and even-keeled approach and loyalty – a trait that was evident when he tirelessly defended Newton after his controversial post-Super Bowl press conference.\n\n23. Howard Katz\n\nSenior vice president of broadcasting and media operations for the NFL. Katz is essentially responsible for annually determining the schedules for every team.\n\n24. Las Vegas oddsmakers\n\nThey decide which teams are the favorites and underdogs each week. “We don’t get it right 100% of the time,” said Johnny Avello, the executive director the race and sports book at the Wynn Las Vegas. “We want to put the number in a spot where there’s betting on both sides.”\n\n25. Chris Borland\n\nFormer San Francisco 49ers linebacker. He retired after a promising 2014 rookie season at age 24, becoming the voice of concussion awareness. Despite good health, Borland feared developing CTE and predicts more players will leave the league early for similar reasons.\n\n26. Tony Romo\n\nDallas Cowboys quarterback – one of the most high-profile jobs in the NFL. But Romo is also battling the league on another front after it wouldn’t allow players to participate in his fantasy camp at a Las Vegas casino in 2015. The event, scheduled to be held in L.A. in 2016, was again postponed “because of the NFL's continued and calculated actions against the NFFC (National Fantasy Football Convention), including Tony, and against the other NFL player participants,” according to one of Romo’s representatives.\n\n27. Troy Vincent\n\nExecutive vice president of football operations for the NFL. Vincent is responsible for quality and innovation within the league and is heavily involved with game operations, college relations, the competition committee and player discipline. He authored the letters sent to the Patriots and Brady detailing the original Deflategate punishment in 2015.\n\n28. Brian Rolapp\n\nChief operating officer of NFL Media. He negotiates the league’s television deals with networks.\n\n29. J.J. Watt\n\nHouston Texans defensive end. The reigning defensive player of the year has won the award three times in the past four seasons (Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor is the only other three-time winner). Watt, who was also voted the Face of the NFL as well as the league’s top player according to his peers in 2015, is also a dynamic personality off the field and has a huge social media presence.\n\n30. Pete Carroll/John Schneider\n\nCarroll is head coach of the Seahawks and Schneider is the general manager. Since the duo teamed up in 2010, Seattle has become a powerhouse, advancing to the playoffs five times, reaching two Super Bowls and winning a title in 2013. Some teams envy, and even try to copy, the way the two work together in assembling the roster.\n\n31. Rich McKay\n\nAtlanta Falcons president and CEO. He is also chairman of the powerful NFL competition committee that has a major say in setting league rules.\n\n32. Mark Davis\n\nRaiders owner. Also spurned by owners in an attempted return to the Los Angeles market, Davis is now considering a groundbreaking move from Oakland to Las Vegas.\n\n33. Joe Lockhart/Natalie Ravitz\n\nLockhart is the league’s executive vice president of communications while Ravitz serves as senior VP of communications. Both have political backgrounds and will shape the league’s message.\n\n34. Daniel Snyder\n\nOwner of the Washington Redskins, a franchise he has no interest in re-branding. That issue sometimes make more news than what happens to his team on the field, but Snyder has remained firm that he will not change the nickname even though many consider it racist.\n\n35. Bruce Arians\n\nArizona Cardinals coach. Speaks his mind. Loved by players. He was the first in league history to hire a female assistant coach (as an intern) and instituted a zero-tolerance policy for domestic violence for players in his locker room. More controversially, Arians recently blamed concussions on players not tackling properly, not on the nature of the sport, and has called mothers who won’t let their kids play football “fools.” Arians, a two-time coach of the year, is also renowned as a quarterback whisperer and was instrumental in shaping the careers of Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Andrew Luck.\n\n36. Aaron Rodgers\n\nGreen Bay Packers quarterback. The two-time league MVP is the highest-rated passer in NFL history. His off-field profile has risen since he began dating actress Olivia Munn.\n\n37. Jack Dorsey\n\nCEO of Twitter. The social media site will stream 10 Thursday Night Football games live this season – a big step for the league. And Dorsey.\n\n38. Jeffrey Kessler\n\nA prominent sports lawyer with many high-profile clients in the NFL. Kessler has been referred to as the NFL’s “arch-enemy” and often works on behalf of the players union, including CBA negotiations and Deflategate.\n\n39. Art Rooney\n\nPittsburgh Steelers co-owner and president. His presence on several key committees makes him a force in the league, as does the fact he comes from one of the most respected and longest-tenured families in the NFL.\n\n40. Sarah Thomas\n\nGame official. She became the first female hired on a full-time basis to serve in that role last season. Thomas worked Conference USA games at the college level. She was a line judge last season.\n\n41. Russell Wilson\n\nSeahawks quarterback. Despite questions about whether his style of play and height – Wilson is generously listed at 5-11 – would work at this level, he has won more games (46 in the regular season and seven more in the playoffs) in his first four seasons than any quarterback in history. One of them was a Super Bowl in Wilson’s second year.\n\n42. Bob McNair\n\nFounder and owner of the Texans. He is also chairman of the NFL finance committee. McNair hopes his team will be the first to host a Super Bowl with the big game set to be staged in Houston next February.\n\n43. Jeff Pash\n\nExecutive vice president and general counsel for the NFL. Pash, a major player in Deflategate, has a significant role in the handling of any critical legal issues the league faces and is a major player in collective bargaining negotiations.\n\n44. Jared Goff\n\nRams quarterback. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft, he is expected to restore the lowly Rams to greatness amid their Los Angeles return.\n\n45. Odell Beckham Jr.\n\nGiants wide receiver. In the golden age of pass catchers, the man who dominates highlight reels by hauling in so many with one hand stands above the rest.\n\n46. Jeff Miller\n\nThe NFL's top executive for health and safety. He – and the league – tried to walk back the comments, but Miller acknowledged to a Congressional committee that there was a connection between football and CTE.\n\n47. Ted Wells\n\nAttorney who specializes in criminal law. The league hired Wells to conduct independent investigations into the Miami Dolphins’ locker room bullying scandal in 2013 and “Deflategate” in 2015.\n\n48. Sashi Brown\n\nExecutive vice president of football operations for the Cleveland Browns. It’s his turn to see if he’s the one who can turn this once-proud franchise around. Brown’s reliance on analytics will make it that much more interesting to watch.\n\n49. Terry and Kim Pegula\n\nBuffalo Bills owners. The husband-and-wife team is committed to western New York, but their looming stadium issue is tricky and worth watching.\n\n50. Rob Gronkowski\n\nPatriots tight end. Gronkowski has already set several receiving records for his position and is quickly putting together a Hall-of-Fame resume. But his zany and fun-loving personality have also made him a ubiquitous presence on social media and TV (he’s now got a show on Nickelodeon). He hosted a fantasy cruise in the Bahamas earlier this year, and he’s even the newest cover boy for Madden NFL.\n\n51. Chip Kelly\n\nSan Francisco 49ers head coach. He went 10-6 each of his first two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles but bombed (and was fired) in 2015 after assuming control of personnel decisions. Kelly is back to mere coaching with the 49ers, but many of his creative offensive concepts have been emulated throughout the league. Still, if he’s not successful with the Niners, will that deter owners from reaching into the college ranks for a coach?\n\n52. Mark Lazarus\n\nChairman of NBC Sports. Not only does his network have the prime-time game every Sunday, typically the marquee NFL matchup of the week, it now will broadcast five Thursday night games.\n\n53. Daily fantasy sports chiefs\n\nDraftKings CEO Jason Robins and Nigel Eccles of FanDuel. Their industry remains under fire in many states, which claim it is illegal sports gambling, but you couldn’t watch a game last season without seeing one of their commercials. Or 100 of them.\n\n54. Martha Ford\n\nMajority owner and chairwoman of the Detroit Lions. Ford, 90, has made no mistake who is in charge in Detroit since assuming control of the long struggling franchise in 2014.\n\n55. Eric Winston\n\nPresident of the NFLPA and Cincinnati Bengals tackle. Winston has been very critical of the league when it comes to concussion research and reports, saying: “They cannot be trusted to do the right thing when it involves players.”\n\n56. Ozzie Newsome\n\nBaltimore Ravens general manager and executive vice president. The Hall-of-Fame tight end has been in the Ravens front office since they came to Baltimore in 1996 and became the NFL’s first African-American GM in 2002. Newsome is considered one of the league’s best talent evaluators and has built two Super Bowl champions in Baltimore.\n\n57. Jon Gruden\n\nESPN Monday Night Football analyst. He makes the list not for his TV work, but because Gruden’s QB Camp has become a “must stop” for top NFL quarterback prospects prior to the last seven drafts.\n\n58. John Wooten\n\nChairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance. He works with the NFL to promote minority hiring for coaching, scouting and front office positions.\n\n59. DeAndre Levy\n\nLions linebacker. Levy makes the list not for his Pro Bowl play but because he wrote an article in The Players’ Tribune titled “Man Up,” discussing the shocking lack of awareness there is for sexual assault in sports.\n\n60. Manning Family\n\nFrom recently retired Peyton, who went out with a second Super Bowl ring, to his brother Eli, who has the same number of championships with the Giants, to their dad Archie, who was a damn good QB on a lot of bad teams, they certainly can lay claim to being the First Family of Football. It remains to be seen if that title gets tarnished given the NFL’s ongoing investigation into Peyton’s alleged link to human growth hormone.\n\n61. Eric Grubman\n\nNFL executive vice president and president of the league’s business ventures since 2006. He oversaw and advocated for the Rams’ relocation from St. Louis to Los Angeles.\n\n\n\n62. Arthur Blank\n\nFalcons owner. After this season, his team will move into groundbreaking Mercedes Benz Stadium, which was selected to host the 2019 Super Bowl. Blank’s foundation has been lauded by many for trying to improve the quality of life for people living in the Atlanta area.\n\n63. Marvin Lewis\n\nBengals head coach. Hired in 2003, he is currently the longest-tenured minority coach, and only Bill Belichick has served longer with a franchise among current coaches. Lewis has achieved sustained success (five consecutive playoff appearances) with a franchise where few thought that was possible.\n\n64. Thom Mayer\n\nNFLPA medical director. He has been at the forefront for the union and is a driving force in developing the players’ positions on health and safety matters, which include pushing the league on the concussion issue. Mayer is also the point person for the union for investigations where breach of concussion protocol is suspected.\n\n65. Brock Osweiler\n\nTexans quarterback. The big free-agent signing in 2016, Houston lured him away from the Broncos with a four-year, $72 million contract even though Osweiler only has seven career starts – quite a statement on the value of QBs in the modern NFL.\n\n66. Katie Blackburn\n\nBengals executive vice president. The daughter of Cincinnati owner Mike Brown, Blackburn was the first woman to be a chief contract negotiator in the NFL and has assumed more day-to-day control of the franchise. The MMQB called her “The NFL’s Most Powerful Woman Nobody Talks About.”\n\n67. Brandon Marshall\n\nJets wide receiver. Besides his on-field talents – Marshall is the only player with 1,000-yard receiving seasons for four teams – he is recognized as an advocate for borderline personality disorder patients after his own diagnosis. Marshall sought professional help after several domestic violence accusations.\n\n68. CAA Football\n\nLed by the powerful agent trio of Tom Condon, Jimmy Sexton and Todd France, Creative Artists Agency's football wing represents stars like J.J. Watt, Eli Manning, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Luke Kuechly, Dez Bryant, Julio Jones and Ndamukong Suh, plus budding stars who just got paid (Fletcher Cox) or soon will (Tyrann Mathieu). Sexton also reps coaches, including Rex Ryan and Adam Gase.\n\n69. Sean McManus\n\nCBS Sports chairman. The network, which typically airs AFC games, took a bold step by jumping into the Thursday Night Football package in 2014, and it is paying off for them.\n\n70. Mark Waller\n\nNFL’s executive vice president for international affairs. He’s become a strong proponent of the league’s expansion outside the U.S. and said in a recent interview he envisions the establishment of more than one team in a foreign city. In 2016, the NFL will host three games in England and one in Mexico City.\n\n71. Eric Shanks\n\nPresident, chief operating officer and executive producer for FOX Sports. The network, which airs the NFC package, has been the most innovative since arriving on the scene in 1994.\n\n72. Amy Adams Strunk\n\nControlling owner of the Tennessee Titans. Daughter of late owner Bud Adams, Strunk and her family members have been attempting to comply with NFL rules involving ownership structure so they can maintain control of the franchise, which Bud Adams founded in 1960.\n\n73. Bob LaMonte\n\nNeed a coach or general manager? Call LaMonte. His Professional Sports Representation, Inc., represents seven NFL head coaches, five GMs and dozens more coaches and executives in pro and college football. Last year’s class included the Giants’ Ben McAdoo and Eagles’ Doug Pederson.\n\n74. Tony Dungy\n\nNBC analyst. The Hall-of-Fame coach’s importance goes far beyond his TV duties. Many coaches and players still reach out to him for advice.\n\n75. John Skipper\n\nPresident of ESPN. His network has the Monday night package and offers countless hours of NFL programming throughout the year.\n\n76. James Andrews\n\nProminent American orthopedic surgeon. One of the biggest, if not the biggest, names in sports medicine. Andrews has worked on NFL players such as Adrian Peterson and Peyton Manning and is often sought for a second opinion.\n\n77. John Madden\n\nHall-of-Fame coach of the Raiders and longtime TV analyst. Even in retirement, he continues to serve as an advisor with the NFL and, of course, his name headlines the popular EA Sports Madden NFL video game that he’s been endorsing since 1988.\n\n78. Shad Khan\n\nJacksonville Jaguars owner. He has overseen many improvements to EverBank Field, including, yes, the pool. But Khan is also building a team that will soon be the main attraction.\n\n79. George Whitfield\n\nKnown as the “quarterback guru,” he typically works with passing prospects prior to the draft. Whitfield's clientele has included players like Johnny Manziel, Cam Newton, Andrew Luck, and Jameis Winston.\n\n80. Adrian Peterson\n\nMinnesota Vikings running back. He led the league in rushing (for the third time) in 2015 at 30, the age when most backs are retired or in steep decline. In the age of “pass first,” the 2012 MVP proves a running back can still be the biggest weapon on a playoff team’s offense.\n\n81. Joel Segal\n\nRecently promoted to president of team sports at Lagardere Sports, he represents 54 active players, including five first-round picks in the 2016 draft. His client list includes Patrick Peterson, DeSean Jackson, Justin Houston and Khalil Mack.\n\n82. Drew Rosenhaus\n\nOne of the most recognizable faces in the agent industry, he also remains one of the most prolific. Rosenhaus represents 106 current players, including Rob Gronkowski, LeSean McCoy, Greg Olsen and T.Y. Hilton.\n\n83. Scott Hallenbeck\n\nExecutive director of USA Football, which oversees the sport on the youth and amateur levels. He plays a vital role for the NFL due to the fact that USA Football is the official youth development partner of all 32 of the league’s teams.\n\n84. Tyrann Mathieu\n\nCardinals defensive back. He exemplifies the new emphasis on versatile defenders who can play safety, corner and even linebacker. Viewed as a risky third-round pick in 2013 after drug use prematurely ended his LSU career, Arizona is now grooming Mathieu as the future face of the franchise with a new contract around the corner. His maturation has also included his outspoken stance on social issues, like the rampant crime in his hometown of New Orleans.\n\n85. Matthew Berry\n\nSenior fantasy sports analyst for ESPN. The network gives him the perfect platform for talking to fantasy fans.\n\n86. Mike Pereira\n\nFOX Sports analyst. The former vice president of NFL officiating, he is now one of the most trusted voices when it comes to rules interpretations.\n\n87. Cris Collinsworth\n\nNBC Sunday Night Football analyst. Former Bengals receiver has a national broadcast audience every week. He also owns the football analytics website Pro Football Focus.\n\n88. Mike Mayock, Todd McShay, Mel Kiper\n\nNFL draft gurus. Mayock (NFL Network), McShay (ESPN) and Kiper (ESPN) dominate football talk for about three months of the year leading to the annual draft.\n\n89. Charlotte Jones Anderson\n\nExecutive vice president and chief brand officer for the Cowboys, one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world. She is also the chairwoman of the NFL Foundation, the league's charity arm that is knee-deep in pushing youth football and safety agendas.\n\n90. Eugene Monroe\n\nOffensive tackle. Recently released by the Ravens and now a free agent, Monroe has been outspoken on his view that the league should allow players to use medical marijuana instead of the addictive opioids teams often use to treat injuries.\n\n91. Charlie Sly\n\nFormerly an intern at Indianapolis’ Guyer Institute, Sly was caught by an Al Jazeera America hidden camera linking five NFL players – Peyton Manning, James Harrison, Dustin Keller, Julius Peppers and Mike Neal – to HGH. The league says its investigation is ongoing.\n\n92. Doug Hendrickson and Roosevelt Barnes\n\nThe death of legendary agent Eugene Parker and pending suspension of Ben Dogra left the football arm of Relativity Sports – recently rebranded Independent Sports and Entertainment – in the hands of this duo. Their client list includes Adrian Peterson, Jason Pierre-Paul and Aldon Smith.\n\n93. Greg Hardy\n\nFree agent defensive end. Has the league had enough, or will the first key injury bring the polarizing pass rusher back into the game?\n\n94. David Baker\n\nPro Football Hall of Fame executive director. He is in charge of the game’s history.\n\n95. Jim Irsay\n\nColts owner. He moved Andrew Luck atop the NFL pay scale but just might have struck a bargain by paying him $23.3 million through 2021, lower than many estimated Irsay would have to shell out.\n\n96. Dave Gettleman\n\nPanthers general manager. Since Gettleman took over in 2013, the Panthers have won three consecutive NFC South titles. And he’s quickly shown he has no fear of making a difficult decision with an eye to the future. In April, Gettleman rescinded the franchise tag from all-pro corner Josh Norman rather than overpay him and deviate from his philosophy of investing heavily in the trenches.\n\n97. Michael Sam\n\nThe first openly gay player to be drafted – he didn’t make the Rams’ final roster after being selected in 2014 – he continues to imply that his sexuality is keeping him out of the NFL. Those comments could prevent other players from coming out.\n\n98. Doug Mack\n\nCEO of Fanatics, the licensed sports merchandising company that operates the e-commerce business for the NFL.\n\n99. Dave Dunn and Brian Murphy\n\nThe founders and brain trust of Athletes First, the agency that represents Aaron Rodgers, Carson Palmer, Clay Matthews, Jamaal Charles and Earl Thomas, among others. Dunn has increasingly been involved with coaches, too, representing the likes of Chip Kelly and Jason Garrett.\n\n100. Les Snead\n\nRams general manager. New quarterback. New city. Enough said for what will determine his future with the team now operating in the high-pressure Hollywood market.\n\n***\n\nThe list was compiled by: Nancy Armour, Jarrett Bell, Chris D’Amico, Nate Davis, Lindsay H. jones, Tom Pelissero, Eric Prisbell and Lorenzo Reyes\n\nThe capsules were written by: Griffin Adams, Lila Bromberg and Callie Caplan.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/06/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2021/12/09/ranking-big-12-bowl-games-independence-new-years-six/6450230001/", "title": "Ranking the Big 12 bowl games: From Independence to New Year's ...", "text": "The bowl assignments are out, and I’ve got to say, it’s a great post-season list for the Big 12.\n\nEven though the Big 12 didn’t place a team in the College Football Playoff, a future Big 12 member, Cincinnati, made the four-team bracket. And the other Big 12 bowls, and bowls involving future Big 12 members, are mostly intriguing.\n\nThe Thursday ScissorTales check OU’s history of hiring defensive-minded coaches and look at Baker Mayfield’s future with the Cleveland Browns, but we start with our Thursday List, which ranks the Big 12 post-season games and includes future Big 12 members.\n\nTramel's ScissorTales:Facing Notre Dame in Fiesta Bowl a nice consolation prize for OSU football\n\nThe List: Ranking the Big 12 bowl games\n\n1. Cotton Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Alabama, 2:30 p.m., Dec. 31, ESPN, in Arlington, Texas. This is a great assignment for mid-majors, with Cincy finally crashing through the ceiling and getting a playoff berth. But it’s also good for the Big 12, with the Bearcats soon to join. And it could be an even greater day. If UC could somehow pull an upset, it would be monumental not just for the underdogs, but for the new-look Big 12.\n\n2. Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Notre Dame, 11 a.m., Jan. 1, ESPN, in Glendale, Arizona. Tremendous bowl game for the Big 12 and the Cowboys. And Notre Dame cooperated even further by replacing AWOL coach Brian Kelly with Marcus Freeman, elevated from defensive coordinator. So the Cowboys help kick off an era in one of college football’s grandest traditions.\n\n3. Liberty Bowl: Texas Tech vs. Mississippi State, 5:45 p.m., Dec. 28, ESPN, in Memphis. Mike Leach vs. the Red Raiders. How could you ask for anything better. Tech fired Leach 12 years ago and frankly has been struggling ever since. Leach has no love lost for the Red Raiders and has fared much better than Tech over those dozen seasons, doing well at outposts like Washington State and Mississippi State. Now Leach will go head-to-head with his former Tech quarterback, Sonny Cumbie, who is the Red Raiders’ interim coach before taking over at Louisiana Tech. The Red Raiders have hired Joey McGuire as head coach; he’s Tech’s fourth full-time head coach since Leach.\n\n'This is a barometer game for us':Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees impressed with OSU defense\n\n4. Sugar Bowl: Baylor vs. Ole Miss, 7:45 p.m., Jan. 1, ESPN, in New Orleans. Too bad OU is hiring Mississippi offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby. Lebby coaching against the Bears would have been rich, since he is Art Briles’ son-in-law and was part of the staff during Baylor’s golden days of 2011-15 before the House of Briles was felled by the sexual assault coverup scandal.\n\n5. Cheez-It Bowl: Iowa State vs. Clemson, 4:45 p.m., Dec. 29, ESPN, in Orlando. The last time Dabo Swinney’s Tigers were subjected to Orlando’s No. 2 bowl, they thrashed the Sooners, then began terrorizing the Atlantic Coast Conference and all of college football. Now Swinney is back, but without his defensive coordinator (Brent Venables, gone to OU), probably his offensive coordinator (Tony Elliott, seemingly headed to Virginia) and his athletic director (Dan Radakovich, off to Miami). Seems like ripe pluckings for the Cyclones.\n\n6. Alamo Bowl: Oklahoma vs. Oregon, 8:15 p.m., Dec. 29, ESPN, in San Antonio. Bob Stoops will coach the Sooners, which should be grand fun. How many players either team has is in question, since opt-outs are an epidemic.\n\n7. Gasparilla Bowl: Central Florida vs. Florida, 6 p.m., Dec. 23, ESPN, in Tampa. A year ago, Gus Malzahn was fired a year ago by Auburn and then-Florida coach Dan Mullen was riding high, having taken Alabama to the brink in the SEC title game. Now Malzahn coaches UCF, a really good job that’s about to get better, and Mullen is unemployed. Funny how the world works.\n\n8. Texas Bowl: Kansas State vs. Louisiana State, 8 p.m., Jan. 4, ESPN, in Houston. Former OU offensive lineman Brad Davis will be LSU’s interim coach for the bowl, before Brian Kelly takes over.\n\n9. Guaranteed Rate Bowl: West Virginia vs. Minnesota, 9:15 p.m., Dec. 28, ESPN, in Phoenix. Long trip for both squads. To Phoenix, it’s 1,682 miles from Minneapolis and 2,080 miles from Morgantown.\n\n10. Birmingham Bowl: Houston vs. Auburn, 11 a.m., Dec. 28, ESPN, in Birmingham, Alabama. Great bowl lineup for the American Conference. Three matchups against Southeastern Conference teams, including this one, plus two games against Atlantic Coast Conference teams – East Carolina vs. Boston College, Southern Methodist vs. Virginia.\n\n11. Independence Bowl: Brigham Young vs. Alabama-Birmingham, 2:30 p.m., Dec. 18, ABC, in Shreveport, Louisiana. BYU came within a whisker of making a New Year’s Six bowl. Ranked 13th, the Cougars were the last team out. But BYU would have had to rise all the way to 10th, past Michigan State, to get a berth in a major bowl, since No. 11 Utah and No. 12 Pittsburgh were automatic qualifiers.\n\nCarlson:Losing Knowles is painful, but Gundy's hires should ease pain\n\nOU: Offensive head coaches vs. defensive head coaches\n\nThirty years ago, a friend of mine who knew Gary Gibbs and liked him, still wasn’t crazy about Gibbs as OU’s head coach.\n\nHe’s a defensive coach, she said, and he coaches like a defensive coach.\n\nSome people will remember when that was a common thought. That head coaches who came up through the defensive ranks were conservative and not prone to innovative offenses or ideas.\n\nNow OU has hired a defensive coordinator, Brent Venables, to be its head coach, and we don’t hear a peep about it.\n\nCredit Bob Stoops. Stoops was a defensive coordinator when hired by OU 23 years ago, and Stoops quickly dispelled any notion of conservatism. He ran trick plays and hired offensive coordinators who ran the Air Raid and generally played maverick football.\n\nBut it got me to thinking. We’ve talked a lot about how often (almost always) OU resorts to lifetime assistant coaches when it has sought a head coach, but we’ve never focused from which side of the ball those assistants came.\n\nSo here goes.\n\n1946: Jim Tatum. Tatum came from the single-platoon era, so coaches usually coached both sides of the ball. During World War II, Tatum and Bud Wilkinson tutored under Don Faurot and his split-T offense, so both Tatum and Wilkinson were known as -- and can be correctly labeled -- offensive coaches. But they coached both.\n\n1947: Bud Wilkinson. You know, something I don’t know on the college level is how practices were split up during the single-platoon era. Was it offense for half a practice, then defense? Was it all offense one day, all defense another? Did half the team practice offense, half defense, then everybody flips? Doesn’t matter to this discussion. The coaches coached both sides, but if you must designate Wilkinson, you’d have to go with offense.\n\n1964: Gomer Jones. If you make Wilkinson the offensive coach, then his long-time lieutenant, Jones, would have to be labeled defense. But Jones is the reason such designations are squishy. Jones was the line coach, which meant he coached the likes of Billy Krisher and Tom Catlin and Ed Gray and Jim Weatherall on both sides of the ball.\n\n1966: Jim Mackenzie. Mackenzie was considered a defensive coordinator at Arkansas when OU hired him. The concept of offensive and defensive coordinators didn’t really take hold until the late 1960s, but it seems fairly clear that Mackenzie ran Frank Broyles’ defense at Arkansas.\n\n1967: Chuck Fairbanks.Fairbanks was Mackenzie’s defensive backfield coach in 1966, then was promoted when Mackenzie died of a heart attack in April 1967.\n\n1973: Barry Switzer. Switzer was Fairbanks’ offensive coordinator – Switzer installed the wishbone in 1970.\n\n1989: Gibbs was Switzer’s long-time defensive coordinator, and a danged good one. Some day I’ve got rank all the OU defensive coordinators. It’s quite possible that Gary Gibbs will be No. 1.\n\n1995:Howard Schnellenberger. Not an assistant coach. The Colonel was Louisville’s head coach when OU hired him, and he won’t be part of the discussion, but Schnellenberger absolutely was an offensive coach.\n\n1996:John Blake. Never a coordinator, but Blake was a defensive line coach at OU, Tulsa and the Dallas Cowboys before being hired by the Sooners.\n\n1999: Stoops. Defense all the way.\n\n2017: Lincoln Riley. Offense all the way.\n\n2022: Brent Venables. The Stoops story.\n\nMore:Incoming OU offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby is already recruiting, and he's targeting quarterbacks\n\nSo discounting Schnellenberger, that’s seven defensive coaches and four offensive coaches. And of the four offensive coaches, that’s counting both Tatum and Wilkinson, who in theory coached both sides. If you want to discount any hiring before 1966, it’s 5-3 defense.\n\nThat is amazing. Offensive coaches for a long time have appeared to get more consideration for head coaching jobs. Fans love offense. Administrators love offense because fans love offense.\n\nBut OU, already bucking the trend by almost never going the head-coaching-experience route, bucks the trend even more by going with defense over offense.\n\nNow, if you want to declare OU has had more success with offensive coaches, I can’t disagree.\n\nOf the giants, two were offense (Wilkinson, Switzer) and one was defense (Stoops). Of course, that’s giving the offense Wilkinson, which can be argued.\n\nOf the next-level of success, one was offense (Riley) and one was defense (Fairbanks).\n\nOf the one-time wonders, one was ostensibly offense (Tatum) and one was defense (Mackenzie). What’s interesting is that both hired the men, Wilkinson and Switzer, who would lead Sooner dynasties.\n\nOnly one coach is of the solid-but-not-spectacular crowd. That’s Gibbs, on defense.\n\nOf the two busts, Blake and Jones, one was defense and the other coached both but is more aligned with defense.\n\nNow Venables joins the study.\n\nOU’s batting average with offensive coaches is higher. Switzer and Riley were home runs, and if you count Tatum and Wilkinson, that’s four-for-four.\n\nBut Gibbs was good, Fairbanks was great and Stoops was grander than great. Blake drags down the defense’s case.\n\nWithout Stoops, you might scratch your head about Venables and wonder if the Sooners might should have gone after an offensive genius. Switzer himself politicked in the last week for Mike Leach to replace Riley.\n\nBut there is no without Stoops. The Stoops example is strong. His comparison with Venables is strong.\n\nOU history shows there is no reason why Venables can’t be a success, too.\n\nMore:OU football coach Brent Venables' salary, contract terms released by school\n\nThunder playing well in close games\n\nThe Thunder beat the Raptors 110-109 Wednesday night in a rousing game in Toronto. You almost forgot how much fun the NBA can be.\n\nThe Thunder gets blown out so much, close games are difficult to find.\n\nBut in Toronto, the Thunder led 103-96 with barely two minutes left, then the Raptors came roaring back. On consecutive possessions, Toronto’s Pascal Siakam, Gary Trent Jr. and Fred Van Vleet nailed 3-pointers, and the Raptors had a 105-105 tie.\n\nAfter Josh Giddey missed a driving layup for OKC, Van Vleet and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander exchanged two foul shots each. Then the Raptors’ Justin Champagnie made an acrobatic layup, but SGA teamed with Mike Muscala on a great pick-and-pop play. The entire Raptor defense followed Gilgeous-Alexander, who drove the lane, then turned and passed to an open Muscala. He drained a 3-pointer to give OKC a 110-109 lead with eight seconds left.\n\nFinally, Darius Bazley blocked Van Vleet’s desperation shot, Champagnie tipped in the wayward miss and Toronto celebrated, but video review showed the tip-in came after the buzzer.\n\n“It was fun,” said Muscala. “Obviously, it was frustrating when they went on that big run, but with the crowd into it and everything, that’s what you play for. We were on pins and needles there. But shoutout, Shai had a great game. Just happy we won.”\n\nWhat a game. Seemed like old times.\n\n“The guys made big-time plays tonight,” Mark Daigneault said. “Both teams, really really good games down the stretch. Could have obviously gone either way. But I thought we showed good poise, playing all the way through, giving ourselves the best chance.”\n\n'It was electric':Why the Thunder, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort, is Canada's second team\n\nThe Thunder has been playing such games since hitting town 13 years ago.\n\nBut in the last calendar year, not so much. The rebuilding Thunder gets blown out on a regular basis. Heck, The Athletic’s John Hollinger, one of NBA media’s brighter minds, pointed out that the Thunder now is 2-1 in its last three games, with a minus-61 point differential. The Thunder beat Detroit 114-103 on Monday, but in OKC’s previous game, it lost 152-79 to Memphis, an NBA record for point differential.\n\nThe Thunder is 8-16, tied for the NBA’s fourth-worst record, but OKC’s minus-8.7 point differential is the NBA’s third-worst, trailing only Orlando and Detroit.\n\nIt got me to thinking. How does this Thunder team fare in tight games? The answer, not bad. Not bad at all.\n\nThe Thunder is 4-3 in games decided by five points or less. That means the Thunder is 4-13 in games not decided by five points or less.\n\nThe Thunder’s problem clearly is a lack of playoff-level talent. That leads to blowouts. But when the games are tight, SGA and Luguentz Dort and pals hang in there and compete rather well.\n\nA year ago, when OKC was 22-50, the Thunder went 12-7 in games decided by five points or less. That’s right. The Thunder had a .632 winning percentage in tight games but was 10-43 otherwise.\n\nIn 2019-20, the Chris Paul season, the Thunder finished 44-28 and was 18-11 in tight games.\n\nIn the two Russell Westbrook/Paul George years, when OKC was 49-33 and 48-34, respectively, the Thunder was 11-17 and 12-12 in tight games.\n\nIn the Westbrook solo star year of 2016-17, the Thunder finished 47-35 and was 16-9 in tight games.\n\nWhat does it all mean? It seems as if SGA is promising as a cool-customer quarterback in late-game situations. He’s played well when it matters, both with Chris Paul and without.\n\nThat bodes well for the future.\n\nOKC Thunder vs. Los Angeles Lakers:How to watch, three things to know, lineups, live updates\n\nNFL predictions & Baker Mayfield’s future\n\nBaker Mayfield’s future with the Cleveland Browns is approaching a crisis point. Will the Browns offer a contract extension that makes Mayfield their franchise quarterback?\n\nI don’t know. Mayfield’s performance and health have given pause to a relationship that seemed secure when Cleveland made its rise a year ago and won a playoff game for the first time since 1994.\n\nMayfield is due to make $18.8 million next season, and after that, the Browns always could place the franchise tag on Mayfield and secure his services for another season or two.\n\nBut most franchise tags are the result of an impasse in contract negotiations. The Browns’ reluctance is whether or not Mayfield is the quarterback they want leading a rather talented roster going forward.\n\nMayfield has thrown for 11 touchdowns and six interceptions this season, while completing 62.2 percent of his passes. In ESPN’s Total QBR (quarterback ratings), Mayfield is 26th among quarterbacks in the National Football League. Just above Sam Darnold, just below Daniel Jones.\n\nEgads.\n\nThat’s not the status Mayfield or the Browns envisioned after Mayfield ranked 10th a year ago. Mayfield, who won the 2017 Heisman Trophy at OU, is 26. His next contract was expected to be the big one, somewhere north of $30 million a year.\n\nBut the Browns appear to be hesitant over such a commitment.\n\nCleveland is 6-6 and in last place in the four-team AFC North Division. The Browns host first-place Baltimore on Sunday, and a loss could send Cleveland to the brink of playoff elimination.\n\nThe Browns are tied for 10th in the AFC. Only seven teams make the playoff.\n\nCleveland has become a team reliant on a big-time defense and a strong running game. If that’s the Browns’ identity going forward, investing heavily in a 62-percent-passer makes no sense.\n\nThe rest of this season will go a long way to determining Mayfield’s future in Cleveland. Starting with the Ravens.\n\nLet’s get to the predictions.\n\nSteelers at Vikings: Pittsburgh 23-20. Minnesota is playing for its playoff life. But the Steelers are in no less a dogfight.\n\nRavens at Browns: Baltimore 19-17. The Ravens’ Lamar Jackson has slumped, but his running threat still sends chills through opposing defenses.\n\nJaguars at Titans: Tennessee 26-6. With a victory, the Titans can restore their two-game lead in the AFC South.\n\nRaiders at Chiefs: Kansas City 22-14. The NFL season is long. The Chiefs looked in trouble back in October. Now they’re a half game out of first place in the AFC and seem as good a pick as any to reach another Super Bowl. Don’t over-react until the weather gets cold.\n\nSaints at Jetropolitans: New Orleans 20-17. From the land of unattended consequences, the expanded NFL season keeps WAY more teams involved in the playoff hunt. New Orleans is 5-7 and only one game out of the playoffs.\n\nCowboys at Washington: Dallas 21-18. Somehow, the Cowboys haven’t even secured the division title in the woeful NFC East. Dallas leads Washington by two games, but the bitter rivals play twice in a span of 15 days.\n\nFalcons at Panthers: Atlanta 27-20. A battle of 5-7 teams. The loser is not eliminated from playoff contention, but I wouldn’t recommend losing.\n\nSeahawks at Texans: Seattle 24-16. Russell Wilson looked more like himself Sunday in beating the 49ers, so now not even the 4-8 Seahawks are dead in the water.\n\nLions at Broncos: Denver 22-13. In the last seven seasons, six quarterbacks have led Denver in passing – Teddy Bridgewater, Drew Lock, Joe Flacco, Case Keenum, Trevor Siemian and Peyton Manning. Only Siemian (2016-17) did it twice. Chances are, come 2022, it will be seven in eight seasons.\n\nGiants at Chargers: Los Angeles 34-13. New York is a mess. The Giants might soon have a new general manager, a new coach and a new quarterback.\n\n49ers at Bengals: San Francisco 26-25. I am committed to picking against Cincinnati the rest of the season. I’m pulling for the Bengals, but they’ve made me look foolish a bunch of weeks.\n\nBills at Buccaneers: Tampa Bay 31-20. Buffalo is 7-5; lose this one, and the Bills rank among the NFL’s most disappointing teams.\n\nBears at Packers: Green Bay 26-7. Be nice, Aaron Rodgers. Nobody likes a sore winner.\n\nRams at Cardinals: Los Angeles 24-23. Could be the Rams’ last stand. With a victory, Arizona takes a three-game lead in the NFC West.\n\nLast week: 8-6. Season: 120-71-1.\n\nMailbag: How to save the bowls\n\nBowls are under siege, with coaches leaving teams – or being asked to leave – before bowl games, and players following suit by opting out of the bowl games. Some seek solutions.\n\nTim: “Idea for paying players and increasing bowl participation by players: 25 percent of a team’s bowl payout is split between the players on the roster for bowl game.”\n\nTramel: I’ve heard worse ideas. Just like everything else, I’m sure there are unintended consequences. But the bowls are hemorrhaging, with interesting waning. So I’d be willing to try most anything.\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": "2021/12/09"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/draft/2020/04/25/nfl-draft-grades-2020-teams-packers-eagles-cowboys-dolphins/3026362001/", "title": "NFL draft grades 2020: Packers, Eagles rank among worst team ...", "text": "That's a wrap.\n\nThe 2020 NFL draft has a bow on it, which means it's time for instant gratification: report cards for all 32 teams.\n\nBut first, a moment to spotlight the folly of this exercise given it generally takes about three years to fairly grade a club's draft performance.\n\nHow many people gave the New Orleans Saints an \"A+\" in 2017, when they picked offensive rookie of the year Alvin Kamara, defensive rookie of the year Marshon Lattimore and future all-pro Ryan Ramczyk? Might be the best class of the decade.\n\nAnd how many gave the San Francisco 49ers an \"A\" in 2017, when they took defenders Solomon Thomas and Reuben Foster in Round 1? In fairness, that was hardly a lost draft – GM John Lynch swindled the Bears for extra picks for simply moving down from No. 2 to No. 3 and landed all-pro TE George Kittle in Round 5 – but it's certainly panned out far differently than many expected when evaluating it in real time.\n\nThe 2020 draft could take even longer to accurately analyze given the novel coronavirus pandemic is going to put all these rookies behind the 8-ball as they attempt to assimilate into the professional ranks ... and ahead of a season that may or may not occur.\n\nBut whatever. We're all looking for welcome distractions in the world of COVID-19, so let's jump that grading gun again and start scribbling with our digital red pen:\n\nA\n\nBaltimore Ravens: Few teams scout the college ranks with more prescience, and last year's handover from Ozzie Newsome to current GM Eric DeCosta has been seamless. This seems like another enviable batch, DeCosta shoring up defensive shortcomings – so evident in the playoff loss to Tennessee – with LBs Patrick Queen and Malik Harrison and DL Justin Madubuike while supercharging what was an already record-setting offense with RB J.K. Dobbins and WR Devin Duvernay. Queen and Duvernay seem especially capable of making huge splashes as rookies, but keep an eye on Round 6 WR James Proche, like Duvernay, a 100-catch man in college.\n\nIndianapolis Colts: \"Feels\" like they reeled in a pair of first-round talents in Round 2, WR Michael Pittman and RB Jonathan Taylor adding serious juice to new QB Philip Rivers' supporting cast, both capable of instantly assuming leading roles. And investing a fourth-rounder into physically gifted QB Jacob Eason to see how he develops behind Rivers goes into the low-risk, high-reward category. But GM Chris Ballard's best move was spending his 13th overall selection on 49ers DT DeForest Buckner, a man worthy of his vast cap resources. Aces.\n\nMinnesota Vikings: GM Rick Spielman divested WR Stefon Diggs to leaven his ammo, picking up a first-rounder for his trouble, then went to work caulking a roster good enough to reach the divisional round of last season's playoffs. WR Justin Jefferson – seemingly an ideal sidekick for Adam Thielen – might be a steal at No. 22 while fellow first-rounder Jeff Gladney led a fleet of new corners, a position previously raided in free agency. Spielman also added to Mike Zimmer's D-line rotation and might have found a new left tackle with highly regarded second-rounder Ezra Cleveland.\n\nA-\n\nArizona Cardinals: Spending a second-round pick allowed them to import all-pro WR DeAndre Hopkins and dump overpaid RB David Johnson. That alone constitutes a pretty good draft. But the Cards also landed first-round LB/S Isaiah Simmons, one of the most intriguing defenders to emerge in years, and now just have to figure out how to maximize his unique versatility. Third-round OT Josh Jones could be a bargain.\n\nCincinnati Bengals: Give them credit for not letting a team like Miami entice them to trade the No. 1 pick used on Joe Burrow, who should be gold for this franchise on and off the field. Third-round LB Logan Wilson could become the defense's new quarterback. Second-round WR Tee Higgins seems a bit of a luxury pick. But he's a quality prospect nonetheless, potentially A.J. Green's eventual replacement. Still, Burrow will define this haul – but it sure seems like he could be uniquely qualified to lift a franchise that hasn't won a playoff game in three decades.\n\nWashington Redskins: Give them credit for not letting a team like Atlanta entice them to trade the No. 2 pick used on Chase Young – widely touted as this draft's top prospect and a man who should elevate a defense teeming with potential. Third-round RB Antonio Gibson, fourth-round OT Saahdiq Charles and fourth-round WR Antonio Gandy-Golden are intriguing prospects for a team that needs playmakers, and any could have been taken sooner. TE Thaddeus Moss was signed after going undrafted. In sum, nice job by new coach Ron Rivera. As far as the previous regime, Washington should've gotten more in the trade of LT Trent Williams, but give credit for mortgaging this year's second-rounder in order to get 2019 first-round DE Montez Sweat.\n\nDallas Cowboys: They didn't overthink it with WR CeeDee Lamb sitting there at No. 17. Nice pick – even if it didn't fill a hole, Lamb was too good to pass up and might've been wearing Eagles green otherwise. Down the board, Jerry Jones and Co. appeared to do a pretty good job of wedding value with need, getting CB Trevon Diggs in Round 2, DT Neville Gallimore in Round 3, Wisconsin C Tyler Biadasz in Round 4 (who better to replace retired ex-Badger Travis Frederick?) and a potential steal with the selection of pass rusher Bradlee Anae in the fifth. This team probably should be expected to win the NFC East.\n\nPittsburgh Steelers: How often can you say your draft is guaranteed to produce an all-pro? Welp, this one did after the Steelers traded last year's first-rounder for second-year S Minkah Fitzpatrick, who blossomed in Pittsburgh and is still under contractual control for three more years. As for players just picked, uber-sized WR Chase Claypool, uber-productive OLB Alex Highsmith and uber-swift RB Anthony McFarland all seem well-positioned to battle for jobs currently manned by veterans potentially on shaky ground.\n\nB+\n\nCleveland Browns: Seems rookie GM Andrew Berry has hit the ground running for a franchise that's been dysfunctional for so long. He followed up a nice free-agent harvest with what projects as a solid draft, first-round OT Jedrick Wills possibly the man who can finally fill Joe Thomas' void and second-round S Grant Delpit a potential gem. Given David Njoku is still on the roster, it's worth asking how many tight ends Berry and new coach Kevin Stefanski need after signing Austin Hooper to a huge contract and drafting highly regarded Harrison Bryant in Round 4.\n\nDenver Broncos: If there's any element of glass half-empty here, it would be the expectations mounting on QB Drew Lock – he won four of five starts to conclude his rookie year – after GM John Elway surrounded him with so many additional weapons. First-rounder Jerry Jeudy is as polished an incoming player as you'll find at receiver while second-round WR K.J. Hamler should fly down the field, opening things up for Jeudy, Pro Bowler Courtland Sutton and TE Noah Fant. Elway also reinforced the O-line and patched holes on the D-line and secondary. Ball's in your court, Drew. No pressure.\n\nSan Francisco 49ers: They wound up making just five selections, but jeez. Top pick Javon Kinlaw (14th overall) likely isn't the next Buckner but certainly a first-rate replacement conducive to cap management. First-round WR Brandon Aiyuk should form a dynamic tandem with 2019 second-rounder Deebo Samuel. But to pick up a Pro Bowler in Williams for two mid-round picks while offloading the remainder of WR Marquise Goodwin's contract on Philadelphia? Yeoman's work, Mr. Lynch.\n\nTampa Bay Buccaneers: They continued to aggressively dedicate their resources to a Super Bowl-or-bust effort for newly signed QB Tom Brady. First-round OT Tristan Wirfs, third-round RB Ke'Shawn Vaughn and a fourth-round pick spent on TE Rob Gronkowski promise to pay immediate dividends. However the best value pick of GM Jason Licht's weekend is arguably second-round S Antoine Winfield Jr.\n\nB\n\nCarolina Panthers: Evidently new coach Matt Rhule feels pretty good about his offense given Carolina devoted its entire draft to defense, the seven-player class including a trio – DT Derrick Brown (Round 1), DE Yetur Gross-Matos (Round 2) and S Jeremy Chinn (Round 2) – that should ensure a unit which surrendered a franchise-record 470 points in 2019 quickly becomes a distant memory.\n\nChicago Bears: Considering how things have played out, good argument to be made that the trade for Khalil Mack – even at the cost of two first-rounders – has been worth it. GM Ryan Pace also did a nice job Friday by landing TE Cole Kmet and CB Jaylon Johnson, borderline first-round prospects, in Round 2.\n\nDetroit Lions: Adding No. 3 overall pick Jeff Okudah to the defense and upgrading QB Matthew Stafford's arsenal with second-round RB D'Andre Swift – good luck finding a better all-purpose back in this draft – and a pair of guards to keep him off his back should equate to a pretty good weekend's work.\n\nLos Angeles Chargers: They stuck at No. 6 to pick QB Justin Herbert and now wait to learn how high his ceiling is and whether they should've aggressively pursued Tua Tagovailoa. However GM Tom Telesco did sell out to come back into Round 1 for LB Kenneth Murray, surrendering both of the Bolts' Day 2 picks in the process. Hard-running fourth-round RB Joshua Kelley should pick up touches left behind by Melvin Gordon. Seventh-rounder K.J. Hill, Ohio State's all-time leading receiver, provides a long-missing slot option.\n\nLos Angeles Rams: They haven't picked in the first round since 2016, when QB Jared Goff was the No. 1 overall pick. But surrendering this year's first-rounder brought CB Jalen Ramsey, and GM Les Snead appeared to pick up four players Friday – RB Cam Akers (Round 2), WR Van Jefferson (Round 2), OLB Terrell Lewis (Round 3) and S Terrell Burgess (Round 3) – who could contribute early to a squad little more than a year removed from the Super Bowl.\n\nNew England Patriots: No organization is more adept at stockpiling picks, and the Pats began the draft with a dozen. However the narrative needs to be revised as it pertains to their actual draft acumen – it's been some time since they produced a collective slam dunk and have been especially dreadful in Round 2 for nearly a decade. That said ... Bill Belichick's first post-Brady group felt solid, five players obtained Friday in the second and third rounds. Round 2 S Kyle Dugger and Round 3 TE Devin Asiasi might be steals. And given they passed on Jordan Love and apparently made no bid for a QB near the top of the draft, should say something about how they feel about apparent Brady successor Jarrett Stidham. One question: Really necessary to spend a fifth-rounder on a kicker from Marshall?\n\nNew York Jets: GM Joe Douglas used his maiden draft to try and fulfill a promise to Sam Darnold's parents, acquiring players who can directly assist the third-year quarterback. LT Mekhi Becton (11th overall pick) and WR Denzel Mims (59th) could represent value given both were generally projected to go higher. Fourth-round QB James Morgan was worth a try given the team's season was scuttled last year by Darnold's three-game absence while fighting mononucleosis. Fifth-round CB Bryce Hall could be pressed into service immediately.\n\nB-\n\nBuffalo Bills: Probably overpaid for Stefon Diggs, surrendering their first-round pick plus three mid-rounders for a seventh and a wideout who's never made a Pro Bowl ... and in a receiver-heavy draft. But there's something to be said for certainty ... assuming Sean McDermott and GM Brandon Beane are certain Diggs won't pout. But with the picks the Bills did retain, they selected nice players, second-rounder A.J. Epenesa freshening the pass rush and third-rounder Zack Moss capable of providing far more than Frank Gore did as part of the run game committee. Boost this grade if they're able to stream fifth-round QB Jake Fromm's football mind into starter Josh Allen's helmet.\n\nNew Orleans Saints: Odd draft. They needed little for a roster unlikely to churn much, so they didn't pick much (just four times) – aggressively working the board for players they wanted. First-rounder Cesar Ruiz was likely the best interior O-lineman but creates an odd-man out situation. Versatile third-round LB Zack Baun, whom many projected as a first-rounder, might be able to contribute most in 2020 to what this organization hopes is one last Super Bowl push for QB Drew Brees. But keep an eye on third-round TE Adam Trautman, who could take Brees back to the Jimmy Graham days.\n\nC+\n\nJacksonville Jaguars: Seems they're building toward 2021 – Trevor Lawrence? – but nevertheless picked reputable players, including first-round CB C.J. Henderson, who should address a glaring need following Ramsey's departure. Pass rusher K'Lavon Chaisson (Round 1) – taken with a pick obtained for Ramsey – and WR Laviska Shenault Jr. (Round 2) could need a transition year, which isn't a knock but adds to the feel that this club is in a weird limbo. Speaking of which, disgruntled DE Yannick Ngakoue remains.\n\nKansas City Chiefs: The champs only had six picks, but first-round RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire will make any K.C. fans pining for Kareem Hunt forget quickly. Second-round LB Willie Gay Jr. should contribute early ... assuming his conduct questions have indeed been overblown.\n\nNew York Giants: No. 4 pick Andrew Thomas, who had quite a late rise, led a vanguard of needed O-line reinforcements. Second-round S Xavier McKinney could be one of the draft's heists. GM David Gettleman earmarked all four seventh-round picks to defense, but hard to bank on any boosting a flawed group.\n\nC\n\nLas Vegas Raiders: GM Mike Mayock, who did a nice job picking players during his 2019 debut, continues hoarding Clemson Tigers – the tally up to five in two draft classes. More important, first-round WR Henry Ruggs, he of the 4.27-second 40-yard dash, is a classic Raider pick and one who should lighten the box for former Tide teammate Josh Jacobs while pulling coverage off TE Darren Waller. We'll see if first-round CB Damon Arnette was a reach and what Jon Gruden is going to do with this surplus of receivers – though Ruggs and third-round WR Lynn Bowden could allow the coach to get especially creative. One lingering question: Was owner Mark Davis' decision not to pay Mack really worth it in hindsight now that the trade freight has been exhausted?\n\nMiami Dolphins: They had the stones to take Tagovailoa fifth overall, and this draft will largely be defined by the outcome of his career and its longevity given his medical concerns. Of course, the Fins' abundance of of picks enabled them to roll the dice on Tagovailoa and others who arrive with significant questions, including first-round CB Noah Igbinoghene and second-round DT Raekwon Davis. The rampant boom-or-bust variables suggest a swing for the fences for an organization desperate to return to relevance. (Admittedly, Navy's Malcolm Perry was a nice touch in Round 7.) But remains to be seen if they were better off retaining the services of Fitzpatrick and Tunsil, whose departures padded Miamis's arsenal of picks but stunted forward progress.\n\nC-\n\nAtlanta Falcons: CB A.J. Terrell (Round 1), DL Marlon Davidson (Round 2) and C Matt Hennessy (Round 3) are solid. None feel like the missing piece for a team that's underachieved lately, and the final product can't help but feel flat in the wake of pre-draft buzz that GM Thomas Dimitroff had a bold, Julio Jones-level trade in the works. Never happened.\n\nD+\n\nSeattle Seahawks: Meh. Got their usual haul of players they seem especially willing to overdraft. For years, it was taboo to question the wisdom of coach Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider, who made so many mid-round home run picks early in their tenure but have picked just two Pro Bowlers since 2016 – one of those P Michael Dickson.\n\nTennessee Titans: Hard to argue with the program GM Jon Robinson and coach Mike Vrabel are building but unclear if this year's picks will help much in 2020. First-round OT Isaiah Wilson is 21 and may not be ready to capably replace stud Jack Conklin, who's now in Cleveland. Second-round CB Kristian Fulton must prove he's past questionable off-field behavior. And third-round RB Darrynton Evans is a nice handcuff for 2019 rushing champ Derrick Henry, but it's not clear if Evans is even ready for a third-round role at present.\n\nD\n\nGreen Bay Packers: Given the unprecedented stability they've enjoyed for nearly 30 years at quarterback, maybe we shouldn't argue with their methodology – which included a Round 1 trade for Love, Aaron Rodgers' potential heir apparent. But to take Love and then come back with one-dimensional RB A.J. Dillon at the end of Round 2, it just doesn't seem enough was done to help Rodgers – he surely would've liked just one of this year's bountiful crop of receivers – win now.\n\nPhiladelphia Eagles: GM Howie Roseman built a champion, so difficult to question his (often sage) moves. But the visceral reaction to this draft ... not very good. WR Jalen Reagor in Round 1 when Justin Jefferson was sitting there (and when sixth-rounder Quez Watkins can provide the speed aspect Reagor does)? Second-round QB Jalen Hurts is tantalizing, but can he execute game plans built for Carson Wentz? And when you could've taken, say, Fromm later and used that second-rounder on a better defensive player? Finally, assuming the remainder of Goodwin's contract seems like another dubious decision.\n\nF\n\nHouston Texans: Hard to recall a draft so extensively leveraged to obtain veterans. Newly anointed (but long-acting) GM Bill O'Brien shipped out most of his best picks for players like newly extended Tunsil – he'll cost another first-rounder plus a second in 2021, too – WR Brandin Cooks, CB Gareon Conley and RB Duke Johnson. Tunsil is a nice player, but his price was way too high. The others are eminently replaceable. And to also deal Jadeveon Clowney, basically for a third-rounder, while settling for a second-rounder and RB David Johnson in exchange for a transcendent talent like Hopkins? Brutal. O'Brien's first official selection as GM was TCU DT Ross Blacklock at No. 40, which actually seems like pretty solid value. But in sum, this feels like a staggering net loss.\n\n***\n\nFollow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis\n\nIf you love talking football, we have the perfect spot for you. Join our Facebook Group, The Ruling Off the Field, to engage in friendly debate and conversation with fellow football fans and our NFL insiders. Do the right thing, sign up now!", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/04/25"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2014/10/20/peyton-manning-sets-new-td-standard/17600911/", "title": "Peyton Manning sets new touchdown standard", "text": "By Lindsay H. Jones, USA TODAY Sports\n\nDENVER — Peyton Manning now stands alone as the NFL's all-time touchdown king.\n\nThe Denver Broncos' 38-year-old quarterback threw touchdown No. 509 of his career Sunday night against the San Francisco 49ers to break Brett Favre's career record.\n\nThe record-breaker went to receiver Demaryius Thomas, at 7:42 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, with three minutes and nine seconds remaining in the second quarter to give the Broncos a 21-3 lead in a game Denver would go on to win 42-17.\n\nThomas, fellow receivers Wes Welker, Emmanuel Sanders and tight end Julius Thomas — Manning's stellar stable of pass catchers — then engaged in a pre-planned game of keep-away with the record-setting ball before finally letting Manning get his hands on it one more time before it heads to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. For a moment, it appeared the NFL's best prankster had been punked on his own big night.\n\n\"I can't believe they actually did it,\" Manning said. \"We sort of joked about it during the week. I'm a little bit hurt by the fact that they could do that, that they're kind of picking on me.\"\n\nBut no, this, like so much of Manning's Hall of Fame career, was diligently crafted.\n\n\"He actually planned it himself,\" Demaryius Thomas said.\n\nPlanned or not, it was a special, silly moment for one of the NFL's all-time greatest players.\n\nAfter Manning finally secured the milestone ball, he was mobbed on the Broncos' sideline. Head coach John Fox pulled his quarterback into a bear hug, and more players than Manning could count slapped him on the helmet and shoulder pads as Sports Authority Field at Mile High public address announcer Alan Roach alerted the crowd to the milestone.\n\n\"Broncos fans, you have just witnessed history,\" Roach said, introducing a pre-taped video tribute that featured messages from Favre, Broncos general manager John Elway and several Broncos teammates.\n\nBut the fans here didn't need the reminder. They arrived well aware of the impending history, and the tension grew after he tossed career touchdown No. 507 on the Broncos' opening drive and the record-tying touchdown later in the first quarter.\n\nThose rapid scores left little doubt that the record would be broken against the 49ers. But when would it happen? And who would be the lucky receiver to catch it?\n\nAs the Broncos marched toward the south end zone, flash bulbs from cell phone cameras popped at every snap. They recorded an incomplete pass to Julius Thomas in the end zone, an ugly sack after Manning stumbled backwards and landed on his backside, before, finally, the touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas in the right front corner of the end zone.\n\nManning entered Sunday night's game needing two touchdowns to tie Favre and three to break the record. Touchdown No. 507 went to Sanders and No. 508 to Welker — the first touchdown catch of the season for both receivers.\n\nManning would extend his record to 510 with another toss to Demaryius Thomas in the third quarter, a 40-yard bomb one play after cornerback Aqib Talib intercepted San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick. That touchdown was the 30th between Manning and Thomas, the most of any Bronco, and the fifth-most of any of Manning's teammates.\n\nManning's longtime Indianapolis Colts teammate Marvin Harrison caught 112 of Manning's touchdowns, followed by Reggie Wayne with 67.\n\nBut so many of those touchdowns with the Colts feel like distant history now, part of the first chapter, albeit a long one, of Manning's career.\n\nThat Manning has reached Favre's record so quickly, in his 246th game — 56 fewer games than it took Favre — is a testament to the career rejuvenation he experienced in Denver.\n\nWhen he was cut by the Indianapolis Colts in March 2012, after four surgeries on his neck including a spinal fusion surgery that forced him to miss the entire NFL season, it was fair to wonder if his Hall of Fame career would end with 399 touchdowns.\n\n\"I certainly didn't think this would be a possibility a couple of years ago,\" Manning said.\n\nBut since arriving in Denver, where he signed a five-year contract that runs through 2016, Manning has somehow been a better version of himself as he adjusted to his new body. He threw 37 touchdowns his first season with the Broncos, while spending more time in the training room and with his doctors than in the weight room as he worked to regain strength in his right triceps and waited for his nerve damage to improve.\n\nThat didn't fully happen until last year, and Manning tied an NFL record with seven touchdowns in the season opener against Baltimore. By the time the season was over, Manning owned the single-season touchdown record (55), the single-season passing yardage record (5,477) and had earned his fifth MVP award.\n\nTight end Jacob Tamme is the only current Bronco to have played with Manning in both Indianapolis and Denver. He knew Manning before the spinal fusion surgery, he saw him sidelined for the 2011 season and he's seen every step of the process that has led Manning back. Perhaps more than any other player, Tamme could appreciate Manning's journey to reach this major milestone.\n\n\"Definitely there were those moments in the rehab process, but he just worked so hard to get better,\" Tamme told USA TODAY Sports. \"That's another part of what makes it so special. I mean, it really is incredible.\"\n\nWhile in New Jersey in the week before the Super Bowl, Manning summarily dismissed nearly a week's worth of questions about if he would retire if the Broncos were to win. They didn't, and of course, he didn't — and Manning, now 38 years old, seems intent on playing out his contract with the Broncos, provided he doesn't hit a physical or mental wall before his 40th birthday.\n\nIf Manning continues throwing touchdowns at the pace he set when he arrived in Denver, with 2.9 touchdowns per game, Manning will pass 600 touchdowns in 2016, and could conceivably throw for more than 630 touchdowns.\n\n\"I don't know how long he's going to play and how the rest of the season is going to play out, but I feel like he has a lot left where he can go out and throw (touchdowns),\" Demaryius Thomas said. \"I can't put a number on it. But the way he is playing, I feel like he can just go out and average three, four or five touchdowns a game. Hopefully, because that's good, it's good for the offense, good for the team, and I hope a couple of those go my way.\"\n\nWhen Manning threw touchdown No. 500 two weeks ago, he said he expected several other of the league's current top quarterbacks to reach that mark as well. But to throw more than 600? It's hard to imagine the likes of Tom Brady or Drew Brees getting there. Brady, only one year younger than Manning, has 372 touchdowns. Brees, 35, has 374. Aaron Rodgers, another Super Bowl winner and former league MVP, has just 206.\n\nThe most intriguing young quarterback who could perhaps one day chase Manning's record is the one who is following him in Indianapolis — the Colts' third-year quarterback Andrew Luck. Luck has 65 touchdowns in his first 39 games; Manning had 64.\n\nFor now, and for the indefinite future, the record is Manning's alone.\n\nBy the third quarter of the Broncos' Sunday night blowout of the 49ers, Manning's record-breaking touchdown ball was in possession of Joe Horrigan, the vice president of communications and exhibits at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.\n\nHorrigan placed the ball into a blue canvas bag. Horrigan will carry it through Denver International Airport on Monday morning — he wouldn't dare risk it getting lost in checked luggage, Horrigan told USA TODAY Sports — and it will be on display in Canton by Monday afternoon. There, it will join a host of other career mementos from Manning dating back to his rookie season through his single-season record-breaking ball from 2013 and a Broncos uniform from his 2013 MVP season.\n\nBut first, Manning got to hold it one more time. Horrigan carried that blue canvas bag into the Broncos locker room, pulled out the ball and handed it to Manning once the quarterback had changed out of his all-blue uniform and into a blue plaid blazer. Manning posed for pictures with it, along with his wife Ashley, his longtime agent Tom Condon and Fox.\n\nRarely one to reflect on his legacy and career milestones midseason, it was clear that this was one moment that truly mattered.\n\n\"I'm very humbled and very honored. I certainly think about how grateful I am for all the teammates and coaches that I've played with and played for throughout my career, not only here in Denver — in Indianapolis and all the people that have helped me along the way,\" Manning said. \"I've always been a big fan of quarterbacks, whether it's Brett Favre or Dan Marino or John Elway. I'm very honored and humbled to join a pretty unique club.\"\n\nFollow Lindsay H. Jones on Twitter @bylindsayhjones.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2014/10/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/nfl/miami-dolphins/2022/02/02/brian-flores-faces-uphill-climb-lawsuit-against-nfl-discimination/9307364002/", "title": "Brian Flores faces uphill climb with lawsuit against NFL discimination", "text": "Brian Flores has transformed from coach to activist. And it may put his NFL career in jeopardy.\n\nBut the former Miami Dolphins head coach hopes his proposed class-action lawsuit levied Tuesday — the first day of Black History Month — will shed light on injustices minority coaches face in the NFL.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/10/16/covid-news-us-8-m-cases-nick-saban-donald-trump/3671109001/", "title": "COVID news: Cases reach 8M in US; New England Patriots; Trump ...", "text": "The U.S. is now the only country to reach 8 million cases of the coronavirus — less than a month after reaching 7 million — amid a surge that has resulted in higher case counts in 41 states over the last week, according to a USA TODAY analysis.\n\nDue to COVID-19 cases surging nationwide, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, cautioned against throwing large celebrations for Thanksgiving, calling it \"a risk\" to gather in indoor settings with people from out-of-town. His own family, he shared, is canceling plans.\n\nAnd on Thursday, President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden talked coronavirus during dueling town halls.\n\nOn ABC, Biden said he would support making a COVID-19 vaccine mandatory. But, he acknowledged, that he can't force people to get the vaccine when it's available. Meanwhile, on NBC, Trump said he didn't remember whether he tested negative the day of his debate against Biden on Sept. 29.\n\nSome significant developments:\n\nThe New England Patriots had to pause activities due to coronavirus concerns again. Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Colts reopened its facility after four positive tests had been re-run and returned negative.\n\nA CDC report finds that indoor sports may be \"super-spreader\" events after one player infected 14 others at a Florida recreational indoor hockey game.\n\nThe effectiveness of remdesivir has been put into question after a massive World Health Organization study of more than 10,000 patients in 30 countries found ”little or no effect.”\n\nFormer New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told the public to remain vigilant in an appearance Friday on ABC, his first since being released from the hospital for COVID-19.\n\nPrime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Canada-US border will stay closed until America gets control of the coronavirus outbreak.\n\n📈 Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 8 million cases and 217,700 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins data. There have been more than 38.9 million confirmed cases around the world and nearly 1.1 million deaths. A USA TODAY analysis found 14 states set records for new cases in a week while two states had a record number of deaths in a week.\n\n📰 What we're reading: The pandemic and the ensuing recession have taken a toll for students, but they hit particularly hard for community college students who already face many obstacles on their path to getting a degree.\n\n🗺️ Mapping coronavirus: Track the U.S. outbreak in your state\n\nThis file will be updated throughout the day. For updates in your inbox, subscribe to The Daily Briefing newsletter.\n\nChicago Public Schools sees largest enrollment drop in 2 decades amid COVID-19\n\nEnrollment in Chicago Public Schools dropped 15,000 students this year from last — the largest single-year decrease in more than two decades, according to the district Friday.\n\nThe decline is driven by fewer new students enrolling in the earliest grades, including a 44 percent decline in Black students enrolled in pre-k compared to last school year, according to the district.\n\n\"While we’re seeing similar trends across the country, the stunning decline among Black children enrolled in pre-k casts a somber light on how the pandemic and remote learning negatively impact our youngest learners,\" CPS Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade said in a press release.\n\nStudent attendance this year has improved over remote learning engagement last spring, but overall attendance is down to 91.4% compared to 95.3% last school year, according to the district. Black students have seen the largest decline in attendance, followed by a decline in attendance among Latinx students. Attendance among Asian students declined slightly, and attendance of white students remained unchanged.\n\n— Grace Hauck\n\nTrump vows to deliver vaccine to nursing homes at no cost\n\nAmericans living or working in long-term care facilities, including nursing homes and assisted care living centers, will receive COVID-19 vaccinations for free — if and when they become available, the Trump administration said Friday.\n\nThe administration announced a partnership with the nation's two largest drug store chains, CVS and Walgreens, \"to provide and administer\" the vaccines with \"no out-of-pocket costs\" for the recipients.\n\nTrump, 74, vowed a vaccine would be available before the end of the year, despite his own federal health experts saying that timeline is highly unlikely, and that senior citizens would be \"first in line.\"\n\nThe president made the announcement at an event billed as \"Protecting America's Seniors\" in Fort Myers, Florida. Trump is trying to shore up support among senior citizens, a key voting bloc that helped him win four years ago but which recent polling suggests has eroded in recent months.\n\n– Courtney Subramanian and Nathan Bomey\n\nReport: New England Patriots cancel practice after positive test\n\nOnly a day after Cam Newton and Stephon Gilmore returned from the COVID-19 list to practice, the New England Patriots had to pause activities due to coronavirus concerns once again.\n\nThe team canceled its Friday practice and media session after a positive test, ESPN reported, as the team awaits a positive test confirmation for a second individual.\n\nOn Sunday, the Patriots are scheduled to play the Denver Broncos, who they were supposed to originally face Oct. 10.\n\n– Chris Bumbaca\n\nCrisis averted: False positives for Indianapolis Colts\n\nHours after the Indianapolis Colts shut down its facility because “several members of the organization” tested positive for coronavirus, the team revealed that four positive tests had been re-run and returned negative.\n\nIndianapolis will reopen its facility and practice Friday afternoon. Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals remains scheduled.\n\n\"All is well,\" team owner Jim Irsay teased in a tweet shortly before the Colts' second announcement.\n\n— Chris Bumbaca\n\n22 million Americans lost their jobs during the 'coronavirus recession'. Who were they?\n\nEarly this year, more than 22 million Americans lost their jobs — according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. While slightly more than half have gotten their positions back, many economists fear a full recovery is two or more years away.\n\nAlmost 900,000 lost their jobs in Ohio. Over the past several weeks, The Cincinnati Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY network, spoke with workers and small business owners from Greater Cincinnati, asking how the downturn has affected their lives, their work – and their upcoming votes.\n\n“I went from Neverland to being stuck in my parents’ basement,” Ben Shipp, 26, said, after his dream internship at Disney World ended abruptly.\n\nRead more of their stories here.\n\n— Alexander Coolidge, Cincinnati Enquirer\n\nInfections surge in Europe, record daily case counts\n\nCoronavirus cases around the world have climbed to all-time highs of more than 330,000 per day. In addition to the United States, concern is largely focused around Europe — as Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, regional director for the World Health Organization in Europe, warns that the daily death toll on the continent could reach five times its April peak by January 2021.\n\nWell after Europe seemed to have largely tamed the virus that proved so lethal last spring, newly confirmed infections are reaching unprecedented levels in Germany, Czech Republic, Italy and Poland. Most of the rest of the continent is seeing similar danger signs, forcing many places to reimpose tough restrictions eased just months ago.\n\n\"These projections do nothing but confirm what we always said: the pandemic won’t reverse its course on its own, but we will,\" Kluge said on Oct. 15.\n\nHow can I stay safe indoors from the coronavirus during cold seasons?\n\nWhat makes congregating indoors so dangerous? Dr. Lewis Nelson, professor and chair of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, said one of the main reasons there’s a higher risk of transmission indoors than outdoors is lack of ventilation. Additionally, indoor public places have more surfaces.\n\n“If I were to smoke a cigarette (inside), you would see the smoke particles linger,” he said. “Whereas outdoors the smoke kind of leaves.\"\n\nVentilation can be increased by opening a window, turning on a fan or even adding a portable air filter to a room. Most portable air filters can’t filter out virus particles if they don’t have HEPA filtration, but they still facilitate air circulation. Reducing the number of people in an indoor space also helps. Read more here.\n\n– Adrianna Rodriguez\n\nMichigan woman beats coronavirus after nearly 200 days in the hospital\n\nDeanna Hair, a 67-year-old Ann Arbor resident, and her husband began experiencing COVID-19 symptoms after a trip to Palm Springs, California. Both tested positive on March 31. While her husband's symptoms were mild, Hair developed a fever and cough, and four days later began vomiting.\n\nHer condition worsened, with new problems arising each day in a new organ. While hospitalized, she had infections in her chest and belly, pneumonia in her lungs, and became septic when her kidneys started to fail, said Michigan Medicine pulmonologist Dr. Philip Choi.\n\nIn June, two months after Hair was admitted to the hospital, she tested negative for COVID-19 twice — and was eventually moved out of intensive care. And after 196 days — the longest a patient has stayed at Michigan Medicine — Hair was wheeled out.\n\nFinally arriving at the car, her husband helped her inside, gave her a long embrace and whispered, \"You made it.\"\n\n– Adrianna Rodriguez\n\nFauci: Having a big Thanksgiving celebration is 'a risk'\n\nYou may need to cancel any big Thanksgiving plans this year, warns Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United States’ leading infectious disease expert.\n\nSpeaking to “CBS Evening News,” Fauci cautioned against “gathering together in an indoor setting” with large groups of out-of-town guests. “It is unfortunate because that’s such a sacred part of American tradition — the family gathering around Thanksgiving,” he said. “But that is a risk.”\n\nHe added that his own family is canceling its Thanksgiving plans due to his age putting him at a higher risk of COVID-19.\n\nWHO study finds remdesivir has 'little to no' benefit for COVID-19 patients\n\nThe effectiveness of remdesivir, an experimental drug that was part of President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 treatment plan, has been put into question after a massive World Health Organization study of more than 10,000 patients in 30 countries found ”little or no effect.”\n\nResearchers, per the pre-print study, also studied hydroxychloroquine, the controversial anti-malarial drug repeatedly touted by Trump despite warnings by public health officials, anti-HIV medication lopinavir, which was used in the SARS outbreak, and interferon.\n\nNone of the medications had major benefits for mortality levels, ventilation rates or hospitalization length.\n\nThe drug’s manufacturer Gilead, in a statement, questioned the findings, calling their data “inconsistent” and citing other studies that proved the drug’s effectiveness. The FDA granted the drug an emergency use authorization in late August.\n\nChris Christie says he was 'wrong' not to wear mask at White House ceremony\n\nFormer Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday he was \"wrong\" not to wear a mask in the days before testing positive for COVID-19, but that he felt at that time that he was in a \"safe zone\" because of frequent testing.\n\nHaving spent a week being treated for the disease caused by the coronavirus – in an intensive care unit – Christie said he had a chance for greater reflection about his actions and the virus.\n\n\"It is something to take very seriously. The ramifications are wildly random and potentially deadly,\" Christie said in a statement, first reported by the New York Times. \"No one should be happy to get the virus and no one should be cavalier about being infected or infecting others.\"\n\nChristie's position and his message to the public is at odds with President Donald Trump, whom he helped prepare for a debate and was also hospitalized with COVID-19. Trump has said he feels great, has entertained large, mask-less crowds at campaign rallies and urged the public, \"don't be afraid of COVID.\"\n\n– Dustin Racioppi, Trenton Bureau\n\nDonald Trump uses son's COVID-19 diagnosis to push for reopening schools\n\nBarron Trump’s positive test for COVID-19 has become part of his father’s push to physically reopen schools.\n\n“It happens,'' President Donald Trump told a crowd at a campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa of his 14-year-old son testing positive for the coronavirus. \"People have it, and it goes. Get the kids back to school. We’ve got to get them back to school.\n\nMelania Trump said Wednesday that after an initial negative test, 14-year-old Barron Trump tested positive for COVID-19, but is now negative.\n\n\"I don’t even think he knew he had it because they’re young and their immune systems are strong and they fight it off 99.9 percent. And Barron is beautiful, and he’s free, free,” Trump said.\n\nAn outbreak of the virus in the White House that infected the President, first lady Melania Trump and other White House insiders has raised concerns that thousands may have been exposed to COVID-19 through Trump's inner circle.\n\n– Josh Peter and Joel Shannon\n\nAlabama coach Nick Saban says he's 'feeling great' after COVID diagnosis\n\nAlabama football coach Nick Saban said on his Thursday night radio show that he was “feeling great” after testing positive the previous day for the coronavirus but did not make any specific references to any additional testing.\n\n”I’m missing everybody,” Saban said in a remote appearance from his Tuscaloosa, Alabama, home. “I still don’t have any symptoms. I don’t have a fever. The oxygen tests they do didn’t show any problems.”\n\nSaban did not make any reference to the results of his daily test on Thursday but did seem to hold the door slightly open for a possible return to the sideline for Saturday's game against Georgia.\n\n“I would hate not to be at the game Saturday if that’s what this turns out to be,” he said.\n\n– Cecil Hurt, The Tuscaloosa News\n\nCoronavirus study: Air on planes is safer than homes or operating rooms\n\nA new study conducted for the Department of Defense adds credence to the growing belief that airline passengers face minimal risk of contracting coronavirus when flying.\n\nThe study found the risk of aerosol dispersion – transmission of the virus through the air – was reduced 99.7% thanks to high air exchange rates, HEPA-filtered recirculation and downward ventilation found on modern jets.\n\nInvestigators looked at the impact of an infected passenger on others seated in the same row and those nearby in the cabins of Boeing 767s and 777s. Those two aircraft types are widebodies typically used for long-haul flights where a virus would be expected to spread more easily.\n\nThe study was conducted by a team that included members from United Airlines, Boeing, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, National Strategic Research Institute and research firms. It was prepared for two military agencies that move people and cargo, the U.S. Transportation Command and the Air Force's Air Mobility Command.\n\n– Chris Woodyard\n\nCOVID outbreak hits Georgia election warehouse\n\nElection officials said nearly a quarter of the workers in a warehouse where election supplies are kept and voting equipment is readied for Georgia’s most populous county have tested positive for COVID-19.\n\nBut Fulton County Elections Director Rick Barron said Thursday that the positive tests for 13 of the 60 workers at the county election preparation center shouldn’t delay election operations.\n\nBarron said the county is working to hire replacement staff and implement more mitigation measures, including daily rapid testing. The state Department of Public Health said Georgia had 1,686 cases and 23 deaths reported Thursday.\n\nCOVID-19 resources from USA TODAY\n\nIn your inbox: Stay up to date with the latest news on the coronavirus pandemic from the USA TODAY Network. Sign up for the daily Coronavirus Watch newsletter.\n\nStay up to date with the latest news on the coronavirus pandemic from the USA TODAY Network. Tips for coping: Every Saturday and Tuesday we'll be in your inbox, offering you a virtual hug and a little bit of solace in these difficult times. Sign up for Staying Apart, Together.\n\nEvery Saturday and Tuesday we'll be in your inbox, offering you a virtual hug and a little bit of solace in these difficult times. On Facebook: A lot is still unknown about the coronavirus. But what we do know, we're sharing with you. Join our Facebook group, Coronavirus Watch, to receive daily updates in your feed and chat with others in the community about COVID-19.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/10/16"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_15", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:20", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2022/07/12/emmy-nominations-snubs-2022/10012979002/", "title": "Emmy nomination snubs 2022: Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston", "text": "It's an honor to be nominated for an Emmy, but these people don't even get the consolation of saying that to themselves.\n\nThe 74th Primetime Emmy nominations were announced Tuesday, and the list of the series, actors and creators up for TV's biggest honor had usual suspects like \"Ted Lasso\" and \"Succession,\" and some up-and-comers, including \"Only Murders in the Building,\" \"The White Lotus\" and \"Squid Game.\" But among all those worthy contenders for TV's biggest award, there were some equally worthy people shut out of the race.\n\nThe Emmy Awards will air Sept. 12 on NBC, but Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston probably won't be attending. Here are the biggest snubs from this year's Emmy nominations list.\n\nJulia Roberts snubbed for 'Gaslit'\n\nIt pays to be a movie star working in television, but it's not always enough to get an Emmy nomination. Roberts brought her talents to TV for Starz's Watergate drama \"Gaslit,\" but didn't manage a nomination for lead actress in a limited series or TV movie, and the miniseries missed out, too.\n\nSee the full Emmy nominations list:'Succession,' 'Ted Lasso,' 'White Lotus' lead\n\nJennifer Aniston snubbed for 'The Morning Show'\n\nThe lead actress in a drama category was competitive this year, and while Aniston's co-star Reese Witherspoon made it in for Apple's \"Morning Show,\" Aniston did not, despite a previous nomination for the series.\n\nMandy Moore and 'This Is Us' snubbed\n\nNBC family drama \"Us\" has long been an Emmy favorite, but its final season didn't rate highly on voter's minds. The series did not garner a nomination for best drama, nor did Moore get one for her lauded, age-defying performance in the final episodes.\n\n'Atlanta' snubbed\n\nAfter a four-year hiatus, Donald Glover's beloved, experimental dark comedy \"Atlanta\" returned to FX. Glover nabbed a nomination for his performance as music manager Earn Marks, but the show missed out on a nod for best comedy series, despite getting one the last time it was eligible in 2017, when supporting actors Bryan Tyree Henry and Zazie Beetz also were nominated.\n\nSelena Gomez for 'Only Murders in the Building'\n\nThere's a trio of podcasting amateur detectives at the heart of Hulu's comical murder mystery series, but only two managed to make the nominations list. Veteran comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short each made it into the lead actor in a comedy category for their work in Season 1 of the series, but their co-star Gomez was left out for an acting nomination.\n\nMore:Daytime Emmys 2022: Soaps 'The Young and the Restless,' 'General Hospital' lead nominations", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2022/07/12/emmys-nominations-2022-full-list/10018798002/", "title": "Emmys nominations 2022: Full list; 'Succession,' 'Ted Lasso' lead", "text": "'Succession,' 'Ted Lasso,' 'White Lotus' top Emmy nominees.\n\nHBO nabs 140 nominations to Netflix's 105.\n\n'Squid Game' is the first non-English language show nominated for best drama series.\n\nJust like Logan Roy (Brian Cox) himself, HBO's \"Succession\" once again comes out on top.\n\nThe show, which follows the dysfunctional Roy family's fight for corporate power, leads the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards race with 25 nominations, including outstanding drama series. Apple TV+ comedy \"Ted Lasso\" and HBO's social-satire limited series \"The White Lotus\" tied for second, with 20 nominations apiece.\n\n\"Succession\" will compete with Netflix's \"Squid Game,\" the first non-English language show nominated for the title; Netflix's \"Ozark,\" which released its final episodes in April; and Netflix's \"Stranger Things,\" the most watched English-language series on the platform. AMC's \"Better Call Saul,\" HBO's \"Euphoria,\" Apple TV+'s \"Severance\" and Showtime's \"Yellowjackets\" are also nominated in the category.\n\nEmmy snubs 2022: Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston among actors left off nomination list\n\nZendaya is nominated again as outstanding lead actress in a drama series for her work on HBO's \"Euphoria.\" The first season made her the youngest (and only the second) Black woman to win a lead actress drama Emmy, for playing teen drug addict Rue Bennett. Zendaya is also up against BBC America's \"Killing Eve\" stars Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, who wrapped their final season in April.\n\n\"Lasso,\" which earned Jason Sudeikis an acting Emmy for the show's first season, is vying for best-comedy honors with ABC's “Abbott Elementary,” HBO's “Barry” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” FX's “What We Do in the Shadows” and Amazon Prime's “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”\n\nAlso in the race: Hulu's murder mystery \"Only Murders in the Building\" and HBO Max's \"Hacks,\" which saw Jean Smart winning an acting Emmy in the show's first season.\n\n\"Lotus\" and Hulu's nonfiction drama \"Dopesick, about the opioid crisis, are among nominees for outstanding limited series. \"Lotus,\" which follows employees and guests at a Hawaiian resort, is tied with \"Ted Lasso\" with 20 nominations and \"Dopesick,\" which showcases Purdue Pharma's role in fueling the opioid addiction crisis, has 14.\n\nHBO and HBO Max, with a leading total of 140 nominations, narrowly edged Netflix's 105 for the second year in a row.\n\nThe 74th Primetime Emmy Awards are set to air Sept. 12 on NBC. A host hasn't yet been announced.\n\nThe 2022 Emmy nominees:\n\nDRAMA SERIES\n\n\"Better Call Saul\" (AMC)\n\n\"Euphoria\" (HBO)\n\n\"Ozark\" (Netflix)\n\n\"Severance\" (Apple)\n\n\"Squid Game\" (Netflix)\n\n“Stranger Things” (Netflix)\n\n\"Succession\" (HBO)\n\n\"Yellowjackets\" (Showtime)\n\nCOMEDY SERIES\n\n\"Abbott Elementary\" (ABC)\n\n\"Barry\" (HBO)\n\n“Curb Your Enthusiasm” (HBO)\n\n\"Hacks\" (HBO Max)\n\n\"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel\" (Amazon)\n\n\"Only Murders in the Building\" (Hulu)\n\n\"Ted Lasso\" (Apple)\n\n\"What We Do in the Shadows\" (FX)\n\nLIMITED SERIES\n\n\"Dopesick\" (Hulu)\n\n\"The Dropout\" (Hulu)\n\n“Inventing Anna” (Netflix)\n\n“Pam & Tommy” (Hulu)\n\n\"The White Lotus\" (HBO)\n\nLEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES\n\nJodie Comer, \"Killing Eve\" (BBC America)\n\nLaura Linney, \"Ozark\" (Netflix)\n\nMelanie Lynskey, \"Yellowjackets\" (Showtime)\n\nSandra Oh, “Killing Eve\" (BBC America)\n\nReese Witherspoon, \"The Morning Show\" (Apple)\n\nZendaya, \"Euphoria\" (HBO)\n\nLEAD ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES\n\nJason Bateman, \"Ozark\" (Netflix)\n\nBrian Cox, \"Succession\" (HBO)\n\nLee Jung-jae, \"Squid Game\" (Netflix)\n\nBob Odenkirk, \"Better Call Saul\" (AMC)\n\nAdam Scott, \"Severance\" (Apple)\n\nJeremy Strong, \"Succession\" (HBO)\n\nLEAD ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES\n\nRachel Brosnahan, \"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel\" (Amazon)\n\nQuinta Brunson, \"Abbott Elementary\" (ABC)\n\nKaley Cuoco, \"The Flight Attendant\" (HBO Max)\n\nElle Fanning, “The Great” (Hulu)\n\nIssa Rae, \"Insecure\" (HBO)\n\nJean Smart, \"Hacks\" (HBO Max)\n\nLEAD ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES\n\nDonald Glover, \"Atlanta\" (FX)\n\nBill Hader, \"Barry\" (HBO)\n\nNicholas Hoult, “The Great” (Hulu)\n\nSteve Martin, \"Only Murders in the Building\" (Hulu)\n\nMartin Short, \"Only Murders in the Building\" (Hulu)\n\nJason Sudeikis, \"Ted Lasso\" (Apple)\n\nLEAD ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE\n\nToni Collette “The Staircase” (HBO Max)\n\nJulia Garner, \"Inventing Anna\" (Netflix)\n\nLily James, \"Pam & Tommy\" (Hulu)\n\nSarah Paulson, “Impeachment: American Crime Story” (FX)\n\nMargaret Qualley, \"Maid\" (Netflix)\n\nAmanda Seyfried, \"The Dropout\" (Hulu)\n\nLEAD ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE\n\nColin Firth, \"The Staircase\" (HBO Max)\n\nAndrew Garfield, \"Under the Banner of Heaven\" (Hulu)\n\nOscar Isaac, \"Scenes from a Marriage\" (HBO)\n\nMichael Keaton, \"Dopesick\" (Hulu)\n\nHimesh Patel, “Station Eleven” (HBO Max)\n\nSebastian Stan, \"Pam & Tommy\" (Hulu)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES\n\nPatricia Arquette, “Severance” (Apple)\n\nJulia Garner, “Ozark” (Netflix)\n\nJung Ho-yeon, “Squid Game” (Netflix)\n\nChristina Ricci, “Yellowjackets” (Showtime)\n\nRhea Seehorn, “Better Call Saul” (AMC)\n\nJ. Smith-Cameron, “Succession” (HBO)\n\nSarah Snook “Succession” (HBO)\n\nSydney Sweeney, “Euphoria” (HBO)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES\n\nNicholas Braun, “Succession” (HBO)\n\nBilly Crudup, “The Morning Show” (Apple)\n\nKieran Culkin, “Succession” (HBO)\n\nPark Hae-soo, “Squid Game” (Netflix)\n\nMatthew Macfadyen, “Succession” (Netflix)\n\nJohn Turturro, “Severance” (Apple)\n\nChristopher Walken, “Severance” (Apple)\n\nOh Yeong-su, “Squid Game” (Netflix)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES\n\nAlex Borstein, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon)\n\nHannah Einbinder, “Hacks” (HBO)\n\nJanelle James, “Abbott Elementary” (ABC)\n\nKate McKinnon, “Saturday Night Live” (NBC)\n\nSarah Niles, “Ted Lasso” (Apple)\n\nSheryl Lee Ralph, “Abbott Elementary” (ABC)\n\nJuno Temple, “Ted Lasso” (Apple)\n\nHannah Waddingham, “Ted Lasso” (Apple)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES\n\nAnthony Carrigan, “Barry” (HBO)\n\nBrett Goldstein, “Ted Lasso” (Apple)\n\nToheeb Jimoh, “Ted Lasso” (Apple)\n\nNick Mohammed, “Ted Lasso” (Apple)\n\nTony Shalhoub, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon)\n\nTyler James Williams, “Abbott Elementary” (ABC)\n\nHenry Winkler, “Barry” (HBO)\n\nBowen Yang, “Saturday Night Live” (NBC)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE\n\nConnie Britton, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nJennifer Coolidge, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nAlexandra Daddario, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nKaitlyn Dever, “Dopesick” (Hulu)\n\nNatasha Rothwell, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nSydney Sweeney, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nMare Winningham, “Dopesick” (Hulu)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE\n\nMurray Bartlett, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nJake Lacy, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nWill Poulter, “Dopesick” (Hulu)\n\nSeth Rogen, “Pam & Tommy” (Hulu)\n\nPeter Sarsgaard, “Dopesick” (Hulu)\n\nMichael Stuhlbarg, “Dopesick” (Hulu)\n\nSteve Zahn, “The White Lotus” (HBO)\n\nOUTSTANDING VARIETY TALK SERIES\n\n“The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” (Comedy Central)\n\n“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (ABC)\n\n“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (HBO)\n\n“Late Night With Seth Meyers” (NBC)\n\n“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (CBS)\n\nOUTSTANDING COMPETITION PROGRAM\n\n“The Amazing Race” (CBS)\n\n“Lizzo's Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” (Amazon Prime)\n\n“Nailed It!” (Netflix)\n\n“RuPaul's Drag Race” (VH1)\n\n“Top Chef” (Bravo)\n\n“The Voice” (NBC)\n\nHOST FOR A REALITY OR COMPETITION PROGRAM\n\nBobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, “Queer Eye” (Netflix)\n\nAmy Poehler and Nick Offerman, “Making It” (NBC)\n\nNicole Byer, “Nailed It!” (Netflix)\n\nBarbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, Kevin O'Leary, “Shark Tank” (ABC)\n\nPadma Lakshmi, “Top Chef” (Bravo)\n\nRuPaul, “RuPaul's Drag Race” (VH1)\n\nVARIETY SPECIAL, PRE-RECORDED\n\n\"Adele: One Night Only\" (CBS)\n\n\"Dave Chappelle: The Closer\" (Netflix)\n\n\"Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts\" (HBO)\n\n\"Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special\" (Netflix)\n\n\"One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga\" (CBS)", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/09/17/emmys-2021-everything-know-when-they-are-how-to-watch/8346977002/", "title": "Emmys 2021: Everything to know about TV's biggest awards show", "text": "TV's biggest night comes to small screens Sunday.\n\nWhen Emmy nominations were announced in July by father-daughter acting duo Ron Cephas Jones (\"This Is Us\" and \"Lisey's Story\") and Jasmine Cephas Jones (\"Blindspotting\" and \"Hamilton\"), Apple TV+'s upbeat \"Ted Lasso\" became the first new show to receive 20 nominations in its inaugural season, besting a freshman record set by Fox's \"Glee.\" HBO's horror drama \"Lovecraft Country\" received 18 nominations, shortly after it was canceled.\n\nThe year's biggest unscripted moments were also recognized. Oprah Winfrey's CBS sitdown with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle earned a nod for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special, and FX and The New York Times' documentary \"Framing Britney Spears\" earned two. HBO Max's \"Friends\" reunion, which brought together all six cast members, is a contender in four categories.\n\nHere's what else you need to know about the awards show.\n\nEmmys 2021:'The Crown,' 'Mandalorian' top nominees; see all the major categories\n\nA 'Ted Lasso' sweep? Who will win (and who should) at the 2021 Emmy Awards\n\nWhen are the Emmys and how can I watch?\n\nThe awards ceremony will air Sept. 19 on CBS (8 EDT/5 PDT) and stream on Paramount+. The show is to be broadcast from outside the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, and will include \"a limited audience of nominees and their guests,\" according to the TV Academy.\n\nWho is hosting the Emmy Awards?\n\nComedian and actor Cedric the Entertainer, who stars on CBS sitcom \"The Neighborhood,\" will emcee. He follows last year's ABC host Jimmy Kimmel, who started a trashcan fire that Jennifer Aniston extinguished.\n\nCedric, a first-time host, told USA TODAY Sunday's ceremony will be an \"intimate\" affair amid the mutating coronavirus. \"It was going to be a much bigger audience there,\" Cedric says. \"At first, the idea was to really bring it back full steam ahead and now, with the new variant, there’s been some sizing down.\"\n\nBut don't expect Cedric to poke fun at any stars the way Ricky Gervais and Jimmy Kimmel have done at previous awards shows.\n\n\"We’ve all been through a lot the past few years,\" he says, \"So the idea of cynicism and mean-spirited jokes is not going to be what the vibe is at all.\"\n\nThe comedian aims to bring a \"celebratory\" tone to the Emmys, a night to salute how \"TV got us all the way through (the pandemic) with most of us being stuck at home.\"\n\nMore from this year's Emmys host:Cedric the Entertainer says scaled-down Emmys will still be full of 'surprises'\n\nWhich limited series deserves the Emmy? We passionately defend all five contenders\n\nWho is nominated for an Emmy?\n\n“The Mandalorian,” the hit Disney+ series set in the “Star Wars” universe, tied the fourth season of Netflix's British monarchy series “The Crown\" with 24 nominations apiece, including best drama.\n\nBoth shows were trailed by Disney+'s inaugural Marvel show “WandaVision,” which earned 23 nods, including best limited series, best actress (Elizabeth Olsen) and best actor (Paul Bettany). \"Lasso,\" starring Jason Sudeikis as a soccer coach transplanted to London, was the most nominated comedy.\n\nThe limited series categories are stacked this year, with Netflix’s “The Queen's Gambit,” HBO’s “I May Destroy You” and “Mare of Easttown” all picking up multiple nominations. (See the list of all the nominees in the major categories.)\n\nHBO and HBO Max picked up the most nominations (130), followed closely by Netflix, with 129.\n\n'Tears of joy':Mj Rodriguez the first trans performer nominated for lead drama Emmy\n\nTV shows with the most Emmy wins of all time, from 'Game of Thrones' to 'SNL'\n\nWho was shockingly snubbed?\n\nFor all the worthy nominees, there were plenty of surprising omissions. Critically acclaimed and fan-favorite series and actors were left off the list, including Nicole Kidman (HBO's \"The Undoing\"), Ethan Hawke (Showtime's \"The Good Lord Bird\") and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Peacock's \"Girls5Eva\"), to name a few. USA TODAY'S TV critic Kelly Lawler has addressed several more snubs.\n\nWho will win at the Emmy Awards?\n\nThis year's Emmy race has been full of predictable frontrunners (\"Lasso,\" Jean Smart from \"Hacks\") and some hopeful spoilers (Bowen Yang of \"Saturday Night Live,\" \"The Boys\"). With many perennial Emmy winners not in contention this year because of COVID-related production delays – \"Succession,\" \"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,\" \"The Morning Show,\" \"Better Call Saul\" and \"Killing Eve\" among them – there are more chances for newer and lesser-known series to triumph.\n\nOur TV critic has shared her insight so readers can have the edge on their Emmy (virtual) office pools.\n\nEmmys 2021 snubs:'Girls5Eva,' Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke and more\n\nIt’s time to end gendered acting awards at Emmys and Oscars. Here’s why.\n\nContributing: Cydney Henderson, Kelly Lawler and Patrick Ryan", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/17"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2022/07/12/dave-chappelle-receives-backlash-over-the-closer-emmy-nominations/10042951002/", "title": "Dave Chappelle receives backlash over 'The Closer' Emmy ...", "text": "Even after receiving backlash for his transphobic commentary in \"The Closer,\" Dave Chappelle is still collecting accolades.\n\nThe Netflix comedy special received two Primetime Emmy nominations Tuesday, including outstanding variety special (pre-recorded), competing with the streaming platform's \"Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special,\" CBS' \"Adele: One Night Only\" and \"One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga,\" and HBO Max's \"Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts.\" Stan Lathan is also nominated for outstanding directing of a variety special for his work on \"The Closer.\"\n\nChappelle's comedy special, which was released on Netflix in October, ignited social media backlash at the time as advocates and activists from the LGBTQ community argued the episode was transphobic. Netflix employees also staged a walkout in protest.\n\nAfter the Emmy nominations were announced Tuesday, people on social media voiced their frustration and criticized the decision to give further recognition to Chappelle's Netflix special.\n\n\"Dave Chappelle getting Emmy noms for his transphobic special is just disgusting,\" wrote Shannon O'Connor on Twitter. \"Do better, TV Academy.\"\n\nEmmys nominations 2022: 'Succession,' 'Ted Lasso,' 'White Lotus' lead nominees; see the list\n\nCan America take a joke? Yes. Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock incidents are part of a continuum, experts say\n\nTwitter user @pierogiwitch said \"i'm sorry i don't ever want to hear any cishet man complain about cancel culture again\" following Chappelle's nominations.\n\n\"This is crushing,\" the user added.\n\n\"Disgusting. Another misfire from an awards ceremony. Even nominating that special is such a messed up thing to do,\" read a reply to @pierogiwitch's tweet.\n\nDave Chappelle is accused of ‘punching down’ in 'The Closer.' How can comedy go up from here?\n\nTwitter user @_jennifermelton called out the claim that Chappelle was canceled for this special saying he wouldn't have been nominated if he was.\n\n\"Dave Chappelle got nominated for an Emmy for his transphobic piece of trash,\" the user said.\n\nAnother Twitter user wrote, sarcastically: \"Oh so Dave Chappelle has been canceled directly into an Emmy nomination.\"\n\n'It's been a hell of a few weeks': Dave Chappelle launches film tour, ignoring outrage over trans comments\n\n'You will not summon me': Dave Chappelle on engaging with trans community; fired Netflix employee speaks\n\nTracing back Chappelle's initial comments, backlash\n\nIn \"The Closer,\" Chappelle attempts to paint a juxtaposition between the pace of civil rights gained by the LGBTQ community and those fought for by the Black community.\n\nThe comedian also expressed solidarity with \"Harry Potter\" author J.K. Rowling, who has been heavily criticized since 2019 for conflating sex with gender. The author has also defended ideas suggesting that changing one's biological sex was a threat to her own gender identity.\n\n\"They canceled J.K. Rowling – my God,\" Chappelle says in the Netflix special. \"Effectually she said gender was a fact, the trans community got mad as (expletive), they started calling her a TERF. I'm Team TERF. I agree. I agree, man. Gender is a fact.\"\n\nTERF is an acronym that stands for \"trans exclusionary radical feminists.\" The term describes feminists who are transphobic.\n\nFrom the start:Dave Chappelle says he's 'Team TERF,' defends J.K. Rowling in new Netflix comedy special\n\nBacklash swiftly followed on and offline. After the comedy special's October release, about 30 Netflix workers staged a walkout and joined a rally at Netflix offices in Los Angeles.\n\nNetflix's transgender employees said executives at the streaming service dismissed their concerns that Chappelle's controversial comments could lead to violence against the trans community.\n\nAt the time, two employees, one transgender and one non-binary, filed labor charges against the streaming giant alleging the company retaliated against them for speaking out about Chappelle's special.\n\n'Laughing in the face of our pain': Netflix employees walk out over Dave Chappelle special\n\nMore: Netflix employees drop labor complaints, one resigns after Dave Chappelle special\n\nChappelle's continues to defend 'The Closer' comments, Netflix releases 'What in a Name'\n\nChappelle gave a speech on June 20 at his high school alma mater when he announced he will not be naming the school's theater after himself. The comedian addressed an audience at the Duke Ellington School of Arts and said the theater would instead be named the \"Theater of Artistic Freedom & Expression.\"\n\nChappelle graduated from the prestigious high school in 1991 and announced the name change in a Washington, D.C. ceremony, attributing the recent decision to the backlash he received from students regarding his controversial Netflix special, \"The Closer.\"\n\nHe said he hoped to \"defer\" the renaming of his school's theater rather than reject in order to emphasize \"the nuance of art\" and his \"freedom of artistic expression\" where he received applause and a standing ovation.\n\nIn July, Netflix released footage of the comedian's speech in a nearly 39-minute feature titled \"What's in a Name,\" in which the comedian defended his special calling it \"a masterpiece,\" and arguing the press unfairly portrayed it.\n\n\"No matter what they say about 'The Closer,' it is still (one of the) most watched specials on Netflix,\" Chappelle said. \"The more you say I can't say something, the more urgent it is for me to say it. It has nothing to do with what you are saying I can't say. It has everything to do with my freedom of artistic expression.\"\n\nDave Chappelle show in Buffalo will benefit families of mass shooting victims\n\nMore:Police arrest suspect in onstage attack of Dave Chappelle; rep calls incident 'unsettling'\n\nContributing: Jenna Ryu, Elise Brisco", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/07/12/james-webb-space-telescope-emmys-uvalde-its-tuesdays-news/10026244002/", "title": "James Webb Space Telescope, Emmys, Uvalde. It's Tuesday's news.", "text": "Those behind the rally before the riot Jan. 6, 2021, knew President Donald Trump would call for a march to the Capitol, according to text messages revealed by the committee investigating the attack. Video showing officers' delayed response in Uvalde, Texas, was released. And the United States provided $1.7 billion to help ensure the Ukrainian government can operate.\n\n👋 Hello! It's Julius here to share Tuesday's news.\n\nBut first, a psychedelic \"head with legs\" on an \"I Voted\" sticker? The leading contender for this New York county's sticker features the unique design.\n\nThe Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.\n\nJan. 6 hearing hones in on Trump, rioters\n\nThe House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack focused its hearing Tuesday on how Trump summoned protesters to Washington and directed a mob he allegedly knew was armed to the U.S. Capitol. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., outlined “three rings of interwoven attack” that were a part of Trump's efforts to overturn the election. Those resulted in the Capitol attack, he said.\n\nFormer White House lawyer Pat Cipollone said he thought Trump should concede : Cipollone said the process for deciding the 2020 election had ended by mid-December after the Electoral College met to cast formal votes for president. “Did I believe he should concede the election at a point in time?” Cipollone told the committee in a videotaped interview. “Yes, I did.”\n\n: Cipollone said the process for deciding the 2020 election had ended by mid-December after the Electoral College met to cast formal votes for president. “Did I believe he should concede the election at a point in time?” Cipollone told the committee in a videotaped interview. “Yes, I did.” Trump’s tweet organized extremists around a single day: Before Trump’s tweet Dec. 19 calling his supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6, there was no plan or single day that his supporters planned to come. “People talked about going to D.C. when the election was over … after it was announced he was going to be there on the 6th, then anything else was shut out and it was just going to be on the 6th,” Jody Williams, former owner of far-right website TheDonald.win, said in video testimony. Rep. Raskin said Trump’s tweet created a “laserlike focus” on Jan. 6.\n\nBefore Trump’s tweet Dec. 19 calling his supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6, there was no plan or single day that his supporters planned to come. “People talked about going to D.C. when the election was over … after it was announced he was going to be there on the 6th, then anything else was shut out and it was just going to be on the 6th,” Jody Williams, former owner of far-right website TheDonald.win, said in video testimony. Rep. Raskin said Trump’s tweet created a “laserlike focus” on Jan. 6. Rally organizer knew Trump would order march to Capitol: The committee revealed text messages showing those who were behind the rally knew Trump would call for a march to the Capitol. In messages obtained by the panel, Kylie Kremer, the organizer of the \"Stop the Steal\" rally, spoke to Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow and a Trump confidant. Two days before the riot, Kremer said in the text messages that Trump was “going to have us march” to the Capitol. She told Lindell to keep that information to himself because the president, during his rally speech, would \"unexpectedly\" instruct his supporters to go to the Capitol.\n\nExclusive video from Uvalde shows officers' delayed response\n\nA 77-minute video recording captured by a school surveillance camera, along with body camera footage from one of the responding officers, shows in excruciating detail how dozens of sworn officers waited to enter the classrooms at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. The video tells in real time the story of how heavily armed officers failed to immediately launch a cohesive and aggressive response to stop the shooter and save more children if possible. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the mass shooting.\n\nReleasing the video:Why the Austin American-Statesman chose to publish the footage\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\nThe 'deepest' glimpse of the distant universe 🌌\n\nNASA released \"the deepest and sharpest\" images of the distant universe from the James Webb Space Telescope. The first full-color image released Monday marked the official beginning of Webb’s general science operations. Using infrared wavelengths, the Webb Telescope shows thousands of the first stars and galaxies that formed about 13 billion years ago, about 1 billion years after the Big Bang. Webb chronicled the Cosmic Cliffs, a region roughly 7,600 light-years away. This period of very early star formation is rare and difficult to capture, according to NASA.\n\nUS provides $1.7 billion for Ukraine's government\n\nThe United States provided an additional $1.7 billion to ensure the Ukrainian government can operate and provide essential services such as health care by paying the salaries of workers. The contribution was made possible by \"generous bipartisan support\" from Congress, the U.S. Agency for International Development said. USAID has provided $4 billion in direct budgetary support to the Ukraine government for core functions such as keeping electricity on at hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure and paying for humanitarian supplies and the salaries of civil servants and teachers.\n\nReal quick\n\n🌤 What's the weather up to in your neck of the woods? Check your forecast here.\n\nEmmy nominations arrive 📺\n\nThe nominees for the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards were announced Tuesday, and HBO's \"Succession\" led the way. The show, which follows the dysfunctional Roy family's fight for corporate power, leads all contenders with 25 nominations. In addition to being nominated again for outstanding lead actress in a drama series, Zendaya made history as the youngest producing Emmy nominee for \"Euphoria.\" The creator and star of beloved comedy \"Abbott Elementary,\" Quinta Brunson, earned a pair of nominations: The show is up for outstanding comedy series, and she is nominated for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series. The 74th Primetime Emmy Awards are set to air Sept. 12 on NBC.\n\nA Prime Day break from the news", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/07/14/emmys-2021-everything-know-whos-hosting-when-what-channel/7966880002/", "title": "Emmys 2021: Everything to know about the show, including who's ...", "text": "TV's biggest night comes to small screens this fall.\n\nNominations were announced July 13 by father-daughter acting duo Ron Cephas Jones (\"This Is Us\" and \"Lisey's Story\") and Jasmine Cephas Jones (\"Blindspotting\" and \"Hamilton\").\n\nApple TV+'s upbeat \"Ted Lasso\" dethroned Fox's \"Glee,\" becoming the first new show to receive 20 nominations in its inaugural season. HBO's horror drama \"Lovecraft Country\" received 18 nominations, shortly after it was canceled.\n\nThe year's biggest non-scripted moments were also recognized. Oprah Winfrey's CBS sitdown with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle earned a nod for Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special, and FX and The New York Times' documentary \"Framing Britney Spears\" earned two. HBO Max's \"Friends\" reunion, which brought together all six cast members, is a contender in four categories.\n\nHere's what else you need to know about the awards show.\n\nEmmys 2021:'The Crown,' 'Mandalorian' top nominees; see all the major categories\n\nIt’s time to end gendered acting awards at Emmys and Oscars. Here’s why.\n\nWhen are the Emmys and how can I watch?\n\nThe awards ceremony will air Sept. 19 on CBS (8 EDT/5 PDT) and streams live on Paramount+. The show will return to a live format, broadcast from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, and will include \"a limited audience of nominees and their guests,\" according to an announcement.\n\nWho is hosting the Emmy Awards?\n\nComedian and actor Cedric the Entertainer, who stars on CBS sitcom \"The Neighborhood,\" will emcee. He follows last year's ABC host Jimmy Kimmel, who started a trashcan fire that Jennifer Aniston extinguished.\n\nCedric, a first-time host, said in a statement: \"Since I was a little boy huddled up next to my grandmother, television has always been my reliable friend, so it is an enormous honor for me to host this year's Emmy Awards.\"\n\nCedric the Entertainer set to host 2021 Emmy Awards with live audience\n\n'Tears of joy':Mj Rodriguez the first trans performer nominated for lead drama Emmy\n\nWho is nominated for an Emmy?\n\n“The Mandalorian,” the hit Disney+ series set in the “Star Wars” universe, tied the fourth season of Netflix's British monarchy series “The Crown\" with 24 nominations apiece, including best drama.\n\nBoth shows were trailed by Disney+'s inaugural Marvel show “WandaVision,” which earned 23 nods, including best limited series, best actress (Elizabeth Olsen) and best actor (Paul Bettany). \"Lasso,\" starring Jason Sudeikis as a soccer coach transplanted to London, was the most nominated comedy.\n\nThe limited series categories are stacked this year, with Netflix’s “The Queen's Gambit,” HBO’s “I May Destroy You” and “Mare of Easttown” all picking up multiple nominations. (See the list of all the nominees in the major categories.)\n\nHBO and HBO Max picked up the most nominations (130), followed closely by Netflix, with 129.\n\nWho was shockingly snubbed?\n\nFor all the worthy nominees, there were plenty of surprising omissions. Critically acclaimed and fan-favorite series and actors were left off the list, including Nicole Kidman (HBO's \"The Undoing\"), Ethan Hawke (Showtime's \"The Good Lord Bird\") and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Peacock's \"Girls5Eva\"), to name a few. USA TODAY'S TV critic Kelly Lawler has addressed several more snubs.\n\nEmmys 2021 snubs:'Girls5Eva,' Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke and more\n\nThese stars have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. Is Renée Elise Goldsberry next?\n\nContributing: Patrick Ryan and Kelly Lawler", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/television/2021/07/13/emmys-2021-nominees/7952233002/", "title": "Emmy nominations 2021: What they got right and wrong", "text": "The 2021 Emmy nominations are a tribute to the lifelines that kept us entertained during the COVID-19 quarantine.\n\nWe're talking the steamy heat of \"Bridgerton,\" the scary drama of \"Lovecraft Country,\" the chess moves and plot twists of \"The Queen's Gambit\" ... and much, much more.\n\nWhen the nominations were announced Tuesday, both Netflix’s “The Crown” and the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian” grabbed 24 of them, the most for a single series.\n\nFollowing closely behind was \"WandaVision\" — the Disney+ nostalgia-TV mashup/Marvel superhero saga — with 23.\n\nAlthough 2020 wasn't the best year ever for TV, there's a good argument to be made that it was the most important one in the history of the medium.\n\nBroadcast, cable and streaming platforms became gathering places for people dealing with fear and isolation during the pandemic. There were no couch potatoes last year, only passengers on sofa lifeboats headed for a safe harbor.\n\nHere's a look at the nominees who'll be competing during the Sept. 19 ceremony airing on CBS — and some who weren't chosen, but still deserve our heartfelt thanks.\n\nNicest nominee: \"Ted Lasso\" was showered with 20 nominations for pulling off the minor miracle of promoting kindness and empathy when we needed them most.\n\nMeanest nominee: Josh O'Connor of \"The Crown\" could win his first Emmy for so perfectly capturing the narcissism and self-pity of Prince Charles after his marriage to Lady Di. (But we're certain he's pleasant in real life.)\n\nBest recognition of smart talk: In the variety/talk category, four shows were singled out that had the hardest-hitting political critiques: \"The Daily Show With Trevor Noah\" on Comedy Central, \"Jimmy Kimmel Live!\" on ABC, \"Last Week Tonight With John Oliver\" on HBO and \"The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.\" \"Conan\" on TBS, which stuck to sillier realms, was also included — likely as a love letter to its final season.\n\nBest recognition of Smart moves: At 69, Jean Smart is having one of her best career seasons ever. The stellar actress is up for best comedy actress for HBO Max's \"Hacks,\" where she plays a veteran comedian facing unspoken age discrimination, and for best supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or movie for HBO's \"Mare of Easttown,\" where she was Mare's loving but irritating-to-her-durder mother.\n\nMost versatile transportation: It's a thriller. It's a drama. Actually, it's a ... laughfest? \"The Flight Attendent\" earned nods for comedy, actress for Kaley Cuoco and supporting actress for Rosie Perez, among others. You know, a dramedy category could solve these problems.\n\nMost successful unappreciated series: HBO may have canceled \"Lovecraft Country,\" but don't be surprised if it finds another happy home. The sci-fi drama earned an impressive 18 nominations, including ones for lead actors Jurnee Smollett and Jonathan Majors.\n\nBest 'SNL' appreciation: This year, the Emmys doubly recognized the long-running sketch show's two secret weapons: Kenan Thompson and Aidy Bryant. The versatile Thompson is in the running as an actor for both \"SNL\" and his NBC sitcom \"Kenan,\" while the adorable Bryant is up for \"SNL\" and Hulu's \"Shrill.\"\n\nBest indication Peacock could survive: The writing nominations for \"The Amber Ruffin Show\" and \"Girls5Eva\" are your hint to discover the NBC spin-off streaming network that's also home to \"Rutherford Falls.\" Triple high-quality alert!\n\nBiggest snub: \"Small Axe,\" the British anthology series from director Steven McQueen that chronicles West Indian immigrants in London, was a huge hit with critics. But the Amazon Prime Video standout only got a cinematography nod. Sure, it looked great, but what about the great acting (especially by John Boyega), writing and direction?\n\nMost persistent controversial pick: When the Golden Globes chose \"Emily in Paris\" as a comedy nominee, you could blame the foreign press for getting it wrong. But the Netflix comedy made the same good impression on Emmy voters. Still, putting it in a category shared by substantial comedies such as \"Black-ish,\" \"Ted Lasso\" and \"Pen15\" is like serving an eclair as a main course.\n\nMost history-making inclusion for drama: Kudos to Mj Rodriguez of FX's \"Pose,\" who becomes the first trans performer to be nominated in a lead acting category.\n\nMost history-making inclusion for comedy: \"Saturday Night Live” emerging star Bowen Yang is the first featured player (the step before becoming a regular cast member) to be nominated. Yang, who made a big impression last season with his “Weekend Update” segment as the Titanic’s iceberg, is also the first Chinese -American man to be nominated for a supporting actor Emmy, according to the Hollywood Reporter.\n\nMost surprising superstar exclusion: Hugh Grant got a nod for HBO's \"The Undoing,\" but not Nicole Kidman?\n\nMost difficult category for choosing a favorite: Most every category has strong contenders. But the limited series nominees are deserving of a five-way tie. How do you choose a winner from HBO's \"I May Destroy You\" and \"Mare of Easttown,\" Netflix's \"The Queen's Gambit,\" Amazon Prime Video's \"The Underground Railroad\" and Disney+'s \"WandaVision\"?\n\nBest Detroit shout-out: Until the movie \"Respect\" starring Jennifer Hudson comes out Aug. 13, the current winner of the best Aretha Franklin portrayal is Cynthia Erivo, who was nominated for best actress in a limited or anthology series or movie for National Geographic's \"Genius: Aretha.\" Don't forget the Motor City legend she portrayed. But who ever could?\n\nSecond- and third-best Detroit shout-out: Congrats to Courtney B. Vance, who hails from Detroit, for his guest actor nod for \"Lovecraft Country,\" and to Renee Elise Goldsberry, a former Detroiter and Cranbrook alum, for her supporting actress nomination for \"Hamilton.\" If only Goldsberry — and her new Peacock comedy — also had gotten nods for \"Girls5Eva.\"\n\nBiggest Michigan snub: The Golden Globes nominated Jeff Daniels for playing James Comey in Showtime's \"The Comey Rule.\" How hard would it have been for the Emmys to do the same for Chelsea's favorite son — and let him wear the dad shirt again that wowed at the Globes?\n\nBest \"Bridgerton\" nod: While it certainly merits a drama nomination and nobody would argue with actor nominee Rege-Jean Page's impact on the show, \"Bridgerton\" is almost guaranteed to win the gold for Julie Andrews, a contender for best character voice-over performance for her narration as the elusive Lady Whistledown.\n\nBest film nominated as a TV movie: Amazon Prime Video's \"Uncle Frank\" starring Paul Bettany is nominated for an Emmy, but it had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Discuss amongst yourselves.\n\nBest film nominated as a variety special (pre-recorded): Disney+'s \"Hamilton.\" Yet several actors from \"Hamilton\" are competing in the limited series or movie category. Now this is getting ridiculous!\n\nToughest co-star contest: The supporting actress in a drama category has three cast members from \"The Crown\" (Gillian Anderson, Helena Bonham Carter and Emerald Fennell) and four co-stars from \"The Handmaid's Tale\" (Madeline Brewer, Ann Dowd, Yvonne Strahovski and Samira Wiley). The only person who doesn't have to feel conflicted about rooting for herself is remaining nominee Aunjanue Ellis of \"Lovecraft Country.\"\n\nBest crown nod not associated with \"The Crown\": \"Oprah with Megan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special,\" which is included in the hosted non-fiction series or special category.\n\nContact Detroit Free Press pop culture writer Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/07/24/emmy-nominations-2020-faqs-awards-amid-covid-19/5478804002/", "title": "Emmy nominations 2020: FAQs about the awards amid COVID-19", "text": "Roll out the virtual red carpet: The Emmy nominations are coming.\n\nThis year's nominations, and the subsequent award show, will be unlike any in the decades-long history of the awards due to the coronavirus pandemic. Just like every other institution, the Emmy Awards, and the Television Academy that puts them on every year, have had to make major adjustments to keep people safe as they try to continue with traditions and ceremonies. This summer, the Daytime Emmy Awards aired a remotely filmed ceremony, with winners sending in video acceptance speeches.\n\nSo what will happen with the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, the much higher profile ceremony? The nominations, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. EDT/8:30 a.m. PDT Tuesday, will be the first event in what will prove to be a very strange 2020-2021 award season. If you're wondering how an event that relies on red carpets packed with celebrities and photographers is supposed to go on, we've answered a few frequently asked questions about the Emmys.\n\nAre the nominations on schedule?\n\nNo! The Television Academy opted to push back the regularly scheduled announcement by two weeks, to give more time for voters to view eligible series. On Tuesday, Leslie Jones will host and presenters Laverne Cox, Josh Gad and Tatiana Maslany will read the top nominees live.\n\nWill the pandemic affect which actors and series get nominated?\n\nYes and no. The Academy altered the eligibility rules slightly to accommodate production delays and scheduling problems caused by the pandemic, including pushing back the deadline for \"hanging episodes\" – episodes from an eligible season that air after the deadline – by a month. The Academy also recently announced rule changes unrelated to the pandemic that will affect how many nominees are in each category, generally expanding them.\n\nBut beyond the rules, more time at home might affect what series voters were able to watch, and how many (we're all watching more TV, aren't we?). April and May are usually packed with \"for your consideration\" events in Hollywood as shows and networks try to woo voters.\n\nBut will a lack of gimmicky parties and open bars affect who votes what into the nominations? It's a possibility.\n\n2020 Daytime Emmy Awards:The full list of winners\n\nWho will get nominated?\n\nEmmy darlings like Amazon's \"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel\" and Netflix's \"The Crown\" are virtual locks for multiple nominations. Other sure bets are PopTV's \"Schitt's Creek,\" which just aired a much-loved final season; FX on Hulu's \"Mrs. America,\" a star-studded limited series with Cate Blanchett; HBO's \"Succession,\" which gained in popularity and critical acclaim in Season 2; and HBO's \"Watchmen,\" another widely acclaimed miniseries. Up-and-comers like Hulu's \"Ramy,\" which surprised at this year's Golden Globes\" and Apple TV+'s hyped \"The Morning Show\" also have good shots at getting recognition.\n\nMore:ABC maps tentative fall plans, including 'The Bachelorette,' Emmys and (now) 'Black-ish'\n\nSo, are the Emmys actually going to happen in September? Will it all be on Zoom?\n\nUnlike the Oscars, which recently announced the 2021 ceremony won't occur until April, the Emmys have kept their original Sept. 20 air date firmly on the calendar.\n\nABC is airing the awards this year, and the network is simultaneously pursuing plans for both a traditional broadcast in a theater setting and a \"virtual\" one produced remotely. Jimmy Kimmel will host the ceremony in either scenario, though odds strongly favor a virtual ceremony.\n\n\"Jimmy and the team are being very thoughtful and exploring all options,\" ABC President Karey Burke told USA TODAY in June. \"We're waiting until the last possible moment to pivot. Luckily Jimmy in particular has some experience with that.\"\n\nMore:Jimmy Kimmel to host 2020 Emmy Awards: 'I don't know where we will do this or how'", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/24"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/07/13/emmy-awards-2021-nominations-nominees-actor-actress-best/7937030002/", "title": "Emmy nominations dominated by 'The Mandalorian', 'The Crown' in ...", "text": "'The Mandalorian,' 'The Crown' top Emmy nominees with 24 apiece\n\nHBO nabs 130 nominations to Netflix's 129\n\nApple TV+'s 'Ted Lasso' snags 20 nominations, a record for a freshman comedy, including seven actors\n\nThe Force is strong with this one.\n\n“The Mandalorian,” the hit Disney+ series set in the “Star Wars” universe, tied the fourth season of Netflix's British monarchy series “The Crown\" in Tuesday’s 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, with 24 nominations apiece, including best drama.\n\nBoth shows were trailed by Disney+'s inaugural Marvel show “Wandavision,” earning 23 nods including best limited series, actress (Elizabeth Olsen) and actor (Paul Bettany). And Apple TV+'s \"Ted Lasso,\" starring Jason Sudeikis as a soccer coach transplanted to London, nabbed 20 nominations, the most for a freshman comedy series. The limited series categories are particularly stacked this year, with Netflix’s “The Queen's Gambit,” HBO’s “I May Destroy You” and “Mare of Easttown” all picking up multiple nods.\n\nHBO and HBO Max, with a leading total of 130 nominations, narrowly edged out Netflix's 129. But Netflix has yet to win a best-series Emmy.\n\nFollowing last fall’s mostly virtual ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Emmys will return for an in-person show on Sept. 19 on CBS (8 EDT/PDT). Cedric the Entertainer will emcee the event, which will air live from Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater.\n\nMany of last year’s top winners and nominees were ineligible for 2021 awards due in part to COVID-19 production delays that pushed back their upcoming seasons, including “Succession,” “The Morning Show,” “Ozark” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Shows that aired between June 1, 2020, and May 31, 2021, were eligible for this year’s prizes.\n\nThe full list of 2021 Emmy nominees:\n\nEmmys 2021 snubs: 'Girls5Eva,' Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke and more\n\nEmmys to allow winners to use gender-neutral term 'performer' instead of 'actor,' 'actress'\n\nDRAMA SERIES\n\n\"The Boys\" (Amazon)\n\n\"Bridgerton\" (Netflix)\n\n\"The Crown\" (Netflix)\n\n\"The Handmaid's Tale\" (Hulu)\n\n\"Lovecraft Country\" (HBO)\n\n\"The Mandalorian\" (Disney+)\n\n\"Pose\" (FX)\n\n\"This Is Us\" (NBC)\n\nCOMEDY SERIES\n\n\"Black-ish\" (ABC)\n\n\"Cobra Kai\" (Netflix)\n\n\"Emily in Paris\" (Netflix)\n\n\"Hacks\" (HBO Max)\n\n\"The Flight Attendant\" (HBO Max)\n\n\"The Kominsky Method\" (Netflix)\n\n\"PEN15\" (Hulu)\n\n\"Ted Lasso\" (Apple TV+)\n\nLIMITED SERIES\n\n\"I May Destroy You\" (HBO)\n\n\"Mare of Easttown\" (HBO)\n\n\"The Queen's Gambit\" (Netflix)\n\n\"The Underground Railroad\" (Amazon)\n\n\"WandaVision\" (Disney+)\n\nTV MOVIE\n\n\"Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square\" (Netflix)\n\n\"Oslo\" (HBO)\n\n\"Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia\" (Lifetime)\n\n\"Sylvie's Love\" (Amazon)\n\n\"Uncle Frank\" (Amazon)\n\nLEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES\n\nUzo Aduba, \"In Treatment\" (HBO)\n\nOlivia Colman, \"The Crown\" (Netflix)\n\nEmma Corrin, \"The Crown\" (Netflix)\n\nElisabeth Moss, \"The Handmaid's Tale\" (Hulu)\n\nMj Rodriguez, \"Pose\" (FX)\n\nJurnee Smollett, \"Lovecraft Country\" (HBO)\n\nLEAD ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES\n\nSterling K. Brown, \"This Is Us\" (NBC)\n\nJonathan Majors, \"Lovecraft Country\" (HBO)\n\nJosh O'Connor, \"The Crown\" (Netflix)\n\nRegé-Jean Page, \"Bridgerton (Netflix)\n\nBilly Porter, \"Pose\" (FX)\n\nMatthew Rhys, \"Perry Mason\" (HBO)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA SERIES\n\nGillian Anderson, \"The Crown\" (Netflix)\n\nHelena Bonham Carter, \"The Crown\" (Netflix)\n\nMadeline Brewer, \"The Handmaid's Tale\" (Hulu)\n\nAnn Dowd, \"The Handmaid's Tale\" (Hulu)\n\nAunjanue Ellis, \"Lovecraft Country\" (HBO)\n\nEmerald Fennell, \"The Crown\" (Netflix)\n\nYvonne Strahovski, \"The Handmaid's Tale\" (Hulu)\n\nSamira Wiley, \"The Handmaid's Tale\" (Hulu)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA SERIES\n\nGiancarlo Esposito, \"The Mandalorian\" (Disney+)\n\nO-T Fagbenle, \"The Handmaid's Tale\" (Hulu)\n\nJohn Lithgow, \"Perry Mason\" (HBO)\n\nTobias Menzies, \"The Crown\" (Netflix)\n\nMax Minghella, \"The Handmaid's Tale\" (Hulu)\n\nChris Sullivan, \"This Is Us\" (NBC)\n\nBradley Whitford, \"The Handmaid's Tale\" (Hulu)\n\nMichael K. Williams, \"Lovecraft Country\" (HBO)\n\nLEAD ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES\n\nAidy Bryant, \"Shrill\" (Hulu)\n\nKaley Cuoco, \"The Flight Attendant\" (HBO Max)\n\nAllison Janney, \"Mom\" (CBS)\n\nTracee Ellis Ross, \"Black-ish\" (ABC)\n\nJean Smart, \"Hacks\" (HBO Max)\n\nLEAD ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES\n\nAnthony Anderson, \"Black-ish\" (ABC)\n\nMichael Douglas, \"The Kominsky Method\" (Netflix)\n\nWilliam H. Macy, \"Shameless\" (Showtime)\n\nJason Sudeikis, \"Ted Lasso\" (AppleTV+)\n\nKenan Thompson, \"Kenan\" (NBC)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY SERIES\n\nAidy Bryant, \"Saturday Night Live\" (NBC)\n\nHannah Einbinder, \"Hacks\" (HBO Max)\n\nKate McKinnon, \"Saturday Night Live\" (NBC)\n\nRosie Perez, \"The Flight Attendant\" (HBO Max)\n\nCecily Strong, \"Saturday Night Live\" (NBC)\n\nJuno Temple, \"Ted Lasso\" (Apple TV+)\n\nHannah Waddingham, \"Ted Lasso\" (Apple TV+)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY SERIES\n\nCarl Clemons-Hopkins, \"Hacks\" (HBO Max)\n\nBrett Goldstein, \"Ted Lasso\" (Apple TV+)\n\nBrendan Hunt, \"Ted Lasso\" (Apple TV+)\n\nNick Mohammed, \"Ted Lasso\" (Apple TV+)\n\nPaul Reiser, \"The Kominsky Method\" (Netflix)\n\nJeremy Swift, \"Ted Lasso\" (Apple TV+)\n\nKenan Thompson, \"Saturday Night Live\" (NBC)\n\nBowen Yang, \"Saturday Night Live\" (NBC)\n\nLEAD ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE\n\nMichaela Coel, \"I May Destroy You\" (HBO)\n\nCynthia Erivo, \"Genius: Aretha\" (National Geographic)\n\nElizabeth Olsen, \"WandaVision\" (Disney+)\n\nAnya Taylor-Joy, \"The Queen's Gambit\" (Netflix)\n\nKate Winslet, \"Mare of Easttown\" (HBO)\n\nLEAD ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE\n\nPaul Bettany, \"WandaVision\" (Disney+)\n\nHugh Grant, \"The Undoing\" (HBO)\n\nLeslie Odom Jr., \"Hamilton\" (Disney+)\n\nEwan McGregor, \"Halston\" (Netflix)\n\nLin-Manuel Miranda, \"Hamilton\" (Disney+)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE\n\nRenee Elise Goldsberry, \"Hamilton\" (Disney+)\n\nKathryn Hahn, \"WandaVision\" (Disney+)\n\nMoses Ingram, \"The Queen's Gambit\" (Netflix)\n\nJulianne Nicholson, \"Mare of Easttown\" (HBO)\n\nJean Smart, \"Mare of Easttown\" (HBO)\n\nPhillipa Soo, \"Hamilton\" (Disney+)\n\nSUPPORTING ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES/TV MOVIE\n\nThomas Brodie-Sangster, \"The Queen's Gambit\" (Netflix)\n\nDaveed Diggs, \"Hamilton\" (Disney+)\n\nPaapa Essiedu, \"I May Destroy You\" (HBO)\n\nJonathan Groff, \"Hamilton\" (Disney+)\n\nEvan Peters, \"Mare of Easttown\" (HBO)\n\nAnthony Ramos, \"Hamilton\" (Disney+)\n\nVARIETY TALK SERIES\n\n\"Conan\" (TBS)\n\n\"The Daily Show with Trevor Noah\" (Comedy Central)\n\n\"Jimmy Kimmel Live!\" (ABC)\n\n\"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver\" (HBO)\n\n\"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert\" (CBS)\n\nVARIETY SKETCH SERIES\n\n\"A Black Lady Sketch Show\" (HBO)\n\n\"Saturday Night Live\" (NBC)\n\nCOMPETITION PROGRAM\n\n\"The Amazing Race\" (CBS)\n\n\"Nailed It!\" (Netflix)\n\n\"RuPaul's Drag Race\" (VH1)\n\n\"Top Chef\" (Bravo)\n\n\"The Voice\" (NBC)\n\nHOST FOR REALITY OR COMPETITION PROGRAM\n\nBobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, \"Queer Eye\" (Netflix)\n\nNicole Byer, \"Nailed It!\" (Netflix)\n\nRuPaul Charles, \"RuPaul's Drag Race\" (VH1)\n\nBarbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec, Kevin O'Leary, \"Shark Tank\" (ABC)\n\nPadma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, \"Top Chef\" (Bravo)\n\nMOST NOMINATED PROGRAMS\n\n\"The Crown\" (Netflix), 24 nominations\n\n\"The Mandalorian\" (Disney+), 24\n\n\"WandaVision\" (Disney+), 23\n\n\"The Handmaid’s Tale\" (Hulu), 21\n\n\"Saturday Night Live\" (NBC), 21\n\n\"Ted Lasso\" (Apple TV+), 20\n\nMOST NOMINATED NETWORKS\n\nHBO/HBO Max, 130\n\nNetflix, 129\n\nDisney+, 71\n\nNBC, 46", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/07/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/07/29/primetime-emmy-awards-go-virtual-year-because-covid-19-worries/5540563002/", "title": "Primetime Emmy Awards go virtual this year because of COVID-19 ...", "text": "The Emmys are going virtual.\n\nAfter nominations were announced Tuesday for the Sept. 20 ceremony that will air on ABC, producers and host Jimmy Kimmel sent a letter to nominees saying the show will be presented remotely this year, forsaking the traditional in-person red carpet and awards presentation at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles. Variety first revealed the contents of the letter on Wednesday.\n\nUSA TODAY obtained a copy of the letter and verified its contents.\n\nA virtual ceremony, a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, also means a relaxation of black-tie requirements, as the letter states: \"Our informal theme for the night is 'come as you are,' but make an effort!”\n\nThere already had been much speculation that the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony might go virtual, considering the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent rise in cases in Los Angeles and around the country. The letter, signed by ABC late-night host Kimmel and producers, promises \"the most memorable Emmys\" and alludes to the coronavirus situation, without referencing it by name.\n\n\"As you’ve probably guessed, we’re not going to be asking you to come to the Microsoft Theatre in downtown LA on September 20th. This year, it’s still going to be TV industry’s biggest night out … but we’ll come to you!\" the letter states. \"It’s still television’s highest honor, and we never want to lose the significance of being nominated for, and maybe winning, an Emmy, but we’re going to do in a way that is appropriate to the moment (and guarantees you a memorable night).\"\n\nThe letter says producers can't ignore the current circumstances and \"we also acknowledge that our world is going through a challenging moment in many ways.\"\n\nIt does not offer details for the virtual show, but promises \"an event that is filled with warmth and humanity, which celebrates the power of television to bring us together and to help us shape our world.\" The plan is for the show to be live.\n\nMore:Emmy nominations 2020: Frequently asked questions about Hollywood awards amid COVID-19\n\nIt promises the nominees that they will be filmed at their homes or locations of their choice. \"We’re going to make you look fabulous – we’re exploring the cutting edge of technology to allow to use good cameras and lighting and look forward to working with you to produce your unique 'on screen' moments.\"\n\nOne reason for lifting the formal-dress rules is consideration for nominees in time zones where the show will air in the middle of the night. \"If you want to be in formal wear, we’d love that, but equally if you’re in the UK and it’s 3 a.m., perhaps you want to be in designer pajamas and record from your bed!\"\n\nABC and the Television Academy issued a statement concerning the message to nominees and the ceremony: \"As ABC and the Television Academy continue to formulate plans for the Emmys telecast, producers have taken the proactive step of reaching out to some nominees now to inform them of our intent to deliver a live show that is both celebratory and safe. We look forward to sharing information with you in the weeks ahead, as we solidify our plans for TV’s biggest night.\"\n\nHere is the text of the letter to nominees from Kimmel and executive producers Ian Stewart, Reggie Hudlin, Guy Carrington and David Jammy:\n\nDear Nominees,\n\nThe producers of Emmys 2020 congratulate you on this incredible recognition of your work.\n\nWe’re delighted and honored to be producing the event on September 20th and have every intention of not only making sure that it is not compromised by this crazy moment in our lives, but that it is the most memorable Emmys ever and that you have a wonderful night.\n\nAs you’ve probably guessed, we’re not going to be asking you to come to the Microsoft Theatre in downtown LA on September 20th. This year, it’s still going to be TV industry’s biggest night out … but we’ll come to you!\n\nAt a time like this, we’re taking the opportunity to create a moment that is more relaxed, more entertaining, more enjoyable not only for you, but for the millions watching at home. It’s still television’s highest honor, and we never want to lose the significance of being nominated for, and maybe winning, an Emmy, but we’re going to do in a way that is appropriate to the moment (and guarantees you a memorable night).\n\nBut we cannot ignore the circumstances, and aside from NOT being able to come together in one place, we also acknowledge that our world is going through a challenging moment in many ways. We’ll be producing an event that is filled with warmth and humanity, which celebrates the power of television to bring us together and to help us shape our world. You are an essential part of that story.\n\nSo, what does this all mean for September 20th?\n\nWe are assembling a top notch team of technicians, producers and writers to work closely with Jimmy Kimmel and with you and your team, to make sure that we can film with you (and loved ones or whomever else you choose to be with) at your home, or another location of your choice. We’re going to make you look fabulous – we’re exploring the cutting edge of technology to allow to use good cameras and lighting and look forward to working with you to produce your unique “on screen” moments.\n\nSo, what are you wearing??? Our informal theme for the night is “come as you are, but make an effort!” If you want to be in formal wear, we’d love that, but equally if you’re in the UK and it’s 3am, perhaps you want to be in designer pajamas and record from your bed! We want to work with you to style your moments, but want you to guide us on your levels of comfort – where you want to be, who you want to be with, what you want to wear etc.\n\nOnce again, congratulations.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/29"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_16", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:20", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2018/07/08/mlb-all-star-game-why-bryce-harper-deserves/766780002/", "title": "MLB All-Star Game: Why Bryce Harper deserves to be there", "text": "The All-Star Game doesn’t really count for anything anymore.\n\nThe experiment of playing for home-field advantage in the World Series is gone.\n\nThe idea of league pride disappeared with daily interleague play, along with the constant shuffling of players switching teams and leagues.\n\nGone are the days when Bob Gibson and Nolan Ryan refused to talk to hitters in their own All-Star clubhouse for fear they might get to like them and not drill them with a pitch when necessary.\n\nStill, with so much tradition seeping out of the game, we still love the Midsummer Classic, although considering that we’ll be so far beyond the season’s halfway mark by July 17, we should change the nickname to the 5/8th Classic.\n\nIt looks like again this will be our only chance on a national stage to see Mike Trout, now seven full seasons into his major league career with seven All-Star nods to match.\n\nAll-Star Game: Rosters, reserves and fun facts aplenty\n\nThis might be the last time seeing local favorites Bryce Harper and Manny Machado representing the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles at the All-Star Game. Who knows, with the way trade talks with the Los Angeles Dodgers and others are starting to heat up for Machado, he might not even be an Oriole by next week.\n\nThere will be those who argue that Harper doesn’t deserve to be an All-Star for the sixth time, citing his .218 batting average and whopping 91 strikeouts. Yet he still has 21 homers and 50 RBI.\n\nBesides, let’s remind everyone again, it is only an exhibition game. It’s for sheer enjoyment. The game will be played in his ballpark. And it might be his last time in the spotlight for the Nats considering their enduring first-half struggles.\n\nHarper, who plans to participate in the Home Run Derby, has no reason to apologize for playing in an exhibition game in his hometown.\n\nReally, if we had our druthers, the All-Star Game should be expanded by one honorary spot for each team. A year ago in Miami, Ichiro Suzuki should have been in the All-Star Game. This year, Albert Pujols of the Los Angeles Angels and Adrian Beltre of the Texas Rangers would be ideal. They’re the most recent members of the 3,000-hit club, they’re headed to Cooperstown, and who wouldn’t want to see them take their hacks in the All-Star Game?\n\nMaybe seeing Pujols at the All-Star Game for the first time since departing St. Louis would ease the pain of being cheated out of a Max Scherzer-Justin Verlander matchup. The two former Detroit Tigers teammates and future Hall of Fame classmates looked as if they were all lined up to start against each other. It changed when the Houston Astros juggled their rotation with Verlander now starting next Sunday, the last day before the break, keeping him from pitching in the game.\n\nWell, at least we’ll be able watch the genius of Scherzer (11-5, 2.33 ERA, league-leading 177 strikeouts). He’s the first person in baseball history to receive a $210 million contract, and be grossly underpaid.\n\nThe game, again, will be filled with feel-good and comeback stories that captivate our attention.\n\nOnly in Hollywood could anyone imagine that Matt Kemp would be returning to his first All-Star Game in six years, after he was the longest of shots to make the Dodgers’ opening-day roster, let alone be their first-half MVP.\n\nNo All-Star shares Miles Mikolas’ itinerary. He was optioned nine times, traded twice, released once and spent the last three years in Japan before signing a two-year,\n\n$15.5 million deal with the Cardinals.\n\nWho would ever have believed that Mikolas (9-3 record and 2.63 ERA) would be the pitcher coming from Japan to be in his first All-Star Game, and not Shohei Ohtani?\n\nStill, even though we would have loved to see Ohtani pitch, hit and participate in the Home Run Derby, we’ll get to see Milwaukee Brewers reliever Josh Hader strike out every batter he faces. We’ll enjoy New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom’s reaction watching his teammates finally score runs for him.\n\nAnd in a game that only continues to skew younger, a pair of 21-year-old second basemen will demand our attention. Atlanta Braves star Ozzie Albies powered his way here with a startlingly potent first half.\n\nMeanwhile, Gleyber Torres didn’t make his major league debut until April 22. Talk about instant respect: His 15 homers and .905 on-base plus slugging (OPS) inspired his AL peers to vote him onto the roster.\n\nThere, of course, will be the debate who was most robbed. Was it Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Blake Snell, Dodgers infielder Max Muncy, Brewers first baseman Jesus Aguilar, Mariners starter James Paxton, Mariners shortstop Jean Segura or Astros starter Charlie Morton? Save your breath. There are always plenty of injuries and replacements. They should all be All-Stars by game time.\n\nThe first All-Star Game in our nation’s capital since 1969 might not provide the same indelible memories as the last time at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium. It was a time when 17 future Hall of Famers adorned the field, with Willie McCovey homering twice for the National League in the victory and Washington Senators slugger Frank Howard delighting the hometown crowd with a homer.\n\nConsidering baseball’s putrid offensive numbers these days, just seeing three consecutive hits might be our spine-tingling moment.\n\nTimes have changed. The All-Star Game doesn’t have nearly the same significance, but for all of the players and fans who are there, it’s still a thrill that will never be forgotten.\n\nAnd that will never change.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/07/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2022/05/01/diamondbacks-mlb-attendance-dodgers-home-field-advantage/9604515002/", "title": "Diamondbacks have MLB's biggest home field disadvantage", "text": "PHOENIX — The guy screamed into the microphone before the start of the Arizona Diamondbacks-Los Angeles Dodgers game last week, trying to get the subdued crowd riled up.\n\nFinally, he stood in front of the crowd, and dramatically tore off his D-backs jersey, revealing the slogan on his chest.\n\n“BEAT LA!’’", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/01"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/07/05/defending-champ-stanton-is-top-seed-in-hr-derby-judge-no-2/103458584/", "title": "Home Run Derby lineup set: Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge top ...", "text": "AP\n\nNEW YORK (AP) — Defending champion Giancarlo Stanton will be the top seed in the Home Run Derby on Monday night at his home ballpark in Miami.\n\nStanton received the No. 1 seed after winning the event during All-Star week last year in San Diego. He will face New York Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez, the No. 8 seed, in the opening round at Marlins Park.\n\nYankees rookie Aaron Judge, who leads the majors with 29 home runs, is the No. 2 seed and will square off against seventh-seeded Justin Bour of the hometown Marlins. Another rookie, No. 3 seed Cody Bellinger of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is paired with sixth-seeded Charlie Blackmon of Colorado. No. 4 seed Mike Moustakas from the Kansas City Royals is matched against Minnesota slugger Miguel Sano, the fifth seed.\n\nMajor League Baseball announced the bracket Wednesday night. After Stanton, players were seeded based on their home run totals through Tuesday's games. In the case of a tie, the higher seed went to the player who reached his current total first.\n\nMORE MLB:\n\nAaron Judge hits 29th homer, ties Joe DiMaggio's Yankee rookie record\n\nFor Marlins, All-Star Game puts team's dysfunction - and imminent sale - in spotlight\n\nLogan Morrison blasts MLB over Gary Sanchez's Home Run Derby selection\n\nGary Sanchez fires back at Logan Morrison on Derby snub: 'Not my fault he wasn't invited'", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/07/05"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/brewers/2020/07/15/highlights-1975-mlb-all-star-game-milwaukee/5444254002/", "title": "Highlights from the 1975 MLB All-Star Game in Milwaukee", "text": "July 15 marks the 45th anniversary of the 1975 All-Star Game at County Stadium in Milwaukee, a close game won by the National League, 6-3.\n\nThe night served as a celebration of Hank Aaron, one of the faces of Milwaukee baseball who was acquired by the Brewers before the season. Aaron was appearing in his 21st and final All-Star Game, with 11 of those wearing a Milwaukee Braves uniform.\n\nHere were the highlights from the night.\n\nHank Aaron got two standing ovations\n\nHank Aaron didn't rush out to the base line with the rest of the reserves during pregame introductions, lingering back near the dugout, a move that enabled an even rowdier pregame ovation.\n\nFans rose to their feet for the occasion, and they were back on their feet in the second inning when Aaron was announced as the game's first pinch hitter and stepped in against NL starter Jerry Reuss.\n\nAaron hit a broken-bat line drive to shortstop Dave Concepcion that was initially ruled a trap by one of the umpires, but third-base ump Bruce Froemming — a Milwaukee native himself — overruled the call. Aaron was out, the inning was over and Aaron's All-Star Game career was complete.\n\nEveryone got excited in the sixth for Yaz's home run\n\nThe NL held a 3-0 lead until the sixth, when Carl Yastrzemski lifted a pinch-hit three-run home run to tie the game on the first pitch he saw from Tom Seaver.\n\nTo add to the frenzy, Brewers first baseman George Scott stepped to the plate for the next at-bat, giving the hometown crowd reason to stay fired up. But Scott struck out, part of an 0-for-3 showing for Milwaukee players in the game (Scott and Aaron).\n\nThere were Cubs fans on hand in 1975, too\n\nCubs infielder Bill Madlock, the leading hitter in the National League, was given a warm round of applause during pregame introductions. Apparently, the Cubs fans were eager to travel north back then, too. Phillies left fielder Greg Luzinski, a Chicagoland native, also got a swell of support.\n\nMadlock also came up in a big spot in the ninth with the bases loaded in a 3-3 game. His bouncer down the third-base line against White Sox pitcher Goose Gossage scored two runs and probably would have plated a third, but an errant return throw from the plate to third base struck Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst (serving as the NL's third-base coach) and stayed near the infield.\n\nSchoendienst played briefly with the Milwaukee Braves during his Hall of Fame career. Pete Rose later drove in the runner from third anyway with a sacrifice fly to cap the three-run rally.\n\nMadlock was named co-MVP along with near-namesake Jon Matlack of the Mets, who threw two scoreless innings of relief. It was the first time co-MVPs were named in the All-Star Game.\n\nHenry Kissinger was there, and so was his security team\n\nSecretary of State Henry Kissinger sat just behind home plate alongside baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, and he was tasked with throwing out the ceremonial first pitch. Meanwhile, Secret Service agents manned the stadium's concourses and the roof, keeping watch over the then-record 51,480 fans in attendance.\n\nIt marked the first all-star game in which the two sides picked honorary captains. Stan Musial represented the National League, and Mickey Mantle as on hand for the American League.\n\nGene Tenace was not beloved\n\nThe local crowd seemed to hold a particular grudge against members of the Oakland Athletics, namely Gene Tenace and Bert Campaneris, during pregame introductions.\n\nTenace had defeated Scott in fan voting for the first-base spot in the starting lineup, and he was booed heartily during introductions, even though Scott finished down in the totals. To a lesser degree, Campaneris was frowned upon for finishing ahead of 19-year-old Brewers shortstop Robin Yount in the fan voting.\n\nScott struck out in both of his at-bats, including in the ninth.\n\nParts of the stadium ran out of beer\n\nThe huge crowd meant several sections of the stadium ran out of beer. Beer vendors sold 60,000 bottles of beer and 300 half-barrels (equivalent to another 49,500 bottles).\n\nElsewhere in beer facts, Bernie Brewer slid into his mug after Los Angeles Dodgers star Steve Garvey — ostensibly playing for the opposing team — homered leading off the second, followed by a home run from teammate Jim Wynn. Bernie went down his slide again on the Yaz home run.\n\nOther Brewers connections\n\nBrewers manager Del Crandall was selected to the coaching stuffstaff. Reuss, who started the game, went on to spend part of the 1989 season in Milwaukee at 40 years old, and future Brewers Don Sutton and Rollie Fingers were both on their respective all-star rosters. Fingers didn't pitch; Sutton worked two innings.\n\nSteve Busby, who threw a no-hitter against the Brewers one year earlier, was touched up for a run on four hits in two innings of work.\n\nJR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2022/02/27/mlb-lockout-news-spring-training-opening-day-nightengale/6952586001/", "title": "MLB lockout is doing more damage to baseball every single day", "text": "JUPITER, Fla. — There was no Twitter during the 1994-95 strike that resulted in the cancellation of the World Series.\n\nThe internet wasn’t around during baseball’s first seven work stoppages.\n\nThese days you don’t need a laptop, iPad or cellphone to gauge the level of anger spewing during baseball’s lockout.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/27"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2013/07/11/all-star-selections-prove-a-crapshoot/2511043/", "title": "All-Star selections prove a crapshoot", "text": "Dan Schlossberg\n\nSpecial for USA TODAY Sports\n\nHistory of how players are selected to the All-Star Game\n\nNo matter who's picking%2C trying to win popularity contest isn't possible\n\nFans did not always pick the starting lineups for the All-Star Game.\n\nIn the 80 years since the initial \"Game of the Century\" was played in Chicago, various electoral methods have been tried. Most led to controversy, and complaints have always been common.\n\nToday's complicated system, with its combination of fan vote at ballparks and online, player vote and manager vote, also has its detractors. Fans pick the starting lineups, players pick position backups and eight pitchers and All-Star managers pick eight position players plus five starting pitchers and three relievers. Fans then select the \"Final Vote\" player for each league from among five choices. Pitchers who started on the Sunday before the Tuesday All-Star Game are replaced so that fresh arms are available.\n\nHistorian David Vincent, co-author of the book The Midsummer Classic: The Complete History of Baseball's All-Star Game, isn't sure what voting system works best.\n\n\"Fans want to see good players,\" says Vincent, a longtime Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) member and author. \"They don't want to see somebody hitting .110.\n\n\"When it comes down to it, the All-Star Game is an exhibition played to entertain the fans. In the final analysis, I don't have a problem with fan voting, because it's always been a game for the fans.\"\n\nThat being said, he has issues with the selection system.\n\n\"If you get someone who wants to vote for his favorite player 8,000 times, that will skew the results,\" he says. \"The fact that every team has to be represented even though not every team has someone deserving causes problems in trying to fill out the roster. If you've got to take Player X from Team Y, that bumps somebody more deserving. In selecting outfielders, do you pick left, center and right or just three guys? In my way of thinking, you pick the guys having the best seasons and let it fall out from there.\"\n\nLongtime Houston Astros broadcaster Milo Hamilton says the player vote should count more heavily, the fan vote starts too early and nobody should be encouraged to vote up to 35 times for the same player.\n\n\"Fans should not be able to sit at a computer and just count, count, count, count, count,\" says Hamilton, who concluded his 60-year tenure in the booth last year. \"They should not give the fan vote so much credit.\"\n\n***\n\nQuestionable choices\n\nThroughout the All-Star Game's history, the selection process has been scrutinized.\n\nFans were accused of stuffing the ballot box in 1956, 1957, 1988, 1997 and 1999, but managers also were charged with favoritism when they picked the teams.\n\nTwo players with batting averages below .200 even managed to sneak into the starting lineups — in the same year.\n\nThe most memorable year in the history of All-Star voting might have been 1974, when Luis Aparicio was selected as the American League's starting shortstop, even though he had been released by the Boston Red Sox before the season started.\n\nThat spring, Bill Freehan, who had been playing first base without much distinction for the Detroit Tigers, finished second in the fan voting as a catcher. \"I've got no business being second this year,\" the former catcher said at the time. \"It's the fans' game, and they ought to be able to pick who they want. But that's no guarantee they're going to pick the most deserving players.\"\n\nThe 1974 voting also produced a rare write-in starter — the second since Atlanta Braves outfielder Rico Carty was left off the 1970 ballot after hitting .342 the previous year.\n\nSteve Garvey, omitted from the 1974 fan ballot because he had been playing both infield corners for the Los Angeles Dodgers, did so well during the first half that his fans mounted a successful write-in campaign. Garvey rewarded them with MVP trophies for both the All-Star Game (his first of two in the midsummer classic) and the regular season.\n\nFellow Dodger Davey Lopes also carved a niche in All-Star annals but only because a player strike shaved seven weeks off the 1981 schedule. When play stopped June12, the speedy but slump-ridden second baseman was hitting .169. With no chance to boost that average before play resumed with the All-Star Game on Aug.9, Lopes earned the dubious distinction of starting an All-Star Game with the lowest batting average.\n\nReggie Jackson came close that year. The bespectacled slugger of the New York Yankees was picked by the fans despite a .199 average when play ended.\n\n\"I don't deserve to go, but I got people who voted for me,\" Jackson told The New York Times. He said he considered withdrawing but changed his mind after Frank Robinson, a perennial All-Star two decades earlier, said the fans wanted him to play.\n\nIn 1988, Oakland Athletics fans made a successful push for the selection of catcher Terry Steinbach, whom critics said was unworthy of cracking the AL's lineup. Steinbach responded by winning All-Star MVP honors.\n\nWhen the fans made Mike Schmidt the National League's starting third baseman in 1989, he didn't play; he had retired two months before the All-Star Game.\n\nJuan Gonzalez, twice MVP in the AL, rejected a role as a 1997 sub after fans created a starting lineup that featured four Seattle Mariners and three Baltimore Orioles.\n\nTwo years later, the commissioner's office disallowed the 39,000 Nomar Garciaparra votes cast by a single fan. The Boston shortstop still had more than enough votes to start in front of his hometown fans at Fenway Park.\n\nBecause the All-Star Game, like the World Series, is a showcase event sanctioned by the commissioner, the baseball czar has always paid close attention to the selection process.\n\nWhen Cincinnati supporters elected five Reds to the NL lineup in 1956, Ford Frick started having doubts about the fan vote. When they picked seven hometown favorites a year later, he acted. Frick not only replaced Wally Post and Gus Bell with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, but he also stripped fans of their right to vote.\n\n***\n\nExpanding rosters\n\nFor the next 12 years, All-Star lineups were chosen by players, coaches and managers. To ensure objectivity, they were barred from voting for teammates.\n\nThe fan vote returned under promotion-minded Bowie Kuhn in 1970, with computerized ballots distributed at ballparks, but changed dramatically with the advent of online voting in 2003.\n\nAll-Star roster size increased as the leagues expanded, jumping from the original 18 of 1933 to the present 34.\n\n\"That's too many,\" Hamilton says. \"Think of the weight that Fox television puts on the game. What's their slogan? 'Now the All-Star Game means something.' Didn't it always mean something? When Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst hit extra-inning home runs to win games, didn't that mean something?\"\n\nAccording to Hamilton, Houston's baseball radio voice from 1985 to 2012, \"Under the present regime, they think every ballplayer ought to be included. Maybe in the last year or two, the Astros wouldn't have had anybody. I think they should pick one from every team but have enough guts to tell some of those players they're not going to get into the game — they'll just be introduced along the foul lines.\n\n\"They'll still be part of it and have the thrill of being on an All-Star team. And I'd carry it further and have the managers tell the players they can't rush out of the clubhouse and onto a private plane. It's a team affair, and they've made it doubly important, because whomever wins gets World Series home advantage. Players should stick around and be part of the team til the very end.\"\n\nAlthough the one-man, one-vote system employed from 1958 to 1969 was designed to ensure fairness, baseball historian Vincent has his doubts.\n\n\"The voting for the All-Star Game is nothing more than a popularity contest,\" he says. \"You can see that when teams are home, their players move up in the voting. When teams go on the road, some other team's players move up. There's a lot of promotion going on at the ballparks, where they hand out ballots and encourage people to go on the Internet and vote til their fingers fall off.\"\n\n***\n\nCommon complaints\n\nIn 1935, when managers picked the teams, Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg was bypassed by his own manager, Mickey Cochrane, because fellow first basemen Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx were on the AL squad. Little did it matter that Greenberg had 110 RBI at the break.\n\nCritics also carped when Yankees manager Joe McCarthy played five of his own players for the whole game in 1939 and named a record nine to the team (starting six) three years later. In reaction, McCarthy kept all six of the Yankees he selected for the 1943 game on the bench.\n\nNearly 60 years later, Joe Torre was accused of taking too many men in pinstripes. He and Arizona Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly, All-Star opponents because both met in the preceding World Series, took many of their own players and coaches to the 2002 game. Perhaps too many.\n\nWhen it comes to picking the All-Stars, it's just not possible to please everybody.\n\nFormer Associated Press sportswriter Dan Schlossberg is the author of 35 baseball books.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2013/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/dodgers/2020/07/30/dodgers-pitcher-joe-kelly-hero-astros/5543450002/", "title": "Joe Kelly: Dodgers reliever a folk hero in L.A. and baseball world", "text": "As of Thursday morning, there was no sign of a public fund set up to help Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly in his appeal of an eight-game suspension handed down by Major League Baseball.\n\n“It’s just a matter of time,’’ said Steve Mason, a longtime TV and radio broadcaster in Southern California. “Right now, he’s like the most popular guy in town.’’\n\nActually, Kelly might now be the popular guy in baseball.\n\nCertainly among baseball fans waiting on revenge for Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.\n\nDodgers fans in particular were eager for payback heading into Tuesday’s game between the Dodgers and Astros in Houston. It was the first time the teams had faced each other since Major League Baseball's investigation revealed the Astros had violated league rules related to sign stealing during the 2017 and '18 seasons, which the former ended with the Astros beating the Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series.\n\nAnd that moment arrived.\n\nTuesday at Minute Maid Park in Houston.\n\nBottom of the sixth inning.\n\nEnter Joe Kelly.\n\nHe fired a 96-mph fastball behind the head of Astros slugger Alex Bregman; mocked shortstop Carlos Correa; precipitated a benches-clearing staredown; and sparked a notable hashtag.\n\n#JoeKellyFightClub\n\nAfter MLB announced Wednesday it was suspending Kelly — despite the pitcher’s denial he had intentionally thrown at the Astros players — a new hashtag quickly surfaced.\n\n#FreeJoeKelly\n\n“Did Joe do something?’’Andrew Checketts, who recruited Kelly to the University of California at Riverside, asked with a laugh when reached by phone Wednesday. “He’s fun to watch.’’\n\nFor example, there’s the video posted online by Kelly’s wife in April that shows him in his backyard. Standing in front of a pitcher’s net, Kelly throws a ball that sails right of the net and crashes through a kitchen window.\n\nA day after Kelly’s less-than-precise pitching against the Astros, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked if Kelly was just playing a long con when he blew out his own window during quarantine.\n\n\"I don't think that Joe is that far ahead of things,\" Roberts said. “I just think it speaks to his ability or inability at times to not hit the target.\"\n\nBut Kelly hit the target, all right, in his one-inning outing during a 5-2 victory that might go down as among the most relished in Dodger dog history.\n\n“I love Joe Kelly,’’ tweeted Orel Hershiser, the former Dodgers pitcher who was a three-time All-Star and the World Series MVP in 1988.\n\nSteve Garvey, the former Dodgers first basemen who was a 10-time All-Star, recalled full-scale brawls during his career but added of Kelly’s outing, “It’s kind of fun.’’\n\n“Harmless, but a psychological stimulant,’’ he added.\n\nSUSPENSION: MLB suspends Dodgers RP Joe Kelly eight games\n\nVENGEANCE: Dodgers get upper-hand in series against Astros\n\nThe GIF moment is the pouty face Kelly wore after he struck out Correa. He also jawed at Correa, who struck out swinging, and Astros manager Dusty Baker said Kelly’s exact words were “Nice swing, b----.’’\n\nSo of course T-shirts featuring those words quickly went up for sale through web sites like Dodgers Nation, run by Brook Smith. Less than 24 hours, Smith said, he’d sold 850 T-shirts at about $25 a pop.\n\nNo one seems to be having more fun than the Internet where, thanks for spoofers and photo-shop artists you can find a photo of Barack Obama placing the Presidential Medal of Freedom around Kelly’s neck; Kelly pushing a stroller occupied by a toddler-sized Correa; and don’t forget the Wikipedia fun. Or, as Wikipedia termed it, “vandalism.’’\n\nAfter Kelly’s performance Tuesday, the pitcher’s Wikipedia included this addition: “He is also the father of Carlos Correa.’’\n\nFor the record, Kelly is actually the father of three young children and the husband of Ashley Parks, daughter of former Minnesota Twins catcher Derek Parks. A few other noteworthy facts on the back of his figurative baseball card:\n\nAge: 32.\n\nA champ: Won a World Series ring with the Boston Red Sox in 2018.\n\nDNA check: A distant relative of “Machine Gun Kelly,’’ the deceased American gangster. (At least that’s what it says in Joe Kelly’s college bio in the media guide at UC Riverside, where he played from 2007 to '09.)\n\nJoeKellyFightClub T-shirts went on sale in 2018 after Kelly hit Tyler Austin of the New York Yankees in the ribs with a pitch, triggering a benches-clearing brawl that left him trading punches with Austin.\n\n#JoeKellyFightClub was born.\n\nDuring the six-game suspension for his part in that brawl, Kelly was photographed watching one of the Red Sox games from the bleachers at Fenway Park.\n\nKelly’s bio from the UC Riverside media guide offers some insight into the pitcher.\n\nHe listed “Bull Durham’’ as his favorite movie, and Kelly’s story bears faint resemblance to that that of the fictitious Nuke LaLoosh, the hard-throwing but wild pitcher in the film. Kelly mostly played outfield in high school.\n\n“He didn’t pitch much for us because he couldn’t find the plate,’’ said Marty Wilkerson, a former assistant baseball coach at Corona High in Southern California. “He was an ornery little dude. I can live with that. Just always having fun.’’\n\nThe Nuke LaLoosh issues did disappear at UC Riverside, where he was converted from an outfielder to a pitcher as a freshman.\n\n“He pitched with an edge,’’ said Doug Smith, then the head coach at UC Riverside. “So there were numerous near-confrontations.\n\n“He’d get a little amped up. There’d be times he’d get the last out and he’d shout or he’d yell at somebody and it wasn’t always well received.’’\n\nFun if you can forgive and forget, that is.\n\nSuddenly, Dodger fans are heaping praise onto Kelly as if they’ve forgotten about the 2013 National League Championship Series that pitted the Dodgers against the St. Louis Cardinals and Kelly’s role.\n\nKelly started Game 1 for the Cardinals, and with his eighth pitch of the game he hit then-Dodgers star Hanley Ramirez in the ribs, resulting in a hairline fracture. Ramirez’s performance suffered as Kelly and the Cardinals advanced to the World Series.\n\nThe Dodgers failed to reach the World Series in 2019 — in part because Kelly gave up a grand slam to Howie Kendrick that clinched the National League Championship Series for the Washington Nationals.\n\nYet all seemed to be forgiven on Tuesday night, with former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti was among those praising Kelly for what was widely seen as pitches intended to intimidate the Astros.\n\n“I loved it,’’ Colletti said on Dodger Talk, the team’s post-game radio show. “I thought it was great.’’\n\nClearly he is not alone.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/07/30"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/allstar/2017/07/03/aaron-judge-participate-home-run-derby/448507001/", "title": "Aaron Judge will participate in Home Run Derby", "text": "Aaron Judge said yes to the Home Run Derby, and suddenly, the possibilities are limitless for Major League Baseball’s once-tired, now-invigorated exhibition.\n\nJudge, the 6-foot-7 New York Yankees rookie right fielder, announced via the team’s social media that he will participate in the July 10 home run-hitting contest at Marlins Park in Miami, setting up a potentially towering showdown in the finals:\n\nJudge vs. defending champion and hometown favorite Giancarlo Stanton.\n\nLike Judge, Stanton – a mere 6-6 and 245 pounds – turned down opportunities to play football in college and is now eight years into a major league career in which he has slugged 229 home runs. Judge – though just 30 months younger than Stanton – is only getting started.\n\nALL RISE:6 things to know about Judge\n\nJudge, 25, currently leads the AL in all three Triple Crown categories, with 27 home runs, a .327 batting average and 62 RBI. He was the AL’s top vote-getter in fan balloting for the All-Star Game and will start in right field.\n\n\n\nStanton, 27, did not make the 2016 All-Star Game but did participate in the Derby and did not disappoint – slamming 20 home runs in the final at San Diego’s Petco Park.\n\nThis year, Stanton is healthy – with 21 home runs – and earned a spot on the National League All-Star team.\n\nNow, he’ll join a Derby field that will also include his teammate, Gary Sanchez, who holds the record for hitting 20 home runs in the fewest amount of games to start a career. That mark was equaled this year by Los Angeles Dodgers rookie Cody Bellinger – who now has 24 homers – and was named to the NL team. Bellinger is likely to participate in the Derby.\n\nMiguel Sano, leader in exit velocity among the All-Stars, would also make a powerful addition to the AL contingent.\n\nBut Judge, the man everyone wanted to see, is in. And two nights of exposure on the national stage for the emerging star is more than MLB could have asked for.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/07/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/phillies/2015/08/20/chase-utley-dodgers-trade-official/32034149/", "title": "Phillies' Chase Utley heads west in trade with Dodgers", "text": "Meghan Montemurro\n\nThe News Journal\n\nPHILADELPHIA – As Chase Utley walked off the field Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park after exchanging high fives with his teammates, he knew they were his last moments in a Phillies uniform.\n\nTipping his cap to the cheering fans behind the Phillies’ dugout, Utley disappeared into the tunnel and up to the clubhouse where his locker would be emptied, his belongings packed up.\n\nUtley’s 13-year career with the Phillies officially ended at 10:46 p.m. Wednesday when the trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers was announced. The trade was finalized after the Phillies’ 7-4 win against the Blue Jays. The Phillies acquired infielder/outfielder Darnell Sweeney and right-hander John Richy from the Dodgers for Utley.\n\n“I don’t think it has totally set in yet that I’m not going to be around here for the rest of the year,” Utley said. “I don’t know. Time will tell. But both myself and my family were comfortable with this decision. We’ve been talking about it for a little while now and we’re happy that the Phillies got a return that they liked.”\n\nUtley met with general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. three weeks ago to discuss the situation and both sides agreed it was time to part ways. Utley, who owned full no-trade rights, gave the Phillies a list of teams he would consider playing for, which included his hometown Dodgers. No. 1 on his list of criteria was joining a playoff contender. He also wanted to opportunity to play and hopefully contribute in helping his new team, now the Dodgers, reach the postseason.\n\n“I don’t know if there was ever a perfect time for it to happen with the direction that the organization is going, which I think in my opinion has a very bright future,” Utley said. “We just decided that it’s time. It’s time for a change. It’s going to be difficult not seeing the Philly fans out there in their support. But, I just hope they know how much I appreciated their support over the years.”\n\nSweeney will be called up Thursday to take Utley’s roster spot and join the team in Miami. Sweeney, a 24-year-old switch hitter, batted .271 with 30 doubles, nine home runs and 49 RBI in 116 games with Triple-A Oklahoma this season. Richy went 10-5 and posted a 4.20 ERA in 22 games (18 starts) at Single-A Rancho Cucamonga. The 23-year-old was a third round pick by the Dodgers in the 2014 draft out of UNLV.\n\n“Chase is an iconic, generational player here in Philadelphia, and arguably one of the most popular and most successful players we’ve ever had in our organization,” Amaro said. “To have to take him away from our organization and put him in another one is not what I’d consider is something that is particularly gratifying. But I can say that I believe this is the best thing for all parties at this stage of the Phillies development and this stage of Chase’s career.”\n\nUtley couldn’t do anything before Wednesday’s game against the Blue Jays without television cameras and photographers capturing his every move. Whether he was taking batting practice or going through his typical pregame infield work at second base, all eyes were on Utley after news broke that a trade to the Dodgers was imminent.\n\nUtley said he tried to take in the atmosphere during Tuesday’s game, understanding it could be his last, but that it was difficult to do when competing on the field.\n\n“It was a very, very difficult decision for me and my family to go,” Utley said. “It’s not so much changing uniforms, it’s about leaving this city, which has given so much to me over the 12 or 13 years I’ve been here.”\n\nUtley was not in the starting lineup Wednesday but was available off the bench if necessary. Interim manager Pete Mackanin said it was a scheduled day off for Utley with the Blue Jays starting left-hander Mark Buehrle. However, Utley did not make an appearance during the Phillies’ game against Toronto despite some of the 26,246 fans chanting for Utley to be put into the game.\n\nAlthough Mackanin was tempted to use Utley as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning, he said under the circumstances, he didn’t want anything crazy to happen to Utley.\n\n“He’s always been a guy that’s just gone out there and played the game and I think the fans kind of chanting his name and showing him the love that he deserves for what he’s done here for the organization, him giving the tip of the hat, I think that’s typical Chase,” longtime teammate Ryan Howard said.\n\nBecause the deal wasn’t officially announced right after the game, it created an odd atmosphere in the clubhouse where Utley’s teammates essentially knew he wouldn’t be joining them on the team flight that night to Miami. Jeff Francoeur, who considers Utley to be one of his closest friends on the team, said the trade situation had been grinding on him lately.\n\n“It sucked because you kind of wish that he could get out there and get one [at-bat], but at the same time if he got hit …” Francoeur said. “Chase is never that type of guy anyways to want the appreciation. I think everyone knows what he’s done.”\n\nFrancoeur said the reputation Utley has earned during his career as someone who always gives 100 percent on the field is well warranted.\n\n“He’s here at one o’clock every day watching film, getting himself ready,” Francoeur said. “If it goes through and everything’s good, the Dodgers are getting a hell of a piece.”\n\nAs the Phillies continue to rebuild, Howard and Carlos Ruiz are the only players remaining on the roster from the Phillies’ 2008 and 2009 World Series teams — Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels and Utley all gone in the last eight months. It’s been a sudden but much-needed change as the organization tries to infuse younger talent at the big league level.\n\nUtley was his normal self on the bench during Wednesday’s game, Howard said, and didn’t seem focused on the impending trade.\n\n“And then there were two,” Howard said. “It’s crazy. … You remember when you first walked in when you’re a rookie and then the next thing you know you’re the veteran guy on the team and you’ve got change taking place. It’s definitely different and it’s definitely kind of a weird feeling.”\n\nUtley, who the Phillies selected with the 15th overall pick in the 2000 draft, leaves the organization with his name all over the franchise’s record book. He finishes in the Top 10 of 12 different categories in Phillies history, including hit by pitch (first), RBI (fifth), doubles (fifth), home runs (sixth), extra-base hits (sixth) and games played (seventh).\n\nThe move also allows Utley gets to reunite with his longtime double-play partner Jimmy Rollins in Los Angeles. Utley cleared waivers on Aug. 11, making him eligible to be traded to any team. Utley said he has spoken briefly with Rollins, who he described as being as happy as him regarding the trade.\n\n“The hardest part is leaving the city of Philadelphia,” Utley said. “They’ve been so good to me and so supportive of me over the years that I can’t thank them enough for it. But I’ll try.”\n\nIt shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Dodgers ended up being the team to pull off a trade for Utley. He resides in Southern California during the offseason, which obviously makes Los Angeles a desirable destination and would give him incentive to waive his no-trade clause. He grew up watching the Dodgers and attended one of the World Series games in 1988. The Phillies and Dodgers have become frequent trade partners too. The Utley trade marks the sixth time in the last four seasons the Phillies have made a trade with the Dodgers. It’s a dramatic change after conducting only one trade with Los Angeles from 1993-2011.\n\nPlaying time should be plentiful for Utley while the Dodgers’ regular second baseman Howie Kendrick is sidelined with a strained left hamstring. The Dodgers are reportedly paying $2 million of the $6 million Utley is still owed this year, which includes a $2 million buyout for 2016. The Phillies would be on the hook for the other $4 million. Utley has thrived playing at Dodger Stadium. He owns a .320 career average and .389 on-base percentage with eight home runs and 25 RBI in 37 games.\n\nAsked if he has any expectations for how the Dodgers will use him or how much he will play, Utley responded, “My goal going there is to win. That’s the bottom line.”\n\nSince coming off the disabled list, Utley — who missed 37 games because of right ankle inflammation — is hitting .484 (15 for 31) with six extra-base hits and five RBI in eight games. Utley is set to finish his Phillies career with a .282 average, 1,623 hits, 233 home runs and 916 RBI.\n\nUtley’s career got off to a memorable start during his rookie season in 2003 when he hit a grand slam for his first career hit in Major League Baseball. Everything that has transpired since then — six All-Star appearances, a World Series title in 2008 and even overcoming his chronic knee problems — resulted in Utley leaving an indelible mark on a historic franchise.\n\nAs the “We want Chase!” chants broke out during Wednesday’s game, it offered a reminder that he will not soon be forgotten by Phillies fans.\n\nContact Meghan Montemurro at mmontemurro@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @M_Montemurro.\n\nCHASE UTLEY CAREER HIGHLIGHTS\n\nJune 5, 2000\n\nDRAFTED BY PHILLIES\n\nThe 21-year-old Long Beach, Calif., native out of UCLA is the 15th overall pick. Other first-round picks include Adrian Gonzalez (No. 1) and Adam Wainwright (No. 29).\n\nJuly 8, 2001\n\nPLAYS IN FUTURES GAME\n\nUtley goes 2 for 3 with a solo home run. The game also features future big-leaguers Brett Myers, Adam Dunn, Nick Johnson, Wilson Betemit and Ryan Ludwick.\n\nApril 4, 2003\n\nMAJOR LEAGUE DEBUT\n\nAt Veterans Stadium. In the third inning Utley pinch-hits for starting pitcher Joe Roa. Pirates pitcher Jeff Suppan strikes him out. Phillies lose 9-1.\n\nApril 24, 2003\n\nFIRST MAJOR LEAGUE START\n\nAt Veterans Stadium. Batting eighth in the lineup, Utley flies out in his first at-bat. In the bottom of the third, with Jim Thome, Mike Lieberthal and David Bell on base, Utley homers off Rockies starter Aaron Cook for his first Major League hit, homer and grand slam. He finishes 2 for 4. Philies win 9-1.\n\nSept. 28, 2003\n\nLAST AT-BAT AT THE VET\n\nUtley hits into a double play in the final at-bat in the history of Veterans Stadium, which opened in 1971. Utley finishes the season batting .239 with two homers and 21 RBIs in 134 at-bats.\n\nJune 12, 2004\n\nFIRST GAME AT FIRST BASE\n\nAt Minnesota. With Jim Thome at DH and Tomas Perez at second base, Utley plays first base and goes 0 for 3 in a 6-1 loss. He’ll play 11 more games at first that season. Ryan Howard is called up that September.\n\nJune 8, 2005\n\nTRADE OPENS SECOND BASE\n\nThe Phillies trade Placido Polanco to Detroit for Ramon Martinez and Ugueth Urbina. Utley becomes the Phils’ starting second baseman.\n\nJuly 12, 2006\n\nFIRST ALL-STAR GAME\n\nAt Pittsburgh. Utley starts and goes 1 for 2. American League win 3-2. Other Phillies in the game include Ryan Howard and Tom Gordon. Utley finishes the season leading the National League in runs with 131. He hits .309 with 32 homers and 102 RBIs.\n\nOct. 3, 2007\n\nFIRST PLAYOFF GAME\n\nAt Citizens Bank Park. Game 1, National League Division Series against Colorado. Utley goes 0 for 4. Phillies lose 4-2.\n\nApril 21, 2008\n\nHOME RUN STREAK\n\nAt Denver. Utley homers for the fifth-straight game. Phillies win 9-5. After the first 20 games of the season, Utley is hitting .354 with eight homers and 17 RBIs. Utley finishes the regular season.\n\nOct. 15, 2008\n\nSTRONG NLCS\n\nAt Los Angeles. Phillies clinch National League title with 5-1 win over Dodgers. In five games, Utley hits .353 (6 for 17) with two doubles, three RBIs, six walks and four runs scored.\n\nOct. 27, 2008\n\nWORLD SERIES CHAMPION\n\nAt Citizens Bank Park, Game 5. Utley goes 1 for 3 and scores the Phillies’ first run in a 4-3 win over Tampa Bay. Phillies win first World Series since 1980 and second in franchise history. Utley finishes the season hitting .292 with 104 RBIs, 113 runs and his third Silver Slugger Award. He leads the NL in defensive wins against replacement.\n\nOct. 31, 2008\n\nMEMORABLE SPEECH\n\nAt the parade celebrating the World Series win, Utley, microphone in hand, says “World [expletive] Champions.” The remark is aired live on several radio and TV stations. According to published reports, the FCC received 26 complaints.\n\nSept. 28, 2009\n\nTAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM\n\nAt Citizens Bank Park. Houston’s Tim Byrdak hits Utley with an eighth-inning pitch. It’s the 24th time Utley is hit that season, the most in Major League Baseball for the third straight season. Utley finishes the regular season batting .282 with 93 RBIs. He steals 23 bases without being caught.\n\nOct. 28, 2009\n\nWORLD SERIES RECORD\n\nAt Yankee Stadium. World Series Game 1. A first-inning walk puts Utley on base for the 26th consecutive playoff game, tying an MLB record. The Phillies win the game 6-1, but lose the series in six games.\n\nFeb. 26, 2011\n\nON THE SHELF\n\nAn MRI reveals Utley has patellar tendonitis in his right knee. The season before, Utley played a then-career low 115 games after undergoing thumb surgery. Utley will go on to hit .259 in 103 games. Similar issues will plague him during the 2012 season, when he’ll play in only 83 games.\n\nApril 1, 2013\n\nOPENING WITH A BANG\n\nAt Atlanta. In the fifth inning, off of Tim Hudson, Utley hits his 200th career home run. Phillies lose 7-5.\n\nAug. 7, 2013\n\nNEW DEAL\n\nUtley and the Phillies reportedly agree on a two-year, $27 million contract extension with multiple vesting options. At the time, he is hitting .277 with a .337 on-base percentage.\n\nMay 25, 2014\n\nNO-HIT\n\nAt Citizens Bank Park. Utley strikes out and the Dodgers’ Josh Beckett completes a no-hitter. Phillies lose 6-0. It’s a down note on an otherwise solid season. Utley hits .270 with 78 RBIs. He makes his sixth All-Star appearance and plays the most games in a single season - 155 - since 2009, when he played 156.\n\nAug. 19, 2015\n\nTRADED\n\nUtley is traded to the Dodgers for infielder/outfielder Darnell Sweeney and right-hander John Richy. At the time, he is hitting .217 with 30 RBIs in 73 games.\n\nSources: baseball-reference.com, wikipedia; compiled by Jason Levine", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/08/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2021/02/19/justin-turner-dodgers-spring-training-covid-19-world-series/4510518001/", "title": "Dodgers' Justin Turner: World Series COVID-19 debacle was 'difficult'", "text": "Justin Turner was prepared for the consequences of his actions in the moments after the Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2020 World Series.\n\nUltimately, he faced none.\n\nNot from Major League Baseball, which excused Turner for leaving an isolation room after testing positive for COVID-19, its investigation determining Turner should not be punished because Dodgers employees did not dissuade him from joining his teammates on the field.\n\nAnd not from multiple teams bidding for his services as a free agent, a process that ultimately led him back to the Dodgers on a two-year contract that guarantees him $34 million.\n\nTurner agreed to the pact Saturday, ending a winter in which Dodgers fans, spotting him on dog walks with his wife, Kourtney, would lobby Turner to return. They were thrilled when the All-Star third baseman with the trademark red beard and locks announced his return on social media.\n\nNL WEST: Padres the talk of MLB after Tatis Jr. extension\n\nDODGERS:Mookie Betts can inspire new generation of Black baseball players\n\nIt was a far cry from the hours and days following Oct. 27, when the Dodgers won Game 6 of the World Series over the Tampa Bay Rays, minutes after Turner was lifted from the contest after testing positive for the coronavirus.\n\nTurner was roasted in the media and by fans, and MLB upbraided him in a statement, saying he \"emphatically refused to comply\" with MLB security.\n\nDays later, the tone changed, MLB noting in its investigation that Turner said he was incorrectly told other players had tested positive, \"creating the impression in Mr. Turner’s mind that he was being singled out for isolation.\"\n\nFriday, after the Dodgers officially announced his return, Turner said on a media video conference that those moments in isolation felt akin to an out-of-body experience, that he was again reduced to spectator after seeing the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox celebrate their respective 2017 and 2018 titles at the Dodgers' expense.\n\n\"It was extremely difficult,\" Turner said Friday from the Dodgers' spring training complex in Phoenix. \"I think I experienced just about every range of emotions you can possibly have: Getting taken out of the game. Trying to figure out what was happening. Winning the World Series. Being thrilled seeing Julio (Urias) getting that last out. You finally accomplished your goal.\n\n\"But for me, sitting back in that room and watching the guys dogpile, personally it felt like the third time I had to sit and watch a team celebrate a World Series. That was tough. That’s something at the top of my list. I still have not been on the field for the last out to celebrate a championship and that’s something I’m determined to show up and work every day and have that experience at the end of this year.\"\n\nThat chance could have come elsewhere. Turner said he had \"conversations with other organizations and other competitive teams\" and worried at times the Dodgers might go in another direction.\n\nAnd until that market developed, he wasn't sure how his flouting of COVID-19 protocols might impact his future.\n\n\"I didn’t know what it was going to do, if it was going to be a big factor in the Dodgers’ decision on wanting me back, or any other teams, for that matter,\" he said. \"It was definitely a big question mark and a big unknown how people were going to perceive that and how people were going to pursue me.\n\n\"But once I got into conversations not only with the Dodgers but other teams, and cleared the air on that stuff, it all just kind of started moving forward and building momentum.\"\n\nSo the man who slugged 116 homers, got on base at a .382 clip and produced an .886 OPS in seven years with his hometown Dodgers will return for at least two seasons - with his regrettable actions in the moments after the club won its first title since 1988 hardly leaving a mark.\n\n\"We're definitely a better and stronger organization with JT,\" club president Andrew Friedman said Friday. \"In an ideal world, we wanted him back.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/02/19"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_17", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:20", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/06/13/june-strawberry-super-moon/7607617001/", "title": "A strawberry supermoon will illuminate the skies this week. Here's ...", "text": "Get ready to scan the skies for the second supermoon of the year.\n\nJune’s strawberry moon will appear opposite the sun and reach its peak illumination at 7:52 a.m. EDT Tuesday, and it will remain full through Wednesday morning, NASA reported.\n\nBut the unique moon won’t be visible to stargazers in North America until later Tuesday night when it drifts above the horizon, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.\n\nBe on the lookout for a moon that appears larger and brighter than the typical full moon, especially after sunset Tuesday. The strawberry moon will be visible toward the southeast as it rises above the horizon with a golden hue.\n\nWhat is a supermoon?\n\nSupermoons happen when the moon’s orbit is closest to Earth, giving off the appearance of a larger and brighter full moon, the Old Farmer’s Almanac said.\n\nJune’s full moon stands at a distance of 222,238.4 miles from Earth, according to the almanac, and NASA experts say it’ll reach its closest point to Earth for this orbit – called perigee – at 7:24 p.m. EDT Tuesday.\n\nHEAT WAVE THIS WEEK:It's so hot you can grill burgers on your dashboard as historic heat wave sweeps across much of US\n\nThe full moon Tuesday night into Wednesday morning will be the lowest full moon of 2022. It will reach only 23.3 degrees above the horizon Wednesday morning at 1:56 a.m. EDT.\n\nPeople living in the South and Southwest will be treated to the best views of June's supermoon, and experts say it's best to check it out as it rises or sets. That is when it will appear largest to the naked eye.\n\nMay's flower moon marked the first supermoon of the year, according to the almanac. The next full supermoon will appear July 13.\n\nWhy is it called the strawberry moon?\n\nJune’s full moon has traditionally been nicknamed the strawberry moon, but don’t be deceived by the name: Its origin has nothing to do with the moon’s hue or appearance, according to the almanac.\n\nNative American Algonquin tribes inhabiting the northeastern U.S. – along with the Ojibwe, Dakota and Lakota peoples — have used the strawberry moon to mark the time for gathering ripened June-bearing strawberries, the almanac said.\n\nThe Maine Farmer's Almanac started publishing Native American names for full moons in the 1930s, according to NASA.\n\nEARTH'S ATMOSPHERE:Carbon dioxide soars to levels not seen for millions of years\n\nOther European names for June’s full moon have been the mead or honey moon, and the rose moon.\n\nFor all the early risers looking to catch a glimpse of the strawberry moon, Tuesday also will feature 2022’s earliest sunrise at 5:42 a.m. EDT, according to NASA.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2018/01/22/supermoon-blue-moon-lunar-eclipse-coming/1052215001/", "title": "Supermoon, blue moon, lunar eclipse: Coming to a sky near you this ...", "text": "Skywatchers will get a rare triple treat early this Wednesday, Jan. 31: a supermoon, a blue moon and a total lunar eclipse.\n\nHow rare is the event? Even without the supermoon, it's the first blue moon total lunar eclipse in the U.S. since March 1866, less than a year after the Civil War ended, according to EarthSky.org.\n\nA blue moon — which occurs about every 2½ years — is another term for the second full moon in a single calendar month. January's first full moon occurred Jan. 1.\n\n“These three lunar events separately are not uncommon, but it is rare for all three to occur at the same time,” AccuWeather meteorologist and astronomy blogger Brian Lada said.\n\nThough the exact moment of this full moon is 8:37 a.m. ET Jan. 31, the moon will appear plenty full for a day or two before and after that.\n\nHowever, the moon doesn't actually appear blue.\n\nAs for the total lunar eclipse, it will be visible early in the morning of Jan. 31 from western North America across the Pacific to eastern Asia, NASA said.\n\nIn the United States, the best view of the eclipse will be along the West Coast. For skywatchers in the central and eastern U.S., only a partial eclipse will be visible since the moon will set before totality.\n\n“The lunar eclipse on Jan. 31 will be visible during moonset,\" said Noah Petro, a research scientist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. \"Folks in the eastern United States, where the eclipse will be partial, will have to get up in the morning to see it.\"\n\nThe eclipse will last almost 3½ hours from the beginning of the partial phase at 3:48 a.m. PT until it ends at 7:12 a.m. PT, according to Sky and Telescope. Totality lasts a generous 77 minutes, from 4:51 a.m. PT to 6:08 a.m. PT.\n\nBy that time, however, the moon will already have set in the eastern time zone.\n\nAs for the weather, clear skies are forecast across the eastern and south-central United States, according to AccuWeather.\n\nAdditionally, some astronomy historians can quibble about the origin of the \"blue moon\" name: It was originally a name for a season that had four full moons instead of three; a definition which was later mistakenly expanded to two full moons in a single month.\n\nBut even the venerable publication Sky & Telescope — in which the original \"mistake\" was made decades ago — said that \"the second-full-moon-in-a-month (mis)interpretation is like a genie that can't be forced back into its bottle. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.\"\n\nThe full moon will take on a dark, reddish appearance during the eclipse, so another phrase used to describe it is a blood moon. Adding to the naming confusion, this full moon was also known as the \"snow moon\" by some Native American tribes.\n\nFinally, a supermoon occurs when the full moon is at the closest point of its orbit to the Earth, which is also called the perigee.\n\nThat makes the moon look extra-close and extra bright — up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than a full moon at its farthest point from Earth, known as the apogee, NASA said.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/01/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/12/supermoon-coming-wednesday-southeastern-sky/10039502002/", "title": "Supermoon, also called buck and thunder moon, is coming. How to ...", "text": "For avid sky watchers who love space but hate cold weather, July typically provides the warmest and best time of the year to gaze at a full moon.\n\nWhether you call it a \"thunder\" moon or a \"buck\" moon, a gorgeous, bright supermoon will rise Wednesday evening in the southeastern sky.\n\nIt will be the biggest supermoon of the year.\n\nJuly’s full moon will reach peak illumination at 2:38 p.m. EDT, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac. \"It will be below the horizon at that time, so plan to look toward the southeast after sunset to watch it rise into the sky,\" the almanac advised.\n\nTHIS WEEK:K2, the brightest comet in our solar system, will swing by Earth. Here's when to see it.\n\nWhy is it called a supermoon?\n\nWhen the moon’s orbit brings it closer to Earth than usual, the cosmic combo is called a supermoon.\n\nThe moon can appear slightly bigger and brighter than normal, weather permitting.\n\n\"Different publications use slightly different thresholds for deciding when a full moon is close enough to the Earth to qualify as a supermoon,\" NASA said. \"Because the orbit of the moon is not a perfect circle, the moon is sometimes closer to the Earth than at other times during its orbit.\"\n\nOn average, supermoons appear about 7% bigger and about 15% brighter than a typical full moon.\n\nIs it the 'buck' moon or the 'thunder' moon?\n\nThe moon's nickname comes from a number of places, including Native American, Colonial American and European sources, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac.\n\nFor millennia, people across the world, including Native Americans in the eastern and central USA, named the months after nature’s cues.\n\n\"The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon,\" the almanac said.\n\n\"The full moon in July is called the buck moon because the antlers of male deer (bucks) are in full-growth mode at this time,\" the almanac said. \"Bucks shed and regrow their antlers each year, producing a larger and more impressive set as the years go by.\"\n\nJuly's full moon is also called the \"thunder\" moon because of early summer's frequent thunderstorms, NASA's Gordon Johnston said.\n\nAnother name for July's full moon is the \"hay\" moon (for when farmers race to put hay in their barns around the storms), Earthsky.com reported. According to AccuWeather, other full moon nicknames this month include the berry moon, the halfway summer moon and the salmon moon.\n\nA month ago, the supermoon of June 14 was the “strawberry moon” because it came at strawberry harvest time.Contributing: The Associated Press\n\nSPECTACULAR IMAGES:NASA releases 'sharpest' images of the universe\n\nJAMES WEBB TELESCOPE:What to know about the NASA space camera.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/06/15/strawberry-supermoon-world-photos-2022/7632227001/", "title": "Stunning photos of June's strawberry supermoon from around the ...", "text": "A stunning, strawberry supermoon filled skies around the world this week.\n\nThis year's strawberry moon peaked Tuesday night and remained full through early Wednesday morning. It rose with a spectacular golden hue above horizons from New York to Beijing, marking the second supermoon of the year.\n\nA strawberry moon refers the full moon for the month of June. In 2022, June's strawberry moon qualified as a supermoon because it occurred while the moon's orbit was especially close to the Earth – giving an appearance of an even larger and brighter full moon.\n\nAccording to NASA, supermoons appear about 30% brighter and 17% bigger than the faintest moon of the year. We only see three or four supermoons each year, and the strawberry moon marked the lowest full moon of 2022.\n\nStrawberry Moon 2022:A strawberry supermoon will illuminate skies this week. Here's what to know.\n\nDespite its name, a strawberry moon is not red or pink in color. The moon's name comes from Native American Algonquin tribes inhabiting the northeastern U.S. – along with the Ojibwe, Dakota and Lakota peoples – who have used the strawberry moon to mark the time for gathering June strawberries, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.\n\nHere are some pictures of this year's strawberry supermoon.\n\nContributing: Ashley R. Williams, USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/15"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/13/world/strawberry-full-moon-june-2022-scn/index.html", "title": "June's strawberry moon will light up the sky this week", "text": "Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more\n\nThe moon will appear full from Sunday moonrise to Wednesday moonset, according to NASA . It will reach its peak at 7:52 a.m. ET Tuesday but will not be fully visible in North America until moonrise. This year's strawberry moon is the first of two consecutive supermoons.\n\nWhile there is no single definition, the term supermoon generally refers to a full moon that appears brighter and larger than other moons because it is at its closest orbit to Earth.\n\nTo a casual observer, the supermoon may appear similar in size to other moons. However, the noticeable change in brightness enhances visibility and creates a great opportunity for people to begin paying attention to the moon and its phases, said Noah Petro, chief of NASA's Planetary Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Lab.\n\nThe ideal time to look at the moon is when it is rising or setting since that's when it will appear the largest to the naked eye, said Jacqueline Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. ( The Old Farmer's Almanac's calculator can help you find out what time the moon rises and sets in your location.)\n\nThe moon rises over the Pyramid of Khafre (Chephren) at the Giza Pyramids necropolis on the southwestern outskirts of the Egyptian capital on July 12, a day ahead of the July \"buck supermoon\".\n\nThe best views of June's full moon in the United States will be in the southern half of the country and the Southwest. A series of weak storms will move through the Northeast and Great Lakes regions early in the week, creating cloudy conditions that will make it difficult to get a clear view, CNN meteorologist Gene Norman said.\n\nPetro recommends that moon gazers seek out a clear horizon and avoid areas with tall buildings and thick forestry. He also urges people to stay away from bright lights if possible for maximum visibility.\n\nThe name strawberry moon is rooted in the traditions of Indigenous groups in the Northeastern US, including the Algonquin, Ojibwe, Dakota and Lakota communities that saw the celestial event as a sign that strawberries, and other fruits, were ripe and ready to be gathered. The Haida people refer to the moon as the berries ripen moon, according to The Old Farmer's Almanac\n\nIn Europe, this moon is often called the honey moon or the mead moon, and historical writings from the region suggest that honey was ready for harvest around the end of the month. Additionally, the name honey moon may refer to June's reputation as a popular month for marriages.\n\nThis full moon corresponds with the Hindu festival Vat Purnima, a celebration where married women tie a ceremonial thread around a banyan tree and fast to pray that their spouse lives a long life.\n\nFor Buddhists, this moon is the Poson Poya moon, named after the holiday celebrating the introduction of Buddhism in Sri Lanka in 236 BC.\n\nThere will be six more full moons in 2022, according to The Old Farmers' Almanac\n\nJuly 13: Buck moon\n\nAugust 11: Sturgeon moon\n\nSeptember 10: Harvest moon\n\nOctober 9: Hunter's moon\n\nNovember 8: Beaver moon\n\nDecember 7: Cold moon\n\nThese are the popularized names associated with the monthly full moons, but the significance of each one may vary across Native American tribes\n\nThe moon rises behind a rundown Ferris wheel at an abandoned children's amusement park near al-Nayrab, a village ravaged by pro-government forces bombardment, in Syria's northwestern Idlib province on July 12, 2022 a day ahead of the July \"buck supermoon\".\n\nLunar and solar eclipses\n\nThere will be one more total lunar eclipse and a partial solar eclipse in 2022, according to The Old Farmer's Almanac.\n\nPartial solar eclipses occur when the moon passes in front of the sun but only blocks some of its light. Be sure to wear proper eclipse glasses to view solar eclipses safely as the sun's light can be damaging to the eye.\n\nA partial solar eclipse on October 25 will be visible to those in Greenland, Iceland, Europe , northeastern Africa, the Middle East, western Asia, India and western China. This partial solar eclipse will not be visible from North America.\n\nA total lunar eclipse will also be on display for those in Asia, Australia, the Pacific, South America and North America on November 8 between 3:01 a.m. ET and 8:58 a.m. ET, but the moon will be setting for those in eastern regions of North America.\n\nThe moon rises behind the Statue of Liberty in New York City on July 12, 2022 as seen from Jersey City, New Jersey.\n\nMeteor showers\n\nCheck out the remaining meteor showers that will peak in 2022:\n\nSouthern Delta Aquariids: July 29 to 30\n\nAlpha Capricornids: July 30 to 31\n\nPerseids: August 11 to 12\n\nOrionids: October 20 to 21\n\nSouthern Taurids: November 4 to 5\n\nNorthern Taurids: November 11 to 12\n\nLeonids: November 17 to 18\n\nGeminids: December 13 to 14\n\nUrsids: December 21 to 22\n\nIf you live in an urban area, you may want to drive to a place that isn't littered with city lights to get the best view.\n\nFind an open area with a wide view of the sky. Make sure you have a chair or blanket so you can look straight up. And give your eyes about 20 to 30 minutes -- without looking at your phone or other electronics -- to adjust to the darkness so the meteors will be easier to spot.", "authors": ["Rachel Fadem", "Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/06/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/02/20/supermoon-photos-brightest-super-snow-moon-year/2924875002/", "title": "Supermoon: Photos of the brightest 'super snow moon' of the year", "text": "The biggest, brightest moon of the year made for some beautiful photographs around the world early this week.\n\nThe \"super snow moon\" or supermoon was about 17,000 miles closer to Earth than average on Tuesday, and was full Monday through Wednesday in some areas.\n\nThe \"snow\" name comes from the Old Farmers' Almanac, which notes full moons by seasons. February's full moon is aptly named, as it's the nation's snowiest month, according to data from the National Weather Service.\n\nIf you missed this month's supermoon, you can catch another one on March 21. It just won't be quite as big and bright.\n\nHere are some photos of this week's supermoon:\n\nNew York, New York\n\nPatterson, New York\n\nLas Vegas\n\nMilwaukee\n\nNaples, Florida\n\nFort Myers, Florida\n\nKnoxville, Tennessee\n\nAround the world:\n\nRelated:\n\nContributing: Doyle Rice. Follow Ashley May on Twitter: @AshleyMayTweets", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/02/20"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/06/22/super-strawberry-moon-last-2021-what-means-how-see/7776513002/", "title": "Strawberry moon 2021: How to see the year's last supermoon on ...", "text": "After a pair of eclipses over the past few weeks, both lunar and solar, sky watchers will be in for another treat this week.\n\nThe full strawberry moon will grace the night sky this Thursday across the world.\n\nAlthough the moon will officially be full before it pops above the horizon, it will look plenty big when it rises in the eastern sky Thursday evening, about the same time as the sun is setting in the western sky.\n\nAlas, although it will be a supermoon, it won't look like a strawberry, and it probably won't be red, astronomers say, although it may have a golden color.\n\nWhen is the strawberry supermoon 2021?\n\nJune’s full moon will reach peak illumination at 2:40 p.m. EDT on Thursday, but will not be visible until later that evening, when it drifts above the horizon, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac.\n\nWhy is it called the strawberry moon?\n\nJune's full moon is called the strawberry moon because it signaled to some Native American tribes that it was the time of year to gather ripening strawberries, the almanac says.\n\nThe strawberry moon is the most colorful of the year because it takes a low, shallow path across the sky, said Bob Bonadurer, director of the Milwaukee Public Museum's planetarium.\n\nThe low arc of the June full moon across the sky means moonlight must travel through more of the Earth's atmosphere, which often gives it an orange or yellow tint.\n\nThe strawberry moon is also called \"hot moon\" because it rises right around the beginning of summer.\n\nIn Europe, alternative names include the honey moon, the mead moon or the rose moon.\n\nWhat is a supermoon?\n\nThis Thursday's full moon will also be the fourth and final supermoon of 2021, when the moon looks somewhat bigger and brighter than usual since it's a bit closer to the Earth than usual.\n\nThe previous three supermoons were in March, April and May, according to NASA.\n\n\"Different publications use slightly different thresholds for deciding when a full moon is close enough to the Earth to qualify as a supermoon,\" NASA said.\n\n\"Because the orbit of the moon is not a perfect circle, the moon is sometimes closer to the Earth than at other times during its orbit.\"\n\nOn average, supermoons appear about 7% bigger and about 15% brighter than a typical full moon.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/12/world/buck-full-moon-july-2022-scn/index.html", "title": "July's buck moon will light up the sky this week | CNN", "text": "(CNN) July's full moon, the buck moon, may illuminate the sky on Wednesday in a particularly big way.\n\nThe buck moon will appear full from Tuesday morning to early Friday, according to NASA . It will reach its peak on Wednesday at 2:48 p.m. ET, but will not be fully visible in North America until moonrise. For those who catch a glimpse, it might appear larger and brighter than other moons of 2022 because it's a supermoon.\n\nWhile there isn't a single definition of \"supermoon,\" the term typically refers to a full moon that can stand out more than others because it is within 90% of its closest orbit to Earth. The buck moon is the supermoon that will come closest to Earth this year, according to The Old Farmer's Almanac\n\nThe clearest views of July's full moon in the US will be on the West Coast, in the Great Plains and the Midwest, CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray said. A cold front will move into the southeastern US on July 12 and 13, potentially causing thunderstorms and rain across the region. Parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado also are expecting thunderstorms early this week, she added.\n\n\"Unlike some astronomical events, there's not (a situation where) you've got to look at it this instant or else you miss it,\" said Noah Petro, chief of NASA's Planetary Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Lab. \"There's really no moment that you have to be looking at it to maximize your enjoyment of the full moon. If it's cloudy and you don't want to be outside, just go one of the next nights.\"\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Rachel Fadem", "Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/04/02/pink-supermoon-full-moon-coming-tuesday-april-7/5115114002/", "title": "Full moon: Pink supermoon will be biggest, brightest of 2020", "text": "The full moon occurs precisely at 10:35 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 7.\n\nApril's supermoon is the second of three to take place in in a row.\n\nThe full moon this month is also nicknamed the pink moon.\n\nHere's something to look forward to next week: The biggest, brightest supermoon of 2020 will be appearing in the night sky Tuesday.\n\n\"Watch for the biggest full moon of the year to shine all night long as it beams in the east after sunset April 7, climbs highest up for the night around midnight, and sets in the west around sunrise April 8,\" EarthSky's Bruce McClure said.\n\nThe full moon occurs precisely at 10:35 p.m. EDT on April 7, according to EarthSky.\n\nOf the three supermoons this year, April's supermoon will come closest to our planet – and thus appear the largest. April's supermoon is the second of three to take place in a row, following March's super worm moon and preceding May's super flower moon, due to take place on May 7, Newsweek said.\n\nWhat's a supermoon?\n\nA supermoon occurs when the moon is especially close to Earth while it’s full. The moon's closeness to Earth, naturally, makes it look extra-close and extra-bright – up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than a full moon at its farthest point from Earth.\n\nThe term “supermoon” was coined in 1979 by astrologer Richard Nolle. It has become an increasingly more popular and media-friendly term in the decades since then. According to NASA, it's used by the media today to describe what astronomers would call a perigean full moon: a full moon occurring near or at the time when the moon is at its closest point in its orbit around Earth.\n\nDue to the optical effect known as the moon illusion, the full moon can seem huge when rising behind distant objects on the horizon. A supermoon appears especially impressive.\n\nWe have 13 full moons to look forward to in 2020. Here's when you can see them.\n\nHurricane season begins in June:Activity will be 'above average,' forecasters warn.\n\nWhy is it called a 'pink' supermoon?\n\nThe full moon this month is also nicknamed the pink moon. But don't look for a pinkish hue to the moon this month:\n\nAccording to the Old Farmer's Almanac, April’s full moon often corresponded with the early springtime blooms of Phlox subulata, a pink wildflower native to eastern North America. The wildflower is commonly called creeping phlox or moss phlox – and also goes by the name “moss pink.\"\n\nFor millennia, people across the world, including Native Americans, named the months after nature’s cues. The Old Farmers' Almanac said that full moon names in our part of the world date back to the Native Americans who lived in the northern and eastern USA.\n\nEach full moon has its own name, from January's wolf moon to December's cold moon.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/04/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/06/14/yellowstone-national-park-flooding-lizzos-lyrics-strawberry-supermoon-its-tuesdays-news/7525665001/", "title": "Yellowstone National Park flooding, Lizzo's lyrics, the strawberry ...", "text": "Historic flooding, mudslides leave behind devastation at Yellowstone National Park. The stories of family members lost in the Ukraine war. And why Lizzo changed a song lyric.\n\n👋 Hey! Laura Davis here, and it's Flag Day! Ever wondered why it's called \"Old Glory\"? Here are five fast facts. Now, let's get to Tuesday's news!\n\nBut first, what would you do to earn $2,000? 🤑 Me? Specifically not this: A North Carolina pest control company is offering cash in exchange for releasing 100 cockroaches in your home as part of a study. Good luck to everyone involved.\n\nThe Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.\n\n🗳 It's Primary Tuesday: Voters in Maine, Nevada, South Carolina and North Dakota headed to the polls for primary races on issues from abortion to Donald Trump to control of the Senate. Here's what you need to know.\n\nExtreme weather leaves devastation in Yellowstone\n\nYellowstone National Park officials assessed widespread damage Tuesday as the park remained closed amid dangerous floods, mudslides and rockslides that have eroded roads, ripped apart bridges and led to evacuations this week. The flooding started to slowly recede Tuesday, but the record-level floods left all five entrances to the park closed through at least Wednesday, officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but floodwaters swept away a number of homes, bridges and other structures with the northern part of the park suffering the worst damage. Keep reading.\n\nUkrainians tell stories of loved ones lost in the war\n\nAnna Priymenko's youngest nephew, a budding soccer player, was only 5 years old when he was killed by the bomb that hit his family's home. Her other two nephews were 10 and 15. They loved sambo, a martial art that originated in the former USSR. Her only brother owned a textile business, donating countless blankets and pillows after the war began, and her mother was a kindergarten teacher. When she heard of their deaths, \"the world collapsed,\" said Anna, 37. \"I am basically left alone.\" Thousands of civilians have been killed in the Russian war on Ukraine, and countless people like Anna have been left alone in the aftermath, figuring out how to move forward when those they loved most are gone. \"It is clear that this time may pass, it may settle down a little, but ... it will never be the way it was. It will never be,\" Anna said. These are the stories of the lives destroyed and devastated by Russia's war on Ukraine.\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\nEyes to the sky: Strawberry supermoon rises tonight\n\nGet ready to scan the skies for the second supermoon of the year. June’s strawberry moon appears opposite the sun Tuesday, and it will remain full through Wednesday morning, NASA reported. It won't be visible to stargazers in North America until later Tuesday night, when it drifts above the horizon, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. So why is it called the strawberry moon? Don’t be deceived by the name: Its origin has nothing to do with the moon’s hue or appearance, according to the almanac. Native American Algonquin tribes inhabiting the northeastern U.S. – along with as well as the Ojibwe, Dakota and Lakota peoples – have used the strawberry moon to mark the time for gathering ripened June-bearing strawberries, the almanac said. Keep reading to learn more. 🍓\n\n📸 Strawberry moon to appear at its largest Tuesday night.\n\nto appear at its largest Tuesday night. What is a strawberry moon? Your guide to every full moon this year.\n\nMillions swelter under dangerous heat wave\n\nDangerous, record-setting heat had nearly one-third of the U.S. population in its grip Tuesday – from the Upper Midwest to the Southeast – on the cusp of summer’s official arrival. The National Weather Service issued excessive-heat warnings, watches and heat advisories for more than 100 million people as temperatures were expected to surge 10 to 20 degrees above normal from the Plains, the Midwest and some areas along the East Coast, according to AccuWeather. Here’s what we know about Tuesday's severe heat.\n\nGraphics: Record-high temperatures from heat dome affect millions.\n\nRecord-high temperatures from heat dome affect millions. From the heat index to the heat dome to an excessive heat warning, everything you need to know about heat.\n\nReal quick\n\nLizzo changes lyric after backlash over offensive term\n\nAfter being accused of using an ableist slur in her latest track \"Grrrls,\" Lizzo shared an apology and released a new version of her song. In a Twitter post Tuesday, the singer said an updated version of \"Grrrls,\" the latest single from her coming album, \"Special,\" was released after she learned its lyrics contained \"a harmful word.\" The original lyric that offended fans came from the song’s line, \"Do you see this (expletive)? I'm a spaz,\" with many claiming that \"spaz\" is an ableist slur. \"Spaz\" has often been used as slang to describe losing physical or emotional control, but has fallen increasingly out of fashion because of its origin from \"spastic,\" \"a form of muscular weakness (spastic paralysis, typical of cerebral palsy,\" according to Lexico, an online dictionary. The controversy is a reminder that other slang terms in our vernacular have derived from more-serious origins, making it important to put more thought behind what we speak. Keep reading to learn more.\n\nA break from the news", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/06/14"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_18", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:20", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/07/12/euro-dollar-trade-parity-travelers/10007133002/", "title": "What will a surging U.S. dollar and a weak euro mean for Americans?", "text": "For the first time in 20 years, the U.S. dollar is nearly equal in value to the euro.\n\nWhile that may sound good for the dollar, it could be a double-edged sword.\n\nWhy? If the dollar becomes too strong, it could harm business for American companies, because their goods may become more expensive for foreign buyers. And if sales of U.S. exports decrease, that could further slow down an already stalled U.S. economy.\n\nOn the other hand, a strong dollar helps Americans who are traveling in Europe, giving them more buying power.\n\nThe weakening euro has been getting closer to parity with the U.S. dollar since mid-2021. A very robust June jobs report on Friday, and analysts' expectations of a further 0.75 percentage point hike by the Federal Reserve this month are making the dollar stronger than expected.\n\nMark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, estimates a 10% increase in the dollar within the past year against the foreign currencies.\n\nMISSED SIGNS:'Paying the price': Biden and top aides misread threat of inflation as warning signs gathered\n\nBEING IN THE KNOW:Stagflation vs recession: What's the difference? Which is worse?\n\nEUROPEAN VACATION:A weakened euro is good news for US travelers. For the large crowds in Europe, not so much.\n\nWhy is the US dollar so strong right now?\n\n\"Generally, the euro has been higher than the dollar,\" Zandi said. \"But there's been a weakening and the euro is now more vulnerable due to the Russian invasion in Ukraine and that's leading to higher oil prices, natural gas, and agricultural prices.\"\n\nWhat does a stronger US dollar mean for American travelers visiting Europe?\n\n\"Going to Europe looks a lot cheaper to Americans compared to last summer,\" Zandi said. \"With a stronger dollar that's helping offset the cost of airfare and hotel room rates about 10- to 20% cheaper.\n\n\"If you're thinking about traveling and have some excess savings, now is the time to go.\"\n\nOf course, the opposite is true for European travelers heading to the states.\n\n\"The U.S. looks incredibly expensive to Europeans compared to this time last year, about 10- to 15% more,\" he said.\n\nWhat does a strong U.S. dollar mean for imports, exports?\n\nZandi said that while a strong dollar may help consumers buy more imported goods, it's not so good for exports.\n\n\"if you're an importer, the strength of the dollar is a good thing, but it's a bad thing globally,\" Zandi said. \"Like, in Europe, or in the U.K., Australia, even Canada, you have to pay for more U.S. goods coming in. It adds more to the global inflationary problems.\"\n\nZandi expects the dollar's strength against the euro to last for a year or two.\n\n\"I don't see the dollar significantly weakening any time soon,\" he said.\n\nFollow Terry Collins on Twitter at @terryscollins", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/11/investing/euro-dollar-parity/index.html/", "title": "The euro and the dollar are under half a penny away from parity for ..."}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/12/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html", "title": "Premarket stocks: Why King Dollar's huge rally isn't reason to cheer ...", "text": "A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business' Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here . You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.\n\nLondon (CNN Business) The US dollar is rising at a blistering clip, reaching its strongest level against other major currencies in almost two decades.\n\nThat's helpful for American tourists traveling abroad this summer. But on Wall Street, it's growing cause for concern.\n\n\"A very strong US dollar provides yet another headwind for earnings,\" Morgan Stanley equity strategist Michael Wilson told clients this week.\n\nThe US Dollar Index has shot up 4% in the past month and nearly 13% year-to-date, while other top currencies have suffered.\n\nThe euro has dropped 12% this year. On Tuesday, it hit parity with the US dollar for the first time in 20 years as fears about the region's economy — stoked by Russia's war in Ukraine — push investors to dump their holdings. The pound has retreated toward levels seen during the worst days of the pandemic.\n\nThe dollar's ascent began in anticipation of interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, which make the United States a more attractive place to park cash. But in recent weeks, the dollar has dominated for other reasons.\n\nFirst, there's its reputation as a safe haven investment. When anxiety builds about the health of the global economy, and the likelihood of a recession increases, investors rush to scoop up dollars as a store of value.\n\n\"In the current atmosphere of risk aversion in markets, the US dollar rally is likely to continue in the near term,\" Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a recent research note.\n\nOther traditional safe haven currencies aren't getting the same boost. The Swiss franc is up nearly 8% this year. Japan's yen has been volatile and recently hit its weakest level against the dollar since 1998.\n\nThat's in part because the US economy looks stronger than its peers, another major driver of the dollar's climb.\n\nEurope is dealing with a growing energy crisis that could make it much harder for the European Central Bank to fight inflation. Some officials are worried that the crucial Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Russia to Germany, which is closed for routine maintenance, may not restart as normal later this month. That could force governments to make emergency interventions.\n\n\"A scenario where the euro area has to ration gas supplies to industry — if that's not an economic crisis, what is?\" Jordan Rochester, currency strategist at Nomura, said Tuesday. He predicted the euro will keep falling.\n\nThe United Kingdom, meanwhile, is paralyzed by a political vacuum as the race to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister kicks off, and Japan appears locked in to super-easy monetary policy, opting to prop up the economy instead of putting a lid on price increases.\n\nWhat it all means: A stronger dollar gives Americans more spending power when they're outside the country. But as Wilson noted, it's not necessarily a good thing for stocks, since it eats into the value of Corporate America's international sales and profits.\n\nUS firms generate about 30% of their sales abroad, he calculated. And at a time when they're already dealing with the effects of inflation, extra inventory and shifts in demand, it's an additional drag.\n\n\"This dollar strength is just another reason to think earnings revisions are coming down over the next few earnings seasons,\" Wilson said. \"Therefore, the recent rally in stocks is likely to fizzle out before too long.\"\n\nChina tries to stem growing anger over frozen bank deposits\n\nProtests outside banks from depositors demanding their money back aren't typically a sign that an economy is running smoothly — hence the concern that recent demonstrations in China may indicate deeper problems.\n\nThe latest: Authorities said late Monday that they will start refunding bank customers whose accounts have been frozen for months after a mass protest on Sunday in the central Henan province was crushed violently by authorities.\n\nIt was the largest action yet by depositors, who have been fighting for months to retrieve their frozen savings.\n\nCustomers from four rural banks in Henan, and one in the neighboring Anhui province, will be repaid starting Friday, according to provincial financial regulators. The first payments will be sent to customers with a combined amount of less than 50,000 yuan ($7,445) on deposit at a single bank.\n\nThe rural banks have still not offered a clear explanation as to why and for how long the funds will remain frozen, my CNN Business colleague Laura He reports.\n\nRuns on small Chinese banks have become more frequent in recent years, and some have been accused of financial impropriety or corruption. But experts worry that bigger cracks could be forming, caused by fallout from a real estate crash and soaring bad debts related to the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nAs many as 400,000 customers across China have been unable to access their savings at the rural banks in Henan and Anhui provinces, according to an estimate in April by Sanlian Lifeweek, a state-owned magazine.\n\nThat's a tiny number in the context of China's vast banking system, but could still present a big risk.\n\n\"Despite the small size of the assets involved, the social impact of the incident could be significant if it is not handled appropriately,\" said Betty Wang, senior China economist at ANZ.\n\nKlarna has lost 85% of its value in a year\n\nWhat a difference a year makes for a company like Klarna.\n\nOne year ago, the Swedish payments firm was Europe's hottest startup. It was valued at nearly $46 billion in June 2021 as consumers turned to online shopping during the pandemic and embraced \"buy now, pay later\" services. A blockbuster initial public offering was in sight, promising a windfall for high-profile backers including SoftBank, Sequoia Capital and SilverLake.\n\nCircumstances have changed dramatically. Klarna announced on Monday that it had raised $800 million in new financing at a valuation of just $6.7 billion. That means 85% of its value has evaporated.\n\nKlarna and its investors said the broader market environment is to blame, not its business model.\n\n\"The shift in Klarna's valuation is entirely due to investors suddenly voting in the opposite manner to the way they voted for the past few years,\" Sequoia partner Michael Moritz said. \"Eventually, after investors emerge from their bunkers, the stocks of Klarna and other first-rate companies will receive the attention they deserve.\"\n\nKlarna now has 150 million users worldwide, almost 30 million of which are in the United States. But in recent months, investors have become skeptical of the fast-growing tech companies they once loved. Instead, they're doubling down on firms that consistently generate profits.\n\nThat's not Klarna. The company, which has reported steep losses, announced that it was laying off 10% of its workforce in May.\n\nUp next\n\nPepsiCo PEP reports earnings before US markets open.\n\nComing tomorrow: Attention will be laser-focused on the latest consumer inflation data in the United States. Economists polled by Refinitiv expect to learn that prices rose 8.8% in the 12 months to June, an even faster increase than was recorded in May.", "authors": ["Julia Horowitz", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/03/investing/stocks-week-ahead/index.html", "title": "Stocks week ahead: Is the US dollar in danger? | CNN Business", "text": "A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business' Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here\n\nNew York (CNN Business) The US may have the world's most powerful military, but the dollar is its greatest weapon. Now, after nearly 80 years of dollar dominance, the US might be in danger of losing its global reserve currency status .\n\nAbout 60% of the $12.8 trillion in global currency reserves are currently held in dollars, giving the US an exorbitant privilege over other countries. And that privilege pays: Because US government debt backed by the dollar is very attractive, interest rates are lower. The US gets to borrow from other countries in its own currency — so if the US dollar loses value, debt does too. American businesses can make international transactions in dollars without having to pay conversion fees.\n\nPerhaps most importantly, in extreme circumstances the US can cut off dollar access to central banks around the globe, isolating and draining their economies. Raghuram Rajan, the former governor of the Reserve Bank of India calls this power an \"economic weapon of mass destruction.\"\n\nThe US detonated this weapon on Russia in February after the country invaded Ukraine, freezing $630 billion worth of forex reserves and deeply undermining the value of the ruble . That gave America the ability to punish Russia without getting US troops involved in war.\n\nBut with great power comes great responsibility: When you use a weapon of mass destruction, even an economic one, people get spooked. To protect themselves from the same fate as Russia, other countries diversify their investments away from the US dollar into other currencies.\n\nThat's where the country's reserve currency status could run into problems.\n\nWeaponizing the dollar, said Bank of America strategists' Michael Hartnett, could lead to its debasement. The \"balkanization of global financial systems\" erodes America's role as the reserve currency, he added.\n\nA new research paper by the International Monetary Fund found that the dollar share of international reserves have been in decline for the past two decades, around the same time the United States began its war on terror and its counter-terror sanctions. One quarter of reserves have since shifted from the dollar to Chinese yuan , and the other three quarters have moved into currencies of smaller countries.\n\n\"These observations provide hints of how the international system may evolve going forward,\" warned the paper's co-authors, Serkan Arslanalp of the IMF, Barry Eichengreen of the University of California Berkeley and Chima Simpson-Bell also of the IMF.\n\nRussia and China are also hoping to guide the evolution of the international system.\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin threatened on Thursday to end gas exports to countries that do not open an account with a Russian bank and pay in rubles. The European Union gets about 40% of its gas and 30% of its oil from Russia with no easy alternatives.\n\nSaudi Arabia, meanwhile, is in talks with Beijing to accept yuan instead of dollars for Chinese oil sales.\n\nSo is king dollar about to be dethroned?\n\nIf the past two years have taught us anything, it's that nothing is impossible. But the prospect of the US losing that exorbitant privilege is very unlikely.\n\nFor one thing, the alternatives aren't great. China has been pushing the yuan for years and only about 3% of global transactions are conducted in the currency, that's compared to 40% for the dollar.\n\nThe US is also still fairly attractive to the rest of the globe. The US equity market is the largest and most liquid stock market in the world, and foreign capital is flowing into the country. Global foreign-direct investment flows grew by 77% to an estimated $1.65 trillion in 2021, but the investment in the US soared by 114% to $323 billion, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.\n\nGoodbye Q1, hello Q2!\n\nThe second quarter may not be fun, but at least we'll be prepared for it.\n\nThe seesaw first quarter of 2022 came to a bitter end this week with major stock indices printing their worst performance in two years. Surging inflation, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and a speed-up of the Federal Reserve's rate-increase plan created a series of unique challenges for investors.\n\nThose challenges will continue into the second quarter. But often the devil you know is better than the devil you don't.\n\nWe asked analysts what they predict will be the largest headwinds going into this quarter, and how they're preparing for them. Here's what we found.\n\nGeopolitical unrest: Russia's invasion of Ukraine has stunned markets across the globe. The geopolitical unrest has rippled through energy markets, commodities, and even to Russia's invasion of Ukraine has stunned markets across the globe. The geopolitical unrest has rippled through energy markets, commodities, and even to food insecurity issues\n\nJosh Leonardi, director of prime services at TD Securities is looking to commodities markets, where raw products are sold, to hedge against the Russian conflict. He likes wheat in particular. About a quarter of the world's wheat supply comes from Russia and Ukraine. Future contracts for the crop are through the roof as supply becomes scarce but demand remains the same.\n\nIt's probably best not to bet on oil and energy, since those commodities have been particularly volatile and reactive to news updates.\n\nInflation: The US is currently battling an The US is currently battling an inflation problem the likes of which it hasn't seen in 40 years, so it's time to look to real assets as a hedge on inflation, said Leonardi. That means investing in commodities, real estate, land, equipment and natural resources.\n\nInterest in real estate investment is exploding, he said. \"I don't know if anything is hotter on the market right now. You have everything from single- and multi-family homes, to data centers to cold storage facilities.\"\n\nWhen investing in markets, look to companies that make money off of inflationary spikes. Banks earn more as interest rates rise and they profit from wider spreads. Companies with low capital needs are also good bets.\n\nRate hikes: The Federal Reserve is probably going to be aggressive in raising interest rates going forward, said Liz Anne Sonders, managing director and chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab.\n\nTypically investors believe in a safety guard known as \"The Fed put.\" It's the notion that enough market weakness will cause the Fed to stop raising interest rates and tighten policy, and perhaps even reverse and ease rates. Because inflation is so out of hand, there's no way that's going to happen this time around, said Sonders.\n\n\"Investors need to be aware of that, especially if they're being more aggressive because they think the Fed won't let markets down,\" said Sonders. They'll continue to raise rates and will do it to slow economic growth. That means the risk of recession is higher than it otherwise would be.\n\nUp next\n\nMonday: US motor vehicle sales for March released by BLS; The Investor Movement Index on Main Street sentiment released by TD Ameritrade\n\nTuesday: NY Fed President John Williams speaks about the economy\n\nWednesday: FOMC minutes released at 2 pm ET\n\nThursday: Weekly jobless claims released\n\nFriday: Eli Lilly reports earnings before the bell", "authors": ["Nicole Goodkind", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/04/03"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/07/07/richest-countries-in-the-world/39630693/", "title": "Qatar, China, Singapore: Top 25 richest countries in the world", "text": "Grant Suneson\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nAs more wealth is created in the world, more of it is concentrated among the richest people in the richest countries. The combined gross domestic product of countries for which there is data adds up to $116.7 trillion. Nearly $93 trillion of that wealth is concentrated among just 25 countries.\n\nGDP may be the standard method for gauging the size of a particular country or region’s economy, but it does not account for all of the wealth generated by that nation. A more accurate indicator of a country’s economic output is its gross national income, or GNI. This measure captures all economic activity within a nation’s borders in addition to the wealth created by nationally-owned entities operating in other countries.\n\nUsing data from the World Bank, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the GNI per capita of nearly 200 nations to identify the 25 richest countries. We also included life expectancy at birth from the World Bank.\n\nThe wealthiest 25 countries in the world tend to have complex and diverse economies. Many of these countries export goods and services from a variety of industries such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and aerospace.\n\nSocial Security:Why it's the most successful government program in history\n\nSummer jobs:Businesses have a new labor problem -- fewer teens available for summer jobs\n\nYet some nations on this list rely almost exclusively on one product to fuel their economies. Some smaller countries that do not have a wide variety of industries still rank among the wealthiest nations in the world because they are among the countries that controls the world’s oil.\n\nThe wealthiest countries also tend to be the healthiest. The world average life expectancy at birth is 72.2 years, yet in each of the world’s 25 richest countries, the average life expectancy is at least several years, if not a full decade, longer. Some of the richest nations also rank among the healthiest countries in the world.\n\n25. France\n\n• GNI per capita: $39,784\n\n• 2017 GDP: $2.6 trillion (10th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 67.1 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 82.5 years\n\nWith a gross domestic product of more than $2.6 trillion in 2017, France is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The French created nearly $40,000 in economic output per person in 2017. Like many other very wealthy nations, France's economy is complex and diverse, exporting over $500 billion worth of goods and services annually. The country's exports in 2017 included aerospace and automobile parts, medications, and more than $10 billion worth of wine.\n\nWealthy countries can afford to invest in health care infrastructure, and their residents can afford to lead healthier lives. As a result, the wealthiest nations tend to have the best health outcomes in the world. France's life expectancy at birth of 82.5 years is more than a decade higher than the average life expectancy worldwide.\n\n24. Finland\n\n• GNI per capita: $41,509\n\n• 2017 GDP: $225.9 billion (61st out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 5.5 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 81.4 years\n\nFinland is one of just two dozen countries in the world where GNI per capita was over $40,000 in 2017. Finland has one of the most diverse export economies in the world, selling paper goods, refined petroleum, and various machinery around the world.\n\nFinland's relative prosperity is more evenly distributed among its residents. Likely in part due to the relative equality of the society, the Nordic country's poverty rate is the lowest among all countries for which there is data. The country also has some of the best health outcomes as measured by life expectancy, maternal mortality, and infant mortality.\n\n23. Bahrain\n\n• GNI per capita: $41,557\n\n• 2017 GDP: $64.7 billion (100th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 1.5 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 77.0 years\n\nBahrain's high gross national income per capita of $41,557 is bolstered by the country's very low unemployment rate. Less than 1% of the labor force in Bahrain is out of a job -- the second lowest unemployment rate of any country on this list. The country relies heavily on natural resources, particularly petroleum. Of the nation's exports in 2017, 38% came from refined petroleum. Iron ore and aluminum exports accounted for another 5.6%.\n\nBahrain's population is growing faster than any other country on this list, ranking second in the world with an annual population growth of 4.6%, more than four times the rate of the world's annual population growth.\n\n22. Belgium\n\n• GNI per capita: $43,260\n\n• 2017 GDP: $486.5 billion (38th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 11.4 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 81.4 years\n\nBelgium leans heavily on exports to keep its economy running. The country's exports of goods and services accounted for more than 85% of GDP. Worldwide, exports account for less than 30% of total GDP. Belgium primary exports include medicine, cars, refined petroleum, and diamonds.\n\nTo stay on the cutting edge of the products it manufactures and sells, research and development expenditure accounts for nearly 2.5% of Belgium's GDP, one of the highest shares of any country in the world.\n\n21. Australia\n\n• GNI per capita: $43,555\n\n• 2017 GDP: $1.1 trillion (20th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 24.6 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 82.5 years\n\nAustralia is one of just 23 countries with a GDP of more than $1 trillion. Australia relies heavily on exports of natural resources -- particularly iron ore. It is the world's leading exporter of the mineral, accounting for 52% of the world's total supply. This pumps tens of billions of dollars into the national economy, accounting for one-fifth of Australia's total exports.\n\nThis relative affluence allows Australians to live relatively long, healthy lives. Only a handful of countries have a longer average life expectancy at birth than Australia's 82.5 years.\n\n20. Canada\n\n• GNI per capita: $43,559\n\n• 2017 GDP: $1.6 trillion (15th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 36.7 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 82.5 years\n\nWith a GDP exceeding $1.6 trillion, Canada is one of the wealthiest and most economically productive countries in the world. Canada is the world's fourth largest exporter of crude petroleum, behind Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Iraq. In 2017 crude petroleum, accounting for 14% of Canada's total export value.\n\nThis relative prosperity has helped make Canada a desirable destination for immigrants. Though Canada has the world's 38th largest population with 36.7 million residents, it had the fourth highest net migration total in 2017, with a total of 1.1 million new residents.\n\n19. Austria\n\n• GNI per capita: $45,375\n\n• 2017 GDP: $400.2 billion (45th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 8.8 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 81.6 years\n\nAustria was the 30th largest exporter in the world in 2017, despite being just the 96th largest country in terms of population. Machines and transportation vehicles accounted for much of the country's exports worth.\n\nAustria encourages innovation to bolster its economy. Like several other countries that rank among the richest in the world, research and development accounts for a significant percentage of Austria's GDP. Austria is one of just six countries in which research and development spending is equal to more than 3% of GDP.\n\n18. Germany\n\n• GNI per capita: $46,422\n\n• 2017 GDP: $3.8 trillion (5th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 82.7 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 81.0 years\n\nGermany has one of the largest economies in the world, with a GDP of nearly $3.8 trillion. Germany ranked as the third largest exporter in the world in 2017 after China and the U.S., exporting more than $1.7 trillion worth of goods that year.\n\nThough Germany exports a wide array of goods, automobiles are the main industry, accounting for 12% of all German exports in 2017. Germany is well known for its automotive prowess. German auto manufacturers BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Volkwagen are some of the best known car brands in the world.\n\n17. Sweden\n\n• GNI per capita: $47,346\n\n• 2017 GDP: $469.5 billion (40th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 10.1 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 82.3 years\n\nSweden invests more on education as a share of its GDP than almost any other country in the world. The country spends the equivalent of 7.6% of its GDP on education. This investment in education appears to be paying off as Sweden has among the highest primary school enrollment rates and primary school completion rates, setting its young residents up to be well educated and productive members of the economy in the future.\n\nThe Swedish economy is also driven by innovation. Research and development spending is equal to nearly 3.3% of Sweden's GDP, the fourth highest share of any country in the world.\n\n16. Denmark\n\n• GNI per capita: $48,260\n\n• 2017 GDP: $272.5 billion (55th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 5.8 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 81.0 years\n\nDenmark has one of the highest GNIs per capita, at more than $48,000. The country has a diverse economy, exporting billions of dollars worth of machines, chemical products, animal products, and other foodstuffs. Packaged medicaments make up the largest segment of Denmark's exports.\n\nThe wealth in Denmark tends to be distributed relatively evenly among people as measured by the Gini coefficient. Denmark has one of the lowest Gini coefficients in the world. Likely contributing to the high level of equality is Denmark's rank as the least corrupt country in the world, according to the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index.\n\n15. Netherlands\n\n• GNI per capita: $48,994\n\n• 2017 GDP: $835.8 billion (27th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 17.1 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 81.6 years\n\nOne of the richest countries in the world, the Netherlands' GNI per capita is nearly $49,000. The country's economy relies heavily on exports. In 2017, the country's exports generated the equivalent of nearly 83% of the nation's GDP -- more than double the rate of the average country.\n\nWith an average life expectancy of 81.6 years at birth, the Netherlands has among the best health outcomes in the world. It also ranks better than most countries in terms of infant and maternal mortality.\n\n14. Saudi Arabia\n\n• GNI per capita: $49,626\n\n• 2017 GDP: $1.6 trillion (16th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 32.9 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 74.7 years\n\nSaudi Arabia ranks among the richest countries in the world for one reason -- oil. In the resource-rich kingdom, petroleum accounted for more than three-quarters of exports in 2017. No country exports more crude petroleum than Saudi Arabia.\n\nWhile petroleum is lucrative, without a diversified economy, Saudi Arabia is vulnerable to fluctuations in oil prices. It is one of just two countries to rank among the richest in the world that also saw a decline in its GDP over the past year. The other, Kuwait, also relies heavily on petroleum. Saudi Arabia's economy contracted by nearly 0.9% in 2017.\n\n13. Ireland\n\n• GNI per capita: $52,755\n\n• 2017 GDP: $320.2 billion (50th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 4.8 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 82.0 years\n\nIreland is one of just 13 countries in which the GNI per capita exceeded $50,000 in 2017. The country also has one of the fastest growing economies, with a 7.2% annual increase in its GDP. Worldwide, the annual GDP increase was less than 3.2%.\n\nIreland relies heavily on exports. Ireland's top exports are chemicals, like packaged medicaments. Its exports are actually worth more than its GDP, which is the case in only seven other countries. Ireland's exports are worth nearly 20% more than its GDP of over $320 billion.\n\n12. United States\n\n• GNI per capita: $55,351\n\n• 2017 GDP: $17.7 trillion (2nd out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 325.1 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 78.5 years\n\nOne of the wealthiest nations in the world, the United States has a GNI per capita of more than $55,000. With such relative prosperity, the United States has been an attractive destination for immigrants, and the U.S. reported net migration of 4.5 million people in 2017, the highest total of any nation in the world.\n\nUnlike nearly every other nation to rank among the richest in the world, the United States does not rely heavily on exports. The total export value of goods and services from the United States is equal to just 12.1% of GDP, the lowest share on this list and one of the lowest in the world. For context, exports are equal to an average of 29.4% of GDP globally. Among the 25 richest countries for which there is data, the United States also has the highest level of income inequality.\n\n11. Switzerland\n\n• GNI per capita: $58,138\n\n• 2017 GDP: $490.2 billion (37th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 8.5 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 83.6 years\n\nOne of the richest countries in the world, Switzerland has a GNI per capita of $58,138. Though Switzerland has a fairly diverse economy, gold makes up by far the largest share of its exports. About a quarter of the nation's $285 billion in exports in 2017 was in gold. Despite being a relatively small country of less than 8.5 million people, Switzerland is one of the countries that controls a large share of the world's gold.\n\nSwitzerland partially relies on innovation to drive economic growth by investing the equivalent of 3.4% of its GDP in research and development -- the third highest rate in the world.\n\n10. Hong Kong\n\n• GNI per capita: $58,420\n\n• 2017 GDP: $414.3 billion (43rd out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 7.4 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 84.7 years\n\nHong Kong is not a fully independent nation, but rather a special administrative region of China. But it has its own powerful economy with a GDP of $414.3 billion and a GNI per capita of $58,420 per person. In addition to being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, Hong Kong is also one of the healthiest. The average life expectancy at birth in the country of 84.7 years is more than 12 years longer than the global average and about six years longer than in the United States.\n\nHong Kong has a diverse economy, exporting machines like broadcasting equipment as well as precious metals and minerals like gold, silver, and diamonds.\n\n9. Luxembourg\n\n• GNI per capita: $65,101\n\n• 2017 GDP: $55.5 billion (104th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 596,336\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 82.7 years\n\nLuxembourg is one of the smallest countries in the world, both in terms of landmass and population, with fewer than 600,000 people. With a GDP of $55.5 billion, Luxembourg's GNI per capita is one of the highest in the world at $65,101.\n\nNo country relies more heavily on exports than Luxembourg. The total value of exported goods and services is equal to more than double the country's GDP -- the only place in the world where this is the case. Much of the nation's exports are machinery, iron, and plastics.\n\n8. Norway\n\n• GNI per capita: $67,529\n\n• 2017 GDP: $342.8 billion (48th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 5.3 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 82.5 years\n\nDespite being one of the smaller countries in the world with a population of 5.3 million, Norway has one of the larger economies, with a GDP of $342.8 billion. Since the discovery of offshore oil and gas in the 1960s, Norway has become a petroleum-producing powerhouse. In 2017, petroleum made up more than half of the Scandinavian country's exports.\n\nNorway has among the best health outcomes in the world. The country has a life expectancy of 82.5 years, more than a decade higher than the global average. Norway also has among the lowest rates of maternal mortality and childhood mortality for children under five.\n\n7. United Arab Emirates\n\n• GNI per capita: $67,758\n\n• 2017 GDP: $632.6 billion (31st out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 9.4 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 77.4 years\n\nNearly half of all exports from the United Arab Emirates are forms of petroleum -- crude, refined, or gas. The country's exports also include precious metals and minerals like gold and diamonds. These valuable exports have helped make the UAE one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with a GNI per capita of $67,758.\n\nThe UAE has among the highest rates of primary school enrollment and primary school completion, setting up students for future success. The country also has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, at 2.6%, just over half of the 5.0% worldwide unemployment rate.\n\n6. Bermuda\n\n• GNI per capita: $68,113\n\n• 2017 GDP: $3.3 billion (169th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 65,441\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 81.4 years\n\nThe island nation of Bermuda is by far the least populous country to rank among the richest in the world, with a population of less than 66,000. Bermuda's exports are worth very little. The nation ranks among the wealthiest largely because of international businesses, like insurance and financial services companies that operate in the country. These businesses account for around 85% of Bermuda's GDP. Tourism is also an economic boon for the country accounting for a large share of total employment.\n\n5. Kuwait\n\n• GNI per capita: $72,872\n\n• 2017 GDP: $271.1 billion (57th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 4.1 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 74.8 years\n\nKuwait is one of just five nations with a GNI per capita above $70,000. Unlike most other countries that rank among the wealthiest in the world, Kuwait does not have a diverse economy. Petroleum accounts for more than 84% of its exports. Kuwait ranks as one of the most corrupt nations on this list, likely resulting in an uneven dispersal of the wealth created from petroleum.\n\nAlong with fellow oil-rich nation Saudi Arabia, Kuwait is one of the only countries that rank among the richest in the world that saw a decline in their GDP in 2017. Kuwait actually had one of the sharpest decreases in GDP of any country, with an economic contraction of 2.9%.\n\n4. Brunei\n\n• GNI per capita: $76,427\n\n• 2017 GDP: $30.8 billion (125th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 428,697\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 77.4 years\n\nPetroleum accounted for more than 90% of Brunei's exports in 2017. As a result of its wealth of valuable resources, the relatively small Southeast Asian nation has become one of the world's wealthiest, with a GNI per capita in excess of $76,000. Citizens of the country do not have to pay taxes and still enjoy generous services provided by the public sector.\n\nThe country is not without its economic and social problems however. Operating under sharia law, citizens can be stoned for adultery and have a limb amputated for crimes like theft. Brunei also has the highest unemployment rate among the 25 richest countries at 9.2%. Worldwide, the unemployment rate is less than 5%.\n\n3. Singapore\n\n• GNI per capita: $82,503\n\n• 2017 GDP: $480.0 billion (39th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 5.6 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 82.9 years\n\nSitting on the southern edge of Malaysia, Singapore is an important shipping point, connecting much of mainland Asia to the rest of the world. Singapore's economy, which has a GNI per capita of $82,503, is one of the most business-friendly in the world due in part to a lack of cumbersome regulations.\n\nSingapore is the single largest seller of integrated circuits, or microchips, in the world. These circuits makes up 36% of Singapore's exports. As it relies heavily on the export of technology, Singapore invests a large amount, worth 2.2% of the nation's GDP, in research and development.\n\n2. Macao SAR, China\n\n• GNI per capita: $95,304\n\n• 2017 GDP: $65.3 billion (98th out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 0.6 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 84.0 years\n\nMacao is another special administrative region of China, meaning it is not fully autonomous, as China handles foreign affairs and defense. Since allowing the foreign competition in its local casino industry starting in 2001, Macao has become one of the world's top gaming destinations, and the sector has pumped billions of dollars into the economy of this relatively small region. Only one nation has a higher GNI per capita than Macao's $95,000.\n\nMacao's economy is growing faster than that of any country that ranks among the 25 richest in the world. The special administrative region's economy grew 9.1% in 2017, nearly triple the rate of the worldwide GDP growth.\n\n1. Qatar\n\n• GNI per capita: $116,799\n\n• 2017 GDP: $308.6 billion (51st out of 196 countries)\n\n• Population: 2.6 million\n\n• Life expectancy at birth: 78.3 years\n\nQatar is, by far, the richest country in the world, with a GNI per capita of $116,799 -- more than $20,000 higher than any other nation. The country has more in oil reserves than all but two other countries worldwide -- equal to 13% of the global supply. This natural resource brings in tens of billions of dollars to the country of less than 3 million residents each year. Oil revenue helps subsidize government services in the country. Petroleum accounts for nearly all of Qatar's exports – 87%.\n\nThanks to its strong economy, Qatar's unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the world, at 0.2%.\n\nMethodology\n\nTo identify the richest countries in the world, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the gross national income (GNI) per capita for 2017 from the World Bank’s “World Development Indicators Database.” GNI is in constant 2011 international dollars. Additional data on GDP, total population, and life expectancy for the most recent years available is also from the World Bank database. The Corruption Perceptions Index score for 2018 comes from the Transparency International CPI.\n\n24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.\n\nPoorest countries:These are the 25 poorest countries in the world", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/07/07"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/04/economy/turkey-inflation-food-energy/index.html", "title": "Inflation soars to nearly 80% in Turkey as food prices double", "text": "London/Istanbul (CNN Business) Turkey's annual rate of inflation hit almost 80% in June — its highest level in about two decades.\n\nConsumer prices increased by 78.6% last month compared to June 2021, driven by the soaring cost of food and drink and transportation. Food prices have almost doubled in a year, while the cost of transport was up 123%, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute.\n\nIt is another grim milestone for a country that has suffered rampant inflation in recent months, and whose currency has lost more than 20% of its value against the US dollar since the start of this year.\n\nTurkey's economy is exposed to the same forces of global inflation as other countries, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's unorthodox economic policies have inflamed the crisis, as has the crashing lira, which makes imports much more expensive.\n\nIn September, Erdogan ditched the rule book and told Turkey's central bank to start cutting interest rates as prices were rising, rather than raise them.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Anna Cooban", "Isil Sariyuce", "Cnn Business"], "publish_date": "2022/07/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/06/13/cost-of-war-13-most-expensive-wars-in-us-history/39556983/", "title": "Cost of war: The 13 most expensive campaigns in U.S. history", "text": "John Harrington and Grant Suneson\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nWith the recent commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D-Day, we are reminded once again of the human cost of freedom and liberty. While some attempt to rank wars by the number of casualties, others would consider the social, environmental and political upheaval that comes with sustained conflict. And, of course, there is always the financial cost.\n\nMany factors can affect the cost of waging war. To determine the most expensive wars in U.S. history, 24/7 Wall St. used a 2010 report from the Congressional Research Service titled “Costs of Major U.S. Wars.”\n\n13. War of 1812\n\n• U.S. war spending (2019 dollars): $1.78 billion\n\n• Duration: 2 years, 8 months\n\n• U.S. military deaths: 15,000\n\nThe newly created American nation was in dispute with the British Empire in the early 19th century. The United States claimed the British were trying to limit trade and were forcing U.S. sailors to serve in the Royal Navy, grievances related to Britain’s war with France. The United States also had ambitions to expand into British-controlled Canada. The U.S. was rebuffed in its invasion of Canada and suffered other defeats, including the capture and burning of Washington, D.C. Even so, the United States withstood a British naval bombardment at military installations in Baltimore and defeated the British in New Orleans. The Treaty of Ghent ended the nearly three-year-long war, with the United States retaining its sovereignty, but America was prevented from expanding northward into Canada. The war was the first of five declared wars by the United States. The War of 1812 cost the nation $1.78 billion. About 15,000 Americans died in the war from battlefield wounds and disease.\n\n12. Mexican-American War\n\n• U.S. war spending (2019 dollars): $2.72 billion\n\n• Duration: 1 year, 9 months\n\n• U.S. military deaths: 13,283\n\nFought between 1846 and the start of 1848, the Mexican-American War cost the United States $2.72 billion, the 11th-most expensive war in U.S. history. The bone of contention was Texas, which had gained independence from Mexico a decade earlier. Texas had not yet been incorporated into the United States because its inclusion would have upset the equilibrium between slave and free states established by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Skirmishes along the Rio Grande led to clashes such as the Battle of Palo Alto that resulted in American victories. The war ended on Feb. 2, 1848, with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The accord established the Rio Grande as the southern border of Texas and the U.S. gained land in present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.\n\n11. American Revolution\n\n• U.S. war spending (2019 dollars): $2.75 billion\n\n• Duration: 8 years, 5 months\n\n• U.S. military deaths: 4,435\n\nThe eight-year quest for independence cost the American colonies just over $2.75 billion and about 4,400 lives. While the war began as a revolt against unjust taxation, it ended with the colonies and their allies defeating the British Empire and the Founding Fathers rejecting the social and political structures of Europe in favor of a republic. The Treaty of Paris ended the war in 1783, officially recognizing the United States as an independent country and establishing its borders.\n\n10. Spanish-American War\n\n• U.S. war spending (2019 dollars): $10.33 billion\n\n• Duration: 4 months\n\n• U.S. military deaths: 2,446\n\nOften considered the first media war, sensationalized journalism helped fuel support for America's involvement in the Cuban quest for independence from Spain. When the USS Maine, which had been sent to Havana to protect American interests, unexpectedly blew up in 1898, cries for American intervention increased. Congress officially declared war under the context of the Monroe Doctrine, which forbade European interference in the Western Hemisphere. U.S. forces crushed Spanish forces worldwide. The war cost $10.33 billion, and the U.S. gained the Pacific island of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. As a result of the war, America emerged as a global power.\n\n9. American Civil War (Confederacy)\n\n• U.S. war spending (2019 dollars): $22.99 billion\n\n• Duration: 4 years\n\n• U.S. military deaths: 750,000 (North and South)\n\nThe Civil War claimed 750,000 American lives, North and South, more than any other U.S. conflict. The war was fought primarily over the issues of slavery and states’ rights, and it took place primarily in the South. The conflict began after South Carolina seceded from the Union in 1861. The war laid waste to most of the South and left the region devastated for years. In addition to famous battles like Antietam, Bull Run, and Gettysburg, there was guerrilla warfare in border states and areas of conflict that involved the civilian population. The Civil War ended the plantation system and the institution of slavery in the South. It cost Confederate states $22.99 billion in their failed attempt to secede from the Union.\n\n8. American Civil War (Union)\n\n• U.S. war spending (2019 dollars): $68.17 billion\n\n• Duration: 4 years\n\n• U.S. military deaths: 750,000 (North and South)\n\nFor decades, the long-accepted death toll of the Civil War had been about 620,000. But a study published in 2011 by historian J. David Hacker raised that total to 750,000 lives, the highest by far of any U.S. conflict. The war, which began in 1861, was fought over the issues of slavery and states’ rights. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, four years later. By that time, the war to keep the United States united and abolish slavery had cost the Union $68.17 billion.\n\n7. Persian Gulf War\n\n• U.S. war spending (2019 dollars): $116.6 billion\n\n• Duration: 7 months\n\n• U.S. military deaths: 383\n\nThe Persian Gulf War, one of the shortest conflicts in U.S. history, cost $116.6 billion, or just 0.3% of U.S. GDP in 1991. Tensions mounted in the Middle East when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Despite calls from the United Nations for Iraq to withdraw, Hussein refused. A few months later, a massive U.S.-led coalition that included NATO allies and Middle East nations such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia initiated Operation Desert Storm. The offensive lasted just 42 days and ended in catastrophe for Iraq in February 1991. Hussein agreed to recognize Kuwait’s sovereignty and destroy his stores of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. However, Hussein remained in power. As the first major conflict after the Cold War, the Persian Gulf War was, at the time, heralded as a success for the international coalition.\n\n6. World War I\n\n• U.S. war spending (2019 dollars): $381.8 billion\n\n• Duration: 1 year, 7 months\n\n• U.S. military deaths: 116,516\n\nWar broke out in Europe in 1914, but the United States remained neutral for the next three years. American financial institutions prospered by lending money to the combatants, mostly France and Great Britain. However, the United States was gradually pulled into the conflict mostly because of Germany’s use of unrestricted submarine warfare against all ships bound for the nations it was fighting. When British intelligence revealed a communication from German diplomats to Mexican envoys that proposed an alliance between the two countries if the United States entered the war against Germany, America was compelled to act. The United States declared war on Germany on April 2, 1917. World War I ended 19 months later, costing the lives of more than 116,000 troops. Ultimately, the conflict cost the United States $381.8 billion.\n\n5. Korean War\n\n• U.S. war spending (2019 dollars): $389.81 billion\n\n• Duration: 3 years, 1 month\n\n• U.S. military deaths: 36,574\n\nIn June 1950, the North Korean military, supported by the Soviet Union, crossed the 38th parallel that divided North and South Korea. That began the Korean War. Fearful of the spread of communism, President Harry Truman garnered support from the United Nations Security Council to expel North Korean troops from the South. General Douglas MacArthur, however, pursued the North Koreans to the Yalu River, which formed the northern border between China and the Korean peninsula. The Chinese interpreted MacArthur’s actions as an act of war and entered the conflict, driving U.N. troops down the peninsula. The war eventually ended after Dwight Eisenhower became president and threatened the use of nuclear weapons if the North Koreans or Chinese did not respect the 38th parallel as the boundary between the two countries. Ultimately, the Korean War cost the United States $389.81 billion and about 36,000 lives.\n\n4. Vietnam War\n\n• U.S. war spending (2019 dollars): $843.63 billion\n\n• Duration: 17 years, 9 months\n\n• U.S. military deaths: 58,220\n\nThe war in Vietnam cost the United States $843.63 billion in 2019 dollars, or 2.3% of GDP in 1968. By the end of the conflict, the names of more than 58,000 dead soldiers were recorded on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. After the Vietnamese defeated the French in 1954, ending a brutal era of colonialism, the Geneva Accords stipulated that elections in the South be scheduled for the following year. Determined not to let communism spread, the U.S. lent its support to Ngo Dinh Diem, a French-educated, Catholic politician in South Vietnam. By the time the U.S. committed troops in 1965, Diem had been assassinated and Vietnamese support for the new military-led South Vietnamese government had faded. With supplies from China and the Soviet Union, North Vietnam primarily used guerrilla tactics to attack U.S. troops and bases. By the late 1960s, public support for the war in the U.S. was waning. American troops withdrew in 1973 and South Vietnam fell to communist North Vietnam in 1975.\n\n3. War in Afghanistan\n\n• U.S. war spending (2019 dollars): $910.47 billion\n\n• Duration: Since 2001\n\n• U.S. military deaths: 2,285\n\nThe United States has been embroiled in an ongoing battle in Afghanistan since 2001. Following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the United States invaded the central Asian nation in order to drive out the ruling Taliban, which provided al-Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 terror attack, with safe haven. Yet in the over 17 years since the war began, the U.S. military has so far been unable to establish Afghanistan as a stable, safe place. The War in Afghanistan is now the only war in U.S. military history to have three commanders in chief preside over the conflict. From President George W. Bush to Barack Obama and now Donald Trump, none could find a way to bring the extended conflict to an end. As the war drags on, military spending on this war will continue to accumulate.\n\n2. Iraq War\n\n• U.S. war spending (2019 dollars): $1.01 trillion\n\n• Duration: 7 years, 5 months\n\n• U.S. military deaths: 4,410\n\nThe conflict in Iraq has cost the United States about $1 trillion. Believing he had weapons of mass destruction, U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003 and overthrew Saddam Hussein. The U.S. government considers elections in Iraq, as well as training military personnel to help stabilize the region, as successes. Even so, the country continues to be marred by conflict and terror.\n\n1. World War II\n\n• U.S. war spending (2019 dollars): $4.69 trillion\n\n• Duration: 3 years, 9 months\n\n• U.S. military deaths: 405,399\n\nThe United States spent more than $4 trillion, or 36% of its GDP, fighting World War II. More than 400,000 U.S. troops were killed in the conflict to defeat Nazi Germany, Italy, and the Japanese Empire. U.S. involvement officially began on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. America officially declared war against Germany and Italy three days later, after Germany and Italy had declared war on the United States. After conquering most of Europe, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union bore most of the ground conflict with Germany before the United States and its allies opened the Western front in 1944. The European war ended in May 1945, and Japan surrendered after the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of that year. The United States and the Soviet Union emerged from World War II as the world’s biggest superpowers and became rivals in the Cold War.\n\nDetailed findings & methodology\n\nWorld War II remains as the costliest conflict in American history, accounting for nearly 36% of the country’s gross domestic product in 1945, or $4.7 trillion based on inflation-adjusted constant dollars. More recently, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan rank as the second- and third- most expensive conflicts in American history, respectively. The war in Afghanistan is the longest in U.S. history, nearly 18 years and counting, though it is not among the longest wars in history.\n\nMany early wars in U.S. history resulted in the United States gaining more land and territories. The Mexican-American War in the 1840s yielded much of the territory that makes up the present-day Southwest. Similarly, the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th century ended with the United States controlling the Pacific island of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. The results of these wars and others led to the United States establishing large military bases around the world.\n\nIn every conflict before World War II, nearly all of the country’s defense budget was spent on direct conflict – classified as wartime spending. For example, the United States spent 1.1% of its GDP in 1899 to fight the Spanish-American War, nearly its entire defense budget of 1.5% of GDP.\n\nThat trend largely changed at the start of the Cold War. Because of the persistent threat of military conflict, the United States had to be ready for war at any time. This led to the space race and nuclear armament becoming national priorities. As a result, wartime spending and defense spending began to diverge. During the Korean War, for example, war spending accounted for 4.2% of GDP in 1952, while total defense spending accounted for more than 13% of GDP. At $649 billion in 2018, America spent the most on war of any country.\n\nComparing the costs of war over a period of almost 250 years can be difficult. While the report attempts to correct for inflation by calculating each war’s cost in fiscal year 2018 dollars, inflation adjustments do not account for advances in technology. It is entirely possible that wars also became more expensive over time as the sophistication and use of technology increased. A byproduct of the production of war materials was the creation of commercial products invented by the military.\n\nSpending on the war in Afghanistan has been updated through 2017. Because exact spending figures for each year following 2014 were not available but the total spending until 2017 was, we assumed equal spending on the war in the years 2015, 2016, and 2017, and adjusted each figure according to that year’s Defense Spending deflator that is pegged to 2019 dollars. Inflation price indexes used in this adjustment are from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. The CRS report does not include veterans’ benefits, interest on loans used to finance the war, and assistance to allies.\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": "2019/06/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/04/21/20-highest-paid-world-leaders-president-trump/39352195/", "title": "The highest paid world leaders: President Trump makes the list", "text": "Mike Monteiro\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nWe know it pays to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company – does it also pay to be president of a country? Ask the men and women who are among the top paid world leaders.\n\nEarning from just over $200,000 to more than $1.6 million, the yearly earnings of these heads of states far exceed the pay of the average citizen in their countries. Generally, these countries tend to be among the wealthiest and most productive countries in the world. Although among the countries on this list, the leaders' annual salaries are well above the country’s GDP per capita or average wages.\n\n24/7 Wall St. reviewed publicly available annual compensation figures to identify 20 of the highest-paid leaders in the world. We gathered information from country websites, as well as data from organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the CIA World Factbook.\n\nEaster shopping:Walmart, Whole Foods and Sears are open Easter Sunday. Find out where else you can shop.\n\nThe American dream:It's already dead in these counties\n\nSalaries are expressed in U.S. dollars that were converted from country of origin currencies as of April 13, 2018. Leaders of absolute monarchies such as Qatar, Brunei Darussalam, and Saudi Arabia were excluded from our list due to a lack of consistent available data.\n\nConstitutional monarchies were included, except where the highest ranking officials have the power to appoint the government. In such cases, including Kuwait, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates, state leadership compensation often is not publicly disclosed.\n\n20. Édouard Philippe\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of France\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $220,505.00\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 10 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $40,145.94\n\nIn France, President Emmanuel Macron, the head of state, holds more power than the head of government, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. Despite this, Philippe earns just as much as the French president. Both leaders make more than five times as much as France's GDP per capita.\n\n19. Jimmy Morales\n\n• Title: President of the Republic of Guatemala\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $227,099\n\n• Time in office: 3 years, 2 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $7,421.29\n\nPrior to becoming the president of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales was a household name in Guatemala on the Guatemalan TV series \"Moralejas\" (\"Morals\"), where he starred alongside his brother. These days, Morales earns more than 30 times the economic output of a typical Guatemalan citizen.\n\n18. Leo Varadkar\n\n• Title: Taoiseach\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $234,447\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 9 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $66,548.10\n\nLeo Varadkar is the Taoiseach of Ireland. Taoiseach is an Irish word of Ancient origin meaning \"leader\" and is used in the Irish Constitution for \"the head of the Government or Prime Minister. As Taoiseach, Varadkar earns more than four and a half times the average wage of Irish citizens.\n\n17. Katrín Jakobsdóttir\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Iceland\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $242,619\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 4 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $49,704.76\n\nIf Katrín Jakobsdóttir's salary as the prime minister of Iceland were to be shared across the nation, each Icelandic citizen would receive the equivalent of 73 cents. While the president has a higher base pay than the prime minister in Iceland, the president has limited powers and the role is largely ceremonial as a diplomat and figurehead.\n\nMeanwhile Prime Minister Jakobsdóttir is the highest ranking official within Iceland's government. Prior to joining the Icelandic government, she had a career in both Icelandic media and academia, where she lectured at various universities in Reykjavík.\n\n16. Stefan Löfven\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Sweden\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $244,615\n\n• Time in office: 4 years, 6 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $46,519.75\n\nSwedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven began his career as a welder, but he quickly ascended into politics when he became his group's trade union representative two years into his career. Decades later, in 2005, he became the chairman of the major trade union IF Metall. It was not long before he became the leader of the largest political party in Sweden – Swedish Social Democratic Party – and subsequently elected prime minister.\n\n15. Lars Løkke Rasmussen\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Denmark\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $249,774\n\n• Time in office: 3 years, 9 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $46,329.81\n\nQueen Margrethe II of Denmark has an annual salary of the equivalent of nearly $13.5 million. She is not, however, an elected official – Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen is. Rasmussen makes a comparatively modest $249,774 a year.\n\n14. Adrian Hasler\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of the Principality of Liechtenstein\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $254,660\n\n• Time in office: 6 years\n\n• GDP per capita: N/A\n\nWith an annual pay of $254,660, Prime Minister Adrian Hasler is a former banker who worked for VP Bank AG, where the salary of the average employee is $128,648. Hasler was a division head there.\n\n13. Charles Michel\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Belgium\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $262,964\n\n• Time in office: 4 years, 5 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $42,497.40\n\nPrime Minister Charles Michel earns more than five times the average wage of a Belgian citizens. Belgium levies one of the highest income taxes for individuals in the world.\n\n12. Justin Trudeau\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Canada\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $267,041\n\n• Time in office: 3 years, 5 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $44,134.80\n\nPrime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau earns the equivalent of nearly $270,000 U.S. dollars per year. In Canada, the prime minister's compensation includes the Member of the House of Commons Basic Sessional Indemnity, the prime minister salary, and the prime minister car allowance.\n\n11. Cyril Ramaphosa\n\n• Title: President of the Republic of South Africa\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $273,470.00\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 1 month\n\n• GDP per capita: $12,317.97\n\nThe average household income in South Africa is $10,872 a year, nearly a third of the average across OECD nations. The President of South Africa, Cryil Ramaphosa, earns more than 25 times the average wage in South Africa. South Africa has been struggling with stagnant GDP growth, high unemployment, and social unrest. As a result, Ramaphosa's administration declared salary cuts for Members of Parliament and the executive branch. The National Treasury, however, has shown in its 2019 budget statements that Ramaphosa actually received a salary increase for the current fiscal year.\n\n10. Xavier Bettel\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Luxembourg\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $278,035\n\n• Time in office: 5 years, 4 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $93,891.49\n\nLuxembourg is the smallest nation among the top 10 countries that pay their leaders the most, and if Prime Minister Xavier Bettel's base pay were to be distributed to Luxembourg's 596,992 citizens, each would receive 48 cents. While Bettel's salary is one of the highest in the world, the citizens of Luxembourg trail no other nation on this list in terms of individual wealth.\n\n9. Sebastian Kurz\n\n• Title: Chancellor of Austria\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $328,584\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 3 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $45,478.96\n\nChancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz is much younger than his peers on the global stage, the youngest head of state in the world. When Kurz first entered political leadership at age 22 as chairman of the JVP political party in Vienna, it is unlikely he imagined he would be earning more than six times the average wage of Austrian citizens when becoming appointed as Chancellor only nine years later.\n\n8. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz\n\n• Title: President of Mauritania\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $330,000\n\n• Time in office: 9 years, 8 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $3,655.37\n\nMauritania is a critical port and rail system within China's Belt and Road Initiative, which is creating major economic and defense ties between China and Africa. Relations between Mauritania and China's leadership are stronger than ever, but the differences between the two nations is stark. China's GDP is 2,400 times Mauritania's GDP, yet President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz earns almost as much per month as Chinese President Xi Jinping earns per year, according to Saraya, a Jordanian online newspaper.\n\n7. Jacinda Ardern\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of New Zealand\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $339,862\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 5 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $35,244.99\n\nNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is paid more than 20 times the economic output of the average kiwi citizen. Presiding over a land known for having more sheep than people, Ardern's salary would only provide each citizen with 7 cents if her annual base pay were to be shared across the country.\n\n6. Angela Merkel\n\n• Title: Chancellor of Germany\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $369,727\n\n• Time in office: 13 years, 4 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $46,719.29\n\nGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel earns almost eight times the average wage of German citizens. Merkel's base pay of $369,727 eclipses the average german worker's income of $46,389. Merkel has served in the role since 2005, earning millions of dollars during her tenure.\n\n5. Scott Morrison\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Australia\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $378,415\n\n• Time in office: 7 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $46,554.63\n\nPrime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison earns more than seven times the average wage of Australian citizens. Unlike some of his predecessors, Morrison has had a career in public service, where his first job out of university was working as a national policy and research manager for the Property Council of Australia, where he worked for nearly a decade. Australia has no maximum term limits for a prime minister, and if Morrison matched the nearly 12 year held by John Howard in the late '90s and early aughts, he would amass a fortune of over $4 million.\n\n4. Donald Trump\n\n• Title: President of the United States\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $400,000\n\n• Time in office: 2 years, 2 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $54,440.90\n\nU.S. President Donald Trump's salary of $400,000 a year is about seven times the average U.S. per capita GDP. Trump, however, did not actually take home any of this money as he made good on a promise to donate his entire salary.\n\n3. Ueli Maurer\n\n• Title: President of the Swiss Confederation\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $482,958\n\n• Time in office: 3 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $56,473.64\n\nPresident Ueli Maurer of Switzerland earns $482,958 per annum – more than any other head of government in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD is an intergovernmental economic organisation of the 36 highest income economies that are also dedicated to setting transparency standards for governments of global democracies. As part of the OECD standards, Maurer's salary will always be public knowledge.\n\n2. Carrie Lam\n\n• Title: Chief Executive of Hong Kong\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $568,400\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 9 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $57,081.14\n\nChief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam is known for being at the top of one of the best paid bureaucratic systems in the world. Hong Kong recently raised the salaries of all heads of governments by 12.4% based on the cumulative change in the consumer price index, an economic indicator that measures inflation.\n\n1. Lee Hsien Loong\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Singapore\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $1,610,000\n\n• Time in office: 14 years, 7 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $86,810.78\n\nThe head of government in Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, earns more than 20 times the country's GDP per capita. Could a prime minister's high salary actually be a perk for citizens? The people of Singapore know one thing for sure: no one can buy off their leadership. According to \"Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI),\" first released in 1995, which tracks nations' corruption trends, Singapore is potentially the least corrupt nation in the world. Comparatively, at $1.6 million, Lee earns 12 times as much as Russia President Vladimir Putin. An additional partial explanation for the high salary could be cost of living: Singapore is the most expensive city to live in the world.\n\nMethodology\n\n24/7 Wall St. reviewed publicly available annual compensation figures for the 20 highest-paid leaders in the world. Salaries are expressed in U.S. dollars that were converted from country of origin currencies as of April 13, 2018. Leaders of absolute monarchies such as Qatar, Brunei Darussalam, and Saudi Arabia were excluded from our list. Constitutional monarchies were included, except where the highest ranking officials have the power to appoint the government. In such cases, including Kuwait, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates, state leadership compensation often is not publicly disclosed.\n\nThe head of state is by definition the highest ranking official in a sovereign nation. However, in cases where the head of government is paid a higher salary, she or he was listed instead. The identities and dates of election or appointment of these leaders were obtained from the CIA World Factbook, national government websites, and media sources.\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": "2019/04/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/03/21/stock-market-collapse-how-does-todays-compare-others/2890885001/", "title": "Stock market collapse: How does today's compare to others?", "text": "Michael B. Sauter, Samuel Stebbins\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nIn mid-February 2020, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached nearly 30,000 points, the highest level in its more than 100-year history. And then, the severity and scale of the COVID-19 pandemic came into sharper focus.\n\nWithin a week of hitting an all-time high, the DJIA began to tank. So far, the index has lost over 35% of its value, wiping out years of growth in only about a month’s time.\n\nSo far, over a quarter million cases of coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide, resulting in over 10,000 deaths. In the United States, there were more than 19,600 total cases and at least 260 deaths as of March 21 — with health experts projecting a sharp rise in cases in the coming days and weeks. To halt the virus’s spread, non-essential businesses and services have been shut down across the country, and government officials have been urging Americans to stay home, effectively halting economic activity.\n\nThe current sell-off on Wall Street is the worst many Americans have seen — or will see — in their lifetimes. Still, it is hardly the first time investors have scrambled to pull their money out of the stock market. For context on how the current market collapse compares with others throughout history, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the largest declines in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Some of the sell-offs that rank on this list spanned just a few days. In other cases, they lasted for weeks and even months.\n\nIt is important to note that market conditions are not static, and the prevailing opinion of government officials and health experts is that the effects of the coronavirus will worsen before they improve. Though lawmakers are scrambling to put together a comprehensive economic stimulus package, markets remain volatile, and the full economic impact of the pandemic remains to be seen.\n\nContact your mortgage lender:Payments may be deferred as coronavirus pandemic causes worker hardships\n\nGoldman Sachs:Unemployment claims, a gauge of layoffs, may hit record 2.5M this week\n\n1. Panic of 1901\n\n• DJIA decline: -10.8% from 5/6/1901 to 5/9/1901\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -6.1% (5/9/1901)\n\nThe first major panic after the Dow Jones Industrial Average was introduced in the stock market in 1896 occurred just half a decade later, in May 1901. The panic came after several major American businessmen, including famous banker J.P. Morgan, sought to gain ownership of the Northern Pacific Railway. They began purchasing millions in shares of the company, driving the company’s stock price above $1,000 and sending the rest of the market into a panic. On May 9, the worst day of the panic, share prices of a number of companies fell between 10% to 25%. On that day, shares of U.S. Steel, at the time one of the largest companies in America, plummeted by 45%.\n\nThe selloff was relatively short-lived, and stocks rebounded on May 10th, with the Dow Jones increasing by 6.4% in value.\n\n2. Panic of 1907\n\n• DJIA decline: -45% from 1/07/1907 to 11/15/1907\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -8.3% (3/14/1907)\n\nThough it was preceded by the Panic of 1901, the Panic of 1907 is recognized as the first global financial crisis of the 20th century. Before the Panic actually began, the stock market began selling off during the first half of 1907, including a staggering 8.3% decline on March 14, which at the time was the second largest single-day decline in the history of the index.\n\nA broader panic began on Oct. 15, when both the Knickerbocker Trust and the Westinghouse Electric Company failed. The failure lead to a chain reaction of stock panic due to limited liquidity and waning confidence in banks. The federal government and private financiers, including J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, helped stabilize the markets through bailouts and other means, but not before the DJIA lost 15% of its value in a month. The event gave way to monetary reforms that eventually led to the formation of the U.S. Federal Reserve System.\n\n3. Wall Street Crash of 1929\n\n• DJIA decline: -46.6% from 9/16/1929 to 11/13/1929\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -12.8% (10/28/1929)\n\nThe Wall Street Crash of 1929 was the worst event in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. On October 29th that year, on what is now known as Black Tuesday, investors lost billions of dollars on the New York Stock Exchange, as the Dow Jones fell by roughly 12% for the second day in a row, accelerating the economic collapse that would give way to the Great Depression. Over the period of about two months starting in mid-September, the Dow shed a staggering 46.6% of its value.\n\nThe historic crash was precipitated by wild speculation and reckless investing throughout the 1920s. When unemployment began to climb and production fell at the end of the decade, stocks were trading at prices well in excess of their true value.\n\n4. Recession of 1937-38\n\n• DJIA decline: -42.6% from 9/4/1937 to 3/31/1938\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -5.9% (11/19/1937)\n\nOn Sept. 4, 1937, the Dow closed at 172.55. The following day, the index fell nearly 5%, in the first of many major dips over the coming months. On March 31, the DJIA closed below 100 points for the first time in years, capping off the worst of the decline when the Dow lost more than 20% of its value in a two week period.\n\nThat decline of approximately 43% over 200 days came during the Recession of 1937-38, a period in which real GDP fell 10% and U.S. unemployment reached 20%. The recession, which officially lasted from May 1937 through June 1938, came as the United States was in the midst of a recovery from the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II.\n\n5. Germany invades France\n\n• DJIA decline: -24.5% from 5/10/1940 to 6/10/1940\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -6.8% (5/14/1940)\n\nThough World War II had started in 1939 with Germany’s invasion of Poland, U.S. stocks did not react much until the German army invaded France in 1940. In a matter of weeks, Hitler forced one of Europe’s great military powers into submission, and U.S. stocks cratered. The fall of France began in early May, and over the month that followed, the DJIA fell by 24.5%. The largest single-day drop occurred early on May 14, with the index falling by nearly 7% in a single day.\n\nNeed a job amid coronavirus crisis?:Walmart announces plan to add 150,000 employees to meet 'demand in our stores'\n\n6. End of World War II\n\n• DJIA decline: -23.2% from 5/29/1946 to 10/9/1946\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -5.6% (9/3/1946)\n\nThough the end of WWII marked the beginning of an era of historic prosperity in the United States, at the time, the end of the war marked an era of economic uncertainty and anxiety. Many investors assumed that the end of wartime spending would lead to an economic downturn. The sell-off started as the war began to wind down and continued for a while after its end. Between late May and early October 1946, the Dow Jones shed 23.2% of its value.\n\n7. Kennedy Slide of 1962\n\n• DJIA decline: -26.8% from 12/28/1961 to 6/26/1962\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -5.7% (5/28/1962)\n\nThe Kennedy Slide of 1962 occurred in the first months of 1962. On Dec. 28, 1961, the Dow closed at 731.51. It closed at 535.76 about six months later, on June 26. The sell-off came after a long period of growth, and some have explained it as a correction of inflated stock values. The biggest single-day decline during the slide occurred on May 28, when the Dow lost 5.7% of its value.\n\n8. Tech Stock Crash of 1970\n\n• DJIA decline: -18.7% from 4/20/1970 to 5/26/1970\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -3.1% (5/25/1970)\n\nDuring the second quarter of 1970, the U.S. stock market fell sharply, led by tech stocks like Ross Perot’s Electronic Data Systems, which lost 85% of its value, as well as companies like supercomputer and mainframe maker Control Data and data entry system maker Mohawk Data, which fell in value by more than 80%.\n\nThe start of the crash was catalyzed by computer manufacturer IBM’s legal battle with the Justice Department about its strategy of bundling its software with hardware, as well as its apparent inability to produce enough of its new System 370 computers to match demand. Analysts have attributed the decline to an overconfidence in the plausibility that compound growth rates could continue at a high rate for an unsustainable amount of time as well as low to no earnings of many tech stocks.\n\n9. 1973-74 Stock Market Crash\n\n• DJIA decline: -45.1% from 1/11/1973 to 12/6/1974\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -3.5% (11/18/1974)\n\nDue in part to a series of economic policies implemented by the Nixon administration, inflation began climbing out of control in early 1973. The unforeseen decline in purchasing power led President Richard Nixon to order a wage and price freeze. With the Watergate scandal gaining momentum around the same time, the Dow lost over 20% of its value in the first eight months of 1973. The market fell further that October in the wake of an OPEC oil embargo to the United States. Inflation, long lines at the pump, and Nixon’s resignation wreaked havoc on Wall Street for much of the following year.\n\n10. Black Monday\n\n• DJIA decline: -22.6% on 10/19/1987\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -22.6% (10/19/1987)\n\nOn Oct. 19, 1987 — a date known as Black Monday — the DJIA lost over one-fifth of its total value, the largest single-day decline in trading history up to that point. The record point plunge was not broken until the recent pandemic-driven sell-offs, although terms of a percentage decline, Black Monday still holds the record.\n\nUnlike most other massive single-day sell-offs, Black Monday was not triggered by a major news event. Rather, several factors lead to anxiety and panic among investors. These included the growing U.S. trade deficit, the growing use of computerized trading, and a simmering conflict between Iran and Kuwait that threatened U.S. oil supplies — all factors that were hyped by the media.\n\n11. Invasion of Kuwait\n\n• DJIA decline: -18.4% from 8/2/1990 to 10/11/1990\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -3.3% (8/6/1990)\n\nWhile most of the 1990s can be characterized by a dramatic rise in stock prices, a recession at the beginning of the decade caused temporary panic and drove the markets down. The Federal Reserve continued to worry that the government deficits that helped contribute to Black Monday just a few years prior would persist, and so it sought to preempt those issues by maintaining a highly restrictive monetary policy.\n\nWhen Sadaam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, oil prices jumped sharply, resulting in a nearly 20% decline in the Dow Jones over two months. The decline came during a broader economic recession, which lasted from July 1990 through March 1991.\n\nWorking from home:Save on electricity by paying attention to greedy appliances\n\n12. Long-Term Capital Management Fails\n\n• DJIA decline: -19.2% from 7/19/1998 to 8/31/1998\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -6.4% (8/31/1998)\n\nLong-Term Capital Management, or LTCM, was a Connecticut based hedge fund that managed over $100 billion at its height. Managed by Nobel Prize winning economists and Wall Street veterans, the fund, founded in 1994, was initially highly successful — but it nearly destroyed the global financial system when it failed after just four years.\n\nThe firm’s strategy of arbitrage trading in securities prices proved flawed when Russia defaulted on its debt in the summer of 1998. When LTCM losses were mounting to billions of dollars, sell-offs followed. In a single day that summer, the Dow lost 6.4% of its value. Ultimately, a global financial crisis was averted by a government bailout that allowed LTCM to survive long enough to liquidate.\n\n13. Dot-com Bubble\n\n• DJIA decline: -31.4% from 5/19/2002 to 10/9/2002\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -4.6% (7/19/2002)\n\nThe turn of the 21st century saw rapid growth in the U.S. tech sector, fueled by massive capital investment in tech companies capitalizing on the seemingly limitless growth opportunities in the world wide web. However, it would eventually become clear to investors that many of these companies were highly overvalued, and between the close on March 19 and the close on Oct. 9, 2002, the Dow Jones recorded a decline of over 30%.\n\nThe tech-heavy NASDAQ index dropped even more, with the overall index losing over three-quarters of its total value, with major companies like Cisco, Oracle, and Intel each losing more than 80% of their value. Meanwhile, dozens of large internet-based tech companies went bankrupt.\n\n14. Lehman Brothers Collapse and the Great Financial Crisis\n\n• DJIA decline: -53.7% from 10/9/2007 to 3/9/2009\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -4.6% (10/15/2008)\n\nYears of risky policies on Wall Street ultimately led to the subprime mortgage crisis and set off a series of events that would culminate in the Great Financial Crisis. Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest investment bank in the world at the time, was the largest bank to fold as a result. The Dow fell precipitously, with only a few minor periods of gain, from over 14,000 points in Oct. 2007 to barely 6,500 Feb. 2009. Over nearly that entire period, the U.S. slid into a recession, as did most nations worldwide.\n\nIn a considerable effort to avert global catastrophe — in a combined effort of government bailouts and expansionary monetary policy — the global recession and stock markets began to recover. It took until October 2013 for the Dow to regain the value it had lost.\n\n15. US Debt Downgrade\n\n• DJIA decline: -11.7% from 8/1/2011 to 8/10/2011\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -5.5% (8/8/2011)\n\nIn the first eight months of 2011, a brewing crisis over the U.S. debt ceiling came to a head, and there were fears that a continued impasse would cause the government to run out of money. In late June, 2011, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s managing director John Chambers told Reuters that if the United States failed to make a scheduled debt payment on Aug. 4, it would cut the country’s long-touted perfect AAA credit rating down to a D.\n\nOn Aug. 2, President Barack Obama signed a compromise plan into law, avoiding a national default, but the agency downgraded the U.S. rating anyway a few days later, to AA+. The stock market responded, with the Dow plunging by more than 11% over roughly a week, including a 5.5% drop on Aug. 8.\n\n16. Chinese Stock Market Turbulence\n\n• DJIA decline: -13.6% from 6/24/2015 to 8/25/2015\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -3.6% (8/24/2015)\n\nAfter posting extraordinary gains of around 150% between June 2014 and June 2015, China’s Shanghai Composite index plummeted, losing nearly one-third of its value in less than a month. There were numerous factors at play in the Chinese economy that caused the boom-bust cycle, and the effects were felt throughout global markets as commodities prices fell, and Wall Street was not spared. The Dow dropped from about 18,100 points in June 2015 to about 15,600 by September. The effects did not last, however, as the index regained its losses by October.\n\n17. COVID-19 Outbreak\n\n• DJIA decline: -35% from 2/12/2020 to 3/20/2020\n\n• Largest single-day decline: -12.9% (3/16/2020)\n\nWhen the first cases of a disease caused by a novel coronavirus appeared in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, officials speculated that it was an unknown form of pneumonia. In mid-January, there were over 100 new cases of the illness in China, and the first case was identified in the United States.\n\nIn the weeks and months since, the virus has spread across the globe, and the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Confirmed cases today total a quarter million and over 10,000 people have died. To combat the spread of the virus, countries have taken extraordinary measures, including closing the borders and implementing lockdowns of entire populations. This has, in effect, led to life grinding to a halt throughout the world.\n\nU.S. investors have remained largely unconcerned at the beginning of the outbreak, with the Dow reaching an all-time high of nearly 30,000 in mid-February. However, as the disease spread across Europe and began to affect the U.S., the outbreak’s devastating economic impact became increasingly clear.\n\nDespite economic stimulus packages of unprecedented size and scope moving rapidly through Congress and in other countries worldwide, between Feb. 19 and March 19, the Dow shed over 9,000 points, losing over 35% of its value. As many businesses remain closed and Americans are urged to stay in their homes to contain the spread of the virus, the full breadth and depth of the economic toll of the pandemic remains to be seen.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2020/03/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/08/05/24-7-wall-st-countries-near-bankruptcy/31164239/", "title": "Seven countries near bankruptcy", "text": "Thomas C. Frohlich, Alexander Kent and Sam Stebbins\n\n24/7 Wall St.\n\nPuerto Rico defaulted on its $58 million debt repayment this week for the first time in its history. With its failure to repay creditors, the commonwealth joins the ranks of countries and governments burdened by crippling debt levels and extremely low credit ratings.\n\nMoody's Investors' Service rates seven countries Caa1 or worse, several tiers lower than Ba1, which still carries a significant credit risk. These countries are approaching or have narrowly escaped bankruptcy. Ukraine is rated Ca, which is currently the lowest credit rating of any country reviewed by Moody's.\n\nAll seven national economies instill relatively little confidence among investors. However, Jamaica's credit rating was upgraded by Moody's this year, and Argentina's and Belize's credit ratings remained stable. The remaining four countries, on the other hand, were downgraded.\n\nA country's history of fiscal responsibility, including past defaults, and current compliance with IMF debt repayment plans, are major contributors to Moody's evaluations.\n\nExtremely high debt levels, which while not always a feature of unhealthy economies, can also contribute to a country's poor credit rating. The debt of four of the seven countries was equal to more than 75% of GDP. In Jamaica and Greece, debt was well over 100% of GDP.\n\nPolitical conflicts have also weakened some of these economies, which in turn has introduced more uncertainty and increased risk. Ukraine's conflict with Russia over its annexation of Crimea, for example, and the resulting U.S. and European sanctions, have contributed to the country's downgrade in March.\n\nBorrowing funds in the international bond market is often far more costly for countries with poor credit ratings. Investors require greater returns on what they perceive to be riskier investments and charge higher interest rates as a result. For example, a 10-year U.S. Treasury Note has an annual yield of just 2.16%. By contrast, a comparable bond recently issued by Jamaica pays out 6.44% a year. Yields on 10-year Greek government bonds reached 29% in early 2012, just before the country defaulted.\n\nForeign investment is vital for most countries, particularly developing nations. To promote interest among investors, countries use a range of strategies. Often, these countries issue bonds in other, safer currencies in order to be more competitive in the international bond markets. Nations such as Argentina, Jamaica, Belize, and Ukraine have all issued bonds in other nations' currencies. Inflation rates for common currencies such as the dollar, yen, and euro are typically far lower and more stable than the currencies of the issuing countries. This means that investors do not need to worry as much about their investment losing value.\n\nBased on credit ratings provided by Moody's Investors Service, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the seven countries with credit ratings of Caa1 or worse. A rating of this level indicates considerable credit risk. Because many of these nations have significant debt in other currencies or have otherwise weak currencies, we used foreign currency ratings and outlooks for these nations. Figures on GDP growth, inflation, unemployment, population and debt levels are estimates for 2014 from the IMF's World Economic Outlook.\n\nThese are the 7 countries at risk of default.\n\n7. Belarus\n\n> Moody's credit rating: Caa1\n\n> Moody's outlook: Negative\n\n> 2015 Gov't debt (pct. of GDP): 39.6%\n\n> 2015 GDP per capita (PPP): $17,836\n\nConsidered by many to be the last dictator in Europe, President Alexander Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994. Part of Lukashenko's reputation likely stems from his refusal to privatise state enterprises, which has discouraged foreign investment, according to the BBC.\n\nLike several other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Belarus's economy — and its credit rating — is largely dependent on the Russian economy. U.S. and European-imposed sanctions on Russia following the crisis in Ukraine, as well as falling oil prices in recent years, are among the major contributors to the weakening confidence in Belarus's economy. In an attempt to counteract rampant inflation, Belarus tied its ruble to three foreign currencies in January: 40% Russian ruble, 30% U.S. dollars, and 30% euros.\n\nMoody's in April downgraded Belarus's sovereign debt rating to Caa1 from B3 — Belarus is one of only seven countries with a credit rating worse than B. Ratings C and worse are associated with relatively high levels of uncertainty, and creditors can expect a 90% to 95% recovery rate — the expected percentage of principal and interest returned to lenders — in countries with Caa1 ratings.\n\nMORE:The happiest countries in the world\n\n6. Argentina\n\n> Moody's credit rating: Caa1\n\n> Moody's outlook: Negative\n\n> 2015 Gov't debt (pct. of GDP): 49.5%\n\n> 2015 GDP per capita (PPP): $22,459\n\nArgentina's current fiscal woes can be tied back to the late-1980s. In 1989, The New York Times reported that inflation in the South American country was estimated at an annual rate of 12,000%. In an attempt to tame the country's hyperinflation, the government tied its currency, the peso, to the U.S. dollar. While the peg had the desired effect and attracted foreign capital, it also hindered the Argentinian government's ability to counteract currency appreciations that made its exports more expensive relative to the rest of the world. Rather than abandon the peg, Argentina cut wages, which helped tame inflation but also drove unemployment up and tax receipts down. In 2001, Argentina defaulted on roughly $100 billion worth of debt.\n\nWhile most of the nation's bondholders at the time agreed to debt restructuring deals, a few investors refused. After a U.S. court ruled in 2012 that Argentina could not pay its current bondholders without paying the holdouts as well, the country was forced to default in August, 2014. With elections this October, many presidential candidates are outlining their plans to revitalize Argentina's economy by tightening monetary and fiscal policy as well as looking to the international community to finance its debt.\n\n5. Jamaica\n\n> Moody's credit rating: Caa2\n\n> Moody's outlook: Positive\n\n> 2015 Gov't debt (pct. of GDP): 132.8%\n\n> 2015 GDP per capita (PPP): $8,784\n\nWhile Jamaica's credit rating of Caa2 is among the worst, it is a recent upgrade from a Caa3 rating. Moody's also upgraded the country's outlook to positive in May. No other country with such a poor rating has a positive outlook. Jamaica recently simplified its tax return filings, reformed tax incentives, and implemented a minimum business tax. According to Moody's, the improved business climate supports private investment and confidence in the economy.\n\nStill, Jamaica's consistently high debt burden, coupled with high interest rates, have weakened the credit rating. Sovereign debt remained above 140% of GDP each year from 2009 through 2014, when it was third highest compared to other countries. Government debt fell slightly this year to an estimated 133% of GDP. However, this was still higher than all but three other countries.\n\n4. Belize\n\n> Moody's credit rating: Caa2\n\n> Moody's outlook: Stable\n\n> 2015 Gov't debt (pct. of GDP): 75.7%\n\n> 2015 GDP per capita (PPP): $8,321\n\nA small country in Central America, Belize is home to just over 360,000 people. It is one of the smallest economies in the world with a GDP of $1.8 billion. Borrowing heavily for infrastructure projects, Belize accumulated a total debt of over $540 million. In August 2012, the country's central bank announced that it would not be able to make a $23 million bond payment. Due to concerns surrounding the impending debt restructuring, Moody's downgraded the country's government bond rating to Caa1 from B3 in early 2012. It was later downgraded further to Ca only to be upgraded back to Caa2 in April 2013, after terms of the debt restructuring were agreed upon. Belize's Credit rating has remained stable at Caa2 since April 2013.\n\n3. Venezuela\n\n> Moody's credit rating: Caa3\n\n> Moody's outlook: Stable\n\n> 2015 Gov't debt (pct. of GDP): 39.6%\n\n> 2015 GDP per capita (PPP): $16,346\n\nBetween September 2014 and January 2015, all three major credit rating companies downgraded Venezuela's credit. Moody's cited plummeting fuel prices as the primary factor in the downgrade. Nearly 94% of Venezuela's export earnings come from oil. Consequently, the country's risk of default increases substantially as fuel prices drop. Crude oil went from an average of $88.42 a barrel throughout 2014 to a mere $54.03 a barrel in December of 2014. Moody's predicts that Venezuela's account balance will shift from a 2% surplus of GDP in 2014 to a deficit of 2% of GDP in 2015. Despite the series of downgrades, Central Bank President Nelson Merentes expressed optimism that the Venezuelan economy would grow in 2015.\n\nMORE:Countries spending the most on war\n\n2. Greece\n\n> Moody's credit rating: Caa3\n\n> Moody's outlook: Rating Under Review> 2015 Gov't debt (pct. of GDP): 172.7%\n\n> 2015 GDP per capita (PPP): $26,773\n\nGreece was among the countries hardest-hit by the 2008 global financial crisis, and the country eventually received several large bailouts totalling 240 billion euros. Greece defaulted on $138 billion of its debt in 2012, the largest sovereign default ever recorded. Debt restructuring following the default and a return to the international bond market last year were hopeful signs of economic recovery. However, the debt restructuring accompanied severe austerity measures at a time of already grim financial hardships for many Greek residents. Since 2012, the estimated unemployment rate in Greece has remained between 24% and 25%, among the highest in the world.\n\nThis January, Greece once again returned to the international spotlight after Greek voters elected the left-wing party Syriza, which would form the eurozone's first anti-austerity government. Greece's finance minister under Syriza, Yanis Varoufakis, supported a stubborn rejection of the terms offered by the troika: the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the IMF. In a historic referendum in July, a majority of Greeks voted \"no\" to spending cuts and tax increases demanded by repayment plans. Varoufakis resigned after only six months, however, and Greece's new finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, insists that \"Greece is committed to honor its financial obligations to all of its creditors in a full and timely manner.\"\n\nMORE:The healthiest countries in the world\n\n1. Ukraine\n\n> Moody's credit rating: Ca\n\n> Moody's outlook: Negative\n\n> 2015 Gov't debt (pct. of GDP): 94.1%\n\n> 2015 GDP per capita (PPP): $8,278\n\nUkraine's conflict with Russia over its annexation of Crimea continues to fuel the country's financial problems. While the IMF approved Ukraine's debt restructuring plan in March, Ukraine has the worst credit rating of any country reviewed, downgraded this year from Caa3 to Ca, the second lowest possible level. Creditors can expect a 35% to 65% recovery rate on loans issued by the country. According to Moody's, \"The likelihood of a distressed exchange, and hence a default on government debt taking place, is virtually 100%.\"\n\nThe same day that Moody's issued the downgrade, the National Bank of Ukraine announced the establishment of the Financial Stability Council. According to Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeriia Gonatreva, the Council's function will be to \"take a comprehensive and systemic approach to identify and mitigate the risks threatening the stability of the banking and financial systems of the country.\"\n\n24/7 Wall St. is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/08/05"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_19", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/us/giant-sequoia-tree-grove-yosemite-fire/index.html", "title": "Yosemite Park fire: Evacuation orders issued as fire threatens ...", "text": "(CNN) A growing wildfire that threatens a famed giant sequoia tree grove in California's Yosemite National Park has forced officials to issue evacuation orders for a nearby community, officials said Friday.\n\nThe Washburn Fire has swelled to nearly 500 acres as it burns near the lower portion of Mariposa Grove, Yosemite park officials said. Firefighters are working from the ground and air to suppress the blaze, and park officials said the grove will remain closed until further notice.\n\nAmid the fire's expansion, park officials urged people in Yosemite's Wawona campground and community to evacuate.\n\nYosemite is one of the most visited national parks in the US, drawing more than 3.3 million people in 2021. It encompasses nearly 1,200 square miles in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in eastern California.\n\nMeanwhile, California crews are also battling the Electra Fire, which has scorched more than 4,400 acres across Amador and Calaveras counties, also in the Sierra Nevadas, according to Cal Fire.\n\nThe blaze prompted the state's first night-water-drop operation via helicopter Wednesday, when about 12,000 gallons of water were dumped on the flames, Cal Fire Battalion Chief Isaac Sanchez told CNN.\n\n\"The helicopter was brought in to assist in the cooling and containment of a firing operation which had taken place earlier in the afternoon,\" Sanchez said. \"While assigned to this operation, the helicopter identified additional areas where the fire had crept over the containment lines and was able to aid in their full extinguishment and containment.\"\n\nThe western US has been ravaged by wildfires in recent years, exacerbated by drought conditions tied to climate change. In California alone, more than 2.5 million acres were destroyed in nearly 9,000 fires last year, according to Cal Fire.\n\nLast month, officials in Southern California said they were bracing for another challenging summer and fall amid a shortage of firefighting crews and increased workloads.\n\nThe threat is not limited to California. Robert Garcia, the US Forest Service's fire chief for the Angeles National Forest, said the summer months are off to a \"concerning start.\" Firefighting resources have been mobilizing since March to Arizona and New Mexico, where the Black Fire just became the state's second-largest blaze in history.\n\n\"Southern California typically has a fire season of historically late June and then into the fall,\" Chief Garcia told CNN last month. \"But we're seeing activity now year round.\"", "authors": ["Taylor Romine"], "publish_date": "2022/07/08"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/09/yosemite-washburn-fire-mariposa-grove-sequoias-threatened/10020412002/", "title": "Yosemite Washburn fire: Mariposa Grove of sequoias threatened", "text": "A wildfire burning through thick forests shuttered Yosemite National Park's largest grove of iconic giant sequoia trees over the weekend and once again endangered some of the world's largest trees.\n\nThe threat of flames from the Washburn Fire led to the closing of the grove Friday and to the evacuation of hundreds of people nearby in the community of Wawona, according to the National Park Service. No injuries were reported.\n\nThe National Weather Service in Hanford, California, forecast heavy smoke from the Washburn fire impacting Yosemite on Saturday. Park cameras showed thick smoke hanging in the air around some of the park's most iconic views.\n\nMeanwhile, crews were sent to wrap the trees' hulking trunks with fire-resistant foil to help protect them from the blaze, said Nancy Phillipe, a Yosemite fire information spokesperson. There were no reports of severe damaged to any of the named giant sequoia trees, including the 3,000-year-old Grizzly Giant.\n\nAfter it was first reported Thursday, the fire had burned through about 703 acres or over one square mile by Saturday morning. While the fire grew overnight Friday, it did not spread to any new areas, and much of the park remained open aside from the grove.\n\n'A TIPPING POINT':Some of world's largest trees threatened by fires in the Sierra Nevada\n\nNestled in the southern part of Yosemite is the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, the largest sequoia grove in the park, according to the National Park Service. The grove is home to over 500 mature giant sequoias.\n\nFriday photos from inside the grove showed smoke, flames and a firefighter in the shadow of a massive tree working to prevent the flames from spreading.\n\nGiant sequoias were once considered largely impervious to fires but have become increasingly vulnerable in the face of intense fires fueled by drought and climate change.\n\nThe Washburn fire is only the latest to threaten the beloved trees. Last year, the KNP Complex, a pair of lightning-sparked wildfires in California's Sierra Nevada, shuttered Sequoia National Park and threatened its gigantic trees. In the past two years, lightning-sparked wildfires have killed up to a fifth of the estimated 75,000 large sequoias.\n\n'HEALING FOR OUR ANCESTORS':Native tribal group reclaims California redwood forest\n\nA windstorm last year toppled 15 giant sequoias in the Mariposa Grove.\n\nThe cause of the Washburn fire is still under investigation and hundreds of firefighters, two helicopters and an air tanker fought to control the flames Friday, Phillipe said.\n\nContributing: The Associated Press\n\nContact News Now Reporter Christine Fernando at cfernando@usatoday.com or follow her on Twitter at @christinetfern.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/09"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/11/weather/yosemite-washburn-fire-sequoia-monday/index.html", "title": "Yosemite Park fire: Fire crews rush to protect renowned sequoias as ...", "text": "(CNN) Fire crews are working to steer a growing wildfire away from Yosemite National Park's legendary giant sequoias, taking protective measures like installing a sprinkler system to dampen the ground around one of the park's most famous trees.\n\nWhile officials say the trees have avoided significant damage so far, the 2,340-acre Washburn Fire doubled in size over the weekend, entering Yosemite's Mariposa Grove, where more than 500 giant sequoias -- some thought to be more than 2,000 years old -- can tower to more than 20 stories.\n\n\"The fire has entered the grove,\" Robbie Johnson, a spokesperson for the fire response, told CNN on Sunday evening. \"But the good news is because of prescribed burns and clearing out material on the ground, it's clear in the Mariposa Grove,\" where protection efforts have yielded a \"doughnut hole\" shield.\n\nFire management teams have wrapped the historic Galen Clark cabin in protective foil, Yosemite spokesperson Scott Gediman said. And they've installed a sprinkler system to dampen the ground around the park's 209-foot-tall Grizzly Giant sequoia, with water from a small pool feeding sprinklers set up near the tree's base, footage from Yosemite Fire and Aviation Management shows.\n\nFire officials are confident the trees, which are \"very fire resistant,\" are well-protected, Nancy Phillipe, a park ranger with Yosemite Fire, told CNN Monday.\n\n\"The combination of the removal of the hazard fuels and the prescribed burning that we've done, with the temporary sprinkler system that is in place, we are confident that's giving those giant sequoias the best protection available,\" Phillipe said.\n\nAs firefighting continues, the park's busy south entrance is closed Monday to visitors, and park officials have evacuated and closed the southern Wawona area and Mariposa Grove. While the rest of the park remains open, lines at other entrances are now longer, and visitors must be mindful of potentially unhealthy air quality in some places, including Yosemite Valley, due to the smoke, Gediman said.\n\nIndeed, smoke from the Washburn Fire could impact people as far away as the San Francisco area, officials said, encouraging residents there to stay indoors and close windows. The warning comes as California's fire season, which typically extends from late June through the fall, is becoming a year-round event\n\nAs the climate crisis drives more wildfires in the western US, climate scientists have expressed concern national parks could become inaccessible to humans and uninhabitable for wildlife -- if global fossil fuel emissions are not significantly reduced. The parks also have been plagued by extreme flooding and drought.\n\nAn evacuation order has been issued\n\nThe Washburn Fire was first reported July 7 and has drawn a crew of 545 fire personnel to the steep and densely wooded area, according to fire management site InciWeb . The cause of the fire is still under investigation.\n\nPart of the blaze has been successfully contained at its origin point near Mariposa Grove, but the fire has continued to stretch northeast, officials say.\n\nOn Sunday, the fire was burning about five miles south of the community of Wawona, which could be threatened by \"spotting,\" which occurs when embers travel through the air and ignite other trees, Gediman explained. An evacuation order was issued Friday for the community and the park's Wawona campground.\n\n\"It's not only the trees, it's our community,\" Phillipe told CNN. \"Our community of Wawona has been evacuated, and it's so difficult to be displaced and separated from your belongings and your home and your comfort.\"\n\nA firefighter works to contain the Washburn Fire.\n\nHot and dry conditions will continue through the rest of the week, and the fire is expected to continue spreading, though its intensity may be reduced from scars left by previous fires, according to InciWeb.\n\nWhile fire is a natural part of Yosemite's ecosystem, severe burns like the Washburn Fire threaten the forest, Gediman said.\n\n\"Fire is important, in fact it's critical for giant sequoias for them to have the seeds come out of the cones, to regenerate the soil, provide habitat for animals. ... But it's these high intensity fires that are causing the damage,\" he said, citing the devastating Creek Fire which consumed nearly 400,000 acres of California's Sierra National Forest area for several months in 2020.\n\nMariposa Grove was established in 1857, when Galen Clark -- considered Yosemite's first guardian -- convinced lawmakers to include the grove as a protected area, according to the National Park Service . The grove in the Yosemite Valley was first set aside for public use by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864, eventually becoming a national park in 1890, park service records show.\n\nCalifornia grapples with fire challenges\n\nA San Francisco area air quality agency encouraged residents Sunday to take precautions such as staying indoors and closing windows to stay away from smoke drifting into the region.\n\n\"Smoke from the Washburn Fire is forecast to be transported into the Bay Area and is expected to impact the North and East Bay regions,\" the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said. However, the district stressed \"pollutant levels are not expected to exceed the federal health standard.\"\n\nLast week, officials in southern California announced that region is bracing for a particularly challenging summer and fall of wildfires, as a prolonged drought has left vegetation brittle and dry. And even as fires continue to extend beyond the traditional season, worker shortages plague some firefighting crews.", "authors": ["Elizabeth Wolfe", "Amanda Watts", "Dakin Andone"], "publish_date": "2022/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/07/11/yosemite-fire-supercharged-climate-change-threatens-giant-sequoias/10029291002/", "title": "Yosemite fire supercharged by climate change threatens giant ...", "text": "A wildfire in Yosemite National Park is threatening some of the oldest and most massive trees on the planet, woodlands that have stood since before the founding of Rome. The iconic Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, visited by a million people every year, is now closed as firefighters battle the Washburn Fire that threatens to engulf it.\n\nWhat is Mariposa Grove?\n\nThis stand of trees on 248 acres is home to more than 500 mature giant sequoia trees. Some of them are estimated to be as much as 3,000 to 3,500 years old. The awe-inspiring Grizzly Giant stands 209 feet tall (more than 15 stories) and is estimated to weigh roughly 2 million pounds.\n\nThe grove has been protected since President Abraham Lincoln first signed legislation setting it aside for public use in 1864.\n\nWhat's threatening it?\n\nThe Washburn Fire began July 7 and has since burned 3,221 acres in Yosemite National Park, coming perilously close to the grove. There were 649 people fighting the fire, and it was 22% contained, according to the National Park Service. It was zero percent contained on Sunday.\n\nAt a community meeting Monday evening, Yosemite Superintendent Cicely Muldoon said the fire was caused by humans.\n\n\"As you all know, there was no lightning on that day. So it’s a human start fire and it’s under investigation,\" Muldoon said. \"That’s all I can really say about that right now. We’re looking at that real, real hard.\"\n\nThe fire has been so powerful the tremendous updraft from its heat is sucking branches and other debris hundreds of feet into the air. As they fall, they rain down on firefighters and airplanes attacking the blaze.\n\nIn one incident on Saturday, a more than 2-foot long tree branch was pulled several hundred feet into the air by the fire, narrowly missing two firefighting aircraft.\n\nWhat's being done to protect the grove?\n\nThe National Parks Service has dug fire lines to protect the giant sequoias and is using ground-based sprinkler systems to increase humidity in the area. This requires the fire to expend more energy to burn, so the fire's intensity drops, said Craig Clements, who directs the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center at San José State University.\n\nWhy do giant sequoias matter?\n\nGiant sequoias only grow in a few small areas along the West coast. They are a relic species dating back to before the Jurassic period.\n\n\"Continents have shifted, the climate has changed multiple times and still these little pockets have survived,\" said Will Russell, a forest ecologist at San José State University. \"Unfortunately, it looks like the current pressure of climate change is affecting them in such a way that we might lose them.\"\n\nThe giant sequoia is now endangered, with only 80,000 estimated to survive given high levels of logging over the past 150 years. Increasingly severe fires threaten those that remain.\n\n\"In the fire seasons of 2020 and 2021 alone, a 14-month period, we estimate we lost 19% of all giant sequoia. It's just not sustainable,\" said Joanna Nelson, director of science and conservation at the Save the Redwoods League.\n\nMariposa Grove is one of three giant sequoia groves in Yosemite. Their massive trunks can measure almost 30 feet around, as big as a house. The branches on some giant sequoias are as thick as the trunks of regular trees.\n\n\"These trees dwarf us. They've been here for up to 3,400 years and give us a sense of perspective. They are temples of nature,\" said Ed Smith, a senior forest ecologist with the Nature Conservancy. \"There's a spiritual value to these groves.\"\n\nHow did sequoias survive so long?\n\nGiant sequoias evolved to live with frequent fire, with an enveloping, cork-like bark that can be as much as 18 inches thick and insulates them from flames. Their roots go deep, protecting them from the heat pulse of wildfires.\n\nPrior to the focus on fire suppression that began around 1900, these forests typically burned every 10 to 30 years. These small-scale fires cleared brush and needles but were relatively low intensity, allowing the sequoia to remain unharmed.\n\nBut now the buildup of fuels allows fires to burn hotter and higher. In addition, climate change has led to deeper droughts, drying out the land so it's more fire-prone.\n\n\"We’re dealing with species that have evolved over millennia, and we’re changing the rules of the game over a very short period of time and expecting them to cope with the changes we’ve fostered,\" Smith said. \"It’s pretty unrealistic.\"\n\nAre they expected to survive?\n\nTemperatures are anticipated to warm into the 90s at Yosemite over Monday and Tuesday, which the National Parks Service says could mean increased fire activity. However, winds are predicted to be low.\n\n\"That should allow them to have pretty good containment soon,\" said Clements.\n\nContributing: Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/10/yosemite-washburn-wildfire-sequoia-grove/10025081002/", "title": "Washburn Fire threatens iconic Yosemite sequoia grove; firefighters ...", "text": "Yosemite National Park's largest and most iconic sequoia grove remained threatened by a wildfire Sunday afternoon as rough terrain and hot weather proved difficult for battling the blaze.\n\nThe Washburn Fire was first reported Thursday in Yosemite's Mariposa Grove, which houses over 500 mature sequoias, including the 3,000-year-old Grizzly Giant. It quickly spread amid hot and dry weather conditions: the fire grew to 2,000 acres Sunday evening, up from 466 acres recorded on Friday, according to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group.\n\nThe Washburn Fire also threatened the small nearby community of Wawona, forcing people to evacuate their homes and campsites Friday night.\n\nAs of Sunday, afternoon the fire remains 0% contained, the National Park Service said. The National Weather Service in Hanford, California, forecast moderate to heavy smoke impacting Yosemite on Sunday.\n\n'INSPIRE GREATER ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP':Lake Tahoe's popularity may be its downfall, but scientists think tons of junk could save it\n\n'CLEAR THE LAKE IS IN TROUBLE':Great Salt Lake breaks record low level for the second time in a year amid drought\n\nThe terrain and climate have presented a challenge for firefighters: on top of hotter and drier weather conditions Sunday, they have to navigate through dead, fallen trees and other dead foliage caused by large numbers of tree deaths from 2013 to 2015 — a \"significant safety hazard,\" the National Wildfire Coordinating Group said.\n\nThe hot and dry conditions are expected to extend throughout the week, the National Parks Service said, although winds will be light. The parks service anticipated that fire activity will continue to actively spread during the next three days and beyond.\n\nFirefighters are throwing “every tactic imaginable\" at it, said Nancy Phillipe, a Yosemite fire information spokesperson. That included air drops of fire retardant as well as the planned use of bulldozers to create fire lines, a tactic that's rarely used in a wilderness setting like Yosemite, Phillipe said.\n\nThe bulldozers would primarily be used to put in fire lines to protect Wawona, she said.\n\nGiant sequoias were once thought to be largely resistant to fires, but have become increasingly vulnerable in the face of intense fires fueled by drought and climate change.\n\nA windstorm last year toppled 15 giant sequoias in the Mariposa Grove.\n\n\"Fortunately,\" the National Park Service said, the Mariposa Grove has a long history of prescribed burning, and \"studies have shown that these efforts reduce the impacts of high-severity unwanted fire.\"\n\nThe cause of the fire has not yet been identified, the National Wildfire Coordinating Group said.\n\nContributing: Christine Fernando, USA TODAY; The Associated Press", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/10"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/11/washburn-fire-yosemite-sequoia-trees-under-threat-photos/10028481002/", "title": "Washburn Fire: See Yosemite sequoia trees under threat", "text": "Iconic sequoia trees that tower over millions of captivated visitors at Yosemite National Park each year are under threat from a fast-moving fire.\n\nThe fire quickly spread amid hot and dry weather conditions and grew to 2,000 acres on Sunday, up from 466 acres recorded on Friday, according to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. Nearby communities were forced to evacuate their homes and campsites Friday night.\n\nOver 500 mature giant sequoias are located in the southern portion of Yosemite at the the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, which is the largest sequoia grove in Yosemite and includes the 3,000-year-old Grizzly Giant.\n\nThe fire was first reported in the Mariposa Grove on Thursday.\n\nWashburn Fire threatens Yosemite:Firefighters battle dry conditions, tough terrain\n\nHome swept away: Yellowstone National Park is hit by major floods and mudslides\n\nCamille Fine is a trending visual producer on USA TODAY's NOW team.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/12/california-firefighters-battle-yosemite-wildfire/10036975002/", "title": "California firefighters gain against Yosemite wildfire", "text": "The Associated Press\n\nYOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — California firefighters gained ground Monday in the battle against a wildfire that poses a threat to a grove of giant sequoias and a small community in Yosemite National Park.\n\nThe Washburn Fire on the western flank of the Sierra Nevada had scorched about 4.2 square miles but was 22% contained as of Monday night, according to an incident update.\n\nThe fire was a threat to more than 500 mature sequoias in the park’s Mariposa Grove and the nearby community of Wawona, which has been evacuated.\n\nThe area in the southern portion of Yosemite was closed to visitors but the rest of the national park remained open.\n\nMariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley have been protected since President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation in 1864.\n\nA sprinkler system was set up within the grove to maintain moisture, and there were no reports of severe damage to any named trees, including the 3,000-year-old Grizzly Giant.\n\n“Fortunately, the Mariposa Grove has a long history of prescribed burning and studies have shown that these efforts reduce the impacts of high-severity unwanted fire,” a National Park Service statement said.\n\nWHAT TO KNOW:Yosemite fire threatens sequoia grove, some of Earth’s oldest, biggest trees\n\nA heat advisory was issued for the Central Valley sprawling below the Sierra while up in the fire area, a high temperature of 96 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded for the village of Wawona, where hundreds tourists and residents were forced to evacuate last Friday.\n\n“Fortunately there has not been any erratic winds that have affected fire behavior,” fire information officer Marc Peebles said earlier in the day. “We do have the high pressure that’s over the top of the fire which is causing the increase in temperatures. However, we do get a decent amount of humidity at night which moderates fire behavior which allows our night shift firefighters to do good work.”\n\nThe giant sequoias, native in only about 70 groves spread along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, were once considered impervious to flames but have become increasingly vulnerable as wildfires, fueled by a buildup of undergrowth from a century of fire suppression and the impact of drought exacerbated by climate change, have become more intense and destructive.\n\nLightning-sparked wildfires over the past two years have killed up to a fifth of the estimated 75,000 large sequoias, which are the biggest trees by volume and a major draw for tourists.\n\nPHOTOS:An iconic Yosemite sequoia grove is under threat by fire. Here's what it looks like.\n\nThere was no obvious natural spark for the fire that broke out Thursday next to the park’s Washburn Trail. Smoke was reported by visitors walking in the grove.\n\nA fierce windstorm ripped through the grove more than a year ago and toppled 15 giant sequoias, along with countless other trees.\n\nThe downed trees, along with massive numbers of pines killed by bark beetles, provided ample fuel for the flames.\n\nIn Utah, smoke and ash emanating from a growing wildfire in rural Tooele County blew into Salt Lake City on Saturday. By Monday night, the Jacob City Fire had grown to 6.4 square miles, with 19% containment, officials said.\n\nElsewhere in Utah, firefighters contending with heavy winds battled the 15.9 square-mile Halfway Hill Fire in Filmore. Law enforcement on Saturday arrested four men who investigators said abandoned a campfire that ignited the blaze.\n\nSo far in 2022, over 35,000 wildfires have burned nearly 4.7 million acres in the U.S., according to the National Interagency Fire Center, well above average for both wildfires and acres burned.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/07/14/fire-danger-yosemite-sequoia-grove/10059648002/", "title": "Fire danger to iconic Yosemite sequoia grove reduced but risk remains", "text": "Yosemite National Park's centuries-old sequoia grove was mostly out of danger Thursday, though firefighters warned a risk remains for any fire until it's 100% controlled.\n\n\"Mariposa Grove is in a very good place. We're going to put some specialty crews in there to work deeper into the grove, clean it up, but we're very close to tying up all the dots together,\" said Matt Ahern, deputy operations chief with the California Interagency Incident Management Team.\n\nWith fire lines around the grove holding, containment looked good, but crews will continue to reinforce the area and deal with hazard trees, he said in a briefing early Thursday.\n\nThe fire drew the world's attention as the iconic Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias, visited by more than 1 million people a year, was threatened this week as the Washburn Fire drew nearer.\n\nThe grove covers 248 acres and contains more than 500 mature giant sequoia trees. Some of them are estimated to be as much as 3,000 to 3,500 years old. The frequently photographed Grizzly Giant sequoia stands 209 feet tall and is estimated to weigh 2 million pounds.\n\nAs of Thursday, the fire covered 4,375 acres and was 23% contained, according to information posted by national park staff.\n\nHow do you save sequoias from wildfires?:Sprinklers, trenches and sometimes foil blankets\n\nMore on Yosemite sequoias: Iconic Mariposa grove is under threat by fire. Here's what it looks like.\n\nFirefighters have focused on protecting the grove and the historic Wawona Hotel and nearby campground.\n\n\"Wawona structure defense remains in place. We're feeling much more comfortable with that at this point,\" Ahern said. But \"there is still a threat until we can get to the heat sources.\"\n\nThough crews have been fortunate that there have been no heavy winds this week to whip up the fire, concern remains high, said Stanley Bercovitz, a public information officer with the California Interagency Incident Management Team.\n\n\"The threat is greatly reduced,\" he said.\n\nThe National Park Service has used controlled burns to limit the fuel supply and reduce the risk of wildfires, but the area as a whole remains at elevated risk.\n\n\"The grove has an unbelievable amount of fuels surrounding it,\" Bercovitz said.\n\nWhile Yosemite National Park is open to the public, the areas around the Mariposa Grove and Wawona Hotel will remain closed until the danger has passed, Bercovitz said.\n\nThat includes the risk of burned branches falling long after the fire itself has been extinguished, Bercovitz said. \"We call those widowmakers.\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/07/11/gun-control-law-yosemite-fire-heat-dome-5-things-know-monday/7810727001/", "title": "Gun control law, Yosemite fire, heat dome: 5 things to know Monday", "text": "Editors\n\nUSA TODAY\n\nBiden to tout passage of gun violence prevention law\n\nPresident Joe Biden will hold an event at the White House on Monday to celebrate the passage of a landmark gun violence prevention bill. Biden announced the event last month when he signed the bill into law, saying he would \"mark this historic achievement\" alongside members of Congress who voted for the bill and families victimized by gun tragedies. Lawmakers passed the gun safety legislation after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman opened fire at an elementary school, killing 19 children and two teachers. The White House event comes a week after a Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, that left seven dead and dozens wounded.\n\nPrefer to listen? Check out the 5 Things podcast:\n\nFire threatens iconic Yosemite sequoia grove\n\nYosemite National Park's largest and most iconic sequoia grove remains threatened by a wildfire as rough terrain and hot weather have proved difficult for battling the blaze. The Washburn Fire was first reported Thursday in Yosemite's Mariposa Grove, which houses over 500 mature sequoias, including the 3,000-year-old Grizzly Giant. It quickly spread amid hot and dry weather conditions: the fire grew to 2,000 acres on Sunday, up from 466 acres recorded on Friday, according to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. The Washburn Fire also threatened the small nearby community of Wawona, forcing people to evacuate their homes and campsites Friday night.\n\nWildfires nearby? Follow these safety tips for homeowners\n\nFollow these safety tips for homeowners Reviewed: Do these 4 things to your roof if you live in an area prone to wildfire\n\nUtah court to hold hearing in response to judge blocking abortion trigger law\n\nA hearing is set for Monday in response to third District Judge Andrew Stone blocking Utah’s trigger law abortion ban from going into effect on June 27 for 14 days to allow time to hear a challenge to the law. Planned Parenthood of Utah and the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah filed a lawsuit on June 25, contending the 2020 law violates the state constitution's equal protection and privacy provisions. Under the law, which bans most abortions with some limited exceptions, anyone found guilty of performing an abortion could face up to 15 years in prison. Utah’s Planned Parenthood resumed abortions at several locations since the judge halted the law, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.\n\nAt least 15 dead after Russian missile strike in Ukraine\n\nAt least 15 people were killed and more than 20 were believed buried in the rubble Sundayafter Russian rockets pummeled apartment buildings in eastern Ukraine. Rescuers helped by heavy equipment looked for survivors under the debris in Chasiv Yar, where three buildings in a residential area were destroyed late Saturday. Chasiv Yar is 12 miles southeast of Kramatorsk, a major Russian target. After taking control of the Luhansk province, the Russians have set their eyes on seizing the Donetsk, which would give them full command of the Donbas.\n\nNASA 'strongly rebukes' pro-Russian separatist flag display on International Space Station\n\ndisplay on International Space Station 'They behave like barbarians': Ukraine's chief war crimes investigator sees few prospects for reconciliation with Russians\n\nTemperatures from powerful 'heat dome' lead to record-breaking highs\n\nAt least 10 heat records were broken in cities across the Southwest and central U.S. over the weekend, and more could fall Monday and later this week amid continued forecasts of searing heat. Cities and towns in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas all saw record highs on Friday and Saturday. Some broke temperature records set nearly a decade ago and others exceeded previous highs by up to six degrees. The high temperatures are largely the result of a \"heat dome\" – a persistent region of high pressure trapping heat over the area. While the daily records broken weren't necessarily widespread the conditions created by the heat dome have still been conducive to approaching and meeting record numbers in many areas, Accuweather Meteorologist Joseph Bauer told USA TODAY.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/weather/yosemite-washburn-fire-sequoia-thursday/index.html", "title": "Yosemite Park fire: Hot, dry conditions are making it harder for ...", "text": "(CNN) Hot, dry weather conditions are making it harder for firefighting crews battling a wildfire in Yosemite National Park in California that is threatening a grove of giant sequoia trees, most of which are more than 2,000 years old.\n\nThe Washburn Fire has ballooned to at least 4,261 acres since it was reported last week, with containment at about 23%, according to an update Wednesday from Inciweb, an national wildfire information clearinghouse.\n\nMore than 1,000 fire crew personnel are fighting the blaze, which has been spreading close to the giant sequoias as well as a small community that was forced to evacuate last week.\n\n\"The more than 500 mature sequoias of the Mariposa Grove are adjacent to these fuels and have so far avoided serious damage from the Washburn Fire,\" fire officials wrote in the update. \"Most of these trees are over 2000-years-old and have experienced fire many times throughout their lives.\"\n\nOn Thursday, temperatures are expected to remain warm and dry with light to moderate winds, creating conditions that could potentially fuel the flames even more. Temperatures will be in the 90s, with relative humidity in the 20-30% range, CNN meteorologist Robert Shackelford said.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Aya Elamroussi"], "publish_date": "2022/07/14"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_20", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/politics/trump-kevin-mccarthy-mike-pence/index.html", "title": "Frustrated with January 6 hearings, Trump turns ire toward his allies", "text": "(CNN) Donald Trump is growing increasingly irritated with the House panel investigating the January 6, 2021, riot as it lifts the curtain on some of its findings with public hearings that have garnered gavel-to-gavel cable coverage -- much to the annoyance of the TV-obsessed former President.\n\nTucked away at his Bedminster golf club, Trump has spent the past week venting his frustrations ​to nearly anyone who will listen. He has also taken his complaints about the committee on the road, lashing out at the congressional panel during a speech to conservatives in Nashville last Friday.\n\n\"I don't understand why Kevin didn't put anyone on the committee,\" Trump ​has recently ​griped to those around him, according to a GOP source with direct knowledge of the comments -- a reference to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's decision to boycott the select committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two ​Republican members he originally chose to sit on the panel.\n\nTrump's growing frustration with the absence of any hard core supporters on the select committee -- which has given the panel uninterrupted air time and deprived Republicans of the ability to cross-examine witnesses ​in real time -- is just the latest example of how the public hearings have gotten under his skin.​ The former President has previously complained about his lack of allies on the committee, though he has become especially exasperated over the last week with his inability to preemptively respond to the committee's findings without knowing what the panel plans to reveal during each hearing.\n\nTrump has also publicly and privately lashed out at former Vice President Mike Pence, whose chief of staff Marc Short and ​former top White House lawyer Greg Jacob have ​both been featured prominently in the select committee hearings, put​ting an unflattering spotlight on ​the pressure campaign ​Trump directed at Pence and others as he desperately attempted to stay in power.\n\nAnd while Trump has been pleased by the counter-programming effort being waged by his Capitol Hill allies in conservative media and on social media, he has still felt the need to take matters into his own hands​. He reacted to the committee's first prime-time hearing earlier this month with a lengthy 12-page rebuttal bashing the probe into the deadly Capitol riot ​and devoted much of his 90-minute appearance at the Faith & Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority conference last week to slamming Pence and the committee's two Republican members -- Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.\n\nAs the former President contemplates launching another presidential bid -- potentially before the midterm elections --​ ​he has also become hyper-sensitive to how the hearings are ​being received by viewers and voters alike, according to multiple Republicans close to Trump. The stakes are high: the investigation could not only cast Pence, one of his potential 2024 rivals, in a positive light as investigators underscore the former vice president's role in preventing a constitutional crisis, but it could also foreshadow potential legal trouble for Trump, ​who is already grappling with multiple legal battles unrelated to his role in January 6. ​\n\nStuck in this high pressure atmosphere, Trump has started to direct his anger at people both inside and outside his orbit, from McCarthy ​and Pence to his former chief of staff Mark Meadows ​and Attorney General Bill Barr\n\n'We have no representation on this panel'\n\nOne of Trump's chief complaints as of late has centered on the lack of Republican representation on the committee -- Cheney and Kinzinger, who were both appointed by Pelosi, are ardent Trump critics. McCarthy chose five Republicans for the panel, but Pelosi, in an unprecedented move, vetoed Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio from serving on the committee since they supported efforts to overturn the 2020 election.\n\nNot only has Trump privately vented about McCarthy opting to withdraw his remaining picks for the panel, but Trump also took that grievance public in a recent radio interview, though he did not mention McCarthy by name.\n\n\"Unfortunately, a bad decision was made,\" Trump told conservative talk show host Wayne Allyn Root. \"This committee was a bad decision, not to have representation on that committee. That was a very, very foolish decision because you know, they try and pretend like they're legit, and only when you get into the inner workings you say, 'what kind of a thing is this? it's just a one-sided witch hunt.'\"\n\n\"We have no representation on this panel. We should certainly have some Republicans, real Republicans ... We have nobody on that panel who can fight back,\" Trump said earlier in the interview. \"In a way, the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves.\"\n\nThe thinking among some of Trump's advisers -- and even among a handful of far-right Republicans on Capitol Hill -- is that it was a mistake to not have any GOP lawmakers inside the room pushing back in real time ​or providing insight to the former President and rest of the GOP conference as to what investigators planned to highlight in public hearings. Had Republicans been on the committee, they could have asked tough questions of witnesses, made procedural motions to disrupt the flow of the hearings, and would have had some advance knowledge of the subpoenas, taped depositions​ and other evidence collected by the panel.\n\nCNN previously reported that Trump was caught off guard by seeing his daughter, Ivanka Trump,​ and his son-in-law Jared Kushner appear in a video clip during the first televised hearing, even though he knew ​they had both spoken with the committee. ​The former President complained to aides at the time that his daughter's testimony was taken out of context and deliberately included to embarrass him, according to a person close to Trump.\n\nSome Republicans have also questioned whether a bipartisan commission to investigate January 6 would have been a better outcome for Trump and the GOP. At McCarthy's direction, GOP Rep. John Katko of New York hammered out a deal on a commission that would have required both parties to agree on subpoenas, forced the commission to finish up its work by the end of last year, and prevented any current politicians from serving on the investigative body.\n\nBut McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell both opposed the commission, which ended up failing in the Senate and led Pelosi to establish a select committee instead.\n\nOne GOP source called the move a \"tactical error.\"\n\nJordan, however, defended McCarthy's decision-making and said the GOP leader had no choice but to boycott the select committee after what Pelosi did. After McCarthy made the decision, Republicans on Capitol Hill were quick to rally around the move. And McCarthy used the moment as a political opportunity to paint the investigation as a one-sided witch hunt, which has become the GOP's primary talking point.\n\n\"Pelosi knew, when she wouldn't let the selections of the leader on the committee, she knew Kevin had no other choice,\" Jordan told CNN. \"You're doing something that hasn't been done in the history of the country, and we're just supposed to go along with it? No.\"\n\nStill, even if most of the GOP has no regrets about McCarthy deciding to yank his remaining Republican picks from the committee, it could be problematic that Trump is second guessing McCarthy, who needs the former President's support to become speaker one day.\n\nAnd in the conservative radio interview, Trump went out of his way to make clear that he has only endorsed McCarthy for reelection ​but not for speaker, a position McCarthy has long had his sights on and is expected to seek if Republicans retake the House this November. People close to Trump, who wants House Republicans to aggressively investigate President Joe Biden if they find themselves in power, say he has intentionally withheld a speakership endorsement to maintain leverage further down the road.\n\n\"No, no, no. I haven't,\" Trump said, when the talk show host suggested he had endorsed McCarthy for speaker. \"No, I endorsed him in his race. But I haven't endorsed anybody for speaker.\"\n\n'I don't see him letting up on Mike anytime soon'\n\nInside Trump's orbit, his anger towards another top Republican -- Pence -- has sown tension between allies who share his frustration with the visible role Pence aides have played in the public hearings and those who believe his attacks are both unwarranted and unhelpful.\n\nIf Trump's goal is to dissuade Pence from potentially challenging him in a 2024 presidential primary, allies of the former vice president say it won't work, noting that Pence is going to make that decision for himself and apart from Trump's criticism. Still, Trump is expected to continue his onslaught this weekend when he appears at a campaign rally in Illinois for Republican incumbent Rep. Mary Miller, according to a GOP source close to Trump.\n\n\"I don't see him letting up on Mike anytime soon and, frankly, the more Mike is out there doing things with clear 2024 undertones, the more he is going to make trouble for himself,\" said a Trump adviser.\n\nAt the same time, some in Trump's orbit still believe that Pence does not pose a legitimate threat in 2024, particularly if he runs against the former President.\n\n\"He has no political window,\" another Trump adviser told CNN, referring to Pence's chances of a successful presidential bid.\n\nPence, however, continues to walk a political tightrope. While the former vice president has not stood in the way of his former advisers testifying before the committee, he has also made a point to distance himself from the ongoing hearings, instead making a series of public appearances where he has focused on other issues like the economy and border security.\n\nHe also rescheduled a long-planned visit to Capitol Hill to meet with the Republican Study Committee on Tuesday. The hearing would have not only been awkward timing for Pence, but also would have potentially put Republicans like Banks, the head of the RSC, in the crosshairs, which most Republicans are eager to avoid.\n\nWhile Pence declined an invitation to also appear in Nashville last week, he recently joined Gov. Mike DeWine in the critical battleground state of Ohio for a roundtable on oil and gas sectors and he delivered a policy-heavy speech at the University Club of Chicago on Monday, previewing his pitch to primary voters if he does seek the GOP presidential nomination. The former vice president has visited all three early voting states over the past year -- some more than once -- and is due to release a book about his time in the administration later this fall.\n\nDuring his appearance in Chicago on Monday, Pence repeatedly implored Republicans to keep the focus on the future -- a stark contrast with Trump's almost singular focus on the 2020 election in his own public appearances.\n\n\"In the days between now and Election Day, we need you to say yes -- yes to the future, yes to a future of freedom and our cherished values. And the Republican Party must be the party of the future,\" Pence said.\n\nCommittee members have said they could still issue a subpoena to try to compel Pence's cooperation with the ongoing investigation, but after last Thursday's hearing, multiple sources familiar with the probe acknowledged that remains unlikely at this stage.\n\nPence, meanwhile, has offered little indication that he would testify voluntarily, either publicly or behind closed-doors, a move that would certainly escalate the currently one-sided confrontation with Trump with little political upside.\n\nBut Pence isn't the only White House veteran caught in Trump's line of fire.\n\nThe former President has also complained to allies about the content of text messages that Meadows provided to the committee before halting his cooperation. Messages to Trump's then-chief of staff from his own adult children, on-air allies at Fox News, and some of his staunchest supporters on Capitol Hill have revealed just how desperate some were for Trump to condemn the violence at the US Capitol in a timely manner -- and their absolute exasperation with his initial response.\n\nTestimony from at least two former Meadows aides, Cassidy Hutchison and Alyssa Farah, has also proved critical in the ongoing January 6 probe, with Hutchison reportedly revealing in her closed-door deposition that Meadows burned papers in his office following a meeting with Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania where the two men discussed efforts to reject the 2020 election results. Perry was the first person to connect the then-President with Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark, who Trump considered putting in charge of the top law enforcement agency to help implement plans to overturn his defeat.", "authors": ["Melanie Zanona", "Gaborr", "Zachary Cohen"], "publish_date": "2022/06/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/07/30/democratic-debate-2019-bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-battle-out/1860690001/", "title": "First night of Democratic debate reveals split between progressives ...", "text": "10:45 p.m.\n\nFirst round of debate ends as Democrats spar over vision\n\nTen Democrats running for president parried over health care, immigration and gun violence in a policy-heavy debate Tuesday in Detroit that drew sharp contrasts between the progressive and centrist ideologies of the party.\n\nMinutes into the CNN debate – the first of two this week – the candidates delved into an issue that has increasingly divided the party: Whether to embrace a \"Medicare for All\" system of health insurance or to improve on the current private insurance system. Progressives like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have pushed for more government involvement.\n\n“Why do we gotta be the party of taking something away from people?” asked John Delaney, who has attempted to run for the nomination as a centrist. “We can give everyone healthcare and allow everyone to have choice.”\n\nWarren interjected: “Let’s be clear about this. We are the Democrats.”\n\nThere were few “moments” of high drama during the debate, which was notable almost as much for what wasn’t discussed. Former Vice President Joe Biden is leading in the polls for the Democratic nomination, ostensibly making him a target for the lesser-known candidates. But his name wasn’t mentioned Tuesday.\n\nA running exchange between Delaney and Warren underscored a major theme of the debate: Whether the party should pursue big ideas that appeal to progressives, or more incremental changes that appeal to moderates.\n\nDuring one exchange, Delaney blasted progressives for proposing ideas that are “dead on arrival” or that “will never happen.”\n\nWarren fired back.\n\n“I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for,” she said to applause. “I don't get it.”\n\nThe candidates also engaged in an extended debate over immigration. Steve Bullock, who was making his first appearance on the debate stage, was asked why he disagreed with decriminalizing border crossings and offering health care to undocumented immigrants – the approach that many of his fellow Democrats are championing.\n\nThat approach, he said, shows “how often these debates are detached from peoples’ lives.”\n\nThe hundreds of thousands of people showing up on the border will turn into “multiples of that” if the policies change, he said. “Don’t take my word,” Bullock said. “That was President Obama’s homeland security that said that.”\n\nThe debates continue Wednesday and will include Biden, who has said he was too polite during the first matchup last month, and Sen. Kamala Harris, who got a boost in fundraising and polling following her performance in June. Much of that bounce has eroded in recent polling.\n\nThat underscores an important point: Candidates can be rewarded or punished for how well they do on stage during these high-profile debates. But at this early stage in the campaign, those gains or losses are likely to be fleeting.\n\nAfter the second round on Wednesday night, the next Democratic debates will take place Sept. 12-13 in Houston. This week could potentially be the last time debate watchers see some of the candidates on stage in the 2020 election. Tougher qualification rules in September will require candidates to be polling at least 2% and have 130,000 unique donors – a high hurdle for some in the field.\n\n– John Fritze, Michael Collins and Camille Caldera\n\n10:43 p.m.\n\n'Radical truth telling' and other closing lines\n\nMarianne Williamson: “Our problem is not just that we need to defeat Donald Trump. We need a plan to solve institutional hatred, collectivized hatred, and white nationalism. And in order to do that, we need more than political insider games and wonkiness and intellectual argument. We need some radical truth telling.”\n\nTim Ryan: “There’s not going to be a savior. There’s not going to be a superstar that’s going to fix all of this. It’s going to be you and me. It’s going to be us that’s going to fix this country.”\n\nAmy Klobuchar: \"I can win in states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa. I will do my job without fear and favor like I did like a prosecutor and get through the gridlock like I did as a senator.\"\n\nPete Buttigieg: “We can do this if and only if we are ready to walk away from what hasn’t worked with bold action and win. Not only defeat this president, but defeat his congressional allies, with a defeat so big that it reunites the Republican Party with its conscience, as well as bringing Democrats to office.”\n\nBernie Sanders: “I’m running for president not just to defeat the most dangerous president in the history of this country… I’m running to transform this country…..Let’s create a government that works for all of us, not just the 1%.”\n\nElizabeth Warren: “We have had a government that has been on the side of the rich and powerful… which means it has not been on the side of everyone else… How do we beat it? We beat it by being the big party of structural change.”\n\nBeto O’Rourke: “We are as divided and polarized as a country as we have ever been and right now we have a president who uses fear to try to drive us further apart. To meet this challenge, we have to have hope in one another and a faith in a future of this country that includes everyone.”\n\nJohn Hickenlooper: “I’m as progressive as anybody up on this stage, but I’m also pragmatic. I’ve done the things that most of these people are just talking about. I know I can get results. I can lead the people of this country towards a stronger, healthier and a more secure future and defeat Donald Trump.”\n\nJohn Delaney: “Donald Trump is the symptom of a disease, and the disease is divisiveness, and I’m the only one of the stage talking about curing that disease.”\n\nSteve Bullock: “I’m running for president to beat Donald Trump, to win back the places we lost, and make sure that Americans know, where Washington has left them behind….I’ll be there.”\n\n– Maureen Groppe, Sarah Elbeshbishi, Camille Caldera, Jason Lalljee and Ledyard King\n\n10:41 p.m.\n\nWhither Biden?\n\nFormer Vice President Joe Biden is leading in the polls for the Democratic nomination. But you wouldn’t know it listening to the first night of the debates Tuesday.\n\nBiden’s name didn't come up.\n\nBiden also barely arose during the first night of debates in June. Traditionally, lesser-known candidates seek to attack the leader in polling. The absence of any discussion of Biden is likely a symptom of the debate format. It’s better to go after another candidate when they’re on stage. Just ask Kamala Harris, who had a “moment” with Biden in June by criticizing his past opposition to federally mandated busing.\n\nBecause of the size of the Democratic field, the debates are split over two nights. Biden won’t take the debate stage until Wednesday.\n\nBiden has maintained his lead in polling, with about one-third of Democrats picking him as their favorite in three national surveys Tuesday.\n\n– John Fritze\n\n10:28 p.m.\n\nDoes age matter?\n\nPete Buttigieg is 37, just two years older than the age qualification included in the Constitution to be president. Bernie Sanders is 77.\n\nBoth candidates went on defense in a question on whether age should even matter for voters.\n\n“I don’t care how old you are,” Buttigieg said. “I care about your vision.”\n\nButtigieg went on to say there is a new generation of Democrats.\n\nSanders agreed it is a “question of vision, whether you’re young, whether you’re old or whether you’re in between.”\n\n“My vision, among other things, says that if we’re going to fight for health care we don’t take money from the drug companies or the insurance companies,” he said.\n\n– John Fritze\n\n10:22 p.m.\n\nSanders: ‘Trump is a pathological liar’\n\nThe candidates mainly stuck to domestic policy during the debate. But more than two hours in the moderators turned to foreign policy.\n\nAsked why voters should believe him when both he and President Donald Trump have promised the U.S. should not be a police force for the world, Sanders blasted the administration’s foreign policy.\n\n“Trump is a pathological liar,” Sanders said. “I tell the truth.”\n\nThe candidates all criticized Trump’s foreign policy but offered few distinctions among each other.\n\nPete Buttigieg promised that, as president, he would withdraw all troops from Afghanistan during his first year. Trump, too, has talked about drawing down troops, but the timeline for that move is uncertain.\n\n“We will withdraw. We have to,” Buttigieg said. “I thought I was one of the last troops leaving Afghanistan…years ago.”\n\nBeto O’Rourke would not agree to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan in his first year, but said he would do so in his first term.\n\nJohn Hickenlooper said he looked at the U.S. mission in Afghanistan as a “humanitarian” issue and said he would not entirely withdraw troops from that country.\n\n“We’re going to have to be in Afghanistan,” Hickenlooper said.\n\n– John Fritze and Michael Collins\n\n10:20 p.m.\n\nShould college be free?\n\nDemocrats split over whether to forgive student loans or make college free.\n\n“That would be great for us,” Pete Buttigieg said about the college debt that he and his husband have. But the day after all student debt is forgiven, the next students would wonder why they weren’t so lucky, he said.\n\nInstead, Buttigieg said, the nation can expand Pell grants, make states pick up more of the cost of public universities and expand loan forgiveness programs in exchange for public service.\n\nMarianne Williamson said she agreed with Bernie Sanders on eliminating student debt, calling it the best thing the country can do to stimulate the economy.\n\n“I almost wonder why you’re Democrats. You seem to think there’s something wrong about using the instruments of government to help people,” Williamson said about some of her opponents, drawing applause. “That is what government should do.”\n\nBeto O’Rourke reiterated his call for free two-year college, and tried to draw a distinction with the other candidates, saying his plan would also include room, board and textbooks.\n\n– Maureen Groppe and Ledyard King\n\n10:10 p.m.\n\nButtigieg quotes scripture\n\nPete Buttigieg, one of the Democratic candidates who has freely spoken about his faith on the campaign trail, called out “so-called conservative Christian senators” who are blocking a bill to increase the minimum wage\n\n“When scripture says that whoever oppresses the poor taunts their maker,” Buttigieg added.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\n10:07 p.m.\n\nCashing in on 'damn bill' moment\n\nBernie Sanders may have had the line of the night – and he’s hoping to cash in on it.\n\nSanders’ campaign is peddling a sticker with a picture of the Vermont senator on a bullhorn with the phrase “I wrote the damn bill” underneath.\n\nThe sticker harks back to a moment earlier in the debate when Tim Ryan challenged Sanders’ assertion that \"Medicare for All\" would be better deal for union workers because it would include coverage for dental care, hearing aids and eyeglasses.\n\nTim Ryan shook his head: “You don’t know that Bernie.”\n\n“I do know,” Sanders shot back. “I wrote the damn bill.”\n\nThe audience erupted in applause.\n\nThat led to a tweet from the Sanders campaign celebrating the moment.\n\n“Don’t Tell me what’s in Medicare for All. I wrote the damn bill! #DemDebate. Make a contribution and get our sticker now,” the tweet reads.\n\nThe tweet goes on to say that people can “donate any amount to get this sticker”\n\n– Ledyard King\n\n10:03 p.m.\n\nSparring over the Green New Deal\n\nThe candidates split on the Green New deal, the ambitious climate change proposal that’s been assailed by Republicans and moderates as a fantasy that would hurtle the country closer to socialism.\n\nJohn Delaney dismissed the Green New Deal as “unrealistic” as he explained his own plan to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 that includes carbon pricing.\n\nWarren, a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, called the climate crisis an “existential threat” that demands dramatic action.\n\nBut John Hickenlooper slammed the plan.\n\n“The guarantee of a public job for everyone who wants one is a classic part of the problem. It’s a distraction,” he said. Deal with climate change, he said, “in a realistic way.”\n\nThe former Colorado governor was referencing an early draft of the Green New deal that included a guarantee of jobs for Americans – a plank that was never included in the final bill that was introduced earlier this year.\n\n“I put a real policy on the table to put 1.2 million jobs in green manufacturing ... and no one wants to talk abut it,” Warren responded, looking at Hickenlooper. “What you want to do instead is find the Republican talking point of a made-up piece of some other part and say ‘Oh, we don’t have to really do anything.'”\n\n“That’s the problem we’ve got in Washington right now,” Warren continued. “It continues to [be] a Washington that works great for oil companies, just not for people worried about climate change.”\n\n– Ledyard King\n\n9:55 p.m.\n\nTop trending candidate: Marianne Williamson\n\nAuthor Marianne Williamson was the top trending candidate on Twitter during the debate, despite having little speaking time.\n\nAn hour and a half into the debate, Williamson had spoken fewer words than any of the other candidates onstage, according to FiveThirtyEight.\n\nWilliamson was the third top trending topic in the last hour in the United States, netting about 28,000 tweets. John Delaney, Steve Bullock, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg (as “Mayor Pete”) were the only other candidates to trend in the top ten.\n\n\"Flint is just the tip of the iceberg,\" she said during the last twenty minutes of the debate in reference to the drinking water crisis in that Michigan city.\n\n\"If you think any of this wonkiness is going to deal with this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country, then I'm afraid that the Democrats are going to see some very dark days,\" she said about broad structural racism in America.\n\n\"If the Democrats don't start saying it, why would those people vote for us?\" she said about African-American voters.\n\nOne Twitter user who had positive things to say about Williamson was Donald Trump Jr., who wrote that he thought she was \"winning this thing.\"\n\n– Jason Lalljee\n\n9:47 p.m.\n\nDemocrats blast Trump on race\n\nRace, which President Donald Trump has been thrust into the presidential election, came up about 90 minutes into the debate.\n\nMost of the candidates blasted the president’s recent tweets aimed at four progressive congresswomen of color as well as Rep. Elijah Cummings and his hometown, Baltimore.\n\nBut there were few distinctions between the candidates on the issue.\n\n“We need to call out white supremacy for what it is, domestic terrorism,” Elizabeth Warren said in one of the main applause lines from the exchange.\n\nAmy Klobuchar lamented that “little kids” woke up in Baltimore to hear news of the president calling their city “nothing more than a home for rats.”\n\nButtigieg, who is facing criticism among some black voters for his handling of a police shooting in his city, South Bend, Ind., said his “community is moving from hurting to healing.”\n\nBeto O’Rourke, who said he would sign legislation to study to reparations for slavery, said the legacy of slavery and segregation is “alive and well” in the USA.\n\n– John Fritze\n\n9:41 p.m.\n\nOnly veteran on stage goes after Trump\n\nPete Buttigieg grabbed an opening to pivot to one of the ways he stands out in the field, as a veteran who served in Afghanistan.\n\nInjecting himself into a discussion of climate change, Buttigieg said that his competitors all have similar visions on climate change. But the debate is theoretical, he said, unless Democrats defeat Trump.\n\n“Nominate me and get to see the president of the United States next to me, an American war veteran, and explain why he chose to pretend to be disabled when it was his chance to serve,” Buttigieg said.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\n9:23 p.m.\n\nDelaney, Warren battle for soul of party\n\nAn ongoing debate between John Delaney and Elizabeth Warren underscored a major debate theme: Whether the party should pursue big ideas that appeal to progressives, or more incremental changes to attract moderates.\n\nDuring one exchange, Delaney blasted progressives for proposing ideas that are “dead on arrival” or that “will never happen.”\n\nWarren fired back.\n\n“I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for,” she said to applause. “I don't get it.”\n\n– John Fritze and Sarah Elbeshbishi\n\n9:19 p.m.\n\nWho can best beat Trump?\n\nBernie Sanders was asked about John Hickenlooper’s claim that he’s too extreme.\n\n“Every credible poll that I have seen has me beating Donald Trump,” Sanders said.\n\nMimicking Sanders' expressive arms, Hickenlooper said to Sanders “you can throw your hands up” but “we have to pick up the pieces” when promises are made.\n\n“You can’t just spring a plan on the world and expect it to succeed,” Hickenlooper said\n\nTim Ryan jumped in on Hickenlooper’s side, complaining that some of his colleagues have been talking about taking private health insurance away from workers through \"Medicare for All.\"\n\n“We have to talk about the working class issues,” he said.\n\nSanders later responded: “We need to have a campaign on energy and excitement and vision.”\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\n9:05 p.m.\n\nGetting personal on gun control\n\nPete Buttigieg, the youngest candidate on the stage, used his age to make a personal point about gun control.\n\nButtigieg, 37, said his is the first generation to see mass shootings in schools.\n\n“High school is hard enough without worrying whether you’re going to get shot,” he said, adding that the country is now seeing a second generation to witness school shootings.\n\n“We know what to do, and it has not happened,” Buttigieg said, citing universal background checks as an example of the kind of gun-control measures that are needed.\n\nModerator Don Lemon asked Bernie Sanders if he still agreed with a statement he made a few months after the Sandy Hook massacre, in which he said that passing the strongest gun legislation wouldn’t “have a profound effect on the tragedies we have seen.”\n\n“Nobody up here is going to tell you that we have a magical solution to the crisis,” Sanders said in response. “I have a D- voting from the NRA. As president, I suspect I will have an F record.”\n\nMontana Gov. Steve Bullock, who did not call for a ban on assault weapons until last summer, mentioned that he’s a gun owner. “I hunt,” he said.\n\n– Michael Collins, Camille Caldera and Jason Lalljee\n\n8:58 p.m.\n\nContrarian Democrat on immigration\n\nRepublicans were gleeful when most of the candidates in the first debate said they would decriminalize border crossings and offer health care to undocumented immigrants.\n\nSteve Bullock, who was making his first appearance on the debate stage, was asked why he disagreed. That approach that many of his fellow Democrats are championing, he said, shows “how often these debates are detached from peoples lives.\n\nThe hundreds of thousands of people showing up on the border will turn into “multiples of that” if the policies change, he said. “Don’t take my word,” Bullock said. “That was President Obama’s homeland security that said that.”\n\nElizabeth Warren defended decriminalizing border crossings, saying “the criminalization statute is what gives Donald Trump the ability to take children away from their parents.”\n\n“What Trump is doing through his racism and xenophobia is demonizing a group of people,” Bernie Sanders said, the only candidate to invoke the word “racism” in connection to the border crisis.\n\nSen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the Democrats' immigration debate is turning into an open invitation for any person who can make their way to America to come here.\n\n“Plus, they will be rewarded with free health care!,” Graham tweeted.\n\n– Maureen Groppe and Jason Lalljee\n\n8:50 p.m.\n\n'I wrote the damn bill'\n\nAs Bernie Sanders was touting his \"Medicare for All\" plan, he said union members would reap benefits beyond the health care plans their leaders have negotiated because it would include coverage for dental care, hearing aids and eyeglasses.\n\nTim Ryan shook his head: “You don’t know that Bernie.”\n\n“I do know,” Sanders shot back. “I wrote that damn bill.”\n\nThe audience erupted in applause.\n\nRyan, whose Ohio district includes a large union population, tried to regain his footing by saying that Sanders “does not know all of the union contracts in the United States.”\n\n– Ledyard King\n\n8:46 p.m.\n\n‘Bunch of crazy socialists’\n\nThe Democratic candidates are collectively wrestling with whether to run to the left, to court the party’s progressive wing, or to run to the center to appeal to blue-collar voters who backed Donald Trump in 2016.\n\nTrump has repeatedly sought to characterize all Democrats as “socialists.”\n\nPete Buttigieg suggested Democrats should stop worrying about criticism from Trump on whatever policy path the ultimate nominee chooses.\n\n“It’s time to stop worrying what the Republicans will say,” Buttigieg argued. \"They’re going to call us a bunch of crazy socialists.\"\n\nIf they adopt a progressive agenda, Buttigieg said, Republican will label the party “crazy socialists.” If they move to the center, he said, the GOP will still call them “crazy socialists.”\n\n“Let’s just stand up for the right policy,” he argued.\n\n– John Fritze\n\n8:39 p.m.\n\nPutting moderates on the spot\n\nModerator Jake Tapper turned the table on the more moderate members, asking Amy Klobuchar if Elizabeth Warren was correct when she said in the June debates that those who don’t support \"Medicare for All\" lack the will to fight for it.\n\n“That is not correct. I just have a better way to do this,” Klobuchar said.\n\nThe Minnesota senator said adding a public option is the easiest way to move forward quickly.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\n8:32 p.m.\n\nIs 'Medicare for All' political suicide?\n\nIn the first question, moderator Jake Tapper tried to get a debate going between the most progressive and more moderate members about a top Democratic priority – health care.\n\nTapper asked Sanders how he would respond to Delaney’s claim that promising Medicare for All is political suicide and will re-elect Trump.\n\n“You’re wrong,” Sanders said in his distinctive Brooklyn accent.\n\nSanders said health care is a human right, not a privilege, and he will fight for it.\n\nDelaney shot back that Democrats don’t have to “take something away” from people by getting rid of private insurance.\n\n“You’re running on telling half the country that your health care is illegal,” Delaney said.\n\nWarren got applause by interjecting that \"we're not trying to take health care away from anyone.\"\n\n“That’s what Republicans are trying to do,” she said. “We should stop using Republican talking points in order to talk with each other about how to provide health care.”\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\n8:30 p.m.\n\nCandidates slam Trump on race\n\nAbout 10 minutes into the debate, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar became the first candidate to raise the topic of racially charged attacks by President Trump over the past two weeks.\n\n“… We come from a country of shared dreams. And I’ve had it with the racist attacks,” she said during her opening statement.\n\nTrump has drawn broad condemnation for tweets assailing four Democratic congresswomen of color and, more recently, for describing a Baltimore congressional district that is majority black in Baltimore as “infested” with rats.\n\nOther candidates, including Bernie Sanders followed suit.\n\n– Ledyard King\n\n8:18 p.m.\n\nButtigieg watch party\n\nThey broke out the bingo cards at a Pete Buttigieg campaign watch party at Mike’s Bar down the street from the debate where the candidate himself was on stage.\n\nSupporters fill in a box for key – or not so key – moments such as every time someone says “working class voters,” if a candidate has a coughing fit or if a moderator hushes the crowd.\n\nIn addition, the watch party features Buttigieg-themed drinks.\n\nSupporters could suck down The Blue Tie (Blue Curacao, Ketel One Vodka, and Sprite) or Pete’s Old Fashioned (Bulleit Rye whiskey and bitters garnished with an orange and a cherry) among other cocktails.\n\n8:10 p.m.\n\n'Emphasis on progress'\n\nMontana Gov. Steve Bullock, the only candidate who did not appear in the last debate, got the first words in this one. In his opening statement, Bullock pointed out that he won not one – but three – elections in a red state. “Not by compromising our values but by getting stuff done,” he said. “I’m a progressive, emphasis on progress.”\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\n8:10 p.m.\n\nNo hand over heart\n\nDuring the singing of the national anthem, Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan was the only one of the 10 candidates who didn’t place his hand over his heart.\n\nRyan and the anthem got immediate attention on Twitter.\n\n– Michael Collins\n\n8:08 p.m.\n\nAndrew Yang throws shade at stage\n\nDemocratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang threw some shade as his competition took the stage on Tuesday.\n\n'Most boring football game in history':Democratic candidates not on stage poke fun as tonight's debate begin\n\n“I’m sitting in a hotel room with my team,” Yang posted on Twitter. “It feels like we are about to watch the most boring football game in history.”\n\nYang will be on stage Wednesday.\n\n– John Fritze\n\n8:03 p.m.\n\nAnd….here we go!\n\nThe Democratic hopefuls are about to give opening statements.\n\nIn the center of the stage are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the field’s progressive titans. They’re friends, but will they go after each other in a bid for the most liberal voters in the Democratic base?\n\nThey’re flanked by Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke, two of the youngest candidates, who have been in competition with each other for a similar pool of voters.\n\nMost other candidates on the outer edges of the stage have struggled to make much of a dent in the polls. They could look for opportunities to go after the higher-polling Sanders and Warren by arguing that Democrats need a more centrist approach to win the White House.\n\nWhy debate in Detroit?:Because Michigan matters greatly in the 2020 presidential race\n\nMontana Gov. Steve Bullock, for example, who did not appear in the first round of debates, is likely to point out that he’s the only candidate on stage who has carried a red state.\n\n- Maureen Groppe\n\nWho’s on stage?\n\nFrom left to right, the candidates are: activist Marianne Williamson; Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders; Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren; former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke; former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; former Maryland Rep. John Delaney; former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.\n\nAn interactive guide:Who is running for president in 2020? An interactive guide\n\nDebate rules\n\nThe debates, which will begin at 8 p.m. EDT, will air on CNN as well as online at CNN.com.\n\nThe moderators are Dana Bash, Don Lemon and Jake Tapper.\n\nQuizzing the candidates:Who is moderating the second Democratic presidential debate?\n\nBachelorette finale or Dem debate?:Viewers must decide\n\nUnlike the first round of debates in July, candidates will give opening statements in addition to their closing remarks. And they will not be asked to raise their hand or give a one-word answer to any question.\n\nThey will have 60 seconds to respond to a question from a moderator and 30 seconds for rebuttals if attacked by another candidate.\n\nAnyone who constantly interrupts will be docked time.\n\nThe location:Macomb County is Michigan's political promised land in 2020 presidential race\n\nDemocrats back constitutional amendment on donors\n\nTheir focus is on the debate, but nearly a dozen Democratic candidates took time Tuesday to weigh in on another issue that will be critical for their campaigns: Donors.\n\nEleven Democratic candidates have endorsed a proposed 28th amendment to the Constitution designed to override a Supreme Court decision that equates campaign donations with free speech. The idea is being pushed by an advocacy group called American Promise, which hopes to get all of the candidates to sign on.\n\nThe proposed amendment \"is necessary to put power back into the hands of the American people,\" said Jeff Clements, president of American Promise.\n\nThe supporters so far: Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Bennet, Tom Steyer, Marianne Williamson, Steve Bullock, John Delaney, and Tim Ryan.\n\nThe entire Senate Democratic caucus also proposed a 28th amendment on Tuesday, a long-shot proposal designed to reverse a Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.\n\nIn a 5-4 ruling, the court struck down laws that had prevented corporations and labor unions from using funds for political advertising, saying the bans violated free speech rights.\n\nTrump will watch the debates\n\nPresident Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will take a break from his rhetorical boycott of CNN to tune in for the Democratic debate.\n\n“I’ll be watching the debates tonight,” Trump told C-SPAN in an interview, excerpts of which were released before the debate. “If I didn’t – you’d say ‘I can’t imagine.’ I would like to know who I’ll be running against.”\n\nOf course, the president didn’t entirely miss the opportunity to knock the network he loves to hate. CNN is hosting the second round of debates in Detroit.\n\n“It’s such incorrect reporting,” Trump said. “That’s why their rating went down so low.”\n\nThe entire C-SPAN interview will air after the debate.\n\n\"They are all the same\"\n\nTrump's campaign took out full-page ads in the Detroit newspapers Tuesday attacking Democrats on health care, immigration and taxes. The ad shows candidates from the last debate raising their hands when asked about some of those issues, including whether they support providing health care to undocumented immigrants. All said they do.\n\nTelevision ads with the same message were expected to air during the debates.\n\nThat position, however, has also been criticized by some Democrats. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was Barack Obama's chief of staff, publicly advised candidates Monday not to \"fall into the traps that had many of us shaking our heads\" during the June debates.\n\n\"Before our party promises health care coverage to undocumented immigrants — a position not even Ted Kennedy took – let’s help the more than 30 million Americans who are a single illness away from financial ruin,\" Emanuel wrote.\n\nFor its part, the Democratic National Committee sent officials to a closing automobile plant in Michigan to \"highlight Trump’s broken promises on the economy.\"\n\nThe issues:Health care, jobs, immigration and the Great Lakes top your 2020 election agenda\n\nMaybe they're watching the Bachelorette?\n\nVoters appear less excited about the second set of Democratic debates than the first rounds in June, according to an Emerson poll released Tuesday.\n\nLess than six in ten of those surveyed planned on watching some of the debates, compared to the 72% who planned to watch the June debates.\n\nBoth tonight's debate and the Bachelorette finale are slated to run from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST — and some viewers are torn over which high-stakes drama to watch.\n\nWhat to watch for:The gloves will be off during this week's Democratic debates.\n\nWho's ahead in the polls?\n\nJoe Biden maintains his lead, with about one-third of Democrats picking Biden as their favorite in three national surveys out Tuesday.\n\nBut Biden has lost his lead in Iowa, according to a survey by Optimus for Firehouse Strategies. Elizabeth Warren has a slight edge over Biden in the first state where Democrats will vote next year. Biden continues to lead in the other early voting states of New Hampshire and South Carolina. But his support has softened since May, according to the survey.\n\nNationally, Biden does best with older voters and those who describe themselves as \"moderate\" or \"conservative,\" according to the Emerson poll. Bernie Sanders is the favorite of those under 30 and \"very liberal\" voters.\n\nContributing: Noah Broder, special to the Detroit Free Press.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/07/30"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/06/politics/barack-obama-mitt-romney-washington/index.html", "title": "Analysis: Obama and Romney are back, and show how American ...", "text": "Obama made his first post-presidential trip to the White House Tuesday and showed he'd not lost a political step, telling demoralized Democrats -- worried about a possible midterm election shellacking -- to buck up and remember what political power is for.\n\nMeanwhile, Romney -- now a Utah senator -- is suddenly turning into an old school Capitol Hill powerbroker. He plans to break with most of his GOP colleagues and vote for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson based on the throwback rationale that she's qualified. Romney is also in the thick of a bid to forge a compromise on Covid-19 funding, for which he's earned some rare praise from the White House.\n\n\"It feels like the good old days,\" beamed President Joe Biden in the East Room of the White House, where cheers for Obama lifted the gloom of Democrats at an event promoting the current White House's expansion of the Affordable Care Act.\n\nBut as much as anyone might want to believe it, with Russia's atrocities in Ukraine and the Republican Party fully signed up to ex-President Donald Trump's democracy threatening authoritarianism, the good old days are far from back -- and they weren't that great anyway, as anyone who remembers the fierce feuds over passing Obamacare and government shutdowns of that era will remember.\n\nStill, if things were bad back then, they are indisputably worse now.\n\nMisinformation, conspiracy theories, lies, culture wars and barely concealed racism now dominate Washington -- and, judging by recent events, are seen by an increasing number of lawmakers as a ladder to power. Obama is set to speak about misinformation in a Chicago speech on Wednesday.\n\nOn Tuesday, Trump acolyte Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida berated Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, warning that the chaos of the Afghan withdrawal and Russia's invasion of Ukraine happened because the US military studied \"wokeism\" instead of strategy.\n\nGaetz's histrionics were a classic example of a new breed of lawmaker who uses their platform to create viral media moments designed to animate the unhinged theories of conservative news, rather than to build a legislative career.\n\nHis outburst came in a week when Republican senators re-upped their slander of Jackson, painting her as an enabler of sex offenders, despite a sentencing record as a judge that is well within the mainstream. While she's almost certain to be confirmed, Jackson's treatment highlighted how the process of installing a new associate justice on the Supreme Court has become a vicious political play for base voters.\n\nProving that the bar can always be lowered in Washington, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton -- one of several senators who used the Jackson hearings to highlight his potential presidential ambitions -- suggested the first Black woman nominated to serve on the nation's top bench would have been lenient on Nazis. In a Senate speech, Cotton referenced former Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson who was the top prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials of Adolf Hitler's subordinates after World War II.\n\n\"You know, the last Judge Jackson left the Supreme Court to go to Nuremberg and prosecute the case against the Nazis. This Judge Jackson might have gone there to defend them,\" Cotton said.\n\nWashington is meanwhile still reverberating with a bizarre episode triggered by Republican North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn's claim he was invited to an orgy and saw leaders in the nation's anti-drug fight snorting cocaine. The House GOP declined to censure members for attending white supremacist rallies or for whitewashing Trump's coup attempt from history. But it did draw the line at Cawthorn. The congressman earned a rebuke because he embarrassed his colleagues in front of their constituents.\n\nIn another sign of its twisted sense of right and wrong, the House GOP is already threatening to use its possible new majority next year to kill the Select Committee probing a far greater transgression, Trump's incitement of the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021.\n\nObama was not the only White House powerbroker back on Washington's center stage on Tuesday. Ivanka Trump was testifying to the House committee, as members try to establish how much she knows about her father's thwarting of the US tradition of peaceful transfers of power.\n\nThat a former first daughter's appearance before such a body is now considered perfectly routine is a sign of how mind-bogglingly warped Washington has become.\n\nObama is back\n\nIt had been more than five years since he walked out the front door under the North Portico. There was never a chance that Trump would have had him back for the traditional unveiling of a former president's portrait. And given Trump's racist birtherism campaign against his predecessor, there's even less of a chance that Obama would have shown up to any such event.\n\nObama, instantly at ease back behind the presidential seal on Biden's podium, gently mocked his former vice president over his aviator sunglasses and love of ice cream. He began his speech by addressing his host as \"Vice President Biden\" before quickly correcting himself, saying, \"That was a joke!\" But two people close to Obama later told CNN's Jeff Zeleny it had been a slip of the tongue, and not how Obama had intended to begin his remarks touting the legacy of the Affordable Care Act.\n\nPhotos: Obama returns to the White House Photos: Obama returns to the White House Former President Barack Obama shakes hands with President Joe Biden in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday, April 5 Hide Caption 1 of 14 Photos: Obama returns to the White House Obama delivers remarks from the East Room of the White House as Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris look on. Hide Caption 2 of 14 Photos: Obama returns to the White House Biden fist-bumps Obama after Biden signed an executive order aimed at strengthening the Affordable Care Act. Hide Caption 3 of 14 Photos: Obama returns to the White House \"It's an honor to welcome my friend President @BarackObama back to the White House,\" Biden said in an Instagram post that showed the two men in the Oval Office on Monday. Hide Caption 4 of 14 Photos: Obama returns to the White House Harris reacts as Biden and Obama shake hands in the East Room. Hide Caption 5 of 14 Photos: Obama returns to the White House Harris, Biden and Obama walk to the event in the East Room. Hide Caption 6 of 14 Photos: Obama returns to the White House Obama hugs Harris at the event. Hide Caption 7 of 14 Photos: Obama returns to the White House Biden and Obama listen to Harris speak Monday. Hide Caption 8 of 14 Photos: Obama returns to the White House Obama talks with others at the White House. Hide Caption 9 of 14 Photos: Obama returns to the White House Obama listens to Biden speak. Hide Caption 10 of 14 Photos: Obama returns to the White House Biden and Harris stand behind Harris as she delivers remarks. Hide Caption 11 of 14 Photos: Obama returns to the White House \"They are real friends, not just Washington friends,\" press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday of Obama and Biden. The two also had lunch together. Hide Caption 12 of 14 Photos: Obama returns to the White House Obama hugs House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the end of the event Monday. Hide Caption 13 of 14 Photos: Obama returns to the White House Obama's return to the White House is the first sign of what many Democrats hope will be an increased involvement in the 2022 midterm elections. Hide Caption 14 of 14\n\nHe recalled the struggles the pair had fought together to finally pass the Affordable Care Act, which secured health insurance for millions of Americans for the first time after it was signed into law in 2010.\n\nObama used that experience as a parable to urge Democrats not to give up on reform -- even if it falls short of initial aspirations.\n\n\"I'm outside the arena, and I know how discouraged people can get with Washington -- Democrats, Republicans, independents,\" Obama said. \"Progress feels way too slow sometimes. Victories are often incomplete. And in a country as big and as diverse as ours, consensus never comes easily.\"\n\nThe ex-President seemed to be talking directly to his party, which has been riven by divides among progressives and moderates that have stalled Biden's ambitious social spending and climate change plan. As was often the case while he was president, Obama's eloquence framed the choices for his party in simple but compelling language as he laid out a mission statement for the midterms.\n\n\"But what the Affordable Care Act shows is that if you are driven by the core idea that, together, we can improve the lives of this generation and the next,\" Obama said.\n\nHe added, \"If you're persistent -- if you stay with it and are willing to work through the obstacles and the criticism and continually improve where you fall short, you can make America better. You can have an impact on millions of lives.\"\n\nObama's faith in the American system seemed a little archaic at a time when that democracy is under mortal threat from Trump's lies about election fraud -- and the ex-President's apparent new campaign for a second term that would surely be even more authoritarian and unhinged than his first.\n\nYet Obama also had the luxury Tuesday of walking out of the White House and taking off the tie he said he now rarely wears. The presidential burden of responding to Vladimir Putin's atrocities, the raging tempest of rising inflation and a likely midterm election hammering by Republicans, now rests with Biden.\n\nRomney once led his party. Now he's an outlier.\n\nWhen Romney was running to deprive Obama of a second White House term in 2012, Democrats lambasted the Republican nominee and former venture capitalist as a heartless corporate raider with no soul.\n\nNow, he might just be their best Republican friend in Washington -- and the fact that in the space of 10 years he could go from leading his party to being a dissident from its Trump-era extremism shows just how much the GOP has changed.\n\nIn his own way, Romney is also standing up for a functional brand of politics.\n\nHis support for Jackson recalled a time -- not too long ago -- when presidents could expect broad support for their Supreme Court nominees.\n\nBut the process has become so politicized that's no longer the case. Democrats and Republicans argue about who put ideology at the center of the process. But it has now become the primary driver of confirmation hearings.\n\nRomney -- whom no one would mistake for a liberal -- explained that after spending time with Jackson, he changed his mind about her ahead of her expected confirmation vote in the Senate this week.\n\n\"I became convinced that she's within the mainstream. She's also a highly qualified, intelligent, capable person,\" Romney told reporters. He said that while he doesn't expect to agree with Jackson on everything, he will join Republicans Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Liza Murkowski of Alaska in supporting her nomination.\n\nRomney also delivered another gift to the White House this week. He is leading a compromise drive to secure $10 billion in funds for a new Covid-19 relief plan that the White House believes is needed to stave off any future wave of the virus. The plan strips funding for global vaccination drives that could snuff out future variants. But Romney is the administration's best hope for getting the Republican support that would be needed to force any eventual deal through the Senate.\n\nLike Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, the former GOP nominee is also one of the few in his party to call out Trump's extremism, in the knowledge that he is ostracizing himself from his own party.\n\nObama's swipe at his rival in a presidential debate that \"the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back\" dripped with sarcasm. But subsequent events, especially the invasion of Ukraine, showed that Moscow remains a top US adversary.\n\nRomney's corporate conservatism and rich man's ethos were fair game for the Obama campaign in rough and tumble politics a decade ago.\n\nBut the moral courage that Romney is demonstrating late in his career is showing that the caricature Democrats created of a man without a soul was deeply unfair.", "authors": ["Analysis Stephen Collinson"], "publish_date": "2022/04/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2015/06/23/kasich-finally-campaigns-iowa/29158411/", "title": "Iowans pepper John Kasich with immigration Qs", "text": "Chrissie Thompson\n\ncthompson@enquirer.com\n\nUPDATE: 5:24 p.m.\n\nDES MOINES, Iowa – Questions about immigration dominated Gov. John Kasich's visit here Wednesday, from an Ohio family who flew out to discuss their immigration case to the first shouted question at a 200-person business forum: \"Immigration!\"\n\nLatinos are the fastest-growing ethnicity in Iowa. Families have moved here to work in the meatpacking industry, and Latino farm workers first moved here decades ago.\n\n\"If they're law-abiding and they register, I think they ought to be able to stay,\" Kasich said about people who are living in the U.S. illegally. \"They may have to pay a penalty. … You don't ditch the line … and if you do, you don't get rewarded for it.\"\n\nKasich said he'd prefer not to offer such immigrants a path to citizenship but says he believes it needs to be an option on the table so that immigration activists are willing to open negotiations.\n\n\"Just this morning, I see this mom and her son, and I'm looking at them. … They're made in the image of the Lord,\" Kasich said to reporters before his speech at the business group's forum.\n\nThe Ohio woman, a Peruvian immigrant named Maria, said she'd tried to meet with the governor back home about her immigration case, but her request was denied. So she and her 11-year-old son, Andrew, flew to Iowa to try to talk with him.\n\nKasich instructed an adviser to set up a time to bring Maria and Andrew into the office to share their story.\n\nBut Kasich's spokesman reacted differently, calling an Enquirer reporter with the administration's side of the story.\n\nThree groups of immigration activists came to Kasich's Columbus office on May 19, spokesman Rob Nichols said, dropping off petitions asking for the governor to withdraw Ohio from the federal suit seeking to stop Obama's executive action on immigration.\n\n\"They didn't schedule an appointment. They didn't ask to meet with the governor,\" Nichols said, disputing Maria's story.\n\n(Update: Late Wednesday night, an Ohio's Voice leader forwarded to The Enquirer a May 12 email from the governor's office. In it, a staffer acknowledges a request to meet with Kasich, but says: \"The Governor will be unable to meet with you.\")\n\nIn any case, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine – not Kasich – decided to join the suit, Nichols said.\n\n\"The attorney general doesn't need our blessing to sue,\" Nichols said. \"What they asked to do cannot be done constitutionally, but we took the time to have our attorney go out and meet several times with them.\"\n\nThe immigration activists posted a video on YouTube after their visit. In the video, Ohio's Voices leader Lynn Tramonte says: \"The governor was just on the other side of the door, most likely.\"\n\nNot true, Nichols said. Kasich was in New York taping for \"The Kelly File,\" with Megyn Kelly.\n\nUPDATE 11:35 a.m.:\n\nDES MOINES, Iowa – Maria A. and her 11-year-old son, Andrew, flew all the way from Ohio to see Gov. John Kasich in Iowa, hoping he would help with Maria's immigration case.\n\nMaria, a citizen of Peru, entered the U.S. on a tourism visa 13 years ago, but stayed. Her son was born in the U.S.\n\n\"We came here trying to fix our status, but it was not possible,\" said Maria, who declined to give her last name because she lives in the U.S. illegally.\n\nThen, President Barack Obama's executive action deferred the deportation of millions living in the U.S. illegally, giving Maria and Andrew hope of staying together. But a federal judge halted that action in February. Appeals are ongoing, and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has signed on to the lawsuit to block the action.\n\nMaria, with the help of a group called Ohio's Voice, said she tried to meet with Kasich in Ohio, but staffers declined the request.\n\n\"Kasich's office said it wasn't their decision\" to join the federal suit, said Lynn Tramonte of Ohio's Voice. \"We feel like as governor he has a role.\"\n\nKasich told Maria and Andrew, who were both decked out in Ohio State University gear, that he wanted to bring them in to hear what they had to say. An adviser gave Maria his contact information.\n\n\"She is such a nice lady. We don't want you to leave,\" Kasich told Maria.\n\nKasich has said he opposes deporting all people living in the U.S. without legal permission, but most recently said he didn't personally like the idea of offering them a path to citizenship.\n\n\"We've got millions of people who have come over here illegally, and it's impractical to think, in my opinion, that we can stick them on a school bus and drive them to the border, open the doors and say, 'Get out.' Of course, you have to secure the border,\" he said in February.\n\n\"I don't want them to have to leave,\" he told reporters afterward. \"As to whether you take the final step to citizenship, that's a whole other question. But what I said (in December) is, 'I'm not closed to anything.' \"\n\nUPDATE10:55 a.m.:\n\nUPDATE 9:40 a.m.:\n\nHere is The Des Moines Register preview of John Kasich's Iowa visit.\n\nA recent Iowa Poll shows a majority of likely GOP caucusgoers — 59 percent — don't know enough about Kasich to form an opinion of him.\n\nHe acknowledged Tuesday that some Iowans probably don't even know how to say his last name. \"My name is pronounced KAY-sick — it rhymes with basic,\" he said.\n\nUPDATE 9:32 a.m.:\n\nHere is Gov. John Kasich's Iowa schedule today. Our Chrissie Thompson will be with him. Follow live coverage on Twitter.\n\nDes Moines\n\n10:15 a.m. Eastern Time - Kasich will attend National Junior High Finals Rodeo at the Iowa State Fairgrounds\n\n12:15 p.m. - Kasich will speak with reporters, then address the Greater Des Moines Partnership, an economic development group. Watch live video here.\n\n\n\n2 p.m. - Kasich will address the Bull Moose Club of Des Moines\n\nCouncil Bluffs\n\n5:30 p.m. - Kasich will speak with reporters, then tour the Iowa Western Community College\n\n---\n\nOriginal story\n\nJohn Kasich's 2016 effort is ramping up Wednesday with his first trip to Iowa, and The Enquirer will be there to cover it all.\n\nThe Hawkeye State's Republican caucus voters will vote Feb. 1 to kick off the battle for the party's 2016 nomination for president.\n\nKasich so far has ignored Iowa, instead saying his likely White House bid will hinge on whether he can secure a victory in New Hampshire, whose first-in-the-nation primary will follow the Iowa caucuses.\n\nThat will change Wednesday, as Kasich visits a rodeo at the famed Iowa State Fairgrounds, then speaks to business leaders and a fraternal group in Des Moines. On Wednesday evening, Kasich will tour a community college in western Iowa, whose suburbs are part of metropolitan area of nearby Omaha, Nebraska.\n\nKasich's visit to Iowa comes months, or even years, after most GOP candidates started campaigning there. He appears unlikely to launch a full-blown effort to win the caucuses, such as by visiting all 99 counties. In any case, Kasich's moderate stances on Medicaid expansion and Common Core aren't likely to appeal to Iowa's conservative Republicans.\n\nStill, Iowa's Republican governor, Terry Branstad, this week touted Kasich's credentials as a serious GOP candidate. Kasich should return often to the state to contend in the caucus, Branstad said.\n\n\"Obviously it is a crowded field, but he is the governor of an important state,\" Branstad told reporters Monday. \"He just won a strong re-election as governor of Ohio, and you know they say, as Ohio goes, so goes the nation in presidential elections.\"\n\nBranstad declined to express an opinion on Kasich's support for expanding Medicaid in Ohio under President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. He said each governor has had to determine what makes the most sense for their state, noting that Iowa expanded its health care program for low-income people under a waiver from the federal government.\n\nKasich's leadership ability will matter in Iowa more than his positions, said U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican.\n\n\"We have a lot of different voters,\" she told The Enquirer this weekend, ahead of a speech at the Ohio Republican Party state dinner. \"If he can demonstrate leadership, that's what we're hungry for. I think all of the other issues will sort themselves out. He's got to have conviction.\"\n\nNevertheless, New Hampshire voters seem a better fit for the governor's likely campaign.\n\nVoters in the \"Live Free or Die\" state have said they're more concerned about fiscal issues and seem more open to the governor's stances on Common Core or Medicaid expansion. The smaller state would better suit Kasich's White House bid, which is likely to have far less money than the likes of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. And Kasich has the backing of former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, the crown prince of a New Hampshire GOP dynasty.\n\nDes Moines Register reporter William Petroski contributed to this report.\n\nStay with The Enquirer's Chrissie Thompson as she travels Iowa with Gov. Ohio John Kasich. Come to Cincinnati.com and follow @CThompsonEnq.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2015/06/23"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2022/04/22/lion-man-garden-state-bud-amelia-earhart-news-around-states/50125535/", "title": "Lion Man, Garden State bud: News from around our 50 states", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nCORRECTION: This article originally misstated details about a museum in the works in Atchison, Kansas, the birthplace of famed aviator Amelia Earhart. The centerpiece of the new Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum is Muriel – the world’s last remaining Lockheed Electra 10-E. Named after Earhart's younger sister, Grace Muriel Earhart Morrissey, Muriel is identical to the plane Earhart flew on her final flight around the world.\n\nAlabama\n\nFlorence: An organization that has staged dozens of protests against a Confederate monument in north Alabama filed suit contending the city is trying to limit the demonstrations in violation of free-speech guarantees. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by Project Say Something and its founder, Camille Bennett, claims the city and Police Chief Ron Tyler are trying to clamp down on the protests by telling the group when, where and how it can demonstrate against the monument, located at the Lauderdale County Courthouse. Bennett said the organization, a nonprofit she founded about eight years ago, has tried to work with the city, the TimesDaily reports. “Alabama has a long history of confronting racial injustice through peaceful demonstration, and it is imperative that we not lose that ability to speak truth to power when the situation demands it,” Bennett said in a statement. The city has not responded to the federal lawsuit in court, and city officials declined comment. Project Say Something held as many as 175 demonstrations at the monument in 2020 but cut back the following year because the city used its noise and parade permit ordinances to discourage them, the lawsuit said. The chief relocated the demonstrations to a “protest zone” away from the courthouse to shrink the potential audience, it claimed, and he threatened to issue citations.\n\nAlaska\n\nJuneau: U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is in the midst of her first visit to the state in the role, including a visit to a community at the center of a long-running dispute over a proposed land exchange aimed at building a road through a national wildlife refuge. Residents of King Cove have seen a road as a life and safety issue. Haaland was in King Cove on Wednesday with Gov. Mike Dunleavy and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Dunleavy’s office said. King Cove residents have long sought a land connection through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge to Cold Bay, which is about 18 miles away and has an all-weather airport. The refuge is near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula and contains internationally recognized habitat for migrating waterfowl. “The federal government needs to consider human safety and quality of life factors for residents in King Cove. The locals deserve to be heard by the federal government,” Dunleavy said in a statement. A U.S. Justice Department attorney last summer said Haaland had not decided what position she would take on a proposed land exchange, saying Haaland planned to review the record and visit King Cove before making a decision. A planned trip to Alaska last year didn’t materialize.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: The state’s Republican House speaker on Thursday was named one of five recipients of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award for his refusal to consider overturning the 2020 election results despite massive pressure from ex-President Donald Trump and his supporters. Speaker Rusty Bowers rebuffed repeated direct efforts by Trump, his attorney Rudy Giuliani and others to overturn results that saw President Joe Biden narrowly defeat Trump in Arizona. Trump and Giuliani urged Bowers in a phone call to retroactively change Arizona law to allow the Legislature to chose a different slate of presidential electors than those picked by the voters. “I am very grateful for this honor yet cannot help but feel undeserving of it,” Bowers said in a statement. “Honoring my oath and the people’s choices at the ballot box are not heroic acts – they are the least that Arizonans should expect from the people elected to serve them.” The award created by Kennedy’s family in 1989 is designed “to recognize and celebrate the quality of political courage that he admired most” and is given each year to one or more political figures. This year’s award honors those who showed “courage to protect and defend democracy in the United States and abroad.” The awards will be presented at a May 22 ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.\n\nArkansas\n\nFort Smith: A local agency says it’s seeing an uptick in calls for help after the end of a statewide rent relief program. The Arkansas Department of Human Services closed its program April 1, leaving many renters struggling to find additional avenues to keep their families housed. The Arkansas Rent Relief Program provided up to 15 months of relief for unpaid rent and utilities due on or after April 1, 2020. As of the beginning of this month, about 30,000 applications had been paid at the close of the program, totaling $92.5 million in funding distributed. Some households are still waiting for assistance as their applications are being processed. As of April 7, about 3,700 applications were still being processed across the state. In the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey taken from Jan. 26 to Feb. 7, 41.4% of Arkansas households surveyed said they were not current on rent or mortgage, making eviction or foreclosure either very likely or somewhat likely in the next two months. Dana Crawford, family services manager at the Crawford-Sebastian Community Development Council, said she has seen an uptick in calls looking for help following the closure of the state’s rental assistance program. “We did have the Arkansas Fresh Start, but we have since depleted those funds,” Crawford said.\n\nCalifornia\n\nSacramento: Parents of middle and high school students in the state would be warned about the dangers of firearms every year under a measure that advanced Wednesday. But they would no longer be required to tell school officials if they keep guns in the house, under the revised legislation. The state Senate Education Committee three weeks ago rejected the firearms reporting requirement as an invasion of privacy. So Democratic state Sen. Anthony Portantino reworked his bill, eliminating the parental reporting. The narrower version cleared the same committee Wednesday on a 5-1 vote. His revised bill requires schools to include information on the safe storage of firearms in the annual notifications they send home to parents of students in middle and high schools, starting in the 2023-24 school year. Legislation with a similar requirement has already passed the California Assembly. More than two-thirds of school shootings involve weapons taken from the students’ home, friends or relatives, Portantino said. “This is an attempt to try to empower school districts to do everything they can to make the school environment safe,” he said. “This errs on the side of caution.” If there are threats or perceived threats of school shootings, the proposal requires investigators to check the state’s firearm database to see if the suspect’s family has registered firearms.\n\nColorado\n\nAurora: The police chief who led the force in the Denver suburb when a gunman killed 12 people in a movie theater a decade ago is returning to temporarily lead the embattled department following the firing of its last chief. Daniel J. Oates, who served as police chief in Aurora from 2005 to 2014 before retiring as police chief in Miami Beach, Florida, will serve as interim chief and help in the selection of the next police chief, the city announced Wednesday. City manager Jim Twombly said he hired Oates “because he has established trust within our community and many of our officers.” Earlier this month Twombly fired Police Chief Vanessa Wilson, who was hired in 2020 as the city faced scrutiny over the death of Elijah McClain – a case that received widespread attention in the wake of protests of racial injustice and police brutality. McClain died after being stopped by police, put in a chokehold and injected with the powerful sedative ketamine in 2019. Three police officers and two paramedics were indicted in McClain’s death last year. Wilson acted quickly to fire officers for misconduct, including officers who took and shared photos appearing to mock McClain’s death. Twombly praised Wilson’s community outreach but said he fired her because of concerns about her leadership and management of the department, without getting into specifics. Wilson disputed Twombly’s assessment and alleged she was forced out for political reasons.\n\nConnecticut\n\nWestport: Emergency responders rescued 50 dogs and cats from a fire at a pet boarding facility after three people had escaped the flames by jumping from a second-floor window, authorities said Thursday. The fire was reported shortly before midnight Wednesday in a two-story building on Post Road East, Assistant Chief Jeff Gootman of the Westport Fire Department said in a news release. Firefighters responded and found heavy fire on the second floor of the building, which housed a pet boarding facility on the first floor and basement and an apartment on the second floor, Gootman said. After firefighters extinguished the flames, they searched the building and determined that the three people on the second floor had jumped to safety from a window, Gootman said. None required hospitalization. Westport firefighters and police officers removed approximately 50 dogs and cats from the boarding facility, Gootman said. The cause of the fire was under investigation Thursday.\n\nDelaware\n\nWilmington: After decades of criticism over use of force and a strained relationship with the community, the Wilmington Police Department’s policies and procedures are coming under legal scrutiny. A federal lawsuit filed against Wilmington officers involved in the 2020 shooting of a man found sleeping in an SUV lists years of departmental procedures claiming city police are unable to handle many situations, including making contact with unarmed individuals. The civil lawsuit touches on documented accounts of how Wilmington officers have not been taught to give proper verbal warning prior to using deadly force or to take cover when officers believe someone is armed. The lawsuit also claims department supervisors, among others, fail to check that officers use their standard-issue equipment and fail to prohibit officers from making false statements. These failures create unwritten policies, allowing Wilmington officers to engage in acts of excessive force without accountability, which in turn result in injury to civilians, according to the lawsuit filed on behalf of Jabri K. Hunter, who was shot by a Wilmington officer April 12, 2020. “These inadequate training policies existed prior to the date of this incident and continue to this day,” said the lawsuit targeting the officers involved in the shooting, Chief Robert Tracy and the city.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: Mayor Muriel Bowser and other community leaders announced Thursday that the city’s annual census of individuals experiencing homelessness showed a decline for the sixth straight year, WUSA-TV reports. Over the past year, the overall number of people experiencing homelessness has dropped 13.7%. Since 2016, when the Bowser administration began its Homeward DC plan, homelessness has declined by 47% total, data show. For the 2016 Point in Time count, 8,350 people were experiencing homelessness. In 2022, that number was 4,410. That’s the lowest recorded number going back to at least 2005, the mayor’s office said. The 2022 results also show declines in family homelessness (down 14%), homelessness among single adults (down 12%), and chronic homelessness for families (down 26%) and single adults (down 22%). “These results are a culmination of years of working together – across government, with our community partners and providers, and with residents in all eight wards – to implement Homeward DC and build systems and resources that meet the needs of D.C. residents,” Bowser said in a statement. “While we are proud of these results, we know there’s more work to do.”\n\nFlorida\n\nTallahassee: Black lawmakers staged a sit-in on the Florida House floor Thursday to protest a congressional map pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that they say will diminish the state’s Black representation in the U.S. House. The DeSantis map would increase Florida’s GOP presence and dismantle two districts now represented by Black members of Congress. As debate on the maps was nearing an end, Reps. Angie Nixon and Tray McCurdy opened up their suit jackets to display “Stop the Black Attack” T-shirts and shouted the same phrase. They sat on the state seal in front of the House speaker’s rostrum and were soon joined by other other Black Democrats and other supporters. The Republican-led chamber called a recess, all GOP lawmakers left the floor, and the state Florida Channel stopped broadcasting the proceedings. “This is good trouble! Necessary trouble!” Nixon shouted, echoing a phrase used by the late civil rights activist and congressman John Lewis. The group sang “We Shall Overcome” and prayed. Some members went on Facebook to stream live feeds of the protest. Nixon said in a text message to the Associated Press that the lawmakers would not leave the floor unless they were physically removed.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Democrat Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign asked a federal judge Wednesday to shut down unlimited contributions to a committee controlled by Republican incumbent Brian Kemp. The filing is yet more litigation over the constitutionality of a 2021 Georgia law that allows certain top elected officials and party nominees to create “leadership committees” that can raise campaign funds without limits and coordinate spending with campaigns. The judge earlier denied a request by Abrams to start taking unlimited amounts before she clinches the Democratic nomination May 24. Kemp narrowly beat Abrams in the 2018 general election, and they would match up again if Kemp survives a Republican primary challenge from former U.S. Sen. David Perdue and others. The law allows the governor and lieutenant governor, opposing major party nominees, and both party caucuses in the state House and Senate to form leadership committees. Donors can give as much as they want, while they can’t directly give candidates for statewide office more than $7,600 for a primary or general election and $4,500 for a runoff election. Opponents say the law unconstitutionally favors incumbents over challengers because they can raise limitless sums for years ahead of an election.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: Public school students must continue wearing masks in classrooms despite state officials lifting the same rules for airports and public transportation following Monday’s federal judge decision to remove mask requirements on U.S. flights. Masks are no longer required in Hawaii airports, on city buses or in handicapped vans, but all public students will be required to wear masks through the end of the school year, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports. “I understand that there are different perspectives regarding the Hawaii State Department of Education’s indoor masking in schools,” interim Superintendent Keith Hayashi said in a letter to parents. “We will continue to implement universal indoor masking in schools.” Federal transportation officials announced Monday that they would no longer enforce mask rules after a U.S. judge’s decision to strike down the mandate on domestic flights. The four largest U.S. airlines almost immediately dropped their mask requirements, and Hawaiian Airlines announced late Monday that it would follow suit. “We ask for our guests’ patience and understanding as we update all our communications and announcements,” the airline said. “We advise travelers to stay informed and follow mask requirements that may remain in effect at their origin or arrival airports.”\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: Two men have been sentenced to jail time and banned from hunting for years after pleading guilty to poaching a grizzly bear near Yellowstone National Park. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game said in a press release that Rex Baum, 79, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in connection with the female grizzly’s death last year. He was ordered to serve 3 days in jail and was banned from hunting for a decade. Baum’s son, Jared Baum, of Ashton, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and banned from hunting for life after pleading guilty to a felony in connection with the incident. Fish and Game officers discovered the grizzly’s carcass April 9, 2021, after the bear’s radio tracking collar signaled it had died, the Idaho Statesman reports. X-rays of the bear showed she had been shot more than a dozen times. Conservation officers visited the bear’s den, discovering a dead male cub. The agency contacted the two men after sending a warrant to Google for records of electronic devices that had been in the area around the time of the grizzly’s death. Idaho grizzlies are federally protected. Last month, Gov. Brad Little joined Montana and Wyoming governors in petitioning for the bears to be removed from Endangered Species Act protections.\n\nIllinois\n\nSpringfield: The city will have a starring role in the state’s latest marketing campaign, with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Cozy Dog Drive-In, and other sites featured in the new promotion. Gov. J.B. Pritzker officially announced the new campaign, “Middle of Everything,” at a ceremony Monday at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. While the Windy City is spotlighted heavily, Springfield gets plenty of love as well, with sites related to the 16th president, such as Lincoln’s Home and Lincoln’s Tomb, promoted in addition to the museum and a statue of Lincoln sitting on a park bench outside the museum. Pritzker said the $30 million campaign would help to recover tourism dollars lost during the COVID-19 pandemic and put the state in a position to grow in the years to come. A series of TV ads will run with the campaign, directed by Illinois native Jane Lynch, famous for roles such as in the TV series “Glee” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” The Dolton-raised actor, a graduate of Illinois State University, narrates a quartet of 30-second ads that showcase a Lincoln impersonator at the Lincoln Home, a muscle car at the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices downtown, Lynch interviewing a family at the Cozy Dog and speaking with a ghost of Lincoln at “Ghosts of the Library” in the ALPLM, among others.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Thomas McDermott Jr. released a new video ad Wednesday of him smoking marijuana in honor of 4/20, a cannabis-related celebration. McDermott, who will face Republican Sen. Todd Young on Nov. 8, has been vocal about his support for the legalization of marijuana, but the video of him lighting it up is a first. In the video the Hammond mayor posted on Twitter, McDermott lights a joint and smokes it in an Illinois backyard, where marijuana consumption has been legalized. He talks to an attorney, a physician, a criminal defense attorney, a professional distiller and another elected official about the benefits of legalizing weed. “Here’s the bottom line,” McDermott says in the video. “We need to legalize marijuana on the federal level. We need to also legalize cannabis in Indiana as well, so Hoosiers can get the health and economic benefits of cannabis.” The mayor admitted last year on his “Left of Center” podcast that he smoked marijuana at a recent Grateful Dead show at Wrigley Field. McDermott unveiled the ad the same day the Indiana Democratic Party launched a tour to push marijuana legalization. It started publicly advocating for the policy change in November, but with Republicans in control at the Statehouse, it went nowhere in the 2022 legislative session.\n\nIowa\n\nDyersville: This year’s Major League Baseball Field of Dreams game between the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs will have an opening act. The Cedar Rapids Kernels and Quad Cities River Bandits will play a regular season minor league baseball game in the stadium located near the iconic diamond from the movie Aug. 9. That showdown is set to take place just two days before MLB’s second-straight visit to the famous farmland and in the same ballpark used last season by the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees. The Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds will play on the same field Aug. 11. “I think it just adds to an entire week now up there,” said Kernels general manager Scott Wilson. “Instead of just one night even with the major league game, you’ve got Tuesday night with us. It gives the Field of Dreams some opportunity to do some things on Wednesday between us and have that game on Thursday.” It’s a marquee matchup of minor league teams have been rivals in the Midwest League for years. The River Bandits are the High-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. The Kernels are the High-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. The two teams, who are are located in Eastern Iowa, will become the first two minor league teams to play on the field.\n\nKansas\n\nAtchison: Aviator Amelia Earhart vanished as she tried to fly around the world in 1937, along with navigator Fred Noonan and their Lockheed Electra 10-E airplane. The centerpiece of the new Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum is Muriel – the world’s last remaining Lockheed Electra 10-E. Named after Earhart's younger sister, Grace Muriel Earhart Morrissey, Muriel is identical to the plane Earhart flew on her final flight around the world. That museum is in the works in Atchison, Earhart’s birthplace. Museum founder and president Karen Seaberg announced last week that supporters had already donated $10 million of the estimated $15 million needed to create the museum, including corporate powerhouses FedEx, Garmin and Lockheed Martin. The museum is expected to open next year, according to its website. Earhart, born in 1897 in Atchison, was a social worker in Boston in 1923 when she became the 16th woman in the U.S. to be issued a pilot’s license. She subsequently became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. She was also the first woman to fly nonstop across the U.S. She became a celebrity and drew attention by rejecting traditional women’s roles and speaking in support of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. Earhart also created her own line of women’s clothing, featuring comfortable outfits designed for “active living.”\n\nKentucky\n\nFrankfort: Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday that he will form an advisory team amid a broad review as he weighs whether to take executive action to legalize access to medical marijuana. Beshear said he instructed his legal team to analyze potential options for executive action to create a framework to make medical cannabis available for people suffering from specified ailments. The Democratic governor also made a direct appeal to Kentuckians to offer their views on the issue. “I want to be clear: I am for medical cannabis,” Beshear said at his weekly news conference. “I want it done in the right way. And we’re going to be looking at our legal options very closely. And at the same time, we want to hear from you.” The advisory team will travel the state to gather public input, and Kentuckians will be able to express their views directly to the governor’s office, he said. The expanded review reflects the governor’s growing frustration after the latest bill to legalize medical marijuana died in the state Senate during the legislative session that ended last week. Lawmakers failed to “get the job done,” with Kentucky falling behind the majority of states that make medical cannabis available as an alternative to opioid medications, the governor said.\n\nLouisiana\n\nNew Orleans: A federal judge and court-appointed monitors hired to oversee reform of the New Orleans Police Department said Wednesday that the long-troubled agency could reach full compliance this year after a nearly decade-old court-backed overhaul of its policies and practices. “I’m proud of how far NOPD has come,” U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan, who approved the agreement in 2013 a highly critical 2011 investigation and report by the U.S. Justice Department. Morgan tempered her praise with acknowledgment of continuing problems, including the short-handed department’s slowdown in recruiting and allegations of wrongdoing by officers who work private duty details arranged through the department. But the department has shown transparency in dealing with such setbacks, Morgan said. The reform agreement, embodied in a court document called a consent decree, was welcomed by department critics when it was negotiated during former Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration. They said it was needed for a department that had been plagued by recurring scandals involving corruption or questionable use of force for decades. But the consent decree had its critics as well, including police officer representatives who said it hampered police work.\n\nMaine\n\nAugusta: Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed off on a $1.2 billion supplemental budget Wednesday that sends more than half the money to residents in the form of $850 relief checks. Backed by dozens of lawmakers and Cabinet members, the governor signed the bill into law in the State House Hall of Flags. “What this budget shows once again – through hard work and good faith negotiation – Democrats, Republicans and independents can come together to do what is right for Maine people. And that we can do so without rancor or bitter partisanship that has sometimes divided Augusta in the past,” she told the assembly. The swift action means the checks will be mailed to more than 850,000 Mainers as early as June. Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the budget proposal in a show of bipartisanship. Mills proposed returning much of the money to Mainers, taking a suggestion from Republicans as a historic surplus ballooned thanks to federal spending and rosier-than-expected revenue forecasts. It was originally touted as pandemic relief but is now called inflationary relief. Mills’ opponent in the upcoming election, Republican former Gov. Paul LePage, derided the relief checks as a “gimmick.”\n\nMaryland\n\nAnnapolis: Gov. Larry Hogan signed measures into law Thursday aimed at increasing public safety, jobs, environmental stewardship and mental health resources. The Republican governor, who prioritized initiatives to support the police and fight crime this legislative session, signed legislation to increase transparency in the criminal justice system and to create a state gun analytics center to coordinate resources to screen and vet gun cases to improve the prosecution of gun crimes. “Violent crime continues to be Marylanders’ top priority, and today we’re signing our Judicial Transparency Act so that the public knows more about the sentences that are being handed down for violent criminals,” Hogan said. “We’re further expanding our warrant apprehension efforts and strengthening prosecutions on gun crimes.” Hogan opened his remarks before signing 103 bills with House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President Pro Tem Melony Griffith by noting it was the first time two Black women were the presiding officers representing the Maryland House and Senate together at a bill signing. The criminal justice measures marked a compromise between the Republican governor and the General Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nMartha’s Vineyard: A local family will go to court Friday over its continuing fight over a piece of land in Aquinnah that the Kennedy family donated to the Vineyard Conservation Society in 2013. Tanisha Gomes and her family say they are the rightful owners of that 5.7-acre property and are challenging the society’s motion for summary judgment, which asks a judge to throw out the case. In 2017, Gomes received a letter from Fidelity National Law Group, a firm that represents Vineyard Conservation Society Inc., to inform her and 19 members of her family about title problems with the land. The letter informed Gomes and her relatives that a lawsuit was filed with Dukes County Superior Court against the family, who are considered heirs of Louisa Pocknett. Pocknett, described in the complaint as the former owner of the property, died Aug. 29, 1874, and was a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. The family members were asked to sign an agreement to verify they had no right, title or interest in Lot 240, which was indicated on a plan entitled “Plan of Gay Head.” After further research, Gomes and her family found that Lot 240 remains in Pocknett’s name on the town of Aquinnah’s assessor’s website and objected to the lawsuit due to discrepancies surrounding incomplete deeds.\n\nMichigan\n\nLansing: Republican state Sen. Lana Theis opened a session with an invocation by claiming children are being attacked by “forces” that want to indoctrinate them with ideas their parents do not support. Three Democrats walked out of last week’s meeting to protest her apparent reference to how schools address sexual orientation and gender identity and critical race theory. Within days, one who tweeted criticism of the prayer was targeted by Theis in a fundraising email, calling Sen. Mallory McMorrow a liberal social media “troll” and accusing her of wanting to “groom” and “sexualize” kindergartners and teach “that 8-year-olds are responsible for slavery.” McMorrow responded Tuesday with a forceful, impassioned floor speech that resonated nationwide. “I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom” who wants “every kid to feel seen, heard and supported – not marginalized and targeted because they are not straight, white and Christian,” she said. Theis, who declined to speak after the session, released a statement in which she did not apologize but again accused Democrats of trying to undermine parents as the primary decision-makers in their children’s education. McMorrow’s 5-minute speech found an engaged audience on social media, racking up millions of views across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Cloud: Mike Dando, a St. Cloud State University English professor, has helped to create a new superhero comic and is aiming to teach students in grades 5-12 literacy skills, critical thinking and self-reflection this summer through an often overlooked medium. Exploring concepts like Afrofuturism and the African diaspora, students can imagine new worlds by reading and analyzing the story of the first Black superhero, Lion Man. In 2018, after the highly successful “Black Panther” movie debuted, Dando worked with a group of artists and professors around the world to revisit Lion Man, the first Black superhero comic, written in 1947 by Black Philadelphia journalist Orrin Cromwell Evans. The original story follows Lion Man, a scientist turned superhero tasked by the United Nations to watch over a magical mountain full of uranium in Africa to prevent war. When All-Negro Comics Inc.’s paper supplier refused to help the company produce another book because its founders were Black, only one Lion Man issue was ever published – until now. Dando’s new, much longer Lion Man comic book follows the character’s journey of self-discovery and heroism as he works to save a group of other heroes trapped in monstrous bodies. He served as editor and project manager for the work written by John Jennings and illustrated by David Brame. Thanks to a grant from St. Cloud State, the team was able to make copies of the comic book – one of which is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York – and Dando will work with a variety of after-school clubs this summer to talk about the narrative structure and themes of the book, as well as teach students how to make their own comics.\n\nMississippi\n\nGulfport: Volunteers on Thursday planted several types of grasses along a stretch of Mississippi Gulf Coast beach to help restore habitat for newly hatched Least Tern chicks. Audubon Delta, along with Harrison County Sand Beach Authority and Gulfport High School, partnered to install several species of beach grasses into a globally recognized conservation zone in Gulfport in order to stabilize the beach, encourage dune formation and provide coverage for the endangered birds. The area was destroyed after hurricanes Ida and Zeta and several tropical storms over the past two years, officials said. The project was made possible by a Caring for Our Coasts grant issued by Citgo and Restore America’s Estuaries.\n\nMissouri\n\nSt. Louis: City leaders on Thursday announced plans for a new institute designed to make the region a major player in geospatial technology. Andy Taylor, executive chairman of the rental car company Enterprise Holdings, is providing financing for the Taylor Geospatial Institute, along with eight St. Louis-area research institutions. The institute will provide funding for research and program development and expects to attract leading scientists to St. Louis, organizers said. Taylor said in a statement that he hopes the institute “will cement St. Louis as the world’s true center for geospatial excellence.” A news release says research and training will focus on topics such as food security, improving health care systems, and national security. Officials did not disclose how much money the Taylor family is investing, but the family has funded more than $1 billion in St. Louis civic initiatives and cultural institutions through the years.\n\nMontana\n\nHelena: Lawmakers have rejected an attempt to call a special legislative session to investigate the state’s election processes amid continued false claims by ex-President Donald Trump and his supporters that the 2020 election was stolen. A poll of 149 lawmakers found just 44 approving a special session by Tuesday’s deadline, short of the 75 needed. The secretary of state’s tally showed 60 lawmakers rejected the special session, and another 45 didn’t return their ballots, which counts as a “no” vote. One legislative seat is vacant. Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers tried to reach an agreement to ask Gov. Greg Gianforte to call a special session to create new voting districts for the Public Service Commission before three federal judges had to decide how to even out the populations in the five districts. However, GOP leaders were unable to get a commitment from all Republicans to limit the special session to addressing just the voting districts. Gianforte said he would not call a special session without such an agreement. After the court set the PSC districts for the 2022 elections, 10 lawmakers asked for the poll on whether lawmakers wanted to hold a special session on election integrity.\n\nNebraska\n\nLincoln: Former U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson endorsed state Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks on Thursday in her campaign for the state’s 1st Congressional District. Pansing Brooks, a Democrat, is looking to replace former U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican who resigned after he was convicted on charges that he lied to federal authorities about an illegal campaign contribution. Nelson, a Democrat, said Pansing Brooks has worked with both parties while in the Nebraska Legislature and passed more than 60 bills. Pansing Brooks will face state Sen. Mike Flood, a Republican, in a June 28 special election to determine who will serve the remainder of Fortenberry’s term in Congress. She’s also expected to face Flood again in November, assuming that they both win their parties’ May 10 primary nomination as expected. Nelson is the most recent Democrat to have served as Nebraska’s governor, with a tenure from 1991 to 1999. He was a U.S. senator from 2001 to 2013. Pansing Brooks has served in the Legislature since 2015 and is leaving office in January due to term limits.\n\nNevada\n\nLas Vegas: Most of the five leading Republican candidates for governor who gathered Wednesday for a campaign forum offered dire assessments of the state’s tourism-dependent economy, rising crime and struggling schools – and asked for votes for their visions to fix them. Several also blamed Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, the consensus GOP front-runner, for skipping the event. “We want to have the best, well-run, state in the country,” said Guy Nohra, a Reno venture capitalist, drawing applause from among about 100 people at a Republican women’s club luncheon in Las Vegas. “But we don’t. We’re 50th in everything,” said Nora, who called his foray into politics the culmination of an American dream after his own teenage experience fighting a war in his home country, Lebanon, and his business ventures in the U.S. The event also featured North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, Gardnerville surgeon Fred Simon, former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller and firebrand northern Nevada lawyer Joey Gilbert.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: The state House approved a resolution Thursday in support of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary before advancing a bill opponents said would threaten it. The nonbinding resolution came a week after the Democratic National Committee approved a plan to revoke the guaranteed first-place spots in the presidential nominating calendar long held by the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary. Noting New Hampshire has withstood previous challenges, lawmakers affirmed their commitment to the tradition and said candidates are well-served by campaigning in a state with an engaged citizenry and “well-run, free and fair elections.” But a supporter of a bill to create a provisional ballot system later called the current system “laughable,” claiming it allows people to cast fraudulent ballots with virtually no consequences. Under current law, voters who arrive at the polls without the necessary identification fill out affidavits promising to provide documentation within 10 days; those who don’t can be investigated and charged with fraud. The votes themselves remain valid, but under a bill sent to the House Finance Committee on Thursday, the state would create a new type of “affidavit ballots” that would be thrown out if voters fail to follow up. Opponents called it an expensive and complicated solution to a problem that doesn’t exist and said creating a system that would delay the final results for more than a week would threaten the state’s ability to hold the first primary.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nBloomfield: The flowers were finally on full display Thurday as recreational marijuana sales began in the Garden State. Michael Barrows wore his Grateful Dead T-shirt and Jerry Garcia face mask for opening day of legal cannabis sales and was one of dozens of people who lined up before dawn to join the celebratory scene. “It’s pretty amazing, exciting, and if I get pulled over on the way home, and I’m ever asked if I have any drugs in the car, now I’m allowed to say ‘only this,’ ” Barrows said, holding up the canister of marijuana flower he had just purchased. Possession of cannabis is legal now in New Jersey, though driving under the influence is still prohibited. Barrows, 60, joined a steady stream of other novelty-seekers, longtime marijuana users and medical patients at RISE in Bloomfield, near the state’s biggest city, Newark, and not far from New York City. With soul music blaring, free doughnuts in the parking lot, a steel drum and a balloon arch at the entrance, New Jersey’s cannabis kickoff for people 21 and older had the feel of a fair more than a store opening. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who has long backed recreational marijuana legalization and signed the bill that set up the new marketplace kicking off at 13 existing medical marijuana facilities across the state, appeared at ZenLeaf in Elizabeth for its first day of recreational sales. The governor said he wouldn’t be trying any pot; earlier this week he said it’s not his “thing,” and he prefers scotch.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nCarlsbad: Habitat for about a million bats will be protected from human impacts through a deal between a nonprofit and the federal government. About 315,000 acres of southern New Mexico land owned by billionaire media tycoon Ted Turner were protected from development in a partnership between the U.S. Department of Defense and New Mexico Land Conservancy. The deal saw a conservation easement added to Armendaris Ranch, owned by Turner, due to perceived cultural significance and biological diversity on the land in Sierra and Socorro counties. The ranch land supports more than 500 vertebrate species, according to a report from the Land Conservancy, including multiple listed for federal and state protections. It also contains the Fra Cristobal Mountain Range, home to 230 desert bighorn sheep, and lava fields that include the Jornada cave system that houses bats of multiple species. “This land is laden with important and unique natural and cultural resources, and the opportunity to permanently protect a property with conservation values of this magnitude was at the heart of our organization’s decision to tackle this landscape-scale project,” said Ron Troy, southern New Mexico program manager with the Land Conservancy.\n\nNew York\n\nOlive: As western regions contend with drier conditions, New York City is under fire for sometimes releasing hundreds of millions of gallons of water a day from a key reservoir in the Catskill Mountains. The occasional releases, often around storms, have been used to manage water levels in the Ashokan Reservoir and to keep the water clear. But residents downstream say the periodic surges cause ecological harm along the lower Esopus Creek. They say the high flows churn up the water so much it turns the scenic Hudson River tributary the color of chocolate milk. “These people can afford to offer New York City cheap, clean, beautiful water by destroying ours,” said Michael Vallarella, who lives on the creek in Saugerties. Standing on his back deck recently, he swiped through pictures on his phone of the water looking like “Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory river.” The tensions between upstate residents and the city of 8.8 million people to the south touch on how the largest unfiltered water supply in the country will operate in an expected stormier future. Opponents pushing for changes to the water releases got a boost recently when state regulators told the city to take a deeper look at their effects. City officials say they’re trying to strike the difficult balance of responding to downstream concerns while delivering quality water.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nAsheville: The fight over a downtown Confederate marker is not over, according to the attorney challenging the city’s removal of Vance Monument, and documents filed Wednesday attempt to take the issue to North Carolina’s highest court. Despite an April 5 ruling from the N.C. Court of Appeals in favor of the city, affirming a lower court judgment to dismiss the lawsuit, allowing removal of the monument, the city finds itself again in limbo. Nearing midnight Wednesday, Edward Phillips, lawyer for the Society for the Historical Preservation of the 26th North Carolina Troops, which brought the challenge against the city, filed a petition for discretionary review with the N.C. Supreme Court. This document is a request for the Supreme Court to review the decision by the Court of Appeals. It does not ensure the high court will hear an appeal, said City Attorney Brad Branham. “I am not going to cede the point until I’m told there’s just no path forward,” Phillips said. The filings add to an already lengthy process to determine the fate of the obelisk that was built to honor racist Civil War-era Gov. Zebulon Vance. The 75-foot-tall granite Vance Monument stood in Pack Square Plaza in the heart of downtown Asheville. All but its base was taken down as of June 2021 after the City Council voted to remove it. The historical preservation group is seeking to stop and potentially reconstruct the monument to Vance.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that dismisses a lawsuit brought by the state and several western counties that could have resulted in the construction of additional roads in parts of the Badlands. The Badlands Conservation Alliance says the ruling protects some of the most pristine areas of the Badlands from traffic and potential oil development. “I think it’s a really serious win for the Badlands, for the long-term integrity of those areas that are still roadless and considered suitable for wilderness,” said Connie Triplett, president of the alliance. A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals found the state’s and counties’ claim is barred by a 12-year statute of limitations that was passed years ago. Their ruling upholds an earlier decision by U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland, who dismissed the matter in 2017, the Bismarck Tribune reports. The case began a decade ago when Billings, Golden Valley, McKenzie and Slope counties sued the federal government. The state followed with its own lawsuit, and the court consolidated the two cases. The plaintiffs sought to claim rights to section lines used in land surveying and mapping in the Little Missouri National Grassland and other areas that make up the Dakota Prairie Grasslands.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: A lawsuit has been filed targeting legal protections granted to health care providers that allow them to deny treatment they oppose on the basis of their conscience or religious beliefs. Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein on Wednesday sued the state over the measure known as the “conscience clause.” According to the law, a medical provider can be “excused from participating” whenever a treatment conflicts with a provider’s “moral, ethical, or religious beliefs or convictions.” Opponents of the law say it could limit abortions or other medical care. The city also argues the measure violates Ohio’s Constitution and the federal Affordable Care Act. If nurses employed by the city are opposed to a medical procedure, “they can refuse it, and we as a city can’t do anything about it,” Klein said. He also said insurance companies could refuse to pay for certain procedures, and “that obviously causes significant problems for our employees.” Republican Gov. Mike DeWine kept the language of the law in place when he signed the 2021 budget. DeWine said the provision merely sets into state law what’s already being practiced. In a statement, Attorney General Dave Yost called the lawsuit “meritless, anti-democracy and authoritarian.”\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: Plans to fully legalize marijuana can proceed to the signature-gathering stage, the state Supreme Court ruled, paving the way for two more cannabis plans seeking voter approval. The high court’s ruling late Tuesday comes amid a marijuana boom in the Sooner State after voters in 2018 approved the most liberal medical marijuana program in the nation. Nearly 10% of Oklahoma’s 4 million residents have qualified for a medical-use card – by far the highest percentage in the country. Supporters of the two separate proposals still need to gather enough signatures to put the plans on the ballot for voters. The plans approved Tuesday, State Question 819 and a companion State Question 818, would amend the Oklahoma Constitution to protect the right of residents age 21 and older to use marijuana. It’s part of a nationwide push to legalize the recreational use of cannabis for adults, which 18 states and the District of Columbia have already approved. Because the two proposals seek to amend the constitution, supporters will have to gather more signatures, about 178,000 in 90 days, for them to qualify for the ballot. “Whether we’ll get on the November ballot this year remains to be seen,” said Jed Green, a longtime Oklahoma cannabis activist behind the plans. “We’re going to push, push and push to get it done.”\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: A Native American tribe in the state said it is assessing its legal options after learning the U.S. government plans to release water from a federally operated reservoir to downstream farmers along the Oregon-California border amid a historic drought. Even limited irrigation for the farmers who use Klamath River water on about 300 square miles of crops puts two critically endangered fish species in peril of extinction because the water withdrawals come at the height of spawning season, the Klamath Tribes said. Last year, critically endangered sucker fish central to the Klamath Tribes culture and religion didn’t have enough water to spawn, and thousands of downstream juvenile salmon died without reservoir releases to support the Klamath River’s health. The tribes said in a statement that the decision to release any water to about 1,000 farmers in the massive, federal agricultural project was “perhaps the saddest chapter yet in a long history of treaty violations” and placed the blame for the current water crisis on “120 years of ecosystem mismanagement at the hands of settler society.” The fish are important to the inland tribes’ cultural and religious practices and were once a dietary staple. The Klamath stopped fishing for the sucker fish in the 1980s as numbers dwindled. They now run a captive breeding program to ensure the species’ survival and note that no juvenile sucker fish have survived in the wild in recent years. “We have nothing left with which to ‘compromise,’ ” the Klamath Tribes said in a statement. “Global warming is certainly a global problem, but thus far its local consequences appear to be exacerbating existing and systematic inequalities between ourselves and the larger society.”\n\nPennsylvania\n\nPhiladelphia: Prosecutors said Thursday that they will not re-try a Philadelphia man whose 2012 murder conviction was overturned earlier this month, citing weak evidence and the involvement of a disgraced former detective now charged with sexually assaulting witnesses in other cases. Rafiq Dixon, 40, had been serving a life sentence in the 2011 fatal shooting of Joseph Pinkney. The 40-year-old was expected to be released from prison Thursday afternoon, hours after a Common Pleas Court judge granted the motion to withdraw charges, his attorney said. The initial case relied heavily on testimony from three witnesses who gave inconsistent accounts. All three were interviewed by former homicide detective Philip Nordo, who has been charged with various crimes including stalking, intimidating, and sexually assaulting male suspects and witnesses during his career. In June, a judge reversed the 2015 conviction of Arkel Garcia, who confessed to murder during an interrogation in which, his lawyer said, Nordo asked the teenager to view pornography with him. The ruling came after both sides presented evidence that Nordo had sexually groomed witnesses in the case and trial prosecutors had suppressed his misconduct. Garcia was also serving a life sentence.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: Democratic former state lawmaker David Segal has joined the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, a fellow Democrat who’s retiring after more than two decades in office. Segal announced his decision Wednesday, saying that many voters are fed up with federal politics and that “government should be able to do more to address the concerns of our neighbors.” Segal served on the Providence City Council before winning a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives. He served for two terms, from 2007 to 2011. In 2010 he lost a bid for Congress and founded a national liberal advocacy organization known as Demand Progress. He’s the latest entry in a crowded Democratic field that also includes state Treasurer Seth Magaziner; Joy Fox, a former top aide to Langevin; Biden administration official Sarah Morgenthau; Omar Bah, executive director of the Refugee Dream Center in Providence; and former political strategist Michael Neary. “We have the people power to reach the voters, we have the money to compete, and we have the urgent case to make that we deserve leaders who can bring people together and ensure their voices are heard,” Segal said in his campaign announcement.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nColumbia: The state’s highest court on Wednesday issued a temporary stay blocking the state from carrying out what was set to be its first-ever firing squad execution. The order by the state Supreme Court puts on hold at least temporarily the planned April 29 execution of Richard Bernard Moore, who drew the death sentence for the 1999 killing of convenience store clerk James Mahoney in Spartanburg. The court said in issuing the temporary stay that it would release a more detailed order later. Attorneys for the 57-year-old inmate had sought a stay, citing pending litigation in another court challenging the constitutionality of South Carolina’s execution methods, which also include the electric chair. Moore’s lawyers also wanted time to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether Moore’s sentence was proportionate to his crime. It has been more than a decade since the last firing squad execution in the U.S. The state of Utah carried out all three such executions in the nation since 1976, according to the Washington-based nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. The most recent was in 2010. The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday also set a May 13 execution date for Brad Sigmon, 64, convicted in 2002 of the double murder of his ex-girlfriend’s parents in Greenville County.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: A leadership shake-up and shorter wait times for service are welcomed changes for disgruntled military veterans who say the federal health care system is failing them, but that’s still not enough to appease the dozens of former soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines, as well as a handful of elected officials, who showed up at the South Dakota Veterans Council’s quarterly meeting Wednesday. Praises of this week’s removal of the now-former Sioux Falls Veterans Affairs director were tempered by caution for a need for more systematic improvements. “If you walked the halls on Tuesday, there were more smiles in the Sioux Falls VA Hospital than there have been in 14 months,” said Hawk Mayor, a Vietnam combat veteran, referring to the departure of now former Sioux Falls VA director Lisa Simoneau. “But we’ve been shut out.” Simoneau was removed from the position as of Monday after growing pressure for a regime change from both veterans, VA employees and South Dakota’s congressional delegation. Since at least October, members of the South Dakota Veterans Council have voiced concerns about a lack of responsiveness from Simoneau regarding what’s described as an inadequate level of care being provided to veterans entitled to medical services through the veterans’ health care system. Some employees at the VA have also blown the whistle in recent weeks on poor management practices and a hostile work environment under Simoneau.\n\nTennessee\n\nNashville: The state would become the latest to impose harsh penalties on doctors who violate new, strict regulations dictating the dispensing of abortion pills under a proposal headed to Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s desk. It’s part of a coordinated nationwide effort spearheaded by anti-abortion groups upset over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to remove a rule that required women to pick up the abortion medication in person. After Tennessee’s GOP-controlled House approved the measure last week, Senate Republicans on Thursday signed off on sending the proposal to the governor. Lee hasn’t publicly weighed in on the measure, but he has yet to veto a bill while in office and frequently stresses his opposition to abortion. According to the bill, delivery of abortion pills by mail would be outlawed, and anyone who wanted to use abortion pills would be required to visit a doctor in advance and then return to pick up the pills. The drugs may be dispensed only by qualified physicians – effectively barring pharmacists from doing so. Violators would face a Class E felony and up to a $50,000 fine. The in-person requirement had long been opposed by medical societies, including the American Medical Association, which said the restriction offers no clear benefit to patients.\n\nTexas\n\nHouston: A prominent conservative activist has been charged with unlawful restraint and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon over an October incident involving a contractor the activist hired, his attorneys said Wednesday. Jared Woodfill and Gary Polland, attorneys for Dr. Steven Hotze, said the Harris County District Attorney’s Office told them Wednesday that Hotze was indicted over allegations against a former police officer, Mark Aguirre, who worked for Hotze. Aguirre had been retained to pursue a voter fraud investigation on behalf of Houston-based Liberty Center for God and Country, a nonprofit organization Hotze runs. Aguirre was charged Dec. 14 with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after a man accused him of running him off the road and holding him at gunpoint in an effort to prove what authorities have called a bogus voter fraud scheme. Aguirre claimed an air conditioner repairman was the mastermind. He said the man’s truck was filled with fraudulent ballots when he ran his SUV into it Oct. 19, according to authorities. Aguirre told police he and some friends set up a “command post” at a Marriott hotel in suburban Houston that conducted 24-hour surveillance on the repairman for four days, according to a police affidavit.\n\nUtah\n\nSt. George: Faced with continuing drought and one of the fastest-growing populations in the U.S., the Washington County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to apply new water restrictions to every new residential and commercial development. The new rules won’t apply to any existing homes or commercial buildings, but they could hopefully provide a better balance between what water is available and the continued demand for new construction, said Adam Snow, a member of the three-member commission, which regulates buildings requirements for all of the unincorporated areas of the county. “We want to have beautiful communities and a beautiful place to live and maintain our quality of life,” Snow said. “We’re doing it as effectively and efficiently as possible with our water, which is a very sacred resource right now.” The changes will be written into Title 10, Chapter 27 of the county code. They will only apply to projects on unincorporated county land that still need approval from the county to go forward, although they resemble similar measures being passed by cities and towns in the area. Snow said about 5% of the county’s population lives on unincorporated land.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: Property owned by Vermont-recognized Native American tribes will be exempt from property taxes under a new law that takes effect in July. The legislation, signed by Gov. Phil Scott on Wednesday, recognizes that Vermont lands “are the historic and current territories of the Western Abenaki people.” “I sign it out of respect for the heritage of our Native American communities and traditions,” Scott wrote in a letter to the Legislature. “Further, the associated costs to the Education Fund and the General Fund borne by all Vermonters are forecast to be negligible.” To be exempt from the state and municipal property taxes, the property must be used for the purposes of the tribe and not leased or rented. Don Stevens, chief of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk-Abenaki Nation, has said the tax exemption allows the tribes, which rely on grants and donations, to be able to use those resources “to help uplift our people” with food security and other needs. The legislation states that “stewardship of these lands was removed from the Abenaki by European governments and settlers” and acknowledges “the Abenaki people as the traditional land caretakers of Ndakinna, which includes parts of Vermont, New England, and Quebec.”\n\nVirginia\n\nWestlake: Officials at Booker T. Washington National Monument are asking the public for help in unraveling one of its biggest mysteries. Hidden away in a section of the park just off its Jack O’ Lantern Trail rests a cemetery that predates much of the known history of the former plantation where Booker T. Washington was born a slave and later freed. The cemetery has few markings to provide context to who was buried there or when they were buried. “It’s definitely one of the biggest mysteries at the park,” said Tim Sims, senior park ranger. Archaeologist with New South Associates recently began taking a deeper look into the cemetery, commonly referred to as the Sparks Cemetery named after a person who once lived nearby. Some of the Black families who have lived near the cemetery include the Brown, Holland, Divers, Burroughs, Ferguson, Taylor, Green, Harris, English, Edwards, Starkey, Swain, Saunders, Childress and Dudley families. Sims said the names of the families were found looking through property deeds, slave records and federal census records. People with information on those possibly buried in the Sparks Cemetery are asked to contact Velma Fann, historian, at New South Associates at 770-498-4155, x126 or vfann@newsouthassoc.com.\n\nWashington\n\nOlympia: The state Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously ruled that an Edmonds city ordinance requiring that guns be locked up and kept out of unauthorized hands is preempted by state law. The ruling affirmed a three-judge state of appeals ruling last year in the case sparked by a lawsuit filed by three residents against the city of Edmonds after it approved an ordinance in July 2018 requiring residents to lock up their guns or else face fines. “Under our system of divided government, many elected bodies hold legislative power, including elected city councils. These councils, however, must legislate within constitutional constraints,” Chief Justice Steven González wrote, joined by the eight other justices on the high court. “One of those constraints is that city ordinances must not ‘conflict with general laws’ that have been enacted by the people of our state by initiative or by our state legislature.” A statewide ballot measure that passed later that same year on gun safety doesn’t mandate that a firearm be stored in a particular way or place, but it created criminal penalties for when a gun isn’t properly stored and accessed by someone who is prohibited from possessing a firearm – such as a child – and used to injure or kill, displayed in public in an intimidating manner or used during a crime.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nMorgantown: A health care system has partnered with a junior college on a program aimed at addressing the shortage of nurses in the state. Mon Health System and West Virginia Junior College signed a letter of intent to launch a nursing education program that will put students at the school on an accelerated path to becoming nurses, officials said during a signing ceremony Monday. Mon Health nurses will serve as faculty, and the students will have digital coursework as well as learning through work at the hospital – what Mon Health System President and CEO David Goldberg called patient-side, The Dominion Post reports. The program plans to open enrollment in September and start its first class next April. The collaboration, Goldberg said, will serve “to bring not only the best nurses to patient-side through Mon Health, but keep people in this community, grow our own, take care of our own neighbors, family members and friends, so we continue to be the best health care location in north-central West Virginia and improve our health care outcomes.” West Virginia Junior College CEO Chad Callen said nursing shortages are at near crisis levels in some areas of the state. “Such challenges require bold thinking and innovative, out-of-the-box approaches,” he said.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: The work of an investigator looking into the 2020 presidential election generated fresh criticism Thursday after newly posted documents included a memo describing one elections worker in the state as “probably” a Democrat in part because she loves snakes and “has a weird nose ring.” Also on Thursday, a judge ordered Michael Gableman to stop deleting records, the latest legal defeat for the former state Supreme Court justice. Gableman has released two interim reports on the election won by President Joe Biden and has suggested the GOP-controlled Legislature look into decertifying his victory. Republican leaders including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who hired Gableman, have repeatedly said they have no intention of trying to decertify the win. Gableman’s reports have not included evidence to back up the false claims that Donald Trump won Wisconsin in 2020. A recently posted unsigned document on Gableman’s website, titled “cross pollinators,” details his probe into public employees who work in elections. That memo contends that a geographic information system analyst for Milwaukee is “probably” a Democrat because she plays video games, “has a weird nose ring,” sometimes colors her hair, “loves nature and snakes” and lives with a boyfriend but is not married to him.\n\nWyoming\n\nCasper: The state’s senior population grew at the nation’s second-fastest rate in the second decade of the millennium, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. Citing research from online resource hub AgingInPlace.org, the newspaper points to a 40% increase in the proportion of Wyoming residents who are 65 or older between 2010 and 2020, with the level sitting at 17.8% in the latest census. Only Alaska was found to have a faster-growing senior population when comparing U.S. Census Bureau data.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/04/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/arizona/2019/12/22/arizona-top-news-stories-2019/2613187001/", "title": "Arizona's top news stories of 2019", "text": "In 2019, there was no shortage of stories to keep Arizonans talking — and no shortage of stories that got the nation talking about us.\n\nThere were scandals at the state Legislature and in the adoption industry. There were crises at state prisons, in sweltering homes and along the border. And there were incidents, such as a 2 a.m. rant involving a Nike shoe, that defied categorization.\n\nThese are the top Arizona news stories, as selected and ranked by editors at The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com.\n\n19. Arizona Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill dies\n\nAfter spending nearly all his life with the team, longtime Arizona Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill died in October. He was 88.\n\nBidwill began as a ball boy when the team, then owned by his father, was based in Chicago. He later followed the Cardinals to St. Louis, where he and his brother inherited the team after their mother’s death. In 1988, he brought the Cardinals to Arizona as the team’s sole owner.\n\nBidwill spent much of his professional career pursuing a stadium that would make the team economically competitive. Today, the Cardinals are on sound financial footing largely thanks to revenue produced by games at State Farm Stadium.\n\nThe stadium also appears to have helped the team on the field: From 2006 through 2018, the team finished .500 or better seven times — a striking departure from the abysmal record that plagued their early Arizona years.\n\nAs an individual, Bidwill wasn't interested in courting celebrity: He rarely spoke with reporters on the record, and often made generous community donations quietly. But he maintained a consistent sense of humor, often asking for autographed prints when The Republic poked fun at him in editorial cartoons.\n\nBidwill's son, Michael, succeeded him as the team's principal owner.\n\n18. Terrorist who held Arizona woman captive killed\n\nTerrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the reported captor and rapist of Arizonan Kayla Mueller, was killed during an October special forces raid in Syria. He’d been one of the most-hunted terrorists in the fight against ISIS for years.\n\nMueller, who was taken hostage in 2013, grew up in Prescott and went to Northern Arizona University before traveling the world as an aid worker. She was kidnapped after crossing from Turkey into northern Syria to visit a hospital.\n\nMueller was held for 18 months before her death was announced in early 2015, and her body has never been recovered. Her parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller, told The Republic about a 20-minute phone call they received from the president after the raid.\n\nMarsha Mueller said her daughter would be glad that al-Baghdadi was killed.\n\n“She wants us to get them,” Marsha said. “I’ve felt that with all my heart.”\n\n17. McCain Institute leader embroiled in impeachment inquiry\n\nKurt Volker, who led the McCain Institute for International Leadership since 2012, stepped down in October after his ties to a federal whistleblower scandal presented a distraction from the think tank’s work.\n\nThe former special envoy to Ukraine was the first witness to testify privately before Congress in the inquiry into whether President Donald Trump pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden, a top Democratic 2020 presidential rival and former vice president.\n\nVolker provided lawmakers with text messages that showed U.S. diplomats discussed tying financial aid and face-to-face engagement with the president to investigations that could help Trump’s 2020 re-election efforts.\n\nVolker also told Congress he tried to warn Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, that some of the Ukrainian sources giving him information about alleged wrongdoing by Biden or his son were not credible, according to the Washington Post.\n\n“Kurt is a good man. A good man,” Cindy McCain said in a CNN interview after Volker resigned. “But this was overshadowing the Institute, and it was overshadowing what we do and what we work for. So, it was time.”\n\n16. Phoenix voters turn out to support light rail — again\n\nPhoenix voters in August overwhelmingly rejected a ballot proposition that would've halted funding for light-rail expansions, supporting the transportation option at the polls for the fourth time since 2000.\n\nAll but two of the city's 125 precincts voted down Proposition 105. But those two precincts stood to be affected most by a planned rail expansion into south Phoenix, which would extend the current line to Baseline Road via Central Avenue.\n\nResidents and business owners in those areas told The Republic they opposed light rail due to concerns about disruption during construction and the long-term impacts on traffic. Councilman Sal DiCiccio promised to divert the local portion of light-rail money to fixing roads if the measure passed.\n\nNearly every other member of the Phoenix City Council opposed the initiative, alongside congressmen Greg Stanton and Ruben Gallego, business organizations and most local union groups.\n\nVoters rejected the proposal with 63% voting against it.\n\n15. Kate Gallego elected as Phoenix mayor after drawn-out campaign\n\nFormer Phoenix City Councilwoman Kate Gallego became the second woman elected to lead the city in August, capping a hard-fought, 18-month campaign that began after former Mayor Greg Stanton resigned to run for Congress.\n\nGallego, a policy wonk with economic-development experience, defeated former council colleague Daniel Valenzuela. The pair had nearly identical voting records as council members, but Valenzuela's campaign swerved to the right in the final weeks of the campaign in an effort to court undecided Republican voters.\n\nGallego inherited a cash-strapped city budget and an often querulous council upon taking office. She has vowed to make a recession-proof Phoenix her top priority.\n\nShe is expected to run for a full term in November 2020.\n\nGallego is the first mother with a small child to serve as Phoenix mayor, a characteristic she highlighted throughout her campaign.\n\n14. Short-term rental fight escalates\n\nIn late May, Gov. Doug Ducey signed a new law aimed at cracking down on \"party houses\" rented through websites such as Airbnb and VRBO. Residents across Arizona had complained about increased noise, trash and traffic in their neighborhoods after a prior law expanded protections for short-term rentals.\n\nThe new, narrowly crafted legislation allowed municipalities to restrict rentals to overnight stays and prohibited events that otherwise would've required a permit, such as weddings. In his signing letter, the governor said he was \"hopeful that additional legislation regulating short-term rentals will not be needed.\"\n\nBut just three months later, the governor changed his tune, saying lawmakers would revisit the restrictions in 2020. Residents of small towns like Sedona, as well as big-city neighborhoods like downtown Phoenix, had made their dissatisfaction with the 2019 law known.\n\nThey argued affordable housing was becoming difficult to find given the concentration of short-term rentals. Data backs up an explosion in the state's Airbnb market over the past five years.\n\nIn late 2014, Phoenix only had 687 properties for rent listed on Airbnb, and only 245 of them were rented even one night in December of that year, according to Denver-based research firm AirDNA. By March of this year, that number had boomed to 4,224 listed properties.\n\nIn Sedona, short-term rentals represent 20% of the housing stock.\n\n13. Wildfires force evacuations, threaten homes\n\nOn July 21 at about 11 a.m., a fire lookout spotted flames just north of Flagstaff. Within hours, 200 firefighters were assigned to the Museum Fire, which had sparked when construction equipment struck a rock.\n\nThe fire started exactly where officials said they didn't want the forest to burn, at the exact time of year that could’ve spelled disaster. The blaze prompted evacuations as it spread across nearly 2,000 acres, threatening nearby homes.\n\nIt was only one of many dangerous fires that ignited during the state's 2019 wildfire season. The Woodbury Fire, which began in June in the Superstition Wilderness and burned more than 123,800 acres, also spurred evacuations and endangered wildlife habitat.\n\nGoing forward, many other Arizona communities remain susceptible to fires.\n\nAn Arizona Republic analysis of small communities across the West in mid-2019 found more than 500 places with potential for wildfire even higher than that of Paradise, California, the scene of the deadly 2018 Camp Fire. Pine, Arizona, for example, scored far higher on the Wildfire Hazard Potential scale. Its 1950s-era warning siren wasn't working. And it had no consistent fire-safe zoning to clear brush that could fuel a deadly blaze.\n\n12. Ducey's Supreme Court picks cement conservative majority\n\nDucey’s decision to place controversial Republican prosecutor and former Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery on the state Supreme Court in September capped off a years-long string of changes to the bench.\n\nDucey has appointed more top justices than any Arizona governor in history, starting with a 2016 expansion that added two seats to the court. This year, in addition to Montgomery, he appointed former Appeals Court Judge James Beene.\n\nThe governor's selections cemented a white, male, conservative majority that will endure long after Ducey leaves the Governor’s Office: The oldest of his appointees won't hit the mandatory retirement age for nearly a decade.\n\nSome worry the bench's conservative tilt could jeopardize the high court’s reputation as impartial.\n\nThe Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, which vets judicial candidates and sends short lists to the governor, faces the same risk after a series of appointments Ducey made in April. Those selections changed the makeup of the commission, leaving it without a single Democrat.\n\n11. Wedding calligraphers victorious in anti-discrimination case\n\nIn a highly anticipated decision, the Arizona Supreme Court in September issued a narrow ruling that a Phoenix ordinance protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination couldn't be used to force artists to create custom wedding invitations for same-sex couples.\n\nThe legal battle had begun in 2016, when Brush & Nib Studio owners Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski sued Phoenix on the grounds that its anti-discrimination ordinance violated their rights to free speech and religion.\n\nThe Supreme Court ruling overturned multiple lower-court decisions that protected the portion of Phoenix's nondiscrimination ordinance that applies to the LGBTQ community, which was added in 2013. An attorney for Phoenix insisted the decision was narrow and did not strike down the city's law. But LGBTQ community advocates said they feared the decision left room for broader lawsuits.\n\nFollowing the ruling, Democratic state Rep. Daniel Hernández and Republican Sen. Kate Brophy-McGee penned a joint column in The Republic about the need for a statewide anti discrimination law.\n\n“Will health-care providers now have a claim to deny health care to LGBTQ people? Will hotels now have a claim to refuse bookings to an LGBTQ couple?” they wrote. “We value freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of religion … But that freedom does not give any of us the right to harm other people, to impose our beliefs on others, or to discriminate in the public square.”\n\n10. Governor slams Nike in 2 a.m. screed\n\nIn the wee hours of July 2, Ducey — outraged over Nike's decision to pull a shoe featuring an early version of the American flag — announced the company would lose up to $1 million in state economic-development funding after \"bow(ing) to the current onslaught of political correctness.\"\n\nNike had canceled the release of its \"Betsy Ross flag\" shoe after former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick told the company he and others found the flag offensive.\n\n\"I've ordered the Arizona Commerce Authority to withdraw all financial incentive dollars under their discretion that the state was providing for the company to locate here,\" Ducey wrote in a series of 2 a.m. Twitter posts, which made international news. \"Arizona's economy is doing just fine without Nike.\"\n\nBut the circumstances surrounding Ducey’s “order” were, and remain, unclear. For starters, the governor doesn't have the power to force the Commerce Authority to do anything; like other board members, he has one vote — a structure meant to depoliticize economic-development decisions.\n\nThe Commerce Authority doesn't even vote as a board to approve or deny awards from the Arizona Competes Fund, which would've paid for the Nike incentive. The authority's CEO, Sandra Watson, decides how to administer that funding, and she doesn't answer to the governor.\n\nAt any rate, Nike was undeterred: It decided to move forward with its Goodyear plant, expected to create some 500 full-time jobs, and will still receive millions in city incentives.\n\nAs for the governor, he was spotted wearing his own Nike sneakers at a Fourth of July barbecue two days after his Twitter diatribe. And he extended a warm welcome to Nike after it confirmed it would still open a plant here.\n\n9. Sex scandal takes down lawmaker\n\nFormer state Rep. David Stringer was no stranger to public backlash: He’d faced outrage and calls for his resignation more than once over racist comments about immigrants and African Americans.\n\nBut the Prescott Republican couldn’t survive the explosive police report obtained and released by the House Ethics Committee in March, which showed Stringer had been arrested on allegations of repeatedly paying children for sex in the 1980s.\n\nStringer insisted he was innocent and had taken a plea deal to avoid risking conviction. He resigned nonetheless, an hour before the deadline the committee had set for him to respond to a subpoena related to the charges.\n\nSteve Pierce, a former Arizona Senate president, was swiftly appointed to fill Stringer’s seat. But the cloud of controversy surrounding Stringer stymied some efforts to overhaul sentencing laws at the Legislature, since Stringer was one of few Republicans pushing for justice reform.\n\nLawmakers did successfully close the loophole that had allowed Stringer to work in classrooms despite past sex charges, however, expanding background check requirements for non-certified teachers and others who work directly with students in public schools.\n\n8. APS customer death prompts shutoff moratorium\n\nIn June, Arizona Public Service Co. halted power shut-offs for residential customers who were late on their bills. It emerged soon after that Phoenix New Times reporters had been digging into the heat-related death of Stephanie Pullman, a 72-year-old Sun City West woman whose electricity was disconnected over a $51 debt.\n\nState regulators said APS was unable to provide documentation showing it followed state rules for power shut-offs in Pullman’s case, including a requirement to tell customers about available assistance from the government or charities.\n\nAnd her case was not the first of its kind: The Republic in 2017 documented the heat-related death of Henry Venzor Magos, a 61-year-old Salt River Project customer in south Phoenix. And in July, APS disclosed the deaths of two other customers.\n\nThe APS moratorium ended in October, with the company enrolling customers with utility debt in a four-month payoff plan. But new shut-off rules remain under consideration by the Arizona Corporation Commission.\n\nInitially, staff proposed banning all shutoffs when the outside temperature exceeded 95 degrees. After utilities provided feedback, the minimum changed to 105 degrees.\n\nArizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has said he would support a legislative solution to the issue. State Sen. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, who introduced a shut-off bill that went nowhere in 2018, has indicated he may try again.\n\nIn the meantime, APS's woes have continued, with the utility more recently facing backlash over an online rate-comparison tool offered on its website. APS confirmed the tool was providing bad information — in some cases, encouraging customers to move to plans that would actually cost them hundreds of dollars more a year — and announced plans to repay about 10,000 customers.\n\n7. Faulty prison locks threaten safety of officers, prisoners\n\nSubpar health care, crumbling infrastructure and limited supplies continued to plague Arizona’s correctional system this year. But the biggest controversy involved one of the most basic function of state prisons: keeping inmates behind bars.\n\nAn ABC15 report published in April showed broken cell door locks at Lewis Prison had contributed to the death of at least one inmate. Subsequent reporting by The Republic found that faulty-lock problems were more widespread, dating back to at least 1988 and resulting in several assaults — despite officials claiming they hadn't known of the problem.\n\nIn May, a legislative panel approved a request to spend at least $17.7 million on safety and security at Lewis Prison, estimating it would take until late 2020 to implement fixes.\n\nThis month, an assistant deputy warden at Lewis filed a whistleblower complaint stating prison workers were falsifying records to make it look like broken cell locks were fixed. Shaun Holland, a 14-year veteran of the department, said corrections leaders were showing \"deliberate and intentional indifference.\"\n\nDucey has said he trusts the updates he’s getting from corrections leaders. The whistleblower complaint remains under review by both the Governor’s Office and the Department of Corrections.\n\n6. Hacienda HealthCare rape prompts arrest, legal changes\n\nThe fallout that followed the rape of an incapacitated woman at a Phoenix care facility late last year continued through much of 2019, with the case attracting international attention.\n\nThe public learned of the assault after the woman, who had severe physical and cognitive disabilities, gave birth at Hacienda HealthCare on Dec. 29. Staffers at the intermediate care facility said they hadn't known she was pregnant.\n\nAfter the woman’s family removed her and the baby from the facility, they filed a multimillion-dollar notice of claim against the state, saying Arizona did an \"abysmal job\" monitoring the facility. In response, the state Legislature passed a law requiring state licensing of intermediate care facilities.\n\nAuthorities also arrested 37-year-old Nathan Sutherland, a licensed practical nurse who was one of the woman's caregivers at the facility, in connection with the rape. He has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of sexual assault and vulnerable adult abuse.\n\nA physician who treated the woman less than four months before she gave birth, Phillip Gear, voluntarily surrendered his medical license.\n\nIn November, a task force created by the governor to develop preventive guidelines recommended improved reporting requirements, better training for workers and a statewide campaign urging people to report abuse. Those recommendations are under review.\n\nIn the meantime, a group of Hacienda parents has been fighting to keep the facility, which now has a state license, open.\n\n5. Largest coal plant in the West closes\n\nThe Navajo Generating Station — a coal-fired power plant near Page — burned the last of its coal in November, marking the end of its 45-year run.\n\nOfficials described the closure as a difficult but necessary decision, as prices for natural gas and renewables such as solar became much more competitive.\n\nThe mine supplying the plant closed in August. Together, the coal facilities employed 750 people, most of them Native American, before operations started winding down two years ago.\n\nBoth projects will continue to employ area residents for a few years, but with far fewer jobs than the facilities provided while operating. Without the royalties from the mine, the Navajo and Hopi tribes also will have to plug significant holes in their budgets.\n\nDecommissioning the plant, which could produce 2,250 megawatts of power at full capacity, is expected to take years and about $170 million. The mine will require another $188 million in reclamation.\n\n4. County assessor implicated in international adoption scandal\n\nMaricopa County Paul Petersen was arrested in October on a series of human-smuggling charges in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas. Prosecutors allege Petersen, who operated an adoption firm out of Mesa, for years made his living flying pregnant Marshallese women to the United States to give birth — a direct violation of U.S. and Marshallese laws.\n\nThey said he fraudulently enrolled the mothers in Medicaid and adopted their children to American families for up to $40,000 each. Some Marshallese women did not fully understand the terms of their adoption, according to officials, with several believing their children would return to them after being educated in the U.S.\n\nPetersen pleaded not guilty to the charges in Arizona and Arkansas and is awaiting trial. He has not yet entered a plea in Utah. Petersen also appealed a suspension instituted by the Board of Supervisors, which ordered the county attorney to conduct an investigation into Petersen's work performance.\n\nThat report, released in early December, concluded Petersen had fulfilled all obligations required of a county assessor since taking office. At the same time, it showed he'd used significant county time and resources to conduct the adoptions.\n\n3. Excessive-force cases spur police protests, resignations\n\nIn Tempe, an officer shot and killed 14-year-old Antonio Arce as he ran away from police, clutching a nonlethal airsoft gun.\n\nIn Glendale, police released body-camera footage showing two officers using a Taser on Johnny Wheatcroft at least 11 times while his frightened children watched.\n\nIn Phoenix, officers pointed guns and yelled expletives at 22-year old Dravon Ames, his pregnant fiancee and their two young daughters after the family said their 4-year-old daughter took a doll from a Family Dollar store.\n\nThese and many other high-profile police incidents rattled the Valley in 2019, making local and national headlines and prompting heated demonstrations.\n\nAfter Arce's death, protesters swarmed Tempe City Hall to pressure City Council members to fire both the officer who shot Arce and the head of the department. In Phoenix, residents packed the City Council chambers to the gills, demanding officials withhold police funding until action was taken against the officers in the Ames video.\n\nThe officers in the Tempe and Glendale cases resigned, and the Phoenix officer was fired. But departures were largely contained to the rank-and-file.\n\nThere was one exception: Former Mesa Police Chief Ramon Batista abruptly resigned in November after a contentious tenure marked by a high-profile murder trial, a vote of no confidence from the police union and numerous excessive force cases.\n\n2. Arizona starts to get serious about water\n\nAfter 19 years of drought and rising temperatures, Arizona state lawmakers from both parties cooperated to pass a historic Colorado River drought deal in January, clearing the way for Arizona to join a multistate Drought Contingency Plan.\n\nArizona gets nearly 40% of its water from the Colorado River, which has long supplied cities and farmland throughout the West. The Drought Contingency Plan aims to prevent the worst-case scenario of continued declines in man-made Lake Mead: a \"dead pool\" situation where water no longer flows past the Hoover Dam.\n\nDespite the bipartisan win, the drought deal is a temporary fix. If the West wants to keep growing and maintain enough water to flourish, officials say, states must address and accept the reality of climate change and create a meaningful culture of conservation.\n\nHotter temperatures have reduced the average flow in streams and increased the amount of Colorado River Basin water that evaporates. And lax pumping rules in rural Arizona have led corporate farms and investment funds to gobble up groundwater that took thousands of years to accumulate.\n\nIf this year's negotiations are any indication, reaching a long-term deal will be a testy and time-consuming process.\n\n1. Migrants released in border communities\n\nThe flow of migrant families arriving at the border had been building for nearly two years by late March, when an overextended U.S. Border Patrol began releasing migrant families directly into Arizona and Texas communities. At one point, Yuma Sector officials had 2,000 migrants in custody and space to hold only 400 of them.\n\nBut cities weren’t prepared to handle the influx, either — especially not with Border Patrol releasing as many as 350 people each day. In April, the Yuma mayor issued an emergency declaration that described the situation as an \"imminent threat\" to life and property in the area.\n\nNonprofits set up emergency shelters so families wouldn't end up on the streets.\n\nArrivals peaked in May, with Yuma agents registering nearly 14,000 apprehensions. The following month, the federal government finally provided the sector with a collection of large tents to help relieve overcrowding.\n\nBy then, though, apprehensions had begun to decrease, and the agency no longer faced capacity issues.\n\nOfficials attributed the drop to a number of measures including the \"Remain in Mexico\" program, which allows border officials to send asylum seekers back to certain areas of Mexico to await the outcome of their proceedings. Mexico also deployed more than 20,000 National Guard members to crack down on the unauthorized flow of migrants through the country.\n\nAs of November, border officials said the situation remained precarious and could collapse if the Mexican government stopped cooperating.\n\nRepublic reporters Lily Altavena, Karina Bland, Jessica Boehm, Bree Burkitt, Rafael Carranza, Lauren Castle, Daniel González, Uriel Garcia, Ron Hansen, Stephanie Innes, Ian James, Pamela Ren Larson, Lorraine Longhi, Andrew Oxford, Ryan Randazzo, Shondiin Silversmith and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez contributed to this article.\n\nReach the reporter at maria.polletta@arizonarepublic.com or 602-653-6807. Follow her on Twitter @mpolletta.\n\nSupport local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2019/12/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/environment/2016/04/13/climate-change-fossil-fuels-rallying-cry-keep-ground/81926856/", "title": "The new climate rallying cry: keep it in the ground", "text": "Story by Sammy Roth and photographs by Jay Calderon, The Desert Sun | April 13, 2016\n\nNobody said a word as the auctioneer took his place at the lectern, but the tension was deafening. Nearly 100 protesters had packed the room at Utah's Salt Palace Convention Center, mad as hell that the federal government was about to sell oil and gas leases for up to 45,000 acres of public land. Some of the activists held signs: \"Our lands, our future,\" or, \"Don't auction our climate.\"\n\n\"OK, let's start the sale, ladies and gentlemen. The first parcel on there is No. 1266, it's up there in the upper corner if you want to follow along. It consists of 162-plus acres of it, located out in Juab County. And who will give me an opening bid of $2 to start? Two-dollar bid?\"\n\nThe protesters hadn't planned to disrupt the auction. But once the bidding got underway, they couldn’t help themselves. A few of them started chanting, and soon everyone joined in. Their voices got louder and louder: \"People gonna rise like the water, gonna calm this crisis down. I hear the voice of my great-granddaughter, saying, 'Keep it in the ground!'\"\n\nA federal official told the activists that if they didn't quiet down, Salt Lake City police would escort them out. He gave them 60 seconds to stop chanting; police officers stood, ready to act.\n\nThey stopped chanting — but only for a few minutes, unable to sit silently as oil and gas leases were auctioned off for as little as $2 an acre. This time, they didn't get another chance. As police moved in and ordered them to leave, one of the protesters, Tim Ream, shouted at the bidders, \"Show this to your grandkids! Show it to them and explain what’s happening with the climate!\"\n\nWhat's happening with the climate isn't complicated: For every ton of carbon humanity emits by burning fossil fuels, the world is getting hotter.\n\nThe Salt Lake City protesters had a simple demand for President Barack Obama: Stop making public land and water available for oil and natural gas drilling. It's a message that's taking hold across the country. In recent months, activists associated with the “keep it in the ground” movement have protested federal auctions in Denver, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Reno and elsewhere. They've got supporters in Congress, including a presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.\n\nTHE CURRENT: Sign up for The Desert Sun's energy and water newsletter\n\nAny serious plan to deal with climate change, these activists say, requires the United States to start limiting the extraction of fossil fuels — immediately. They point to studies showing that if the world doesn't keep the vast majority of its coal, oil and gas in the ground, global warming will almost certainly exceed 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times, the target adopted by 195 nations in Paris last year. Scientists once believed that 2 degrees of warming would be relatively safe, but recent studies have found that even less warming could be catastrophic for people, animals and the natural systems that underpin human civilization.\n\nThe world is already 1 degree Celsius warmer than it was before the Industrial Revolution.\n\n\"Nobody is saying we want to stop burning fossil fuels today, or that we have the ability to stop burning fossil fuels today,\" said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, the country's largest environmental group. \"What we're saying is that the challenge of climate change is a severe one. The need to act has never been more urgent.\"\n\nCritics of \"keep it in the ground\" say cutting back on drilling would do nothing to limit demand for fossil fuels, which still generate two-thirds of the country's electricity. They believe policymakers should limit their focus to reducing demand for coal, oil and gas, either by taxing carbon or by providing incentives for clean energy. \"Keep it in the ground\" supporters favor those steps, but say they aren't enough to confront climate change.\n\nOther critics point to the economic pain that transitioning to clean energy could inflict. While scientists and economists generally agree that the long-term benefits of fighting climate change far outweigh the short-term costs, there's little question that abandoning fossil fuels would lead to job losses in regions where coal, oil or gas development is a significant economic force.\n\nA lot is riding on this year's presidential election.\n\nIf Americans elect Donald Trump or Ted Cruz — both of whom reject the overwhelming scientific consensus that humans are causing global warming — international efforts to curb climate change could unravel. Cruz has written bills designed to boost oil and gas production, and has promised to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement. Trump, true to form, has released few specifics about his energy policy, although he's criticized Obama's carbon regulations. Hillary Clinton has pledged to limit oil and gas production, although she has a long history of supporting fossil fuels and fracking, including during her tenure as secretary of state. Only Sanders has consistently opposed fossil fuel development.\n\nWhoever wins the Democratic and Republican nominations, most climate advocates say they'll have an easy choice in November.\n\n\"I wish it didn't boil down to a partisan political issue,\" said Michael Mann, a Pennsylvania State University climatologist who has researched long-term temperature changes. \"Unfortunately, we've now arrived at a point where there really is this remarkable contrast between the two parties…with one party, we will move backward. With the other party, we will move forward.\"\n\nClimate change is already happening: Massive ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland are melting faster than expected, causing the oceans to rise. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense, with Hurricane Sandy and the California drought offering a preview of what the future might hold. Infectious diseases are expanding outside their old geographic comfort zones, with scientists saying rising temperatures could help Zika virus spread in North America.\n\nMeanwhile, plants and animals are dying — and so are people, although it's hard to calculate an exact number. The World Health Organization estimates that by 2030, climate change will be responsible for about 240,000 deaths per year. Some of those deaths will be caused by heat and disease, but researchers say the biggest contributor will be childhood undernutrition, as a result of reduced crop production across much of the planet.\n\nLimiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius is still within the realm of possibility — barely.\n\nThe math is simple: If humanity wants good odds of staying under 2 degrees Celsius, between two-thirds and four-fifths of the world's proven fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground, according to calculations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Carbon Tracker Initiative. By century's end if not sooner, the planet will need to be powered almost entirely by zero-carbon energy sources like solar, wind, hydropower and maybe nuclear, climate advocates say.\n\nREAD MORE: Why fighting climate change won't destroy the economy\n\nClimate change isn't like other political issues, said Bill McKibben, an environmental activist who co-founded 350.org and led the opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline. With most debates between Democrats and Republicans, he said, \"the best response is usually to figure out a compromise in the middle,\" and then revisit the problem as needed. But with climate change, such a strategy could be catastrophic, he said. At current rates of fossil fuel consumption, the world has a few decades at most before it burns its way past 2 degrees Celsius.\n\n\"Our problem here is that the two sides, fundamentally, are not industry and environmentalists, or Republicans and Democrats,\" McKibben said. \"At the very bottom, the two sides are physics and human beings. And that's an extremely tough negotiation, because physics doesn't care. We have no leverage on physics.\"\n\nClimate scientists reported in February that just 2.5 degrees of warming would probably cause sea-level rise of 80 feet over a few thousand years, forcing the abandonment of New York, London and Shanghai. The impacts are already being felt: Rising seas regularly flood South Florida, and a football field's worth of Louisiana coastline is disappearing every 48 minutes, largely due to global warming.\n\nThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is known for its conservative estimates, projects between one and three feet of global sea-level rise by the end of the century. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is less optimistic, saying the United States could experience 6.6 feet of sea-level rise by 2100. If the oceans rise just six feet, 13.1 million people in the United States would be displaced, according to a recent study led by researchers at the University of Georgia.\n\n\"It's our actions that we're doing now that are committing us to this very long-term future,\" said Peter Clark, an Oregon State University climate scientist, who led the study predicting long-term sea-level rise of 80 feet. \"Do we want to be responsible for that type of Earth for the citizens at that time?\"\n\nThe \"keep it in the ground\" activists don't want to be responsible. In Salt Lake City, the movement is led by Elders Rising, a group of seniors who hope to leave a livable planet for their grandchildren. They're old-school environmentalists, some of whom have been arrested for civil disobedience.\n\nOne of the group's founders, Jill Merritt, isn't optimistic about the future. Ask her what she sees on the horizon, and she'll tell you human beings are going to drive themselves to extinction.\n\nThen why bother fighting, she was asked? Why work so hard to keep fossil fuels in the ground?\n\n\"What's the alternative for somebody who is serious about the immorality of all this?\" she said. \"If I'm alive, I have to do something.\"\n\nPresident Obama has made climate change a top priority. It might not be enough.\n\nAt the Paris summit, Obama promised America would cut its carbon emissions 26 to 28 percent by 2025. His administration has rolled out stricter fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks, tens of billions of dollars in funding for renewable energy, and rules designed to limit methane leaks from oil and gas production. The centerpiece of his climate policy, the Clean Power Plan, would cut power-plant emissions by a third if it's upheld by the Supreme Court.\n\nREAD MORE: At Paris climate talks, nations looked to California\n\nBut while experts praise those efforts, they say the next president must do more — much more.\n\nEven if every country meets its Paris commitments, global warming will still reach 3.6 degrees Celsius, one recent study found. Another analysis was more optimistic, projecting a best-case scenario of 2.7 degrees of warming — still significantly above the 2-degree threshold.\n\nAnd the United States isn't even on track to meet its modest Paris commitment. A recent analysis by the Rhodium Group, a global research firm, found that even under the most optimistic assumptions — including faster-than-expected technological improvement — America will fall short.\n\n\"The gap is pretty wide, because we really need to limit warming to 1.5 degrees in order to give many countries and wildlife species and ecosystems a chance to survive,\" said Brune, the Sierra Club executive director. \"We have a long way to go. And what the U.S. has committed to certainly won't get us there.\"\n\nThere's only so much a president can do on climate without action from Congress. Many climate experts have called for a carbon tax, or a market-based cap-and-trade system to give polluters a financial incentive to cut back. But those steps would require legislation, which would require 60 votes to clear a filibuster in the Senate. Even if Congress comes around in five or 10 years, it might be too late.\n\nJeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute and an adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, is confident the world will transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. But he's not sure it will happen fast enough to avoid warming of 2 degrees Celsius.\n\n\"Will we do this? Absolutely. But will we do it in time? It's a very close call,\" he said. \"I have no doubt that as the climate continues to become more unstable — as people begin to experience more shocks and disruptions all over the world — there will be a turn to decarbonization.\"\n\nThe transition is happening, fueled by the falling cost of solar panels and by government support for clean energy. For the first time, the world built more clean energy capacity than it did fossil fuel capacity in 2015, according to a United Nations report. Global investment in clean energy grew to $286 billion, more than double the investment in coal and natural gas, the report found.\n\nREAD MORE: How the solar industry scored big wins in California, Congress\n\nIt wasn't enough. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels skyrocketed past 400 parts per million last year, increasing faster than at any point during the last 66 million years, according to one study. The numbers are still rising, and they'll probably keep rising so long as power plants, cars, farms, residential and commercial buildings, and other sources keep spewing planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.\n\n\"Every country needs to make a plan to decarbonize. Every country's going to have to do that as fast as possible, and the only exceptions should be the very, very poor countries,\" Sachs said. \"They should be given the leg up, that those fossil fuels are ones that will continue to be used.\"\n\nThe \"keep it in the ground\" movement has its roots in opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have carried high-polluting tar sands oil from Canada to Nebraska. When Obama rejected the pipeline in November, he borrowed the movement's language, saying, \"If we’re going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, we're going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground.\"\n\nEven before Obama killed Keystone XL, the movement had started shining a spotlight on federal fossil fuels. In September, more than 400 groups and individuals sent a letter to the president, urging him to stop issuing new leases for coal, oil and gas on federal land and offshore waters.\n\n\"If we were serious about a world that was only going to be 1.5 or 2 degrees warmer — which would already be a disaster; 1 degree has already melted the Arctic — we can't build any new fossil fuel infrastructure at all,\" said McKibben, who helped launch the movement. \"We've got to stop building pipelines. We've got to stop building coal transport facilities. We've got to stop here and around the world doing any of this stuff immediately.\"\n\nAbout 32.2 million acres of federal land are already under lease for oil and gas exploration, with an additional 475,000 acres under lease for possible coal mining, according the most recent data from the federal Bureau of Land Management, which administers about 250 million acres of public land. Offshore, about 26 million acres of water are under lease for oil and gas development.\n\nCritics say the federal fossil fuel program's biggest climate impacts could be yet to come. A report commissioned by two environmental groups — the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth — found last year that federal fossil fuels in areas that haven't yet been leased contain up to 450 gigatons of carbon pollution.\n\nThe impact of those emissions would be staggering. Researchers with the Carbon Tracker Initiative, a financial think tank, calculated in 2011 that to maintain an 80 percent chance of keeping global warming to 2 degrees, the world could emit just 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide — and that number has continued to shrink since then.\n\nREAD MORE: Climate change far more than an environmental issue\n\nThe 565-gigaton figure is just one estimate of the world's remaining \"carbon budget.\" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calculated in 2013 that humanity could emit another 1,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide, although that would give us just a two-thirds chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees.\n\nWhatever the exact number, the situation is dire: Earth’s proven fossil fuel reserves contain at least 2,795 gigatons of carbon dioxide, according to the Carbon Tracker Initiative. That means companies can’t be allowed to burn the vast majority of the fossil fuels in their arsenals, let alone go looking for new reserves in places like the Arctic, said Sachs, the adviser to Ban Ki-moon.\n\n\"It's just arithmetic. If you measure all of the carbon dioxide that would be released if we burned all the coal, oil and gas in our reserves, we'd blow our carbon budget many, many times over,\" he said. \"The companies, basically, cannot go on doing what they’re doing. Of course they don't like that message. It’s a blow to their capitalization. It strands their assets.\"\n\nObama gave the \"keep it in the ground\" movement a major victory in January, halting new coal leases while federal officials review the coal program's climate impacts. His administration also announced last month that it wouldn't open the southeast Atlantic coast to offshore oil and gas development, reversing an earlier decision that would have brought drilling to the region for the first time.\n\nBut Obama's Bureau of Land Management is still issuing onshore oil and gas leases, and his Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is moving forward with plans to lease offshore areas in the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico.\n\nThrough a spokesperson, Bureau of Land Management Director Neil Kornze declined to be interviewed for this story. In an emailed statement, he defended the Obama administration's record on climate change, pointing to the president's goal of approving 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity on public land by 2020. Federal officials have already approved 35 solar farms, 11 wind farms and 12 geothermal facilities, although it's not clear all of those projects will be built.\n\nObama has also set a goal of cutting methane emissions from the oil and gas sector 40 to 45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025. That initiative targets planet-warming methane gas that leaks or is intentionally released during the drilling and transport of oil and gas — not the carbon dioxide emitted when the gas is eventually burned.\n\nSCORCHED EARTH: How climate change is altering the deserts of the Southwest\n\nKornze declined to answer a question about whether promoting oil and gas drilling is consistent with limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. In response to that question, Interior Department spokesperson Amanda DeGroff listed some of the administration's climate change successes, including cutting energy use and promoting the development of clean energy.\n\n\"The Department of the Interior is committed to safely and responsibly managing the development of oil and gas on public lands in a way that continues to meet our nation's energy needs while advancing renewable forms of energy,\" DeGroff said in an emailed statement. \"Since the President took office, wind energy has tripled and solar has increased twenty-fold. Actions at home to facilitate this type of development show that we are serious about taking on the challenge of climate change and demonstrating leadership on the global stage.\"\n\nVaughn Lovejoy would probably have a lot to say to Kornze and Obama.\n\nAs president of the Salt Lake City chapter of the Audubon Society in the 1980s, Lovejoy worked to protect forests from development. He later went on a \"vision quest\" at Great Basin National Park, he said, which inspired him to leave the pharmaceuticals industry and spend 20 years as a volunteer coordinator for TreeUtah, which plants and cares for trees. He likes to talk about the importance of \"transforming human consciousness\" to encourage harmony with the natural world.\n\nBut Lovejoy said that until recently, he was in denial about the environmental degradation his generation has caused. That changed on Sept. 14, 2015, when his grandson Johnathon was born — incidentally, the day before the 400-signature \"keep it in the ground\" letter landed on Obama’s desk.\n\nAs he looked into his grandson's eyes, Lovejoy later wrote, \"The last vestiges of my denial about the future of our world, the world he had just entered, shattered.\"\n\n\"Humanity is not coming close to making the fundamental changes necessary to save Earth from rising temperatures, melting glaciers, dying forests, rampaging wildfires, extreme weather events and the extinction of countless species,\" he wrote in November for Catalyst Magazine.\n\nLOSING SNOW: What global warming means for water supplies\n\nSitting in his Salt Lake City living room on an overcast morning in February — the day before the auction he helped disrupt — Lovejoy explained why he helped found Elders Rising.\n\n“My generation…we were the ones who came of age in the '60s. There was, for this period of time, this sense that we had of optimism — a vision that, number one, the world needed changing, and number two, by golly, we were going to do it,\" he said. \"And now here we are, 40 years later. And during the course of our professional careers here on the planet, there's been more decimation done in the last 40 years than in all of human history.\"\n\nElders Rising made plans to protest the federal oil and gas auction, which was originally scheduled for November. But the Bureau of Land Management postponed the event at the last minute, saying its auction room wasn't big enough for all the activists who planned to attend. The agency rescheduled the auction for the Salt Palace Convention Center in February.\n\nBy February, Elders Rising had joined with a dozen other local and national groups to organize a protest. The morning of the auction, activists gathered outside the convention center in Salt Lake City, where they sang, raised signs and chatted with local TV reporters. Eventually, they unfurled a huge \"KEEP IT IN THE GROUND\" banner and marched into the auction room, chanting the whole way.\n\nBefore they went inside, Tim Ream — a San Francisco-based activist with the group WildEarth Guardians — made a speech to rally the troops. He noted that the United States has emitted more climate pollution than any other country. He said it's America’s responsibility to start limiting fossil fuel extraction, even if other countries don't follow suit right way.\n\n\"On our public lands — the coal, oil and gas that we own, the carbon that is ours, that we have political power over — we need to make that an example for the world by keeping it in the ground,\" Ream said, to cheers and applause. \"Half of all the carbon in the United States is actually owned by us. We can actually shut it down.\"\n\nThe drama continued after the auction ended. In an unprecedented tactic for climate activists, Utah environmental writer Terry Tempest Williams submitted late bids for three pieces of land that hadn't drawn any interest from bidders at the auction, just in case a company later changed its mind and decided to lease them. The Bureau of Land Management still hasn't finalized the results of the auction, so it's unclear if anyone matched her late bids.\n\n\"It has deeply shaken my core as an American citizen to watch these beautiful, powerful public lands that are all of ours, and our inheritance, being sold for $2 an acre, $3 an acre,\" Tempest Williams said after the auction. \"Two dollars an acre? That doesn't buy us a cup of coffee, and yet that's what we’re being told that America's lands are worth.\"\n\nCritics of \"keep it in the ground\" say limiting fossil fuel extraction could cause energy prices to spike, or else force the United States to import more coal, oil and gas from overseas. The best and only way to curb climate change, they say, is a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system, which would reduce demand for fossil fuels by making them more expensive than clean energy.\n\n\"If you don't address the demand side, the supply side won't come,\" said economist Frank Wolak, director of Stanford University's Program on Energy and Sustainable Development. \"Everything we use, you name it, it has fossil fuels in it. That's the absurdity of this argument.\"\n\nRep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, called those kinds of arguments \"nonsense.\" The United States has more than enough fossil fuels at its disposal to keep the lights on as the country transitions to clean energy, he said, without the federal government opening up more leases.\n\n\"We are awash in oil and gas. Coal is dying. There's simply no reason to continue to let these extractive industries call the shots on public resources,\" Huffman said. \"These fossil fuel deposits are under our federal lands and off our shores — they belong to the American people. They don't belong to Exxon or Shell or whatever extractive industry wants to profit from them.\"\n\nEXTINCTION CRISIS: How climate change is intensifying threats to nature\n\nHuffman introduced the Keep It in the Ground Act in the House of Representatives earlier this year, building on a similar bill that Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley introduced in the Senate last year. Both bills would end new federal fossil fuel leases, and terminate existing leases that are not currently producing coal, oil or gas.\n\nHuffman knows his legislation won’t pass, but he hopes to move the national conversation forward.\n\n\"This is an important way to tell members of Congress and the administration that a growing movement across the country wants to see them do the right thing,\" he said.\n\nSanders has promised he would end federal fossil fuel leasing. He has also called for a ban on hydraulic fracturing, the drilling technique commonly known as fracking. Largely because of a fracking boom over the last decade, America has become the world's top oil and gas producer.\n\n\"To my mind, global climate change is the greatest threat facing the planet, and there is no question that this will be among my top priorities as president,\" Sanders said in a statement. \"I believe we must aggressively move away from fossil fuels and toward a sustainable energy future by making huge new investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy.\"\n\nClinton told an activist earlier this year that ending fossil fuel extraction on federal land is \"a done deal,\" although she didn't explain what exactly that means. Campaign spokesperson Jesse Ferguson told The Desert Sun that Clinton \"will begin phasing down fossil fuel production on federal lands,\" and will \"reform our current leasing program to ensure taxpayers get a fair deal and oppose offshore drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic Ocean.\"\n\nClinton also wants the United States to generate enough renewable energy to power every home in the country by 2027, and to cut oil consumption by one-third over that time period.\n\nThe Desert Sun reached out to all three Republican presidential candidates to ask for their views on fossil fuel extraction. None of their campaigns responded to multiple requests for comment.\n\nPUBLIC OPINION: Most Americans say climate is changing, humans to blame\n\nCruz’s views are the easiest to pin down. The Texas senator denies the world is getting warmer, and has called climate change a liberal plot to control \"the economy, the energy sector and every aspect of our lives.\" He's introduced bills that would approve the Keystone XL pipeline, open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling and prohibit the federal government from regulating carbon emissions and fracking. He voted against a bipartisan compromise bill last year that ended the ban on crude oil exports, since it also extended tax credits for solar and wind energy.\n\nTrump is more of a wild card. Like Cruz, he rejects the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, and he's criticized Obama's carbon regulations as economically disastrous. He's also slammed Obama for funding clean energy development. He once tweeted that Palm Springs had been \"destroyed — absolutely destroyed — by the world's ugliest wind farm.\"\n\nBut the fossil fuel industry is wary of Trump, whose policy proposals are few and far between. The real estate mogul supported the extension of the wind tax credit last year, and he's criticized Cruz for receiving so much campaign funding from oil companies. The American Energy Alliance — a pro-fossil fuel lobby group with ties to the billionaire Koch brothers — says on its website that it would be \"difficult at this time to determine if (Trump) would be a strong advocate for American families in the White House on this policy area.\"\n\nOhio Gov. John Kasich — who has little chance of winning the Republican nomination — acknowledges that the climate is changing, but says he isn't sure how big a role humans play. He criticized the Paris climate talks, saying Secretary of State John Kerry \"should have gone (to Paris) to get our allies together to fight ISIS instead.\" He also signed a bill temporarily freezing Ohio’s clean energy mandate, although he later criticized state lawmakers for recommending the freeze be extended indefinitely.\n\nTHE CURRENT: Sign up for The Desert Sun's energy and water newsletter\n\nAsked which presidential candidate they prefer on climate, most \"keep it in the ground\" activists interviewed for this article chose Sanders. They pointed to his early opposition to Keystone XL, his aversion to corporate interests, and his willingness to talk about the ways that capitalism and income inequality could worsen the impacts of climate change on poor communities.\n\nClinton, on the other hand, had received $300,000 from oil and gas interests this election cycle as of late March, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. That was far less than Cruz's $1 million haul, but nearly three times as much as Kasich had received and 29 times as much as Trump had received. As secretary of state, Clinton aggressively promoted fracking overseas, urging governments to allow U.S. firms to drill for natural gas, even in the face of intense public opposition in some of those countries.\n\nAnother sticking point for climate activists: As secretary of state, Clinton said the Obama administration was \"inclined\" to approve Keystone XL. Later, as a presidential candidate, she came out against the pipeline. Similarly, she spent much of her tenure in the Cabinet negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that environmental groups say could undermine global climate efforts. As a presidential candidate, she announced her opposition to the final version of the deal.\n\n\"She could have easily said that the Keystone pipeline is not in our best interest, and so we shouldn't let them do that. And she didn't. In fact, she was really wish-washy about it,\" said Kathy Albury, who along with Lovejoy and Merritt co-founded Elders Rising in Salt Lake City.\n\nOthers climate advocates have taken Clinton's side. Huffman — the California congressperson who introduced the Keep It In the Ground Act — endorsed Clinton, saying she's gotten better on climate change during the presidential campaign.\n\n\"Secretary Clinton has been refreshingly strong on climate and clean energy. You can speculate that maybe Sen. Sanders — maybe the activism that he has brought to the race has helped move her,\" Huffman said. \"Whatever the case, I like what she’s saying.\"\n\nINTERACTIVE: Where the presidential candidates stand on climate\n\nEven if the federal government were to stop issuing new oil and gas leases, the next steps for the \"keep it in the ground\" movement would be harder. Ending new leases is one thing; ending existing leases, not to mention fossil fuel extraction on private land, is another thing.\n\nReam, from WildEarth Guardians, has a few ideas for how to make that all happen. Federal officials could start by revoking existing leases that are not currently producing coal, oil or gas, he said. Then they could raise royalty rates on producing leases, so that the costs of drilling reflect the climate impacts of burning those fuels. Higher royalty rates would force companies to shut down a lot of wells and mines, Ream predicted.\n\n\"Fossil fuels are harming the public financially, and as soon as we do a proper accounting on them, everybody will realize that,\" he said. \"We’re confident that will shut down the program.\"\n\nReam thinks that if the United States limits fossil fuel extraction, investors around the world will increasingly wonder whether coal, oil and gas are smart investments. Investors are already getting nervous: More than 500 institutions have collectively pledged to divest $3.4 trillion from fossil fuel companies, according to 350.org, an advocacy group. Some of those companies could face legal action, too: Several state attorneys general are investigating whether oil giant ExxonMobil deliberately misled investors and the public about the risks posed by climate change, by funding campaigns to raise doubts about climate science.\n\nLimiting extraction is far from the only thing the next president can do to reduce emissions, experts say. Other steps could include continuing to tighten fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks, cracking down on \"short-lived climate pollutants\" like methane and hydrofluorocarbons, and issuing new regulations to prompt more energy-efficient homes, businesses and appliances.\n\nMann, the Penn State climate scientist, said government support for clean energy is key. While solar power is getting cheaper every year, lobbyists backed by the fossil fuel industry continue to do \"everything they can to subvert incentives for renewable energy at the state level,\" Mann said. Some of those lobbyists are funded by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who owe much of their fortune to fossil fuels.\n\n\"There are very powerful interests that are fighting this effort to transition to a renewable energy economy tooth and nail,\" Mann said. \"It's going to be an ongoing battle, and the next president has to be vigilant, and has to be committed to fighting this battle.\"\n\n\"Keep it in the ground\" supporter Kaitlin Butler, a Salt Lake City-based researcher with the Science and Environmental Health Network, thinks climate advocates can win that battle if they promote an \"empowering\" message. Her message of choice: that if we make good decisions today, we can improve the lives of our children, grandchildren and thousands more generations.\n\n\"Isn’t that what everyone wants to hear?\" Butler asked. \"That their life today, the decisions that they make, will matter.\"\n\nSammy Roth writes about energy and the environment for The Desert Sun. He can be reached at sammy.roth@desertsun.com, (760) 778-4622 and @Sammy_Roth.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2016/04/13"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2022/07/11/boarding-school-stories-underwater-festival-secret-museum-living-news-around-states/50476947/", "title": "Boarding school stories, underwater festival: News from around our ...", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nDecatur: Abnormally dry weather in north Alabama may have ruined corn plantings and is damaging other crops. “The hot, dry weather has just hit the corn at the absolute worst time,” said Brady Peek, who farms approximately 1,800 acres in western Limestone County. “We’ll be lucky if we even have a corn crop. Yields are going to be significantly below average.” Ashley Ravenscraft, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Huntsville, said portions of Lawrence and Morgan counties have been characterized as “abnormally dry” since June 21. In Limestone County, 60% of the county has been in a moderate drought since June 28. From June 21 through last Monday, Decatur received only 0.24 inch of rainfall, and Moulton had 0.53 inch, Ravenscraft said. Athens, she said, had 1.78 inches of rain in that span, but she attributed the higher number to pop-up showers the past several days. Ravenscraft said the average rainfall in July is 4.49 inches. “Typically, around this time of year you’re getting some kind of rainfall from either tropical systems or your summertime storms or a weaker disturbance that will come through and produce some rain. This is typically one of our wettest months out of the year,” she said.\n\nAlaska\n\nSitka: A family had given up hope of finding their blind, elderly golden retriever who wandered away from their home three weeks ago, but a construction crew found Lulu in salmonberry bushes after initially confusing her for a bear. Lulu was barely alive after being found Tuesday, but she is being nursed back to health at home with her family, the Daily Sitka Sentinel reports. “She means everything,” owner Ted Kubacki said. “I have five daughters, and they’re 4 to 13 years old, so they’ve spent every day of their life with that dog.” The Kubacki family searched for weeks after Lulu wandered off June 18. “She’s just so helpless, and you kind of imagined that she can’t get real far because she can’t see,” he said. It didn’t help when the family was the subject of a terrible joke when someone claimed they found Lulu a few days into the search. “We put the kids to bed and got a text saying, ‘We found your dog,’ or ‘I have your dog,’ and we’re like, ‘Oh my god, this is incredible,’ ” he said. “Then the person texted me, ‘Just kidding.’ This happened, yeah; that was all part of this terrible story.” Once Lulu did make it back, Kubacki, a grocery store employee and sole provider for his family of seven, then worried about the veterinarian’s bill. But his fears were unfounded, as Sitka residents donated hundreds of dollars to cover Lulu’s recuperation bills.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: An attorney with the state attorney general’s office told a judge Friday that a 2021 “personhood” law that gives all legal rights to unborn children can’t be used to bring criminal charges against abortion providers. The comment from Assistant Solicitor General Kate Sawyer came during a hearing where attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and an abortion rights group representing abortion providers were seeking an injunction blocking the law. They said abortion providers are worried that prosecutors will bring charges for crimes like assault and child abuse under the law, which U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes declined to block last year. That decision came before the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that said women have a right to seek an abortion. The battle over Arizona’s “personhood” law – one of several in Republican-led states that aim to grant all rights to fetuses – is playing out despite all abortions being halted in the state. Arizona providers stopped providing the procedure because of concerns that a pre-1901 law that bans all abortions may now be enforceable, as Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich declared June 29. That law has been blocked since 1973, but Brnovich has vowed to go to court to remove that injunction.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: Supporters of initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana and scale back casino gambling submitted thousands of signatures Friday in the hopes of getting their proposals on the Arkansas ballot. Friday was the deadline for groups to turn in the signatures needed to qualify for the November election. Proposed constitutional amendments need at least 89,151 valid signatures from registered voters. The proposal’s ballot title and popular name will also need to be approved by the state Board of Election Commissioners. More than 192,000 signatures were submitted for the recreational marijuana proposal to allow people age 21 and older to possess up to 1 ounce of cannabis. Arkansas voters in 2016 voted to legalize medical marijuana in the state. More than 103,000 signatures were submitted for the other proposed amendment to repeal part of a casino gambling amendment voters approved in 2018. The proposal would remove Pope County as one of the counties where a casino is allowed. Casinos have already been set up in the three other counties spelled out in the 2018 measure. State officials will check the petitions to determine whether enough valid signatures were submitted or if the groups qualify for an additional 30 days to collect signatures.\n\nCalifornia\n\nYosemite National Park: A wildfire threatening the largest grove of giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park more than doubled in size in a day, and firefighters were working in difficult terrain Sunday to protect the iconic trees and a small mountain town. Campers and residents near the blaze were evacuated, but the rest of the sprawling park in California remained open, though heavy smoke obscured scenic vistas and created unhealthy air quality. “Today it’s actually the smokiest that we’ve seen,” Nancy Phillipe, a Yosemite fire information spokesperson, said Sunday. “Up until this morning, the park has not been in that unhealthy category, but that is where we are now.” More than 500 mature sequoias were threatened in the famed Mariposa Grove, but there were no reports of severe damage to any named trees, including the 3,000-year-old Grizzly Giant. A sprinkler system set up within the grove kept the tree trunks moist, and officials were hopeful that the steady spray of water along with previous prescribed burns would be enough to keep flames at bay, Phillipe said. The cause of the Washburn Fire was under investigation. It had grown to nearly 2.5 square miles by Sunday morning, with no containment. Beyond the trees, the community of Wawona, which is surrounded by parkland, was under threat, with people ordered to leave late Friday.\n\nColorado\n\nDenver: Gov. Jared Polis barred state agencies Wednesday from arresting or extraditing anyone seeking or providing reproductive care in Colorado, where the right to abortion was codified in state law this year. Polis issued an executive order that prohibits state agencies from cooperating with out-of-state civil or criminal investigations related to seeking, obtaining or providing reproductive health care – unless the alleged activity would be illegal in Colorado. The Democratic governor also ordered the Department of Regulatory Agencies to develop rules designed to protect licensed professional workers who could face disciplinary action or the loss of a professional license due to potential sanctions imposed by another state. Polis’ order comes as other liberal governors vow to fight out-of-state law enforcement actions following the Supreme Court’s June decision to revoke the constitutional right to abortion. Polis also directed state agencies to work to “protect people and entities who are providing, assisting, seeking, or obtaining reproductive health care in Colorado.” Colorado was the first U.S. state to decriminalize abortion in 1967, and Polis this year signed into law a bill codifying that right.\n\nConnecticut\n\nNew Haven: The family of a Black man paralyzed when a police van without seat belts braked suddenly asked federal authorities Friday to file civil rights charges against the officers involved. The driver was taking Randy Cox, 36, to a police station in New Haven on June 19 for processing on a weapons charge when he braked hard to avoid a collision, police said, causing Cox to fly headfirst into the wall of the van. His family said he remains paralyzed from the chest down. Cox’s mother, two sisters and civil rights attorney Ben Crump spoke before meeting with U.S. Department of Justice officials in New Haven on Friday, arguing that Cox’s constitutional rights were violated. “You ask yourself, was it cruel and unusual punishment to put him in the back of that police transportation van with no seat belt, knowing that if you’re speeding, if you slam on the brakes, that somebody is going to be seriously injured?” Crump said. Cox’s supporters say the police mocked his cries for help and accused him of being drunk. Video shows the officers dragged him by his feet from the van and placed him in a holding cell at the police department before paramedics finally took him to a hospital. Cox remains hospitalized and unable to speak because of his breathing tube. Hundreds of protesters led by Crump, members of Cox’s family and the local NAACP staged a march Friday evening in New Haven to the city’s police headquarters.\n\nDelaware\n\nWilmington: A man convicted earlier this year of a felony hate crime for what authorities say was the persistent harassment of a Black female employee in Gov. John Carney’s office has been sentenced to four months in prison. Matthew Gregg will also be required to complete community service, anger management, and mental health and substance abuse counseling. The 27-year-old Hockessin man was arrested Dec. 10, 2020, on charges of harassment and terroristic threatening. According to court documents, Gregg called the receptionist in Carney’s office 160 times between Nov. 20 and Dec. 10, 2020. In those calls, Gregg targeted the woman with racist and sexist slurs, according to court documents. Gregg also threatened to kill the receptionist and throw a brick at the governor’s head, according to the Department of Justice’s sentencing memorandum. Deputy Attorney General Nicole Mozee wrote that Gregg was upset about COVID-19 mandates Carney put in place but that none of his calls to the governor’s secretary actually protested those mandates. The Department of Justice argued that not sentencing Gregg to time in prison would unduly depreciate “the severity of the offense.”\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that $2 million will be invested in order to improve the quality of school breakfast in D.C., WUSA-TV reports. Additionally, there will be an expansion of schools participating in the school breakfast program with 104 public and public charter schools across the district, according to a press release. State Superintendent Christina Grant said not every eligible food-insecure student participates in the program. “We are excited to support schools in increasing student participation in the school breakfast program, leading to increases in health and academic outcomes,” Grant said. Nearly 18 local education agencies that serve students from pre-K through 12th grade and have a population where at least 75% have eligibility for free or reduced-price meals were awarded school breakfast grant funds from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. “With this investment, we can support more families, get more students connected to the student breakfast program and build healthier classrooms and communities,” Bowser said.\n\nFlorida\n\nBig Pine Key: They weren’t in a “Yellow Submarine,” but hundreds of people spent time below the waves Saturday for a music festival off the Florida Keys. The Beatles hit and other ocean-themed songs like the theme to “The Little Mermaid” were part of the entertainment during the Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival. The divers and snorkelers, many dressed as mermaids and sea creatures, enjoyed music played through waterproof speakers dangling from boats floating above the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The festival took place at Looe Key Reef, about 6 miles from Big Pine Key. The event at the continental United States’ only living coral barrier reef raised awareness on how divers can protect the reef by not touching corals or leaving litter underwater, using mooring buoys instead of anchoring when boating, respecting dive flags, and other ways of minimizing environmental impacts. Participants swam among marine life and coral formations and described the music as ethereal, a bit muted, but emanating from all directions.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: The state could have more than $5 billion in surplus revenue after the just-concluded budget year, following another big month for tax collections in June. The state Revenue Department announced Friday that it collected more than $33 billion in taxes in the year ended June 30, up 23% from about $27 billion the year before. Georgia planned to spend more than $54 billion in the just-ended budget year, including federal money, lottery proceeds, and other fees and taxes that state agencies collect. Lawmakers boosted that number by $4.5 billion during a midyear budget revision that included bonus payments and pay raises for state employees and teachers but will still substantially undershoot total revenue for the year. Final numbers won’t be clear until the state closes it books on the budget year, which usually happens around Labor Day. The bulging bank account could allow the state to further cut taxes or expand services. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has already extended a temporary waiver on gas taxes through the middle of August, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has been calling on Kemp to extend the gas tax holiday through the end of the year. Kemp can make that move as long as lawmakers later ratify it.\n\nHawaii\n\nHonolulu: The governor ordered the U.S. and state flags to be flown at half-staff to honor former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, calling the assassinated ex-leader a friend of the islands. Because flags were already at half-staff honoring victims of an Independence Day parade shooting near Chicago, Hawaii Gov. David Ige said the flags would be lowered in Abe’s memory from sunrise to sunset Sunday. Abe, 67, was assassinated on a street in western Japan by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech – an attack in a nation with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere. Police at the shooting scene arrested Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, a former member of Japan’s navy, on suspicion of murder. “This senseless act of violence has taken the life of a true friend of Hawaii,” Ige said in a statement. “In our multiple meetings, we shared stories of our past, embraced our common culture, and continued the quest for reconciliation and partnership that has developed between the United States and Japan.” Ige’s flag order applies to the Hawaii State Capitol, state offices and agencies, and the Hawaii National Guard.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: A site targeted with antisemitic vandalism last month is now slated to get a mural supporting human rights. Boise Parks and Recreation Director said the city’s Department of Arts & History would be tasked with handling the mural in a tunnel next to the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial, the Idaho Press reports. The graffiti left on the site in December was part of a string of antisemitic incidents in the city in recent years, according to the newspaper.\n\nIllinois\n\nWheaton: A former suburban Chicago man sought for 22 years after fleeing the country to avoid trial on a charge of concealing a homicide has been captured and returned to DuPage County, prosecutors said Friday. Romulo Mendoza, 46, was arrested last month trying to reenter the U.S. on the southern border, the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office said without specifying the location. He appeared Thursday before a judge, who set his bond at $1 million. On Feb. 4, 2000, Mendoza and two roommates, Carmelino Gomez and Pedro Garcia, were allegedly drinking alcohol in their Bensenville home and began arguing over an electricity bill. Gomez grabbed Garcia from behind and put his arm around his neck, killing him, authorities said at the time. Gomez and Mendoza allegedly then loaded the body in a car and dumped it at a rural location, where a passerby discovered it the next day. The two were arrested two days later. After posting $2,000 bond on May 31, 2000, Mendoza failed to appear for his next court date. Gomez pleaded guilty in September 2000 to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to five years in prison.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: A federal judge has allowed an Indiana law largely banning a second-trimester abortion procedure to take effect following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Judge Sarah Evans Barker’s order signed Thursday lifted the injunction she issued in 2019 blocking the state law against the dilation and evacuation abortions. The law took effect immediately, according to the state attorney general’s office, and is the first tightening of Indiana’s anti-abortion laws since the Supreme Court decision. Indiana could have more sweeping abortion restrictions by next month, as the Republican-dominated Legislature is scheduled to begin a special legislative session on July 25. Barker granted a request from the Indiana attorney general’s office to lift her order, writing that the Supreme Court’s decision in June overturning the 1973 landmark ruling that made abortion legal nationwide removed the “linchpin holdings” for her analysis. The Republican-backed legislation prohibits doctors from performing what it calls “dismemberment abortion” except to prevent serious health risk or save the woman’s life. A doctor violating the law could face a felony charge, punishable by up to six years in prison.\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines: Two police officers are taking the unusual move of suing six people who participated in a 2020 protest in Des Moines after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, accusing them of assault. All six people were arrested during the July 1, 2020, protest, and five already pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of assault on a police officer and/or interference with official acts. One of them, Indira Sheumaker, was later elected to the Des Moines City Council. The lawsuit, first reported by Axios Des Moines, was filed by Peter Wilson and Jeffrey George as individuals and not as representatives of the Des Moines Police Department. They are seeking an unspecified amount for actual and punitive damages. It will likely be met with skepticism by the court, said Robert Bloom, a professor at Boston College Law School, who noted that the claims of assault and battery appear to be applying criminal complaints to a civil action. Experts also note that Iowa is among several states that have adopted what’s known as the “fireman’s rule,” which holds that firefighting and policing are inherently dangerous jobs and generally bars emergency responders from suing or collecting damages for injuries that occur in the course of their duties.\n\nKansas\n\nTopeka: A gubernatorial drought declaration covers the entire state, and for the first time, the 2022 annual Kansas Water Authority report acknowledged the role of climate change while recommending mitigation and adaptation strategies. Internationally, climate scientists warn of a “code red for humanity.” As farmers harvest a drought-ravaged wheat crop after a heat wave killed cattle, discussion of what governments can do to help remain divided over the role of climate change. Bipartisan support exists for adapting to persistent droughts, water shortages and wildfires, but there is less appetite to make mitigating climate change central to the government response. In Topeka, the Legislature authorized a special water committee to meet in the coming months. The move comes after an overhaul of the state government’s approach to water issues was watered down. The Kansas wheat harvest is more than halfway done, USDA reports show, putting it ahead of schedule. Wheat farmers expect a largely drought-induced drop in yield of 100 million bushels, equating to more than $1 billion in lost production. An abnormally dry winter and spring meant much of the state’s what crop did not get the precipitation it needed. More recent rains in May and June came too late for most fields to make a difference.\n\nKentucky\n\nBarbourville: A school district has banned middle and high school students from using backpacks, saying the move is meant to address safety concerns. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that Knox County Schools will implement the policy when students return to school in August. School spokesperson Frank Shelton says the policy will prevent students from using a bag to conceal items. “That is one less method that a student has to bring something into the building,” Shelton said. “With school safety on the minds of many due to recent school and public gathering shootings, we hope that our students and families see this as one more measure we are taking to protect students.” The policy will not apply to elementary school students.\n\nLouisiana\n\nNew Orleans: The state can now enforce its ban on almost all abortions under a judge’s order issued Friday amid a flurry of court challenges to state “trigger” laws crafted to take effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The decision came the same day President Joe Biden issued an executive order to protect access to abortion in states where it is still legal and mitigate the potential penalties women seeking the procedure may face after the high court’s ruling June 24. Days after the Supreme Court decision, Louisiana District Judge Robin Giarrusso issued a temporary restraining order banning enforcement of the state legislation in response to a lawsuit filed by a north Louisiana abortion clinic and others. State District Judge Ethel Julien said Friday that she did not have the authority to extend the restraining order because she had concluded the suit should not have been filed in her court. She said the suit’s claims that provisions in the law are unconstitutionally vague and inconsistent are matters involving legislation and therefore should be heard in state court in the capital, Baton Rouge. The ruling was a victory for Attorney General Jeff Landry and lawyers for the state, who argued that the lawsuit had been improperly filed in New Orleans.\n\nMaine\n\nPortland: The federal government hasn’t done enough to protect a rare species of whale from lethal entanglement in lobster fishing gear, and new rules are needed to protect the species from extinction, a judge has ruled. The government has violated both the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act by failing to protect the North Atlantic right whale, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled Friday. The whales number less than 340 in the world and have been declining rapidly in population in recent years. Boasberg’s ruling was a victory for conservation groups that have long sought to save the whale and a new challenge for lobster fishermen who have fought back against tightening restrictions on where and how they can fish. Boasberg ruled that the court’s findings “do not dictate that it must immediately shutter the American lobster fishery” but instead said the parties must propose potential remedies to the threat faced by whales. The ruling “may seem a severe result for the lobster industry” and the government, but no one “operates free from the strict requirements imposed by the MMPA and ESA,” Boasberg wrote. Environmental groups celebrated the ruling, while some members of the fishing industry took a more measured approach.\n\nMaryland\n\nFrederick: The U.S. Army says it is making progress in the long-running effort to address groundwater contamination at part of Fort Detrick that was used as a test site for the Army’s biological warfare program. The Army has been studying the groundwater problems on and around the “Area B” portion of the Maryland base for over a decade. Joseph Gortva, chief of Fort Detrick’s Environmental Management Division, recently told the Frederick News-Post he is “cautiously optimistic” the Army will complete field work at the site within the next two years. It will likely take another year or two beyond that for officials to finish a report summarizing what they’ve learned, the newspaper reports. Then the Army would move to the “feasibility study” phase of the cleanup. That would involve evaluating potential methods of addressing the contamination. The cleanup process for the site’s groundwater has been in the “remedial investigation” phase since 2010, the newspaper reports. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has designated the Area B groundwater as a Superfund site. Most drinking water wells near Fort Detrick have been closed, according to the newspaper.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nNantucket: A fire ripped through a historic landmark on Nantucket on Saturday morning, leaving the centuries-old structure heavily damaged. Firefighters battled the blaze that tore through the Veranda House inn, which dates back to the late 17th century. The inn is located in downtown Nantucket. Multiple firefighters from around the Cape Cod area headed to the island to help battle the flames, the Yarmouth Fire Department said on Facebook. Firefighters were still working to suppress the fire as of noon Saturday, Nantucket police tweeted. People were urged to avoid the area. Massachusetts State Police sent troopers to assist Nantucket authorities with the investigation, David Procopio, a state police spokesperson, told The Boston Globe. Photos and videos posted online showed smoke billowing into the sky above the downtown area. About 185 customers were without power because of the fire at about 8:45 a.m., according to National Grid. All but seven had their power restored by 11 a.m. The inn, which was built in the late 1600s, boasts 18 rooms and suites, according to its website.\n\nMichigan\n\nSturgis: Production of baby formula has resumed at the Abbott Nutrition factory whose February shutdown over contamination contributed to a national shortage, a company spokesman said. Damage from severe thunderstorms including flooding had forced the Sturgis plant to halt operations in mid-June, just two weeks after restarting production with additional sanitizing and safety protocols. Production of EleCare, a specialty formula for infants with severe food allergies and digestive problems, was restored at Sturgis following a July 1 reboot, said Abbott spokesman John Koval. “We are working to restart Similac production as soon as we can. We’ll provide more information when we have it,” he said via email. Abbott recalled several leading brands of formula in February, including Similac. That squeezed supplies already been strained by supply chain disruptions and stockpiling during COVID-19 shutdowns. The shortage was most dire for children with allergies, digestive problems and metabolic disorders who rely on specialty formulas. President Joe Biden’s administration has since eased import rules for foreign manufacturers, airlifted formula from Europe and invoked federal emergency rules to prioritize U.S. production.\n\nMinnesota\n\nDuluth: A program that allows people to cross into remote areas of Canada without reporting to border officials is expected to resume in the coming days. The Canada Border Services Agency told Minnesota Public Radio News that it has notified stakeholders that the program will restart soon and that the reopening date will be posted on its website once it has been confirmed. Resuming the program that was suspended in May 2020 as COVID-19 took hold will provide an economic boost to resorts and businesses in northern Minnesota, including those that offer canoe trips into Quetico Provincial Park. The park’s website said that the program was set to resume Friday and that the Canadian border agency would begin to accept applications in the coming weeks. The suspension of the remote permits for more than two years has had “a huge impact on us and the Boundary Waters,” said Mike Prom, co-owner of Voyageur Canoe Outfitters at the end of the Gunflint Trail. It will likely be a few weeks before canoeists begin crossing the border into Quetico, Prom said, since it typically takes about three weeks to receive the permits in the mail. He said travelers may also be able to drive to the border to get permits.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: A man has been indicted on a murder charge a year after a former legislator was shot to death while she was doing yard work in a rural area where her sister-in-law had died. Republican former state Rep. Ashley Henley, 40, was killed in June 2021 outside the burned-out mobile home where her sister-in-law, Kristina Michelle Jones, was found dead in December 2020. Henley and other relatives contended Yalobusha County authorities were doing too little to examine possible criminal charges in Jones’ death. Relatives erected a homemade sign at the site with photos of Jones under the phrase “I was murdered.” Yalobusha County coroner Ronnie Stark said Henley had been mowing grass at the home site before she was killed. A man who had lived near Jones, Billy Lamar Brooks, was indicted in February on a charge of maliciously setting fire to the home of Jones and Terry Henley. Court records show that on June 30, a grand jury filed a new indictment against Brooks to add a murder charge in the death of Ashley Henley. The Associated Press reached Brooks’ attorney, Bradley Peeples, by phone Saturday, and he declined to comment on the case. Court records show Brooks made a court appearance Thursday, and Circuit Judge Smith Murphey set his bond at $250,000.\n\nMissouri\n\nSt. Louis: The city’s Board of Aldermen has given initial approval to creating a $1 million fund to help St. Louis women get abortions in other states in the wake of a near-total state abortion ban that went into effect June 24. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the measure passed Friday would allocate federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for transportation, child care and other logistical help for women who travel to states where abortion remains legal. A vote on final passage is set for this week. Alderman Joe Vaccaro opposed the plan and called it a political stunt that will tie up some of the city’s pandemic aid funds in a lengthy court fight. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt already has said he will sue to try to block the measure and one proposed in Kansas City to use city employee health insurance to help with employee travel for out-of-state abortions. Schmitt, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Roy Blunt, said the St. Louis ordinance would violate a state law barring public money from being used to perform or assist an abortion not needed to save the life of the mother. Supporters say the money would only be used to provide access to abortion.\n\nMontana\n\nYellowstone National Park: It could take three to five years to replace roads damaged by flooding last month in Yellowstone National Park, but temporary fixes are expected to be in place within months, park Superintendent Cam Sholly said Friday. Sholly spoke after surveying damaged areas of the nation’s first national park with U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. The flooding prompted the evacuation of more than 10,000 people from the park and prompted its temporary closure. Parts of Yellowstone and two of its five entrances remain closed. Haaland also met with Gov. Greg Gianforte to tour flood damage in Gardiner, Montana. The town is a gateway to Yellowstone and dependent on its tourism but was cut off when the road into the park washed out in flooding that began June 12. A temporary road from Gardiner to the park headquarters in Mammoth Hot Springs has been built for essential travel and some guided tours. It potentially could be opened to visitors before winter, park officials said. A similar temporary fix is planned for washed out roadway at the park’s northeast gate near Cooke City, Montana. Federal officials have offered $50 million in emergency funding for the work.\n\nNebraska\n\nKearney: Republicans fired their longtime party chairman at a tumultuous state convention that highlighted divisions within the party driven by activists who support ex-President Donald Trump and want to take the party further to the right. After convention delegates voted to remove Chairman Dan Welch on Saturday, most of the other state party leaders resigned, including Executive Director Taylor Gage, the Omaha World-Herald reports. Republicans were sharply divided during this spring’s gubernatorial primary battle between two conservative candidates: the eventual winner, Jim Pillen, and businessman Charles Herbster, who was endorsed by Trump. The race to replace Gov. Pete Ricketts, who couldn’t run because of term limits, became more controversial after eight young women accused Herbster of groping them. Herbster denied the allegations, describing them as a politically motivated attack. He filed a defamation lawsuit against one of his accusers, state Sen. Julie Slama, who responded with a lawsuit of her own accusing Herbster of sexual battery. Herbster has refused to endorse Pillen, who is still expected to win in November over Democratic state Sen. Carol Blood because the state strongly favors Republicans.\n\nNevada\n\nCarson City: A couple was found secretly keeping a cache of weapons and living with their two kids at a children’s museum where they worked, authorities said. A janitor at the Children’s Museum of Northern Nevada was arrested late last week, KRNV-TV in Reno reports. The 41-year-old man has been charged with child neglect and endangerment and possession of a suppressor and a short-barrel rifle. Authorities discovered the arsenal in a storage room, they said. A police report listed an AK-47 rifle, three handguns, a pistol, ammunition, knives and a Taser that could have been reached by a child. The stash also included drug paraphernalia like a bong and a used marijuana joint. Officials realized the family was living in the museum after the man’s 2-year-old child was spotted walking nearby unsupervised, the Carson City Sheriff’s Office said. It was not the first time police interacted with the man over his child being left alone. But this time, the toddler’s older sister gave deputies the museum as their address. Authorities, along with a museum board member, then walked through the property and saw signs people had been living there. Sleeping bags, mattresses, clothes and food were among the items found in areas off-limits to visitors, the sheriff’s office said.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nPortsmouth: Joseph Raymond Goulet, a veteran who landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, on D-Day, has died. The New Hampshire resident died July 4. He was 99. Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to parents who emigrated from Canada, Goulet voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II, according to an obituary. His math and organizational skills led him to the Army Service Forces – now the Army Quartermaster Corps. When Army officials realized that Goulet spoke and read French fluently, he was sent to the Army’s 1st Infantry Division to use those language skills to connect with local French leaders and help open routes to the Army’s objectives inland following the invasion. On June 6, 1944, he landed with the first wave of the 1st Infantry Division at Omaha Beach but never ended up having to use his French language skills. During the rapid advance toward Germany, Goulet drove trucks loaded with fuel, ammunition and other needed supplies to the advancing front lines. He became part of what became known as the “Red-Ball Express,” which ran truck convoys nonstop regardless of the enemy, the weather or other obstacles. After the war, he worked at several jobs in the electrical supply industry before retiring and relocating permanently to New Hampshire.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nTrenton: The New Jersey Economic Developmental Authority announced Friday that it will allocate $17.5million in grants to 30 nonprofits across the state to support restaurants and families through the latest phase of its Sustain and Serve NJ program. The program, launched in December 2020, offers grant funding to nonprofit organizations who purchase meals from New Jersey restaurants that have struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic. The organizations then distribute these meals at no cost to those in need to help address food insecurity across the state. The program has allocated $52.5 million over three phases to eligible organizations that have purchased more than 3.5 million meals from more than 400 restaurants from every county in New Jersey, according to the press release. Gov. Phil Murphy allocated $10 million from the federal American Rescue Plan and about $7.5 million from the state to fund Phase 3 of the program. To be eligible for the Phase 3 grant, applicants must be a 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(19) nonprofit organization that demonstrates the capacity to purchase at least 1,500 meals meals in bulk costing at least $25,000 from New Jersey restaurants. They also must demonstrate increased costs during the pandemic, among other criteria to be eligible for the funding.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nFarmington: Months after the withdrawal of legislation that proposed the Navajo Nation recognize marriage equality through repealing and amending tribal laws, a new bill is bringing back that recommendation. The legislation seeks to end the ban on same-sex marriage under the Diné Marriage Act and repeal the section of the Navajo Nation Council resolution from 2005 that forbids couples of the same gender from marrying on tribal land or having their marriage recognized. The bill also proposes to amend other provisions in tribal law to conform with the repeal, including those that address spousal rights to property and employee benefits under the tribal government. Delegate Eugene Tso recently introduced the legislation. It is now eligible for consideration by four standing committees, then the Navajo Nation Council. Tso sponsored the previous bill but abruptly withdrew his sponsorship in April, citing the need to retool the legislation amid mixed reaction from delegates and the public. In an interview July 1, Tso said he wants the bill to go to the council at the summer session.\n\nNew York\n\nAlbany: Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo improperly used state resources for a book he received $5.1 million to write, according to a report by a law firm. New York’s soon-to-be-disbanded ethics commission, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, voted Thursday to make the report public. It had sought the investigation by the law firm to learn more about how the book deal was approved and the role played by the commission itself. The report says the ethics commission failed to assert itself as a watchdog agency against the governor and should have asked for more information from Cuomo’s office. Cuomo had already written 70,000 words of what was expected to be an 80,000-word book before he submitted a request seeking approval by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics for the book in 2020. That meant Cuomo wrote and publicized the book at a time when it interfered with his responsibilities as a governor leading the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said. In December, the commission ordered Cuomo to turn over money from his book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Cuomo has filed a lawsuit accusing the commission of violating his rights and showing bias against him.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: The state Supreme Court will accelerate appeals over the constitutionality of a law that gave adults with child sexual abuse claims another two years to seek civil damages. A majority of justices agreed last week to hear the case of three former Gaston County student-athletes who are suing a coach who was convicted of crimes against team members, as well as the county school board, rather than let the intermediate-level Court of Appeals rule first. A divided panel of three trial judges dismissed the lawsuit last December, ruling unconstitutional a portion of the law that revived for two years only – 2020 and 2021 – the ability of someone otherwise too late to sue for child sexual abuse claims. Before the 2019 law called the SAFE Act, such abuse victims effectively had until age 21 to file such a lawsuit. The plaintiffs appealed. In a 4-3 decision announced Tuesday, the Supreme Court decided the case should bypass the Court of Appeals. The court’s registered Democrats composed the majority. Chief Justice Paul Newby, writing a dissent for the three Republican justices, said they would have allowed Court of Appeals review first and lamented that multiple bypass motions have been allowed by the court over the past few months in other cases.\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: Dozens of teachers from around the state got a cultural education from American Indian tribes last week. More than 250 educators attended the North Dakota Indian Education Summit on Thursday and Friday at the Capitol in Bismarck, where they participated in breakout sessions and took in cultural presentations, such as Native American dancing in traditional regalia. Some of the breakout sessions included teaching Indigenous culture successfully in today’s schools and implementing Native American topics into schools’ curriculum. “I think it’s important that we learn about the diversity of our students and have a better understanding of where they’re coming from and gain the knowledge they have so much to give back to us as educators,” said teacher Tami Hauglie. One of the summit’s objectives is to unify the education system in North Dakota to bring different cultures together, organizers said. Courtney Davis Souvannasacd, an outreach coordinator with the National Resource Center on Native American Aging at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, told KFYR-TV it wasn’t until later in her life that she was exposed to cultural ceremonies. “And so I still I have a lot to learn,” she said. “And I’m just happy that my children are able to experience that new environment that is open, welcoming, and inclusive of that where I try to chip away at obstacles or barriers that might be in the way, and it’s not always easy.”\n\nOhio\n\nCincinnati: A former Cincinnati City Council member was convicted Friday of federal charges of bribery and attempted extortion but was acquitted on four other counts. Democrat P.G. Sittenfeld, 37, had maintained his innocence against allegations that he agreed to accept $40,000 in payments to his political action committee to “deliver the votes” in the City Council for a proposed downtown real estate development. He had been considered a top contender to run for mayor before he was indicted in November 2020. “We’re obviously very disappointed; that’s about all I can say right now,” Charlie Rittgers, Sittenfeld’s attorney, said as he left the courthouse. “P.G., well he’s crushed. He’s crushed.” It’s not yet known if Sittenfeld will appeal the verdict or what type of sentence he’s facing. The jury got the case Wednesday afternoon and deliberated more than 12 hours over three days before reaching its mixed verdict. Sittenfeld was found guilty of single counts of bribery and attempted extortion but was acquitted of two counts of honest services wire fraud and single counts of attempted bribery and extortion. Sittenfeld dipped his head and slumped forward in his seat after hearing the verdict, while his wife and at least one other woman in the packed courtroom started to cry.\n\nOklahoma\n\nAnadarko: Native American tribal elders who were once students at federal Indian boarding schools testified Saturday about the hardships they endured, including beatings, whippings, sexual assaults, forced haircuts and painful nicknames. “I still feel that pain,” said 84-year-old Donald Neconie, a former U.S. Marine and member of the Kiowa Tribe who once attended the Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, about 80 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. “I will never, ever forgive this school for what they did to me. It may be good now. But it wasn’t back then.” As the elders spoke, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, herself a Laguna Pueblo from New Mexico and the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history, listened quietly. The event at the Riverside Indian School, which still operates today but with a vastly different mission, was the first stop on a yearlong nationwide tour to hear about the painful experiences of Native Americans who were sent to the government-backed boarding schools. Although most closed their doors long ago, and none still exist to strip students of their identities, some still function as schools, albeit with drastically different missions that celebrate the cultural backgrounds of their Native students. Among them is Riverside, one of oldest, which opened in 1871.\n\nOregon\n\nSalem: Backers of a proposed initiative that would require people to secure permits to buy firearms say concern about recent mass shootings have buoyed their effort, and they have enough signatures to place it on the November ballot. The Rev. Mark Knutson, a chief petitioner of the initiative, delivered signatures Friday afternoon to the Oregon secretary of state’s office in Salem, accompanied by students and other volunteers. Election officials, who work under Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, will verify that the signatures are from registered voters. Proponents of the measure say they’ve seen surging interest in the possible November ballot question following recent mass shootings, and they hope the move to put the gun issue before voters catches fire in other states. “Let’s go across the nation and go from grief and despair and mourning,” Knutson said. “We just need to take action. If people are afraid, if neighbors are being shot, if our children are in fear – if we don’t take action, what are we doing?” The initiative supporters needed to deliver at least 112,080 registered voters’ signatures by the Friday deadline to get on the ballot, Knutson said. Proponents say they delivered 161,545 signatures. It would ban large-capacity magazines over 10 rounds – except for current owners, law enforcement and the military – and require a permit to purchase any gun. The state police would create a firearms database.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday rejected three bills passed by the Republican-majority Legislature, vetoing measures regarding transgender athletes in school sports and poll watchers. He also struck down the Human Services Code, blowing a hole in the state budget as lawmakers were trying to finish the annual flurry of votes that accompany the annual spending plan. Wolf had previously warned he would strike down the bill to prohibit transgender athletes from playing sports that align with their gender identity. In his veto message, he said the bill would have “a devastating impact on a vulnerable population already at greater risk of bullying and depression.” He also vetoed a bill – sponsored by Franklin County Sen. Doug Mastriano, the GOP’s nominee for governor – to let all registered voters of Pennsylvania serve as poll watchers in any precinct in the state. “This bill does nothing to increase access to voting,” he wrote. “Instead, this bill undermines the integrity of our election process and encourages voter intimidation.” Wolf’s third veto was based on a provision in the Human Service Code that would have prohibited a state agency from contracting with a vendor of financial management services.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: A national women’s rights organization is fighting back against the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling through federal court in the state. The Elizabeth Cady Stanton Trust has filed a lawsuit asking the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island to recognize the Equal Rights Amendment as a valid and enforceable 28th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, thus affirming women’s equal rights under the law. “We hope that the little state of Rhode Island will make the biggest decision in the history of women’s rights. The timing has never been more urgent,” said Wendy Murphy, a longtime ERA strategist who works with the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Trust. The lawsuit is one of three the organization filed after the Supreme Court’s draft ruling overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked. The group, named for Stanton, a leading women’s rights activist in the 1800s, filed similar lawsuits in Michigan and New York, all with the aim of getting the courts to establish equal protection under the law regardless of sex. “The goal of the lawsuit is to get the Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution,” said Murphy, a co-director of the Women’s and Children’s Advocacy Project at New England Law.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nGreenville: Pastor John Gray of Relentless Church was hospitalized Thursday night with a saddle pulmonary embolism, according an Instagram post by Gray’s wife, Aventer Gray. “My family and I stand in need of a miracle,” Aventer Gray wrote in her post. A saddle pulmonary embolism is a rare type of blockage of an artery in the lungs that can be life-threatening, according to the National Library of Medicine. “To place this in perspective,” Aventer Gray posted, “the doctor said that people have come into the hospital dead with this exact scenario (John) walked in with.” Along with the embolism, Aventer Gray wrote that more blood clots were also found in her husband’s lungs. She wrote that he will need to undergo two types of surgery due to the pressure on his heart. John Gray came to Greenville in 2018 from Houston, Texas, where he served as an associate pastor under megachurch leader Joel Osteen. Gray took over the Redemption Church congregation and buildings and rebranded the church as Relentless Church when Redemption pastor Ron Carpenter announced he was moving his ministry to California. The post sparked an outpouring of support from members of Gray’s congregation, other faith leaders and celebrities alike.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: Skateboarders and their fans dropped into downtown Sioux Falls for the national skateboard festival Innoskate over the weekend. Innoskate, created in 2013 by USA Skateboarding and the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, celebrates the intersection of invention and creativity in skate culture, according to the Smithsonian. Crowdgoers were treated to panels during Saturday’s activities on Native American skateboarding culture on the Pine Ridge Reservation, what diversity and inclusion looks like in skateboarding, and discussions about skateboarding in the Olympics. There were also trick competitions and skateboard workshops. “Pine Ridge is literally the mecca of skateboarding,” said Kyle Mesteth, 36, who founded the Ground Control Skate Park on the reservation. “You could just travel within an hour and hit four skate parks.” Mesteth spoke about how important skateboarding has become on the reservation and how he has watched it grow since he started skateboarding in the mid-1990s. One of the first skateparks on the reservation, the Toby Eagle Bull Memorial Wounded Knee Skate Park, opened in 2011. “We see a very bright future for our skaters because of the skate park,” he said. “We see results because of it.”\n\nTennessee\n\nMemphis: The city’s hospitality and tourism industry experienced a bounce-back last year, with the hotel occupancy rate and total visitors returning to near pre-pandemic figures, according to Memphis Tourism’s annual report. The nonprofit organization often touts 2019 as a record year for the local industry. Then in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered that promising trajectory for hospitality and tourism due to restrictions that decreased national and international visitation. In addition to the usual tourist draws like Graceland and the National Civil Rights Museum, 2021 also saw the return of a scaled-back Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. While COVID-19 restrictions remained in place for large parts of 2021, the availability of vaccines and loosening of local restrictions, along with other factors, saw the optimism from the end of 2019 return for those in hospitality and tourism. “Everybody saw the dramatic impact and how important the visitor economy is to a community,” Memphis Tourism CEO Kevin Kane said. “Everybody is really anxious to get that back as soon as they can.” More than 4.1 million hotel rooms were sold in Shelby County, or about 93% of the total hotel demand from 2019. Memphis outpaced the national average by about 5%.\n\nTexas\n\nUvalde: The mayor on Friday disputed a new report that alleges authorities missed chances to quickly end the massacre at an elementary school, again reflecting the lack of definitive answers about the slow law enforcement response to one of the deadliest classroom shootings in U.S. history. Mayor Don McLaughlin said that no Uvalde police officer saw the gunman outside Robb Elementary School before he went inside and that none of them had an opportunity to fire on the shooter. His comments contradict a critique of the decision-making by law enforcement that was released last week by tactical response experts at Texas State University. The differing accounts and public rebuke of the report reiterated how, more than six weeks after the May 24 shooting, questions remain about how and why police armed with rifles and bulletproof shields waited more than an hour before confronting the gunman in a fourth grade classroom where 21 people were killed, including 19 children. It also widened a rift between Uvalde officials and the state, particularly the Texas Department of Public Safety, which had troopers on the scene and has directed much of the blame to the local school district police chief.\n\nUtah\n\nSt. George: The city, already a draw for outdoors enthusiasts, is opening a new trail this week, and officials say they expect it could help fight crime, too. The Temple Springs Trail, which will connect 700 East to Red Hills Parkway along the cliffside on the north end of the central part of the city, is set for an official opening Wednesday. The trail is open to pedestrians and cyclists and adds to the city’s growing network of multiuse trails. This particular trail was not initially in the city master plan but was later approved by the City Council after it was picked as a potential location, said Joe Nelson, the city’s parks and planning landscape architect. The project was brought to the city’s attention by the St. George Police Department, which had dealt with crime and homelessness in the area, Nelson said. “It was a kind of magnet for homeless camps and just kind of crime,” Nelson said. “It was a kind of a hot spot for that. The police had a really hard time getting into the site to surveil it, and so they were the ones that actually said, ‘Hey, we need to clean up this site and put a trail through it so we can have eyes on the site.’ ” A grand opening will be held at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Parking will be available east of the water tank in two parking lots, and biking is also encouraged.\n\nVermont\n\nBurlington: A 21-year-old man died after he was shot in the head, police said Friday, as the city contends with an increase in gun violence in recent years. The shooting took place about 7:40 p.m. Thursday in the Old North End neighborhood. No suspects were in custody, but police said they believed that the parties knew each other and that the shooting was not random. Police identified the victim as Hussein Mubarak, of Burlington. After the shooting, police were told the suspect may have fled north into a wooded area. A search by police that included dogs and a drone was unsuccessful. In a statement, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said the shooting death was the first homicide in the city in more than two years. “Yet it is one of many recent gunfire incidents, part of a very disturbing trend that has dramatically increased since 2020,” Weinberger said. Last month, Weinberger, city police and the county prosecutor said reducing gunfire episodes in Vermont’s largest city was a top priority. At the time, city officials said there had been nearly 40 instances of gunfire in the city since the beginning of 2020. Previously, the city averaged about two a year.\n\nVirginia\n\nBristol: The state’s first casino has opened for business in a temporary space inside a former shopping mall. The Bristol Casino will be open 24/7, offering 870 slots, 21 tables and a sportsbook. A line of customers wrapped around the building as they waited for Friday’s grand opening, TV station WDBJ reports. “We had to come and save my sister from spending all her money,” Christiansburg resident Cheryl Hubbard told the station. “And spend all of his,” she joked, pointing to her husband. In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly approved legislation to allow developers to build large casino resorts in five cities – Norfolk, Bristol, Portsmouth, Danville and Richmond – in what supporters billed as a way to boost struggling economies. Potential operators had to first clear a voter referendum. That happened in every city but Richmond, which rejected the initiative last year. But city officials have mounted an effort to bring the issue back a second time. Bristol voters overwhelmingly approved their referendum, and the project got its license earlier this year. Developers eventually plan to open a $400 million resort and Hard Rock casino, with a hotel, restaurants, bars and lounges, and a concert venue. The full-scale project is expected to open in 2024 and employ 1,200 people.\n\nWashington\n\nSeattle: The state Commission on Judicial Conduct has admonished a King County District Court judge for implying in court that a defendant would be raped in prison if he didn’t change his behavior. The Seattle Times reports Judge Virginia Amato, who was elected in November 2018, presided over the arraignment of a man charged with misdemeanor domestic violence assault and resisting arrest last August, according to the stipulation, agreement and order of admonishment signed June 24 by the commission’s executive director, J. Reiko Callner. Before imposing conditions of release, Amato noted the man’s alleged crimes happened while he was on probation, the order says. The man had no felony convictions and could not be sent to prison for misdemeanors, yet Amato is quoted in the order as telling him he was setting himself up “to be Bubba’s new best girlfriend at the state penitentiary.” “That may hopefully give you a graphic image to think about … and if you think I’m kidding, I’m not,” she reportedly said. A confidential complaint was filed in October with the commission, which is responsible for reviewing and acting on complaints of judicial misconduct, and Amato was served with a statement of allegations in December, the order says.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nHuntington: Recovery Point West Virginia held its grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday for the Point Cafe, Huntington’s newest community resource center. The Point Cafe opened after a few years of planning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reginald Jones, Recovery Point’s executive director, said officials originally applied for a grant in 2019 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to fund the cafe at a different location, but a “year of unavailability” led to the project coming to fruition later than expected. Now that the cafe is open, Jones said the location will be a safe space and a free, therapeutic environment for anyone seeking recovery to find resources, make connections and join support groups. The cafe will offer a variety of workshops and classes, including art and yoga. He said the cafe will also be a resource for the greater community of Huntington by holding cooking, financial literacy and computer courses; conducting barista training; and offering resume-building assistance, among other services. “The idea came to us as an organization, Recovery Point, from looking at what the needs are of the community and trying to find a niche to fill those gaps,” Jones said.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: A divided state Supreme Court ruled Friday that parents suing the Madison School District over its gender identity policies must disclose their names to opposing attorneys, but they don’t have to be revealed to the district or be made public. The 4-3 ruling comes after a Dane County Circuit Court judge in 2020 temporarily suspended portions of the district’s guidance on gender identity that a group of unnamed parents and a conservative law firm sued to overturn. The case centers on a policy the district adopted in 2018 that calls for district personnel to call students by their preferred names and pronouns but not to disclose students’ gender identities to anyone outside, including their parents. Some parents sued in 2020, alleging the policy violates their right to parent their children as they see fit and their right to religious freedom. The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty and the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, both conservative law firms, are representing the parents. The firm’s attorneys asked Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington to allow them to proceed without revealing the parents’ names out of fear they would be subject to retaliation and harassment.\n\nWyoming\n\nCheyenne: Energy companies bid more than $22 million to secure drilling rights on about 110 square miles of public lands in the West late last month, during the first onshore oil and natural gas lease sales since President Joe Biden took office. Leases on about 90 square miles went unsold in the U.S. Bureau Land Management online auctions that included parcels of federal lands in seven states. Oil and gas produced from the leases will be subject to a royalty rate of 18.75%. That’s up from 12.5% and the first royalty increase since the 1920s. Most of those sold were in Wyoming, where companies paid more than $13 million for parcels totaling about 105 square miles. The auctions came as federal officials try to balance efforts to fight climate change against pressure to bring down high gas prices. Critics of the leasing program pointed to unsold parcels in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and Nevada as further evidence oil companies have enough leases and drilling permits already stockpiled to last them for years. But with several prior lease sales still tied up in court challenges from environmentalists, some companies had concerns going into the sale that they might not be able to drill on leases they acquired, said Ryan McConnaughey, vice president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/50-states/2021/05/26/farmworker-fairness-nasal-spray-fix-even-lottos-news-around-states/116566130/", "title": "Farmworker fairness, nasal spray fix, even more lottos: News from ...", "text": "From USA TODAY Network and wire reports\n\nAlabama\n\nMontgomery: Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday signed legislation banning so-called vaccine passports, making Alabama the latest state to try to prohibit requiring proof of a COVID-19 vaccination to enter a business, school or event. The legislation by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, would prohibit government entities from issuing “vaccine or immunization passports” or other “standardized documentation for the purpose of certifying immunization status.” The bill makes exemptions for child immunization forms and “other applicable state law.” It would also prevent people from being denied entry to businesses, universities and state agencies if not vaccinated against COVID-19. The legislation does not specify a penalty for violations. The state House stripped language that would have exempted health offices and nursing homes and added that universities cannot require students to have vaccines developed after Jan. 1, 2021. “I am supportive of a voluntary vaccine and by signing this bill into law, I am only further solidifying that conviction,” Ivey said in a statement released by her office. “I made the choice to get the COVID-19 vaccine and glad for the peace of mind it brings. I encourage any Alabamian who has not gotten their shot to roll up their sleeves, and if you have questions, consult with your health care provider.”\n\nAlaska\n\nAnchorage: The state’s largest ski area in Girdwood ended its winter season over the weekend – the latest the season has run in a decade, resort managers say. Alyeska Resort on Sunday ended a winter ski season that had been extended due to a large amount of snow, Alaska’s News Source reports. The resort marked the last day of the season by hosting a COVID-19 vaccine clinic and offering a lift ticket as a prize for those who received a shot. Steve Kruse, an avid skier, said this was one of the best ski seasons “in maybe eight or nine years.” The resort plans to offer downhill mountain biking during the summer season, set to begin June 11.\n\nArizona\n\nPhoenix: A Native American nation says a lack of direct outreach and trust kept it from participating in COVID-19 vaccine trials. Moderna asked the Hualapai Tribe by email about participating in its vaccine trial. Tribal officials asked the company to go through its media team, meet face-to-face or arrange an online video meeting, Hualapai Chairman Damon Clarke said. The small community of 2,300 registered members was fearful of becoming mere test subjects in a larger experiment. In the end, Moderna representatives did nothing outside of email, and with so little information and no trusted relationship with the company, Clarke said Hualapai leaders declined to participate. Even if the Hualapai Tribe, nestled along the southwest corner of the Grand Canyon, had wanted to participate in COVID-19 research trials, Clarke said it would not have had the resources to do so. “The federal government, they only appropriate so much money to the Indian Health Services … our expectations are high, and yet we get the lowest medical treatments in the country,” he said. Only two of Arizona’s 22 federally recognized tribes – the Navajo Nation and the White Mountain Apache Tribe – participated in COVID-19 vaccine trials, according to David Wilson, director of the Tribal Health Research Office at the National Institutes of Health.\n\nArkansas\n\nLittle Rock: The state will begin giving lottery tickets and gift certificates for hunting and fishing licenses to people who get COVID-19 vaccines, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Tuesday. He said $20 scratch-off lottery tickets or $20 Game and Fish gift certificates will be offered to residents who get their first dose starting Tuesday. The incentives will be available starting June 1 at local health units and at special events around the state. Arkansas has maintained one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. About 39% of the state’s population has gotten at least one dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The announcement follows efforts in other states to offer incentives for people to get vaccinated, including special lottery prizes. Hutchinson said Arkansas couldn’t legally offer a similar statewide drawing. The state is spending $2 million to buy 50,000 scratch-off tickets and 50,000 gift certificates for the promotion. The state on Tuesday announced 329 new coronavirus cases, bringing its total since the pandemic began to 340,515. The state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations rose by five to 200, and deaths rose by four to 5,824.\n\nCalifornia\n\nLivingston: The state has cited and fined a Foster Farms chicken processing plant that saw a deadly coronavirus outbreak last year, saying the company failed to protect its workers. The state Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s penalty of $181,500 is one of the steepest citations issued during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sacramento Bee reports. A representative for Foster Farms told the paper the company “does not have a comment” on the citations. Cal/OSHA alleged Foster Farms failed to “establish, implement and maintain” an effective system for communicating with its employees and contract employees on COVID-19 in the workplace. It also failed to effectively communicate with its own management about outbreaks and to communicate measures it was taking to prevent exposure to the virus, according to Cal/OSHA. The agency opened an investigation after receiving notification that an employee died of COVID-19 complications, the newspaper reports. Following its probe, the agency alleged Foster Farms and one of its staffing agencies failed to immediately report at least four employee deaths at the company’s processing plant in Merced County last summer. The Livingston facility was temporarily shut down in August after at least 358 employees tested positive for the virus, and at least eight employees died.\n\nColorado\n\nDenver: Gov. Jared Polis has announced a weekly state lottery for five residents to win $1million to incentive COVID-19 vaccinations, amid other state bids to overcome public vaccine hesitancy. “Rather than gamble on getting COVID, let’s take a chance on winning a million dollars,” Polis said Tuesday. Colorado is setting aside $5 million of federal coronavirus relief funds that would have gone toward vaccine advertising for five residents to win $1 million each. The drawings will take place every week starting June 4 until July 7. Every adult resident who has been vaccinated by the end of May will be entered in the first drawing. To be eligible, residents need to be 18 years old and have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly 3 million residents, about half of the state’s population, have received their first dose – slightly higher than the U.S. average of 49.5%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just over 40% of Coloradans are fully vaccinated, compared to the U.S. average of about 39.5%. The state will also announce scholarship awards for 12- to 17-year-olds who get vaccinated, Polis said.\n\nConnecticut\n\nHartford: A judge has upheld the state’s requirement that children wear masks in schools, rejecting a challenge by some parents who said that mask-wearing can be harmful and that education officials exceeded their authority. The ruling released Monday affirms the legitimacy of mask requirements in schools this academic year but does not address any guidance on masks that may be issued for the next school year. The state Department of Education has not yet decided whether to require mask in schools for the 2021-22 academic year. Officials said they will be monitoring updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The decision by Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher in Hartford upheld Gov. Ned Lamont’s coronavirus-related emergency orders that granted the state Department of Education authority to require masks. Moukawsher cited decisions earlier this year by the Legislature and the state Supreme Court upholding the governor’s right under the state constitution to issue emergency orders in response to COVID-19. The ruling came in an August lawsuit filed by the CT Freedom Alliance and several parents and their children that challenged the requirement. Brian Festa, co-founder of the CT Freedom Alliance, said his group plans to appeal to the state Supreme Court.\n\nDelaware\n\nDover: The state is jumping on the trend of offering cash and other incentives to entice children and adults to get COVID-19 vaccines. State officials said Tuesday that Delawareans 12 and older who are vaccinated between now and June 29 will be entered to win $5,000 in cash and additional prizes in twice-weekly drawings conducted by the Delaware Lottery. The eligibility extends to all children between ages 12 and 17 who have already received vaccines. The drawings will be held on Mondays and Fridays from May 31 through June 30. Other prizes include a four-day vacation, a full scholarship to a Delaware public university, state parks passes, and tickets to the Firefly Music Festival and minor-league baseball games. State officials also will reimburse small businesses including restaurants, bars and gyms that provide vaccine incentives to customers. The incentive campaign will culminate June 30, when any state resident who has received the vaccine in Delaware will be entered to win a $302,000 cash prize and two low-number state license plates, which are coveted by some Delawareans. In the meantime, Delawareans vaccinated at locations managed by state officials between now and June 29 will receive a $10 gift card.\n\nDistrict of Columbia\n\nWashington: Data on how COVID-19 vaccines affect people with chronic illnesses and autoimmune diseases is lacking, but a local woman has an app for that, WUSA-TV reports. D.C. area-based founder Elizabeth Tikoyan originally launched the Healp app in January 2020, after being diagnosed with Lyme disease and suffering long-term effects. When she struggled to find anyone with a similar experience to connect with, she developed the app to connect people all across the world with chronic illnesses. It looks like a dating app, but each user shares their illness and what information they’re hoping to learn. Then they swipe accordingly. Now, it’s sharing anecdotes from users who got a COVID-19 vaccine. “It’s nice to see – oh, she has ulcerative colitis. And she was nervous, but she didn’t have a reaction or whatever it might be,” said Chloe Colvard, who also has ulcerative colitis and other autoimmune conditions. People like Colvard and Tikoyan are at a higher risk of severe illness if they contract COVID-19. “There was a lot of fears among the chronic illness and autoimmune disease communities around answers regarding the vaccine,” Tikoyan said. “Like are people responding well? If not, what are some of the reactions? Is it different than people who don’t have my condition?”\n\nFlorida\n\nOrlando: The state is joining a growing list of Republican-led states that plan to end participation in a federal program that gave an extra $300 per week in benefits to the unemployed during the pandemic. The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity announced Monday that the state will withdraw from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program effective June 26. State labor officials said private-sector employment increased by 18,800 jobs last month, and more than 460,000 online job postings were made throughout the state for job-seekers. “Florida’s employers are also seeing employment growth, as more Floridians, including some who completely left the workforce, are now eagerly reentering the workforce,” said Dane Eagle, secretary of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. “Transitioning away from this benefit will help meet the demands of small and large businesses who are ready to hire and expand their workforce.” Florida will continue to participate in other federal pandemic-related unemployment programs aimed at the self-employed, people who already have exhausted their unemployment benefits and gig workers. These federal benefit programs also are set to expire in early September.\n\nGeorgia\n\nAtlanta: Gov. Brian Kemp says public agencies in the state can’t require people to prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19, a step his administration says ultimately means no agency can require anyone to get a shot. The Republican governor issued an executive order Tuesday banning so-called vaccine passports and saying state immunization records can’t be shared with any private company aiming to create such a record. “While I continue to urge all Georgians to get vaccinated so we continue our momentum in putting the COVID-19 pandemic in the rearview, vaccination is a personal decision between each citizen and a medical professional – not state government,” Kemp said in a statement. Georgia has the eighth-lowest rate among states for COVID-19 vaccinations among residents 12 and older, according to data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kemp is running for reelection in 2022 and has been taking steps to shore up support among Republican voters still restive over claims that Kemp didn’t do enough to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia. Opposition to vaccine passports, even though they’re not in widespread use, may be driven in part by reluctance among many conservatives to get inoculated against COVID-19.\n\nHawaii\n\nKailua-Kona: Some Big Island officials question the need to pump money into tourism promotion, with the pandemic highlighting the economic downside of reliance on visitor spending, but a measure to reallocate budget funds was voted down. The issue came up at a county council budget meeting last week, West Hawaii Today reports. North Kona Councilman Holeka Inaba was concerned that other areas of Hawaii County’s $609.1 million budget were being neglected. Inaba proposed removing $359,000 from the Department of Research and Development’s $459,000 line item for tourism promotion contract services. “I feel that this money could be better used elsewhere,” Inaba said. “We have goals that state that tourism is compatible with historic and natural resources. That it’s not intrusive on our local communities, that it helps to strengthen private, public and international partnerships and makes us a resilient community,” Inaba said. “And I don’t believe that to be true, as we’ve seen over the last year. With tourism gone, we were in the hole.” Inaba’s measure died on a 3-5 vote. Those voting against the measure said the funds focus on the importance of responsible tourism. “We want our tourists when they come to come and be pono and responsible tourists. And when we take away this money, we are not going to be able to articulate that message,” said Puna Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz.\n\nIdaho\n\nBoise: Education officials said Monday that the state’s primary challenge in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic is helping students make up lost ground. The State Department of Education identified that as a top priority in its draft plan for spending $440 million Idaho is receiving in federal rescue money for more than 300,000 students in grades K-12. The U.S. Department of Education requires the plan to receive money from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund that’s part of the American Rescue Plan signed into law by President Joe Biden in March. State officials face a tight timeline. They’re taking comments on the plan through June 1, then will send it to the Idaho State Board of Education for approval. The plan must be submitted to the U.S. Education Department by June 7. Mike Keckler, a spokesman for the board, noted its eight members had a role in coming up with the draft plan. One of them, Linda Clark, coined the term “unfinished learning” in describing what the pandemic has caused among Idaho students. State officials said last fall’s early reading assessment showed a 5% drop from the previous year in K-3 students reading at grade level. Students from low-income families fell further behind than their peers.\n\nIllinois\n\nSpringfield: The state reported fewer than 1,000 new coronavirus cases Monday – the first time it has seen consecutive days of fewer than 1,000 cases since July 2020. The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 933 new cases Monday, following 943 reported Sunday. Testing combined with fewer cases means a lower positivity rate, with IDPH reporting a 2.7% positivity rate Monday and the rate as a percentage of tests staying steady at 2.2%. The state saw a peak Nov. 6, 2020, with 18,049 new cases reported that day. Since then, daily cases have declined 95%, and the positivity rate has dropped from 11% to less than 3%. IDPH also announced Monday that it would be implementing a new program allowing officials to monitor early warning signs for the coronavirus and its variants in wastewater. The program, started in association with the Discovery Partners Institute of Chicago, will begin in 10 counties at the outset and eventually expand to 35 counties by the summer, with all counties across the state having some form of the system by the end of the year in a $5.5 million implementation. Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of IDPH, said the new system would provide for a better warning system for possible outbreaks, as the virus is visible in fecal matter almost immediately after infection.\n\nIndiana\n\nIndianapolis: The state’s attorney general argues in new legal filings that the governor is wrongly trying to use the courts to expand his powers with a lawsuit challenging the authority legislators have given themselves to intervene during public emergencies. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb asked a judge last month to block the new law passed by the GOP-dominated Legislature following criticism from many conservatives over a statewide mask mandate and other COVID-19 restrictions that Holcomb imposed by executive orders. Attorney General Todd Rokita, also a Republican and past Holcomb rival, claims in court documents filed late Monday that he is within his legal authority to turn down Holcomb’s request to take the dispute to court after the Legislature overrode the governor’s veto of the new law. His office’s court filing repeatedly calls Holcomb’s lawyers “unauthorized counsel” in asking for them to be removed from the case. “A lawsuit by the Governor against legislators to invalidate a law enacted over the Governor’s veto amounts to a demand for a ‘super’ veto via the judiciary,” the filing says. “It is no small thing for one branch of government to drag another branch of government to account before the third branch of government. No constitutional provision secures to officials of any branch such extraordinary power.”\n\nIowa\n\nDes Moines: The state has paid $29million to $30million in fraudulent unemployment insurance claims since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the head of the state’s workforce agency says. During a quarterly board meeting, Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend said the agency has increased its fraud detection efforts since March 2020 but still has seen a large uptick in claims from applicants lying about their qualifications for benefits. Some organized crime rings have targeted state workforce agencies with fraudulent claims during the pandemic, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General. Congress increased the amount of money unemployed workers could receive, making jobless benefits more attractive. Plus, as millions of people filed claims, busy state employees had less time to weed out suspicious applications. According to an inspector general’s report in February, California and New York each disclosed that they been hit with at least $1 billion in fraudulent claims. “We were very fortunate in Iowa because we have practices and programs and safety mechanisms in place pre-pandemic that certainly helped us prevent most of the fraud that a lot of other bigger states were seeing,” Townsend told the board. “We have enhanced those as the pandemic has gone on.”\n\nKansas\n\nTopeka: The Kansas Statehouse and the state Museum of History will reopen to visitors next month. The reopenings were announced by the State Historical Society, which provides tours in the Statehouse near downtown Topeka and operates the museum in west Topeka. Both had been closed to the general public because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Statehouse visitor center will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday starting June 1. While groups can request guided tours of the building, tours of the dome won’t be offered. The Museum of History will reopen June 2, with visitors allowed from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Sixteen state historic sites across Kansas also are open.\n\nKentucky\n\nLouisville: Black residents now account for about half of all new COVID-19 cases in the city, officials said Tuesday – a development Mayor Greg Fischer called “alarming.” In Jefferson County, about 22% of residents are Black and, until recently, had been showing proportionate rates of death and infection, Fischer said at a news briefing with health officials. Louisville reported 592 new coronavirus cases and 55 deaths last week. Though cases overall have begun a gradual decline, younger people, particularly Black residents, are now accounting for more of the new cases, said Dr. Sarah Moyer, director of Louisville Metro Health and Wellness. Moyer cited lower rates of vaccination as a key factor. Rates are high among both Black and white residents 60 or older, Moyer said, but “a greater percentage of our younger Black Louisvillians have not been vaccinated yet.” Sadiqa Reynolds, president and CEO of Louisville’s Urban League, said she is well aware of the lower rates of vaccination against COVID-19 among younger, Black Louisvillians and is working with Moyer and other city health officials to improve outreach to those individuals. She said she’s heard frequent comments from younger people involved in job training, education and other programs that they do not fully trust the COVID-19 vaccines first introduced in December.\n\nLouisiana\n\nLafayette: It could take until 2023 for the state to regain all the jobs lost amid the pandemic, one report says. Still, even though most of Louisiana’s major metropolitan areas fell short of their job projections for the first quarter of 2021, the forecast shows reason to be optimistic for future growth. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s B.I. Moody III College of Business released its economic forecast for the second quarter of 2021 on Friday, showing job growth slowed across the state in the first three months of the year. The report’s author, economics professor Gary Wagner, noted that future projections have improved. But it will take most of the state’s metro areas more than a year to fully return to pre-pandemic job levels in Wagner’s latest forecast. The state added fewer than 8,000 jobs in the first quarter, for a growth rate of about 0.4% – the lowest since the COVID-19-related job losses of the second quarter of 2020. As of March, the state had regained about 45% of the jobs lost due to COVID-19, compared to about 70% nationally. Wagner’s forecast estimates the state will not recover all pandemic job losses until 2023. Louisiana’s unemployment rate continued to fall as the year began, though at a slower rate than previous quarters, going from 7.9% at the end of 2020 to 7.5% in the first quarter of 2021.\n\nMaine\n\nPortland: Catholics can now return to churches with greatly relaxed coronavirus restrictions. The Diocese of Portland changed its guidance for the 141 Catholic churches in Maine just as the state prepared to eliminate mask requirements in most settings. Maine’s indoor mask order went away Monday. Masks will no longer be required for any person at any time, inside or outside churches, the diocese said. Pew seating arrangements that establish 6 or more feet of distance between people are also eliminated. The diocese said it’s restoring distribution of Communion to homebound Catholics, and indoor choir practices can be held without distancing. Many churches will provide space in areas such as parish halls for spread-out seating during services, the diocese said. Livestreaming of services will also continue, the diocese said. “We hope that by continuing to offer a variety of ways to participate in Mass and through updating these protocols, all will feel welcomed to grow in their faith together in Christ,” Bishop Robert Deeley said.\n\nMaryland\n\nAnnapolis: The state held its first of 40 consecutive $40,000 lottery drawings Tuesday for people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The Maryland Lottery said the first winner lives in Baltimore County. State law allows lottery winners to remain anonymous. There will be 39 more drawings for $40,000 in the $2 million total promotion, which ends with a $400,000 prize July 4. The drawings are being done with a computer program that randomly selects a number from within the range of numbers provided to the lottery by Maryland’s health department. To be eligible, a participant must be an adult resident who has received a vaccine dose in Maryland. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 68.3% of the state’s adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Gov. Larry Hogan is hoping to reach 70% by Memorial Day. “Congratulations to the first winner of our $40,000 VaxCash lottery drawing!” Hogan wrote on Twitter with a flurry of video balloons and noting a website for people to schedule appointments. The Hogan administration highlighted health metrics Tuesday that continue to improve. The statewide coronavirus positivity rate has dropped below 2% for the first time of the pandemic. The state reported 160 new confirmed cases – the fewest since March 26, 2020.\n\nMassachusetts\n\nBoston: The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is boosting some subway and bus service this summer, with ridership continuing to increase as the pandemic wanes. The MBTA carried more riders the week of May 10 than it has in any week since the COVID-19 pandemic began, WBZ radio reports. The changes come as all COVID-19 restrictions in Massachusetts are scheduled to end this Saturday, although passengers will still be required to wear face coverings while on public transportation or in stations. The T will increase the frequency of the Red, Orange and Blue line trains as well as Green line trolleys on the C, D and E branches starting June 20. Buses will run with greater frequency on dozens of routes on the same date, while several previously eliminated routes will be restored, according to the T.\n\nMichigan\n\nLansing: Republicans on Tuesday advanced a bill that would prohibit state and local health officials from requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for children and were also poised to ban governments from mandating vaccine passports. Neither concept is under consideration in the state. But GOP lawmakers said they want to be proactive. “While they might not be mandating something, they’re certainly creating a scenario where mandates are being pushed. I just wanted to ensure that that wasn’t going to happen in this space. Parents should be allowed to make the decision on this,” Sen. Lana Theis, of Brighton, said of her legislation that would prevent the use of a state or local emergency order to require COVID-19 vaccines for minors. It won Senate approval on a 20-16 party-line vote. Democrats called the bill needless and noted that if the COVID-19 vaccine were added to the list of immunizations children need to attend school, the state allows for exemptions. Both bills would need to clear the other chamber before heading to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has said state officials are not looking to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations. About 58% of residents 16 and older have received at least one dose.\n\nMinnesota\n\nSt. Paul: The state reported 256 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, the fewest since September, according to a report from the Minnesota Department of Health. Across the state, 11 more Minnesotans died of the disease: one person in their late 40s, two in their 50s, three in their 60s, three in their 70s, one in their 80s and one in their 90s. The total number of people who have tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 since the pandemic began reached 599,477 cases Monday, and 7,381 people have died, according to MDH. Since the onset of the pandemic, 31,883 people have required hospitalization for COVID-19 in the state.\n\nMississippi\n\nJackson: Neurosurgeon Dr. John Daniel Davis IV has been nominated by Gov. Tate Reeves to serve on a board that governs public health, Department of Health officials announced Tuesday. Davis was tapped to complete the six-year term of Dr. Ed D. “Tad” Barham on the Mississippi State Board of Health. Barham died earlier this year of coronavirus complications. Davis is a graduate of both the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He currently works as a neurosurgeon at NewSouth NeuroSpine in Flowood. “It is truly a special opportunity and unique honor to serve on this Board,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “I am committed to sound, science-based policy with efficient execution, and I look forward to addressing important matters that impact the health and lives of Mississippians.” Before Davis officially joins the board, he must first be confirmed by the state Senate. A native of Jackson, Davis graduated from Jackson Preparatory School as the Star Student in 1984 and received his bachelor’s degree in biological engineering, graduating summa cum laude from Mississippi State University.\n\nMissouri\n\nKansas City: The city will receive more than $8 million in federal money to address issues related to homelessness, officials said. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver announced the $8.3 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Saturday. Some of the money will help pay for 140 beds in the tiny homes village initiative. That program, announced last month, will provide transitional housing and other services to people experiencing homelessness. Lucas said the city has made progress in addressing housing needs, but more work needs to be done. Officials said the federal money will provide a significant boost to those efforts. “Ensuring all Kansas City families have access to safe and affordable housing must and will remain a priority well into the future – and this funding allocation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development helps providing the funding necessary to do so,” Lucas said.\n\nMontana\n\nKalispell: Amtrak’s Empire Builder train has resumed daily service from Chicago to Seattle and Portland, including a dozen stops along Montana’s Hi-Line, after cutbacks made due to the pandemic. The Empire Builder stops in Wolf Point, Glasgow, Malta, Havre, Shelby, Cut Bank, Browning, East Glacier Park, Essex, West Glacier, Whitefish and Libby in Montana. Whitefish is the busiest stop, with more than 55,000 passengers boarding or disembarking there in a typical year, the Daily Inter Lake reports. “Whitefish depends on the reliable service – and economic boost – that the Empire Builder route brings, and we are thrilled that service is returning to seven days a week,” Whitefish Mayor John Muhfeld said in a statement. “With travel season right around the corner, this is just the shot in the arm our economy needed as we work to build back after the pandemic.” Amtrak reduced service on most of its long-distance routes to three days a week in October as ridership dropped because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amtrak was provided $166 million in the most recent federal coronavirus relief bill to return to normal operations and reinstate about 1,200 workers.\n\nNebraska\n\nLincoln: The Winnebago Tribe – one of two federally recognized tribes of Ho-Chunk Native Americans and one of four tribes in Nebraska – has reached what state officials called a “truly exemplary milestone” with a 71% COVID-19 vaccination rate for those 16 and older and a 64% rate for those 12 and up. The tribe believes in actively maintaining and improving the lives of its members and preserving its rich cultural heritage, the state Department of Health and Human Services said in a release. Dannette R. Smith, CEO of the state agency, said in a Facebook Live briefing that “the Winnebago Tribe has done an exemplary job vaccinating their residents and serve as a valuable model for outreach and care.” The reservation is located in northeastern Nebraska in Thurston County. Tribal Council offices are in the town of Winnebago.\n\nNevada\n\nReno: The state’s embattled unemployment office may finally get the technological makeover desperate residents have been hoping for. A bill introduced in the Legislature last week would set aside $54 million in eligible federal funds for major software upgrades at the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. That’s at least $7 million more than top agency administrators estimated they would need to overhaul the “vintage code” now running on its computers. Those systems were overwhelmed by a flood of fake unemployment claims filed at the height of the COVID-19 crisis, leaving thousands of legitimate claims unpaid as the Silver State’s tourism-driven economy collapsed. Gov. Steve Sisolak, who has repeatedly called for changes at DETR, lauded the legislation as a good way to give agency officials the “system they need.” Court- and governor-appointed fixers have spent countless hours puzzling over DETR’s well-documented struggle to pay out credible claims, eventually issuing a pair of dense reports that sought computer upgrades, training improvements and a whole host of other changes meant to reduce the backlog. DETR leaders did not bring forward legislation to implement those changes, a decision that left some agency critics and Republicans fuming at recent hearings.\n\nNew Hampshire\n\nConcord: Residents are feeling more comfortable with activities like eating inside a restaurant, going to a state beach and getting their hair cut, according to a Granite State Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. About half of those polled said they are currently comfortable with attending a wedding with 50 or more people, going to a bar or pub, going to a gym or health club, and going to a movie theater, according to the survey published Wednesday. Even though New Hampshire no longer has a statewide mask mandate, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that fully vaccinated individuals no longer need to wear masks in most situations, people responding to the survey said they are wearing masks at only slightly lower rates than in December. The survey said 83% said they always wear a mask while shopping at a grocery store or pharmacy, down from 89% in December, while only 10% said they rarely or never do this. A total of 69% said they wear a mask when getting restaurant takeout food, down from 75% in December. Relatively few people continue to wear a mask when socializing with family or friends with whom they don’t live or while exercising outdoors. Also, nearly 75% surveyed said they are at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19.\n\nNew Jersey\n\nAtlantic City: Gross operating profit in the city’s casinos soared in the first quarter of this year to more than $95 million – more than three times the amount they earned in the first quarter of 2020, when the COVID-19 shutdown wiped out half of March. Figures released Monday by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement show eight of the nine casinos posted increases in their gross operating profit, with only Bally’s posting an operating loss. James Plousis, chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, said this year’s figures are not evenly comparable to the first quarter of 2020 due to the coronavirus-related shutdown. So he chose to compare this year’s performance to the first quarter of 2019, when all the casinos were operating and the pandemic had not yet occurred. Under that comparison, the casinos’ first quarter earnings this year are 11% higher than they were in he first quarter of 2019, he said. “The strength of internet gaming and the safe return of tourists to Atlantic City are a powerful combination,” he said. “Last week’s lifting of casino capacity restrictions bolsters confidence for a strong recovery this summer.” Internet gambling continued its strong performance in New Jersey in April, even with Atlantic City casinos open for business again and patrons returning to try their luck in person.\n\nNew Mexico\n\nSanta Fe: The state probably overpaid unemployment insurance benefits by an estimated $250 million during the coronavirus pandemic amid a backlog of investigations into potentially fraudulent claims, the budget and accountability office of the Legislature announced in a research report. Analysts briefed members of the Legislature’s lead budget-writing committee last week on the trajectory of record-setting unemployment claims during the pandemic. New Mexico has paid out more than $3 billion in unemployment claims through its Workforce Solutions Department since the pandemic was declared in March 2020. That put the state unemployment trust fund into insolvency and in debt to the federal government. The Workforce Solutions Department last year reassigned staff to help keep pace with a tide of claims as jobs and personal income dried up, and the department drafted workers from other state agencies to answer phones from people who lost jobs and were desperate to sign up for unemployment payments. “The surge and staffing reassignments exacerbated already rising rates of improper payments,” financial analysts at the Legislative Finance Committee found. Analysts attribute $133 million of the estimated overpayments to fraud. The remainder was not linked to intentional deception.\n\nNew York\n\nNew York: In the Far Rockaway section of Queens, nearly 460 residents have died of COVID-19. That’s 1 out of every 146 people who live in the seaside neighborhood, making for one of New York City’s highest death rates. Yet no other place in the city has a lower percentage of vaccinated people. As of Monday, only 29% of people living Far Rockaway’s ZIP code, 11691, had received even one COVID-19 vaccine dose, according to data from the New York City Health Department. That compares to a rate of 49% citywide and nationally. The situation in the community of about 67,000 people illustrates the challenges facing health officials in many places as they try to overcome hesitancy fueled by mistrust, misinformation and fear. “We have a good amount of people that still don’t want to get vaccinated, for whatever reason,” said Diana Catalan, a health clinic manager involved in the Far Rockaway inoculation effort whose father, a neighborhood resident, died of the coronavirus in February. Some people want to wait a few months to see how vaccinated friends and family respond to the shots, she said. Some have heard unfounded conspiracy theories that the vaccine is dangerous. Others just feel no urgency, having escaped serious harm so far.\n\nNorth Carolina\n\nRaleigh: A broad tax cut proposal from Republicans in the state Senate that began its advance in the chamber Tuesday also contains federal COVID-19 relief money to give more aid to businesses that previously received federal or state pandemic assistance. GOP finance leaders unveiled an amended version of their tax plan, some of which was already revealed in March and contained an individual income tax rate reduction and more generous standard deductions. The latest edition also would increase the amount of per-child deductions by $500. If approved, more low-income individuals would pay zero income tax, and all filers would see their monetary tax burdens reduced. Republicans have made rate reductions and deduction increases a cornerstone of their fiscal policy since a landmark overhaul in 2013 consolidated taxes to one flat rate and scaled-back credits. “We are proposing yet another tax cut because we believe people spend their money better than government does,” Sen. Paul Newton, a Cabarrus County Republican and Senate Finance Committee co-chairman, said during a news conference. “Allowing North Carolinians to keep their own money is the best form of stimulus our economy could have.”\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nBismarck: The month of May continues to be a slow one for increasing the rate of COVID-19 vaccinations, according to state figures. The North Dakota Department of Health update released over the weekend showed 48.5% of residents have received at least their first dose of vaccine, roughly the same percentage from a week prior. The level has increased by less than 2 percentage points for the month. Health officials say 289,745 residents have received at least one dose of a vaccine, and 268,060 people, or 44.9% of the population, have completed the required series of shots. The COVID Tracking Project reports there were more than 147 new virus cases per 100,000 people over the past two weeks in North Dakota, which ranks 17th in the country for new cases per capita. One in every 1,523 people in the state tested positive in the past week. North Dakota ranks 13th-highest per capita in the number of deaths at about 202 fatalities per 100,000 people, according to project researchers.\n\nOhio\n\nColumbus: October will be a busy month for marathoners, as the state’s three biggest races all hold events within days of each other thanks to rescheduling driven by the coronavirus pandemic. The Columbus marathon announced Tuesday that registration opens June 1 for an in-person event Oct. 17. Race organizers didn’t announce a cap on participants but said they could limit registrations based on guidance from health officials. The race, normally held in October, is the second-largest marathon in Ohio, with 3,594 finishers in 2019. Last fall’s race was canceled by the pandemic. The Cincinnati marathon, the biggest in Ohio with 3,874 finishers in 2019, is normally held in May but is now planned for Oct. 31. The Cleveland marathon, the third-largest in Ohio with 1,397 finishers in 2019, is also normally held in May and is now scheduled for Oct. 24. Both canceled their spring races because of the coronavirus. The resumption of the Columbus race can bring some normalcy back to people’s training regimens, said race director Darris Blackford. “Our race by no means replaces or diminishes the hardship and suffering so many have endured and continue to face as a result of COVID-19, but it does provide a welcome distraction to the stresses of the pandemic,” he said in a statement.\n\nOklahoma\n\nOklahoma City: Gov. Kevin Stitt signed key legislation Monday to implement a $9 billion spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The budget appropriates nearly 8% more funding than the current year’s budget, largely to make up for cuts and decreased spending last year due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The general appropriations bill Stitt signed outlines state funding for various agencies. Stitt and Republican legislative leaders announced an agreement two weeks ago on an $8.3 billion spending plan. Still, Stitt spokeswoman Carly Atchison said the final budget bills approved by the Legislature authorize a total of $9.06 billion in spending for fiscal 2022. Among the key provisions in the agreement is an increase in funding for public schools of $171.6 million, or 6%, from last year’s funding levels, and a diversion of more than $800 million into a state savings account. The Legislature also fully funded an expansion of the state’s Medicaid program approved by voters last year. The budget agreement includes cuts to the corporate and top individual income tax rates and restoration of the refundability of the earned income tax credit, which is designed to help low-income Oklahomans.\n\nOregon\n\nPortland: As the Portland Trail Blazers continue their run in the NBA Western Conference Playoff, Gov. Kate Brown announced Monday that the Moda Center will debut vaccinated sections this week with increased capacity and fewer physical distancing restrictions. Fans in vaccinated sections who are 16 or older must provide proof they have been fully vaccinated. Fans not eligible will sit in areas where they must continue to physically distance. According to officials, all fans will still be required to wear a mask. “When fans left the Moda Center last March, it was one of the first signs this pandemic was about to change our lives in ways we hadn’t previously imagined,” Brown said. “Vaccines are the key to our return to normal life.” Brown urged residents to get vaccinated right away if they haven’t yet. “Don’t miss your shot to cheer on the Blazers as they make a run at a championship,” the Democratic governor said. In addition, Brown announced that businesses, venues and faith institutions in “lower risk” counties may follow suit with the Moda Center and create vaccinated sections. She said vaccinated sections in businesses would not need to adhere to physical distancing, capacity limits or masking requirements.\n\nPennsylvania\n\nHarrisburg: A state House committee voted on party lines Tuesday to keep portions of the governor’s coronavirus disaster emergency in place until October but end fast-track contracting rules and other provisions. The resolution, which requires approval from both legislative chambers but not from Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, is designed to stop the use of no-bid contracts, require people on unemployment aid to look for work and end social distancing mitigation rules. The State Government Committee vote came just one day after the proposal was introduced by the Republican House floor leader, Rep. Kerry Benninghoff of Centre County, and exactly a week after state voters passed a pair of constitutional amendments to give lawmakers greater authority over disaster declarations. Republican Rep. Russ Diamond, who has opposed mask-wearing and other virus mitigation efforts, said he hoped to make changes to the legislation before a final vote. Diamond said voters in his Lebanon County district did not want any provisions to remain in place for months to come. All Democrats on the committee voted no. Wolf’s mitigation orders are currently being phased out, and on Monday the governor’s acting labor secretary outlined a schedule for resumption of job-search requirements.\n\nRhode Island\n\nProvidence: When the Rhode Island State House reopens to the public June 1, some coronavirus restrictions will remain in place, Gov. Dan McKee announced Tuesday. Visitors will be allowed Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. but will have to sign a log book, have their temperature taken and wear face masks in all common areas. No proof of vaccination will be required. Some areas will remain off limits for health and security reasons, the Democratic governor said. “Any choice to enable remote work, bring employees back in person, or any combination of the two will also be left to the discretion of each office,” he said in a statement. McKee had come under criticism for keeping the State House closed to the public even as most coronavirus restrictions on the economy have been lifted. He had previously announced it would reopen June 1 but without details. Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, also a Democrat, last week questioned why the building remained closed. She announced Sunday that she will run for governor.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nClemson: In the wake of Gov. Henry McMaster’s order rendering all local mask mandates non-enforceable, the city is considering passing an “in case of emergency” ordinance that would reinstitute the mask mandate if the community experiences a future resurgence of COVID-19. “You still have the ability to do a mask ordinance. You just can’t reference the governor’s emergency order as the justification for it; it has to be based on your local conditions,” interim City Manager Andy Blondeau said. Clemson may take a cue from Athens, Georgia, where the college town’s mask mandate is only triggered if cases reach 100 per 100,000 people, according to its 2020 ordinance. The Clemson City Council ordered Blondeau to consult local health officials on what that “trigger” would be based on past pandemic data and local population numbers. Meanwhile, Clemson University has lifted certain on-campus mask rules for vaccinated people, according to a campus message sent out Friday. Fully vaccinated people will not have to wear masks – unless in a classroom – and will not have to be tested weekly for the coronavirus, according to the campuswide email. People who have not received a full series of COVID-19 vaccines will still be required to be tested weekly and wear masks on campus.\n\nSouth Dakota\n\nSioux Falls: A South Dakota State University professor is researching whether antiseptic nasal spray may help reduce the risk of coronavirus infection, after he used it on a trip to his home country of India, which is facing a severe outbreak of COVID-19. The spray isn’t a “magic bullet,” but it may provide another layer of protection if used correctly, said Saikat Basu, an assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering at SDSU. He conducted his research before, during and after his trip to India and published a paper on it by May 1, but the South Dakota Department of Health cautions against the spray’s use. “Given no U.S. studies have been conducted on this, the SDDOH cannot advocate for, or recommend, the use of this nasal spray until further research is done and it receives FDA approval,” spokesman Daniel Bucheli said. “Neither Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon or Dr. Joshua Clayton have spoken about this, given it’s not an approved COVID-19 prevention or treatment tool.” One of Saikat Basu’s collaborators on the project, Dr. Diane Joseph-McCarthy, of Boston University, said people use nasal sprays for asthma and other respiratory diseases, but the protocol they researched for delivering the spray almost-horizontally could potentially be applicable to any respiratory disease.\n\nTennessee\n\nMemphis: Local elected officials and health leaders spent 2020 begging people to stay home ahead of holiday weekends in an effort to keep COVID-19 case rates and deaths down. This holiday weekend, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris is going to the movies. He’s going to Target without his mask. He’s going to travel, the mayor said during a news conference Tuesday. “It’s been a long time since we have been back to movie theaters, and I’ll be going to see whatever is coming out, but I don’t care what it is – I’ll be in the movie theaters seeing it this weekend. I’ll likely take a trip or two to Target because that’s what people do,” he said. After all, he is vaccinated. The tone of Harris and Shelby County Health Department Deputy Director David Sweat reflected the changed circumstances on the ground ahead of Memorial Day weekend. While Shelby County is not close to its goal of 700,000 people vaccinated, it’s about halfway there. “I think that we all deserve to reap the rewards of the hard work that a lot of people have put into bringing us to this point,” Sweat said. “If you’re fully vaccinated with a group of your friends, enjoy the weekend.” Harris and Sweat pressed those who aren’t vaccinated to get their shots. Sweat noted five deaths related to COVID-19 over the weekend, calling them unnecessary.\n\nTexas\n\nAustin: After three-day tickets to the Austin City Limits Music Festival sold out in record time last week, music fans scrambled for a second shot when the festival released single-day tickets Tuesday. Highlighting the appetite for live music experiences as COVID-19 vaccinations rise, single-day tickets also sold out swiftly. The tickets went on sale at noon. According to the festival, there was a six-ticket limit in place for customers. At 1:35 p.m., messages posted to the festival’s official social media channels announced that ACL Fest was sold out, once again in record time. By mid-afternoon, plenty of tickets were available on ticket resale websites, with the $135 fee marked up to $300 or more. ACL Fest takes place Oct. 1-3 and 8-10 at Zilker Park. Country legend George Strait, pop superstar Miley Cyrus and rap breakout Megan Thee Stallion will kick the fest off Friday nights. On Saturdays, teen pop wunderkind Billie Eilish and Australian electro-dance outfit Rufus Du Sol take top billing, with Doja Cat, ’90s rockers Modest Mouse and singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers playing support. Grand dame of rock and roll Stevie Nicks and rap superstar DaBaby will close out the fest on Sundays with female music innovators St. Vincent and Erykah Badu, the latter of whom shifts to Friday on Weekend 2.\n\nUtah\n\nSt. George: The Washington County Justice Court reopened for some in-person hearings this week, with yellow phase protocols in place. Courts across the state had been closed for in-person hearings for 14 months since the onset of the pandemic and have held hearings through Webex. With Washington County seeing fewer cases, going from the red phase to yellow, the court administration has been discussing how to proceed for those wanting in-person hearings. Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke said there one in-person hearing roughly a month ago was a test run on court hearings in the yellow phase and required everyone who attended to be tested for the coronavirus and wear a mask. The Administration of Courts is requiring a 10-person limit in any courtroom as part of the Pandemic Response Plan. The Washington County Justice Court will also participate in contact tracing. The Administration of Courts does not have a plan or a standard for opening the District Court yet. “Protocols don’t reflect where the community is,” Clarke said. He said he anticipates the District Court keeping Webex for certain types of hearings and is meeting with administrators this week to find out how remote hearings will be implemented into normal court proceedings.\n\nVermont\n\nMontpelier: The state is expected to reach 80% of eligible residents vaccinated against COVID-19 in the next week to 10 days, prompting the governor to drop remaining pandemic-related restrictions before July 4, state officials said Tuesday. Gov. Phil Scott and state officials said they have been pleased with progress on vaccinations since the governor on Friday challenged the state to reach the 80% mark. As of Tuesday, 76.9% of Vermonters ages 12 and older had received at least one dose, state officials said, after discovering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had some duplicated numbers. That means another 17,250 residents need to start vaccines to hit the 80% target, they said. “We’re heading toward a time when about 3 out of every 4 Vermonters will be vaccinated, which significantly lowers the chance you’ll encounter someone who is unvaccinated,” Scott said. “The chance someone has COVID is getting lower every single day.” The vaccination rate continues to lead to a decline in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, officials said. Vermont went a week without a COVID-19-related death last week, making it one of the only states to do so, said Mike Pieciak, commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation, who has been following the COVID-19 trends for Vermont.\n\nVirginia\n\nPetersburg: Petersburg City Public Schools on Monday became the only district in the state to offer free coronavirus testing for students and staff in the school setting, as part of the Increased Community Access to Testing program. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notified the district last month that it was selected for the free school testing program. ICATT expanded its testing services in schools to ensure that the school environment is safe for learning, stop the spread of COVID-19 and keep classrooms open. Petersburg is one of 27 school systems nationwide to take part in the program. “School COVID-19 testing is one more layer of protection that helps us attend school in person safely,” said Dr. Maria Pitre-Martin, superintendent of Petersburg City Public Schools. Anyone who wants a coronavirus test can ask on the two days per week testing is available at multiple school buildings. Parents of students younger than 18 will have to sign a one-time consent form for students to have access to testing. Students and staff who test positive will be contacted directly. “Regular COVID-19 testing can quickly detract, trace and isolate COVID-19 positive individuals, and that will help us lower the risk of transmission,” Pitre-Martin said.\n\nWashington\n\nSpokane: Some top agriculture groups are upset with Gov. Jay Inslee because farmworkers were not covered in last week’s announcement that fully vaccinated employees do not have to wear a mask or socially distance at work. Washington Farm Labor Association Executive Director Dan Fazio and Washington Farm Bureau Chief Executive John Stuhlmiller issued a joint statement this week saying Inslee failed to disclose that these new rules do not apply to vaccinated farm workers who live in temporary housing. “As the 2021 harvest season launches, this double standard for the agricultural community is not based on current science, is creating widespread confusion and is financially catastrophic,” the executives said, calling that unfair. Thanks to widespread testing and vaccination, farmworker facilities in Washington state are much safer than local communities, achieving a nearly 100% vaccination rate, the ag executives said. They said the emergency regulations will be in place during the heart of the harvest season unless the governor acts. Washington farmers annually employ tens of thousands of migrants to produce the state’s bounty of agricultural products, including apples, cherries, grapes, asparagus and many other perishable crops.\n\nWest Virginia\n\nCharleston: The state would pay unemployed people a $500 sign-up bonus for returning to work under a plan expected to be finalized soon. The bonus would be half of what Republican Gov. Jim Justice initially suggested could be offered to workers. He said earlier in May that the bonus would be $1,000, which would require the employer to pay half and the state to cover the rest. On Tuesday he said he didn’t want to “put any additional pain on our small businesses” even though he believed some would “gladly step up and pay the $500 match.” He said he expects the bonus, which “may only be the $500,” to come out of the state’s coffers. The governor said the program could be finalized by the time of his next coronavirus briefing, likely later this week. “We need to encourage people to get back to work,” Justice said. He announced earlier this month that the state will end its additional pandemic-era boost for unemployment benefits June 19, including the additional $300 a week for those without a job. West Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped slightly to 5.8% in April – the lowest since March 2020, when it was 5.3%.\n\nWisconsin\n\nMadison: Republicans who control the Legislature convened Tuesday and within seconds ended a special session called by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to expand Medicaid, dashing chances for the state to receive a one-time bonus of $1 billion in federal coronavirus relief funding. The Senate and Assembly gaveled in and adjourned the special session in mostly empty chambers with only a handful of lawmakers in attendance. The Assembly session lasted all of about 40 seconds, while the Senate was done in less than 10 seconds. There was no debate, let alone any votes taken, on the bill Evers called on the Legislature to pass. It marked the latest in a long line of defeats for Democrats on the issue. Democrats have for years advocated in vain to expand eligibility for the state’s Medicaid program known as BadgerCare Plus. This time, with the $1 billion in federal pandemic aid at play, Democrats said it made no sense not to join 38 other states in accepting expansion. Republicans who have long opposed expansion called the latest attempt a political stunt, saying they don’t want to move people from private insurance to the BadgerCare Plus plan and worry the federal money will dry up, forcing the state to pay a higher share. Evers, in a statement after the vote, called it “breathtaking” that Republicans would turn down $1 billion.\n\nWyoming\n\nCheyenne: A new report made public last week has highlighted the potential benefits for workers as state lawmakers consider expanding Medicaid. The Commonwealth Fund and George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health has projected Medicaid expansion would create 1,900 jobs in the state, with two-thirds in the health care industry, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports. Leighton Ku, university professor and lead author of the study, said more than $100 million in additional federal funds allotted for the state would create new employment opportunities and go to hospitals, pharmacies and health care providers likely to give the money to their employees. That would generate more spending for the state’s economy, which Ku estimates at about $4 million in the first year. Medicaid expansion would also benefit uninsured workers in the hospitality, food service and retail industries, a separate university report said last week, estimating more than half of the state’s uninsured workers come from the industries, based on 2019 numbers. “This data is pre-pandemic, and when you think about what happened during the pandemic and how hospitality got hit really hard, this data suggests it’s only gotten worse for these low-wage workers,” said Joan Alker, the second report’s co-author.\n\nFrom USA TODAY Network and wire reports", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/05/26"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_21", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:21", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20220715_22", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/14/opinions/putin-russia-gas-europe-climate-connolly/index.html", "title": "Putin could turn off Europe's gas tap. This is the solution - CNN", "text": "Tara Connolly is senior gas campaigner at Global Witness , an international NGO working towards a more sustainable, just and equal planet. She has over a decade of experience in EU energy policy. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.\n\n(CNN) As Russian troops remain camped across several of Ukraine's frontiers , Europe and the United States are scrambling to prevent an incursion, with a flurry of diplomatic efforts and by bolstering their own troops in nearby NATO countries.\n\nSpeculation over Russian President Vladimir Putin's intentions have ramped up from mere threats to actual war, but officials and pundits in Europe are jittery about another threat as well: Moscow could reduce -- or even stop -- the flow of fossil gas that the continent so heavily relies on.\n\nThere has been much talk of what Russia is trying to achieve geopolitically by fostering this reliance -- to break up NATO, to split the European Union or alienate the US from its Western allies -- but these other concerns are also pressing.\n\nSoaring prices in a power crunch are driving millions of Europeans into energy poverty and the continent's unfettered use of fossil gas is fueling the climate crisis. The solution should be self-evident -- end our reliance on expensive, dirty, and overwhelmingly imported gas. This will require standing up to the powerful gas industry, and right now, far too few politicians seem willing to take this vital step.\n\nThis is by no means the first time Europe's heavy reliance on Russian gas has been problematic. It was the same story during the last major flare-up with Ukraine in 2014, and Europe's response -- to simply find gas elsewhere -- didn't work then. It isn't working now either.\n\nIn 2013, Russian imports accounted for around 27% of the European Union's gas use. Instead of reducing reliance on Russia, nine years later, Europe remains more dependent on Russian gas than ever, with 38% of the EU's supply now being piped from the country.\n\nEU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson has been holding urgent meetings with Azerbaijan and Qatar to boost the bloc's gas supplies. Likewise, US President Joe Biden, a self-proclaimed climate champion, has been trying to ride to Europe's rescue, and push his own ever-expanding plans for American liquefied natural gas exports.\n\nOn a practical level, it's unlikely the US and its friends would be able to replace Russian gas in Europe quickly and effectively. Recent research by the Brussels-based think tank, Bruegel, concluded that in the event of a rupture in Russian gas, the EU would run short and have to start cutting gas use altogether.\n\nSo, if Europe can't do without Russia for gas, the question must be asked: Why not do without the gas?\n\nEven if the US could bring a cavalry to Europe, more gas isn't a long-term solution. The flag on the pipeline or ship is irrelevant -- it's Europe's dependency on the fuel, regardless of where it's from, that makes it so vulnerable to the vagaries of the global gas market.\n\nEurope's addiction to gas, and indeed the world's, will have a deep impact on the future of our planet. The idea peddled by many in the fossil fuel industry that gas can help tackle the climate crisis by replacing coal is false. The International Energy Agency has said that the world should stop adding more capacity for gas if it wants to contain global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.\n\nIn the EU, gas is now responsible for more carbon emissions than coal . According to the European Commission's own analysis, the continent must virtually eliminate fossil gas by 2050 to help keep global warming to 1.5C, although Global Witness believes it must be gone by 2035. Globally, between 2016 and 2019, fossil gas has been responsible for half of the increase in carbon dioxide emissions, according to data from the Global Carbon Project.\n\nMethane, which can leak from almost every step in the gas supply chain, has more than 80 times the global warming power than carbon-dioxide in the short term. Methane has driven more than a quarter of all global warming to date. Not to mention the health risks attached to gas exposure both for communities near infrastructure and even in homes. A recent study by Stanford University showed, stoves used for cooking often leak methane even when turned off.\n\nIt's not just followers of geopolitical tensions or those in the climate movement that should be concerned with this gas addiction. A sharp rise in gas prices has forced households across Europe into the impossible choice between heating and eating. In the UK, 22 million have been told their energy bills will rise by about £700 ($950) a year, which will hit the poorest the hardest. Recent, but as yet unpublished, figures crunched by the Global Witness data team found that consumer gas prices in the Netherlands and Estonia over the past year have increased by a staggering 62% and 122%, respectively.\n\nAs European households suffer, it's a very different picture for major fossil fuel firms. Shell recently announced its most profitable fourth quarter in almost a decade, posting almost $20 billion in profit for 2021. ExxonMobil and Chevron recorded a combined $38.6 billion in profits last year. With other oil and gas majors set to post similarly strong years in the coming days -- including Russia's own Gazprom, which saw record-breaking Q3 profits -- it's a pointer as to just why politicians continue to back gas, despite all its associated woes.\n\nEven with the tide turning against fossil fuels, many European lawmakers seem to continue to buy into the argument that the gas industry is vital for jobs and growth in their countries, even though the renovation and renewables sectors are already significant contributors to the economy with huge potential.\n\nThis is an industry that is directly benefiting from rising gas prices while ordinary citizens fall further into energy poverty and the climate crisis intensifies. It's therefore no surprise that gas companies are pushing to keep gas locked in, using the two-pronged approach of lobbying and greenwashing. While announcing his company's highest profits in eight years, the CEO of BP, Bernard Looney, called for even more investment into gas. And it's clearly having the desired effect.\n\nIn December, the European Commission published its proposals to reform Europe's gas market, in what could have been an opportunity to move towards the phaseout of gas. Worryingly, it chose to lock gas in for years to come, in line with calls from the gas industry.\n\nThe Commission's proposals rest on the impossible assumption that fossil gas infrastructure -- like pipelines -- can eventually be used with substitutes by nascent technologies like hydrogen. In Europe's existing networks, however, this would do little to reduce gas use, given most hydrogen is produced using fossil gas. There is little being done to challenge the power and influence of the fossil fuel companies at the heart of the gas market.\n\nAnother way is possible, but it requires a monumental shift. The huge political and financial support afforded to the fossil fuel industry needs to be redirected to give a much-needed boost for genuine solutions.\n\nGet our free weekly newsletter Sign up for CNN Opinion's newsletter. Join us on Twitter and Facebook\n\nModeling carried out by the Climate Action Network Europe and the European Environmental Bureau shows that the use of fossil gas could virtually be phased out by 2035. That would require accelerating deep renovations of Europe's buildings, ramping up the deployment of renewable electricity technologies and the electrification of heating and transportation -- all measures that are entirely realistic.\n\nThis includes accelerating the deployment of renewable energy, like wind and solar, so that we can replace gas with green electricity. Schemes to renovate large-scale buildings or to insulate homes and replace gas boilers with green heating solutions, like heat pumps and geothermal, would go a long way.\n\nBut, outrageously, the majority of the EU's 27 member states still give more subsidies to fossil fuels than renewables.\n\nEurope's deep gas dependency is impacting its citizens, the future of the planet and limiting its ability to shield from geopolitical threats. Already, rich big polluters in the gas industry -- whether in Russia or elsewhere -- are the only ones who stand to benefit from the status quo. European leaders should be putting in place plans to get Europe off gas as quickly as possible. This shouldn't be a courageous act. It's just common sense.", "authors": ["Opinion Tara Connolly"], "publish_date": "2022/02/14"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_23", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/02/asia/sri-lanka-economic-crisis-protests-intl-hnk-dst/index.html", "title": "Sri Lanka is facing an economic crisis. Here's what it's like for people ...", "text": "Colombo, Sri Lanka (CNN) For three straight nights last week, Upul took to the streets of Sri Lanka's capital city holding a candle or a placard as he protested the country's worst economic crisis in decades.\n\nLike his neighbors, he was frustrated by the more than 10-hour power cuts that plunged Colombo into darkness, and a shortage of gas to cook with that made it hard for his family to eat.\n\nThen on Thursday -- the fourth night -- the protest turned violent.\n\nFurious demonstrators hurled bricks and started fires outside Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's private residence, as police used tear gas and water cannons to break up the protests.\n\n\"People were visibly angry, shouting,\" said Upul, who asked only to be referred to by his last name for fear of repercussions. \"Earlier (in the week) they demanded the President to step down, (on Thursday) they were yelling and calling him names.\"\n\nProtesters take cover as police use tear gas to disperse them during a protest outside the Sri Lankan President's home on March 31, 2022.\n\nFor weeks, Sri Lanka has been battling its worst economic crisis since the island nation gained independence in 1948, leaving food, fuel, gas and medicine in short supply, and sending the cost of basic goods skyrocketing.\n\nShops have been forced to close because they can't run fridges, air conditioners or fans, and soldiers are stationed at gas stations to calm customers, who line-up for hours in the searing heat to fill their tanks. Some people have even died waiting.\n\nBut Thursday night marked an escalation in Sri Lanka's ongoing economic crisis.\n\nFollowing the protests, the police imposed a curfew and the President ordered a nationwide public emergency , giving authorities powers to detain people without a warrant. On Saturday evening, Sri Lanka declared a nationwide 36-hour curfew, effectively barring protests planned on Sunday -- but protests went ahead Saturday anyway. In a statement Sunday, police said they had arrested 664 people for violating the curfew.\n\nMeanwhile, the government is seeking financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and turning to regional powers that may be able to help.\n\nBut there is brewing fury inside Sri Lanka -- and experts warn the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.\n\nA Sri Lankan policeman tries to disperse protesters in Colombo, March 31, 2022.\n\nDays spent waiting in line\n\nFor weeks, life in Sri Lanka has involved hours of queuing -- just to get basic goods needed to survive.\n\nOur daily life has been reduced to standing in a queue. Malkanthi Silva\n\n\"Our daily life has been reduced to standing in a queue,\" said Malkanthi Silva, 53, as she leaned on a worn blue gas cylinder in Colombo's baking heat, where she had already been waiting for hours for the propane she needs to cook to feed her family. \"When we need milk powder, there's a queue for that, if we need medication there's another queue for that.\"\n\nThough the situation is now particularly acute, it's been years in the making.\n\n\"30% is misfortune. 70% is mismanagement,\" said Murtaza Jafferjee, chair of Colombo-based think tank Advocata Institute.\n\nFor the past decade, he said, the Sri Lankan government had borrowed vast sums of money from foreign lenders and expanded public services. As the government's borrowings grew, the economy took hits from major monsoons that hurt agricultural output in 2016 and 2017, followed by a constitutional crisis in 2018 , and the deadly Easter bombings in 2019.\n\nSri Lankans spend most of their day queueing for fuel and gas as the country's economic crisis worsens.\n\nIn 2019, the newly elected President Rajapaksa slashed taxes in an attempt to stimulate the economy.\n\n\"They misdiagnosed the problem and felt that they had to give a fiscal stimulus through tax cuts,\" Jafferjee said.\n\nBut while President Rajapaksa was new to the role, he wasn't new to government.\n\nAs defense minister under the leadership of his elder brother, Rajapaksa oversaw a 2009 military operation that ended a 26-year civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The United Nations opened an investigation last year into allegations of war crimes committed by both sides.\n\nAfter winning the presidential election, Rajapaksa appointed his brother, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as Prime Minister and filled dozens of government roles with serving or former military and intelligence personnel, according to the UN. Their younger brother, Basil Rajapaksa, was later appointed finance minister.\n\nIn 2020, the pandemic hit, bringing Sri Lanka's tourist-dependent economy shuddering to a halt as the country shut its borders and imposed lockdowns and curfews. The government was left with a large deficit.\n\nOpposition party supporters shout slogans during a protest outside the President's office in Colombo, Tuesday, March 15, 2022.\n\nShanta Devarajan, an international development professor at Georgetown University and former World Bank chief economist, says the tax cuts and economic malaise hit government revenue, prompting rating agencies to downgrade Sri Lanka's credit rating to near default levels -- meaning the country lost access to overseas markets.\n\nSri Lanka fell back on its foreign exchange reserves to pay off government debt, shrinking its reserves from $6.9 billion in 2018 to $2.2 billion this year, according to an IMF briefing.\n\nThe cash crunch impacted imports of fuel and other essentials, and in February Sri Lanka imposed rolling power cuts to deal with the fuel crisis that had sent prices soaring, even before the global crunch that ensued as Russia launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine\n\nLast month, the government floated the Sri Lankan rupee, effectively devaluing it by causing the currency to plunge against the US dollar.\n\nJafferjee described the government's moves as a \"series of blunder after blunder.\"\n\nPrime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa told CNN Saturday that the Finance Minister and his team were working around the clock to put the economy right. He said it was wrong to say the government mismanaged the economy -- instead, Covid-19 was one of the causes.\n\nPreviously, the President said he is attempting to resolve it.\n\n\"This crisis was not created by me,\" Rajapaksa said during an address to the nation last month.\n\nWithout gas, Sri Lankans are unable to cook food, and power cuts mean electric cookers are unusable.\n\nAn impossible situation\n\nThe unfolding situation in Sri Lanka has made it incredibly challenging to earn money -- and even getting to work can be a major obstacle for some.\n\nAuto rickshaw driver Thushara Sampath, 35, needs fuel to work so he can feed his family. But both fuel and food are being rationed, and prices are soaring -- the cost of bread has more than doubled from 60 rupees ($0.20) to 125 rupees ($0.42), he said.\n\nAjith Perera, a 44-year-old auto rickshaw driver, also told CNN he can't survive on fuel rations.\n\n\"With the liter or two we receive, we cannot run hires and earn a living,\" said Perera, with tears in his eyes. \"Leave alone looking after my mother, wife and two children, I cannot pay the installment for my taxi to the finance company,\" he said.\n\nFor many, it's an impossible situation -- they can't afford not to work, but they also can't afford not to join long lines for basic goods.\n\nKanthi Latha, 47, who sweeps roads for a living to feed her two young sons, says she quietly slips away from work to join shorter lines for food before hurrying back.\n\n\"I cannot afford to take the day off, if I do I may lose my job,\" said Latha.\n\nBefore the economic crisis, Sivakala Rajeeswari says her husband worked as a construction worker. But with the price of building materials spiking, people are reluctant to undertake even the most basic construction work, she said.\n\nWe've never been this poor even with all the money we saved and earned. Upul\n\nRajeeswari, 40, says she can still earn a living doing chores at people's homes, but for the past few days she's had no time to do anything but wait in line. \"I have not had the chance to go and work anywhere,\" she said. \"When will this misery end?\"\n\nEven members of the middle class with savings are frustrated.\n\nUpul, the protester, earns a decent wage in a professional job, but says he still can't access essentials he needs for his family. He has enough medicine to treat everyday headaches, pain and fever for now, but he worries about running out.\n\nHis family has switched to induction cooking to cut down on the use of gas but frequent power cuts make even doing difficult.\n\n\"Neither I nor my family or every other person in Sri Lanka deserve this,\" he said. \"We've never been this poor even with all the money we saved and earned.\"\n\nInflation is pushing the price of food higher, putting pressure on people to earn more money to cover basic costs.\n\nWhat happens next\n\nSri Lanka is now looking for outside help to ease the economic turmoil -- the IMF, India and China.\n\nDuring last month's address, President Rajapaksa said he had weighed the pros and cons of working with the IMF and had decided to pursue a bailout from the Washington-based institution -- something his government had been reluctant to do.\n\n\"We must take action to fill this deficit and increase our foreign exchange reserves. To this end, we have initiated discussions with international financial institutions as well as with our friendly countries regarding repayment of our loan installments,\" Rajapaksa said on March 16.\n\nIn a news conference Thursday, IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice told reporters: \"The Sri Lankan authorities have expressed interest in an IMF-supported financial program.\n\nThere's a lot of hate and anger against the President and the cabinet. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu\n\n\"We plan to initiate those discussions pretty much in the coming days, and that will include during the expected visit of the finance minister of Sri Lanka to Washington for our spring meetings in April.\"\n\nSri Lanka has also requested help from China and India, with New Delhi already issuing a credit line of $1 billion, India's External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar tweeted on March 17.\n\nBut that would just be \"kicking the can down the road,\" said Jafferjee, from the Advocata Institute. \"This is prolonging the crisis.\"\n\nPaikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Colombo-based Center for Policy Alternatives, worries people's frustration with the government could escalate.\n\n\"It's obviously going to have to get a lot worse before it gets better Saravanamuttu said. \"There's a lot of hate and anger against the President and the cabinet. Government lawmakers are afraid to face constituents.\"\n\nSoldiers have been deployed to gas stations to keep the peace as tensions rise.\n\nThere's still so much uncertainty around what comes next -- national consumer price inflation has almost tripled from 6.2% in September to 17.5% in February, according to the country's central bank.\n\n\"The prices of essentials are changing every day,\" said Silva, as she lined-up in Colombo. \"The price of rice yesterday is not the price we will buy tomorrow.\"\n\nThursday's protests -- and the developments since -- also raise the possibility of worse things to come.\n\nUpul, the protester, says he has been demonstrating on behalf of all Sri Lankans. But the new emergency rules make him worried.\n\n\"I have been taking part in these protests and even though I was injured, I was not discouraged,\" he said. \"But now, with the new regulation, I am afraid.\"", "authors": ["Rukshana Rizwie", "Iqbal Athas", "Julia Hollingsworth", "Malkanthi Silva", "Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu"], "publish_date": "2022/04/02"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/asia/sri-lanka-crisis-rajapaksa-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Sri Lanka is in chaos and its president has fled. Here's what we ...", "text": "(CNN) Sri Lanka has plunged into chaos and its president has fled to Singapore, before emailing his resignation, as questions swirl about the country's future.\n\nEmbattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore on a flight from Maldives on Thursday, according to a high-ranking security source in Colombo. He had been in Maldives for just over 24 hours after fleeing Sri Lanka's commercial capital on Wednesday -- the same day he was meant to resign after he pledged to step down following huge protests against his rule at the weekend.\n\nSingapore confirmed that Rajapaksa had landed and been allowed to enter the country on a \"private visit\" but had not asked for or been granted asylum.\n\nRajapaksa then tendered his resignation in a letter sent by email to parliamentary speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardenena, according to the speaker's office, though the office also cautioned \"we cannot accept such an email at face value.\"\n\nHere's what we know.\n\nSri Lankan protesters chant slogans after taking control of the Prime Minister's office in Colombo on July 13.\n\nWhere is the president?\n\nRajapaksa had been expected to resign on Wednesday, clearing the way for new leadership. Instead he and his wife boarded a military plane in the early hours of Wednesday and fled from Colombo to Maldives.\n\nThe plane had been refused permission to land in Maldives until former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed -- now speaker of the Maldivian Parliament -- intervened, according to a high-ranking security official. A spokesperson for Nasheed did not confirm or deny the intervention.\n\nMaldives and Sri Lanka are close neighbors -- the Maldivian capital Male is just a 90-minute flight from Colombo. And Nasheed and the Rajapaksas have a history of cooperation. In 2012, amid anti-government protests in the Maldives, Nasheed and his wife sought political shelter in Sri Lanka, then led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the current president's brother.\n\nThe Maldivian government didn't confirm Rajapaksa's presence in the country, but Sri Lankans living in Maldives took to the streets of Male anyway on Wednesday to protest his reported arrival.\n\nPhotos from the Maldives capital show a crowd of people holding the Sri Lanka flag, and signs reading: \"Throw him out here\" and \"Dear Maldivian friends, please urge your government not to safeguard criminals.\"\n\nSri Lankans living in Maldives stage a demonstration in Male on July 13.\n\nOn Thursday, Rajapaksa left Maldives for the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore, a senior military source familiar with the matter told CNN. The president left on a \"Saudi flight,\" the source said.\n\nCNN believes the source was referring to Saudia flight 788, which left Male at 11:30 a.m. local time Thursday. Saudia is the flag carrier of Saudi Arabia. CNN has reached out to Saudia but has not heard back.\n\nRajapaksa landed in Singapore later on Thursday, and its Foreign Ministry released a statement that read: \"It is confirmed that Mr. Rajapaksa has been allowed entry into Singapore on a private visit. He has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted any asylum. Singapore generally does not grant requests for asylum.\"\n\nA Saudia airline Boeing 787 Dreamliner believed to be carrying Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrives at Changi Airport in Singapore on July 14.\n\nIs Rajapaksa still the president?\n\nSri Lanka's parliamentary speaker, Abeywardenena, has received an email with Rajapaksa's resignation, the speaker's office confirmed to CNN Thursday, but added that the \"legality of it needs to be ascertained.\"\n\nIt has been shared with the relevant authorities for the verification of the same,\" the office said. \"Once we have official confirmation and it is legally verified, we hope to make a statement regarding it tomorrow [Friday] morning.\"\n\nAbeywardenena's office added that it is expecting to receive a paper copy of the letter, but that would take longer as it would be sent from Singapore.\n\nRajapaksa's resignation would only be considered official once the speaker receives a letter of resignation, according to the country's constitution.\n\nA new president was set to be elected on July 20 after the resumption of parliament on July 16 -- though that timeline is now on hold.\n\nRajapaksa's departure is a historic moment for the island nation, which his family had ruled with an iron fist for much of the past two decades before losing the faith of their once adoring citizens.\n\nSri Lankan protesters occupy the prime minister's office in Colombo on July 13.\n\nWhat's going on with the protests?\n\nColombo appeared calm on Thursday after several days of escalating protests, with a curfew declared from noon until 5 a.m. on Friday.\n\nLast weekend's demonstrations were among the most dramatic seen so far, with protesters setting fire to Wickremesinghe's private residence in an affluent neighborhood, and swimming in Rajapaksa's private pool.\n\nOn Wednesday, hundreds of demonstrators broke into the compound of the prime minister's office in Colombo following a standoff with armed police. Protesters also entered the premises of state broadcaster Sri Lanka Rupavahini.\n\nA protester runs for cover from a tear gas canister during a protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 13.\n\nPhotos from Wednesday show crowds of protesters crammed into the prime minister's office, waving the Sri Lankan flag and singing. Some flooded out onto the balconies and flung open windows, raising their fists at the crowd gathered below.\n\nPolice responded with tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds. Photos show protesters covering their faces with face masks, bandannas and plastic goggles; some picked up tear gas canisters to throw back toward police.\n\nAt least 75 people were injured during the protests Wednesday, according to the National Hospital in Colombo. Many people were brought in due to tear gas inhalation, others with cuts and bruises likely from trying to jump over fences, according to a nurse at the hospital.\n\nOne police officer was seriously injured during the protests Wednesday and was rushed to hospital where he was receiving treatment, Sri Lankan police said Thursday. An army sergeant was also injured in scuffles with protesters, police added.\n\nDuring this incident, protesters took a T-56 rifle and two clips of live ammunition, containing 60 rounds each, police said. Police were looking for the service weapon and ammunition to bring it back into police custody.\n\nAs the demonstrations escalated, Wickremesinghe's office declared a state of emergency -- later canceled -- and a nighttime curfew. He also appointed a committee of senior armed forces commanders to coordinate ground troops across Sri Lanka, and to \"restore law and order.\"\n\nWhat caused the crisis?\n\nSri Lanka, located just off the coast of India, has been rocked by ongoing protests for months over its worst financial crisis in seven decades.\n\nThe country's foreign exchange reserves plummeted to record lows, with dollars running out to pay for essential imports including food, medicine and fuel -- leaving millions unable to feed their families, fuel their cars or access basic medicine.\n\nFrequent and largely peaceful protests have been held since March, with rising public anger over food costs, electricity cuts, and the government's handling of the crisis. Protesters have demanded the resignations of both Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe.\n\nThe crisis has been years in the making, said experts, who point to a series of government decisions that compounded external shocks.\n\nOver the past decade, the Sri Lankan government has borrowed vast sums of money from foreign lenders to fund public services, said Murtaza Jafferjee, chair of Colombo-based think tank Advocata Institute.\n\nThis borrowing spree coincided with a series of blows to the Sri Lankan economy, from both natural disasters like monsoons and man-made catastrophes, including a government ban on chemical fertilizers that decimated farmers' harvests.\n\nFacing a massive deficit, Rajapaksa slashed taxes in a doomed attempt to stimulate the economy. But the move backfired, instead hitting government revenue. That prompted rating agencies to downgrade Sri Lanka to near default levels, meaning the country lost access to overseas markets.\n\nSri Lanka then had to fall back on its foreign exchange reserves to pay off government debt, shrinking its reserves. This impacted imports of fuel and other essentials, which sent prices soaring.\n\nTopping all that, the government in March floated the Sri Lankan rupee -- meaning its price was determined based on the demand and supply of foreign exchange markets. However, the plunging of the rupee against the US dollar only made things worse for ordinary Sri Lankans.", "authors": ["Jessie Yeung"], "publish_date": "2022/07/14"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/11/asia/sri-lanka-crisis-whats-next-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "Sri Lanka crisis rages on: Here's what we know - CNN", "text": "(CNN) Angry protesters who stormed the official residences of Sri Lanka 's President have forced him to flee the country, but his sudden departure has plunged the South Asian state deeper into crisis.\n\nDemonstrators furious about economic mismanagement and a spiraling financial crisis have demanded that both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe vacate their roles.\n\nRajapaksa agreed to step down but fled to the Maldives on Wednesday, naming Wickremesinghe as acting president.\n\nAmid the chaos, the future of the country's 22 million people is uncertain as they struggle to buy basic goods, fuel and medicine.\n\nHere's the latest.\n\nWho's in charge in Sri Lanka?\n\nDespite fleeing the country and appointing Wickremesinghe as acting president, Rajapaksa is yet to formally resign.\n\nWickremesinghe, meanwhile, posted on Twitter that he would step down as prime minister \"to ensure the continuation of the government including the safety of all citizens\" but didn't name a date.\n\nAs acting president, Wickremesinghe has appointed a committee of senior armed forces commanders headed by the Chief of Defense Staff Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva to \"restore law and order\" across the nation, a high-ranking military official told CNN Wednesday.\n\nWickremesinghe declared a state of emergency across Sri Lanka and a curfew on Wednesday only to later cancel both orders, according to the prime minister's office.\n\nA new president was set to be elected on July 20 after the resumption of parliament on July 16, Parliament speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said in a statement Monday, with the purpose of ensuring a new all-party unity government is in place as soon as possible, in accordance with the country's constitution.\n\nRajapaksa's sudden departure briefly clouded that plan in uncertainty; Rajapaksa and his wife flew on Wednesday to Malé, in the Maldives, on an AN32 troop transport plane from the Sri Lanka Air Force, according to a high-ranking security official.\n\nJUST WATCHED Video shows Sri Lankan Prime Minister's house in flames Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Video shows Sri Lankan Prime Minister's house in flames 00:49\n\nMaldivian air traffic control refused the plane's request to land until an intervention by the speaker of the Maldivian Parliament and former President Mohamed Nasheed, according to the official. A spokesperson for Nasheed did not confirm or deny the intervention.\n\nRajapaksa was previously blocked from departing Sri Lanka at least twice on Monday, after refusing to join a public immigration queue at the Bandaranaike International Airport, a high-ranking military source told CNN.\n\nAbeywardena said President Rajapaksa reassured him of his resignation over the phone on Wednesday, but that he is still waiting for the official document confirming it. As per Sri Lanka's constitution, Rajapaksa's resignation is only considered official once the speaker of Parliament receives a letter of resignation.\n\n\"The President who is overseas at the moment phoned to me to reassure me of his resignation from the presidency. With regards to an official document signifying it, I was told that it would reach me within the day today,\" Abeywardena said during a televised briefing.\n\nFollowing the protests over the weekend, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it was closely monitoring developments in the country.\n\n\"We hope to resolve the current situation that will allow for the resumption of our dialogue on an IMF-supported programme while we plan to continue technical discussions with our counterparts in the Ministry of Finance and Central Bank of Sri Lanka,\" said IMF mission chiefs Peter Breuer and Masahiro Nozaki in a joint statement on Sunday.\n\nPhotos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees People protest outside the prime minister's office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Wednesday, July 13. Hide Caption 1 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees A man sits in a chair inside the prime minister's office on Wednesday. Hide Caption 2 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Protesters celebrate after they entered the prime minister's office on Wednesday. Hide Caption 3 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Protesters shout slogans outside the prime minister's office. Hide Caption 4 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees People celebrate after entering the prime minister's office. Hide Caption 5 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Protesters storm the prime minister's office. Hide Caption 6 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees People help a protester who was affected by tear gas on Wednesday. Hide Caption 7 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees People protest outside the prime minister's office. Hide Caption 8 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Protesters wave the national flag after entering the prime minister's office. Hide Caption 9 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees A man throws a cone amid tear gas on Wednesday. Hide Caption 10 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Protesters on Wednesday demanded that neither the president nor the prime minister \"be spared.\" Hide Caption 11 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees A protester pours water on a man outside the prime minster's office. Hide Caption 12 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees People help an injured protester in Colombo on Wednesday. Hide Caption 13 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Protesters break down the gate to the prime minister's office on Wednesday. Hide Caption 14 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Hundreds of protesters breached the compound of the prime minister's office on Wednesday. Hide Caption 15 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees A protester takes a selfie near a swimming pool inside the presidential palace in Colombo on Wednesday. Protesters broke into that building over the weekend. Hide Caption 16 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Tear gas is used to disperse protesters at the prime minister's office on Wednesday. Hide Caption 17 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Soldiers patrol near the official residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Tuesday. Hide Caption 18 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Crowds gather at the president's office in Colombo on Tuesday. Hide Caption 19 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees A man waves Sri Lanka's national flag after climbing a tower in Colombo on Monday. Hide Caption 20 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Members of the police stand guard in front of the police headquarters in Colombo during a protest on Monday. Hide Caption 21 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees On Monday, two days after protesters stormed the President's House in Colombo, people continued to flock to the capitol to see the palace. Hide Caption 22 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees People protest inside the President's House on Saturday. Hide Caption 23 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees More than 100,000 people amassed outside the President's House on Saturday, police said. Hide Caption 24 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Protesters swim in the pool at the President's House on Saturday. Hide Caption 25 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees An injured protester is carried away to an ambulance on Saturday. Hide Caption 26 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees People sit on a bed inside the President's House. Hide Caption 27 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Firefighters work inside the private residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe after protesters set it on fire on Saturday. Hide Caption 28 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees A Buddhist monk takes part in Saturday's protest. Hide Caption 29 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Police fired water and tear gas to disperse protesters gathering in the street leading to the President's House. Hide Caption 30 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees A protester reacts to tear gas that was used by police near the President's House on Saturday. Hide Caption 31 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Firefighters try to douse a fire at the prime minister's private residence on Saturday. Hide Caption 32 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Protesters run from tear gas used by police near the president's residence on Saturday. Hide Caption 33 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees People gather inside the President's House. Hide Caption 34 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in recent months, calling for the country's leaders to resign over accusations of economic mismanagement. In several major cities, including Colombo, hundreds are forced to line up for hours to buy fuel, sometimes clashing with police and the military as they wait. Hide Caption 35 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Police use a water cannon as they try to disperse protesters Saturday in Colombo. Hide Caption 36 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Protesters carry an injured man on Saturday. Hide Caption 37 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Demonstrators celebrate after entering the President's House on Saturday. Hide Caption 38 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Police use tear gas to disperse protesters Saturday. Hide Caption 39 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees A protester stands above the crowd at the President's House on Saturday. Hide Caption 40 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Tear gas is fired during Saturday's chaotic scene in Colombo. Hide Caption 41 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Protesters gather inside the President's House on Saturday. Hide Caption 42 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Police use tear gas to disperse university students protesting in Colombo on Friday. Hide Caption 43 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Police stand behind a barricade during a protest near the President's House on Friday. Hide Caption 44 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees A man holds up his phone during protests in Colombo on Friday. Hide Caption 45 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees A Catholic priest and a nun shout slogans during a protest near the President's House on Friday. Hide Caption 46 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees A man has his eyes flushed with water after tear gas was dispersed on protesters in Colombo on Friday. Hide Caption 47 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees Police fire tear gas at university students during a protest on Friday. Hide Caption 48 of 49 Photos: Protesters storm Sri Lankan prime minister's office as president flees A university student shouts slogans on top of a barricade during a protest Friday. Hide Caption 49 of 49\n\nWhere is the protest movement at now?\n\nAt least 75 people were injured during protests in Sri Lanka on Wednesday, according to the National Hospital in Colombo.\n\nEarlier in the day Sri Lankan police used tear gas to disperse protesters. According to a nurse at the hospital, many people were brought in due to tear gas inhalation, others with cuts and bruises likely from trying to jump over fences.\n\nOne police officer was seriously injured during the protests Wednesday and was rushed to hospital where he was receiving treatment, Sri Lankan police said Thursday. An army sergeant was also injured in scuffles with protesters, police added.\n\nDuring this incident, protesters took a T-56 rifle and two clips of live ammunition, containing 60 rounds each, police said. Police were looking for the service weapon and ammunition to bring it back into police custody.\n\nOver the weekend tens of thousands of protesters massed outside the President's office and residence before breaking through security cordons.\n\nStriking images shared on social media show them singing protest songs and chanting slogans calling for Rajapaksa to resign. Other photos showed groups of demonstrators setting up barbecue pits to grill and cook food.\n\nProtesters take over the compound of Sri Lanka's Presidential Palace in Colombo.\n\nSri Lanka's Armed Forces spirited Rajapaksa away to a naval vessel minutes before protesters stormed his residence, a high-ranking military source told CNN Sunday.\n\nThe president came down from his bedroom in the upper floor of the palace and exited the premises moments before the demonstrators broke the compound's first barrier, the source added.\n\nLater on Saturday, protesters targeted Wickremesinghe's house, setting fire to his private residence on Fifth Lane, an affluent neighborhood in the capital. Live video seen by CNN showed the building engulfed in flames as crowds gathered at the scene and cheered.\n\nProtesters in Sri Lanka occupy the residence of the prime minister.\n\nThe leaders were not at their residences when the buildings were breached and were moved to secure locations before the attacks, according to security officials.\n\nDemonstrations continued into the week; on Wednesday, after Rajapaksa left the country, protesters breached the compound of the prime minister's office and also entered the premises of state broadcaster Sri Lanka Rupavahini.\n\nProtests have been escalating in Sri Lanka since March, when public anger erupted on the streets over rising food costs, fuel shortages and electricity cuts as the country struggled to make debt repayments.\n\nPolice fire water and tear gas to disperse protesters gathering in a street leading to the President's official residence on July 9.\n\nWhat is life like now in Sri Lanka?\n\nThe country has suffered its worst financial crisis in seven decades, after its foreign exchange reserves plummeted to record lows, with dollars running out to pay for essential imports including food, medicine and fuel.\n\nFor Sri Lankans, the crisis has turned their daily lives into an endless cycle of waiting in lines for basic goods, many of which are being rationed.\n\nDespite earlier efforts by the government to ease the crisis, like the introduction of a four-day work week , Wickremesinghe declared the country \"bankrupt\" last Tuesday.\n\nIn several major cities including the commercial capital, Colombo, desperate residents continue to queue for food and medicine, with reports of civilians clashing with police and the military as they wait in line.\n\nIn early July, Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said the country had less than a day's worth of fuel left.\n\nTrains have reduced in frequency, forcing travelers to squeeze into compartments and even sit precariously on top of them as they commute to work.\n\nPatients are unable to travel to hospitals due to the fuel shortage and food prices are soaring. Rice, a staple in the South Asian nation, has disappeared from shelves in many shops and supermarkets.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire': Sri Lankan official describes deepening crisis Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire': Sri Lankan official describes deepening crisis 02:56\n\nPublic frustration and anger erupted on March 31, when demonstrators hurled bricks and started fires outside the President's private residence.\n\nPolice used tear gas and water cannons to break up the protests, and imposed a 36-hour curfew afterward.\n\nPresident Rajapaksa declared a nationwide public emergency on April 1, giving authorities powers to detain people without a warrant, and blocked social media platforms.\n\nBut protests went ahead the next day in defiance of the curfew, prompting police to arrest hundreds of demonstrators.\n\nWhat's the background to these protests?\n\nThe crisis has been years in the making, said experts, who point to a series of government decisions that compounded external shocks.\n\nOver the past decade, the Sri Lankan government has borrowed vast sums of money from foreign lenders to fund public services, said Murtaza Jafferjee, chair of Colombo-based think tank Advocata Institute.\n\nThis borrowing spree has coincided with a series of hammer blows to the Sri Lankan economy, from both natural disasters -- such as heavy monsoons -- to man-made catastrophes, including a government ban on chemical fertilizers that decimated farmers' harvests.\n\nFacing a massive deficit, Rajapaksa slashed taxes in a doomed attempt to stimulate the economy.\n\nBut the move backfired, instead hitting government revenue. That prompted rating agencies to downgrade Sri Lanka to near default levels, meaning the country lost access to overseas markets.\n\nSri Lanka then had to fall back on its foreign exchange reserves to pay off government debt, shrinking its reserves. This impacted imports of fuel and other essentials, which sent prices soaring.\n\nTopping all that, the government in March floated the Sri Lankan rupee -- meaning its price was determined based on the demand and supply of foreign exchange markets.\n\nHowever, the plunging of the rupee against the US dollar only made things worse for ordinary Sri Lankans.", "authors": ["Heather Chen"], "publish_date": "2022/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/asia/xi-jinping-brics-summit-china-russia-sanctions-economy-intl-hnk/index.html", "title": "BRICS: China's Xi Jinping blasts Western sanctions for 'weaponizing ...", "text": "Hong Kong (CNN) Chinese leader Xi Jinping set the tone for a virtual summit with leaders from major emerging economies in a pointed speech Wednesday evening, in which he decried sanctions as \"weaponizing\" the global economy and urged unity in the face of financial challenges.\n\nXi, who spoke at a business forum ahead of the virtual summit Thursday with leaders from the BRICS economic bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, portrayed the world as being at a critical juncture as it struggled to recover from the pandemic amid what he termed new \"security challenges.\"\n\n\"The tragedies of the past tell us that hegemony, group politics and bloc confrontation bring no peace or security; they only lead to wars and conflicts,\" he said via videolink.\n\n\"The Ukraine crisis is another wake-up call for all in the world. It reminds us that blind faith in the so-called 'position of strength' and attempts to expand military alliances and seek one's own security at the expense of others will only land oneself in a security dilemma,\" Xi said.\n\nThe comments appeared to be a veiled reference to the United States and NATO, whom Beijing has repeatedly blamed for provoking Russia's aggression in Ukraine.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Simone Mccarthy"], "publish_date": "2022/06/23"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_24", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:21", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20220715_25", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/957344/ten-things-you-need-to-know-today-14-july-2022", "title": "Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 14 July 2022 | The Week UK", "text": "Westwood faces new abuse claim\n\nTim Westwood is facing allegations from a woman who said he first had sex with her when she was 14. The woman said the DJ was in his 30s at the time and describes him as a “predator”. In April, a number of women accused the former Radio 1 DJ of predatory and unwanted sexual behaviour and touching, in incidents between 1992 and 2017. The women, who are all black, also accused him of abusing his position in the music industry. Westwood has strenuously denied the previous allegations, but has yet to comment on the new claims.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/14"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/02/24/russia-ukraine-invasion/6920609001/", "title": "Biden warns Russia, adds massive sanctions over invasion into ...", "text": "'Putin chose this war,' President Joe Biden said on Thursday afternoon.\n\nUkraine says Russian troops have taken control of Chernobyl nuclear site.\n\nClinton, Bush condemn Putin's actions against Ukraine.\n\nEditor's note: This page reflects the Russian invasion into Ukraine on Thursday, Feb. 24. Follow the latest news and updates as Russia's military pushes further into Ukraine on Friday, Feb. 25.\n\n***\n\nPresident Joe Biden unveiled a new raft of economic sanctions against Moscow Thursday as part of an international rallying cry to respond to Russia's ongoing assault on Ukraine.\n\n\"(Vladimir) Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences,\" Biden said in remarks at the White House.\n\nThe U.S. and western allies will block the assets of four of Russia's largest banks – in addition to U.S. sanctions on two financial institutions earlier this week – and impose sanctions on Russian elites and new export controls. The latest measures also targeted Belarus' defense and security industries along with 24 Belarusian individuals and entities for the country's role in the attack on Ukraine.\n\nBiden said the new economic measures would \"limit Russia's ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen to be part of the global economy.\"\n\nThe president also announced the U.S. would deploy additional forces to Germany to help bolster the NATO alliance along the eastern flank. Following Biden's remarks, the Pentagon the ordered 7,000 more troops to Europe.\n\nWhy is Russia invading Ukraine?:Could it be the start of WWIII? Here's what we know\n\nFinancial fallout:Stock markets, energy prices shaken by Russian attack\n\n“This aggression cannot go unanswered,” Biden said. “America stands up to bullies. We stand up for freedom.”\n\nBut the president stopped short of blocking Russian financial institutions' access to SWIFT, the global financial system which ties together banks across the world. Biden insisted the latest measures \"exceed SWIFT\" and suggested it was a move that European allies were hesitant to make.\n\nThe president said additional Russian oligarchs and their families would face new sanctions but he declined to say why he has yet to sanction Putin personally, only adding that \"it's on the table.\"\n\nBiden also issued a chilling warning that he believes Putin \"has much larger ambitions\" that extend beyond Ukraine's borders.\n\nTranscript of Biden's speech:President Joe Biden addresses Russia's 'brutal assault' on Ukraine\n\n\"He wants to, in fact, re-establish the former Soviet Union,\" Biden said. \"His ambitions are completely contrary to the place where the rest of the world has arrived.\"\n\nRussia's military operation has the goal of overtaking the Ukrainian government and installing a Kremlin-backed one, according to a senior U.S. military official who was not authorized to speak publicly.\n\nHere's what to know about the attack on Ukraine:\n\nWHEN DID THE INVASION START? At roughly 9:30 p.m. ET (4:30 a.m. in Ukraine), Russian forces began a military operation in eastern Ukraine.\n\nAt roughly 9:30 p.m. ET (4:30 a.m. in Ukraine), Russian forces began a military operation in eastern Ukraine. WHERE IS THE FIGHTING? Ukraine’s military chief says Ukrainian troops are fighting the Russian army in in the north and the south.\n\nUkraine’s military chief says Ukrainian troops are fighting the Russian army in in the north and the south. WHAT HAS RUSSIA'S IMPACT BEEN? A Ukrainian official says the Chernobyl nuclear site north of Kyiv has been taken by Russia after a fierce battle. Early reports listed 40 casualties.\n\nA Ukrainian official says the Chernobyl nuclear site north of Kyiv has been taken by Russia after a fierce battle. Early reports listed 40 casualties. G-7 LEADERS RESPOND: \"This has fundamentally changed the Euro-Atlantic security situation,\" the Group of Seven said in a statement issued at midday.\n\n\"This has fundamentally changed the Euro-Atlantic security situation,\" the Group of Seven said in a statement issued at midday. MOUNTING DEATH TOLL: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that 137 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have been killed with hundreds more wounded.\n\nThe Russian attack began around 4:30 a.m. in Ukraine, with a barrage of over 100 ballistic, cruise and surface-to-air missiles and included 75 medium and heavy bombers, the official said, adding the invasion is the largest in Europe since World War II. The fighting, described as being in an initial phase, has the potential to be very bloody and very costly.\n\nInternational condemnation of Putin's actions came as swiftly as the invasion.\n\n\"This is a brutal act of war,\" NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday.\n\nExplosions were heard in major cities, including the capital of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa. Oleksii Arestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said at least 40 people had been killed and dozens others wounded in the attack so far. Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces had hit military assets and other defense facilities, while footage shared by Ukrainian border guards showed Russian military vehicles moving across the border from Crimea.\n\nWhat we know:Why is Russia invading Ukraine? Could it be the start of WWIII?\n\nZelenskyy announced Ukraine had cut diplomatic ties with Russia, declaring martial law and offering to issue weapons to anyone who wants to defend the country. Despite pleas to stay home, people in Kyiv were jamming roads to leave.\n\nGlobal markets plunged and oil prices skyrocketed on news of the invasion, a dramatic escalation after weeks of diplomacy talks failed to defuse the months-long standoff between Moscow and NATO countries over Ukraine's sovereignty.\n\nUkraine news: Sign up to get the latest updates on the Ukraine-Russia crisis delivered to your inbox.\n\nRussian troops appear to be advancing on Ukrainian capital\n\nRussian troops appeared to be advancing on the capital city of Kyiv at the start of the second day of the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.\n\nAmid a fast-moving and difficult-to-verify situation, Ukraine's Defense Ministry tweeted early Friday that some Russian troops had broken through to several northern districts on the outskirts of the capital. However, Ukraine's military also said it was resisting the advance on multiple fronts.\n\nThe apparent development comes as thousands of civilians spent the night in bomb shelters, typically underground subway stations and Zelenskyy urged his citizens to do all they can to resist Russia's assault. Zelenskyy has vowed to remain in Kyiv with his family and he appealed to Russia for a ceasefire.\n\nSome 137 Ukrainians, a mixture of soldiers and civilians, died Thursday. Britain's Defense Secretary told his country's media Friday that Russia has lost about 450 military personnel.\n\nUncorroborated reports in Ukrainian media claimed Russian troops are aiming Friday to seize Kyiv's main airport to allow thousands of troops to land, take control of government buildings, sabotage key infrastructure and cause panic and a refugee exodus.\n\nThe U.S., Europe and Japan have all unveiled sanctions on key Russian banks, airlines and associates of Putin.\n\n- Kim Hjelmgaard\n\nRussia stripped of Champions League final as UEFA shifts match to Paris\n\nLONDON - Russia was stripped of hosting the Champions League final by UEFA on Friday with St. Petersburg replaced by Paris after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nThe men's final will still be held on May 28 but now at the 80,000-seat Stade de France after the decision by UEFA's executive committee.\n\n\"UEFA wishes to express its thanks and appreciation to French Republic President Emmanuel Macron for his personal support and commitment to have European club football’s most prestigious game moved to France at a time of unparalleled crisis,” European football's governing body said in a statement. \"Together with the French government, UEFA will fully support multi-stakeholder efforts to ensure the provision of rescue for football players and their families in Ukraine who face dire human suffering, destruction and displacement.\"\n\nThe meeting also decided that Russian and Ukrainian clubs and national teams in UEFA competitions will have to play at neutral venues until further notice.\n\nThe Stade de France last hosted the Champions League final 16 years ago, when Barcelona beat Arsenal in the 2006 final.\n\n- Associated Press\n\nZelenskyy: 137 'heroes' killed, hundreds more wounded in conflict\n\nZelenskyy said 137 Ukrainians have been killed so far in the Russian invasion of his country.\n\nHe calls them \"heroes\" in a video address released early Friday in which he also says hundreds more have been wounded.\n\nZelenskyy says that despite Russia’s claim it is attacking only military targets, civilian sites also have been struck. In his words: “They’re killing people and turning peaceful cities into military targets. It’s foul and will never be forgiven.”\n\nIn addition, he said 316 others have been wounded since Russian launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Each of the Ukrainians who have died will be posthumously awarded the title “hero of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.\n\n“This is the sound of a new iron curtain, which has come down and is closing Russia off from the civilized world,” he said. “Our national task is to make sure this curtain does not fall.\"\n\n- Associated Press\n\nUkraine president orders general military mobilization amid invasion\n\nZelenskyy ordered a “general mobilization” of the Ukraine population Thursday to support military efforts as Russia attacks Ukraine.\n\nA decree signed by the president orders conscripts and military reservists to mobilize within 90 days to assist the Armed Forces of Ukraine.\n\nZelenskyy ordered the mobilization “in connection with the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and in order to ensure the state’s defense, maintain combat, and mobilization of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the decree reads.\n\nThe move comes as Ukraine has banned all males between the ages of 18 to 60 from leaving the country, according to Ukraine’s State Border Service, CNN reported.\n\n- Joey Garrison\n\nWhite House 'outraged' over reports Chernobyl workers being held hostage\n\nWhite House press secretary Jen Psaki condemned Thursday what she said are “credible reports” that Russian soldiers are holding hostage staff at the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant facility in Ukraine.\n\nThe facility, scene of the worst nuclear disaster in history, was taken over by Russians during their invasion of Ukraine, the Associated Press reported.\n\n“We're outraged by credit credible reports that Russian soldiers are currently holding the staff of the Chernobyl facilities hostage,” Psaki said. “This unlawful and dangerous hostage-taking – which could upend the routine civil service efforts required to maintain and protect the nuclear waste facility – is obviously incredibly alarming and greatly concerning. We condemn it and we request their release.”\n\nThe Ukrainian Foreign Minister raised concerns on Twitter about Chernobyl, which is located about 80 miles north of the Ukraine capital of Kyiv.\n\n“In 1986, the world saw the biggest technological disaster in Chornobyl,” he said. Russia’s attack on Ukraine may cause another ecological disaster moving its military forces to Chornobyl. If Russia continues the war, Chornobyl can happen again in 2022.\"\n\n- Joey Garrison\n\nUkraine president: Russia has marked him ‘target No. 1’\n\nZelenskyy said Thursday he remains in the Ukraine capital of Kyiv, and intends to stay there, even as Russia has made him its top quarry.\n\n“The enemy has marked me as target No. 1, my family as target No. 2,” Zelenskyy said in an address to Ukrainians. “They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state.”\n\nAsked about Zelenskyy’s safety, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. is in touch with him and are working to provide him support.\n\n- Joey Garrison\n\nRussia facing 'most impactful, significant sanctions' ever from U.S.\n\nDeputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh said the sanctions Biden announced Thursday \"will isolate Russia from the global financial system, shut down its access to cutting-edge technology and undercut Putin's strategic ambitions to diversify and modernize his economy.\"\n\nSingh called the actions “the most impactful and significant sanctions” the U.S. has ever taken.\n\nHe said the export restrictions -- developed in coordination with other Western allies -- would work to impair Russia’s military capabilities, denying Russia “sensitive cutting-edge technology” that will primarily target Russia's defense, aerospace and maritime sectors.\n\n“You will begin to see a chilling effect take hold in Russia as those imports are denied,” he said.\n\n- Joey Garrison\n\nObama: Russia ‘illegal invasion’ of Ukraine threatens international order\n\nFormer President Barack Obama on Thursday condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine, saying Moscow’s “reckless actions extend beyond Ukraine’s borders.”\n\n“This illegal invasion in the heart of Europe also threatens the foundation of the international order and security,” he said.\n\nObama called on the world to “loudly and clearly condemn Russia’s actions and offer support for the Ukrainian people.”\n\n“And every American, regardless of party, should support President Biden’s efforts, in coordination with our closest allies, to impose hard-hitting sanctions on Russia – sanctions that impose a real price on Russia’s autocratic elites,” he said.\n\nObama warned that there may be economic consequences at home to sanctions against Russia, but “that’s a price we should be willing to pay to take a stand on the side of freedom.”\n\n“For over the long term, we all face a choice, between a world in which might makes right and autocrats are free to impose their will through force, or a world in which free people everywhere have the power to determine their own future,” Obama said.\n\n– Rebecca Morin\n\nUS hits Belarus with sanctions targeting banks, defense industry\n\nNew sanctions imposed by Biden also target Belarus for its role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with a focus on the country’s defense sector and financial institutions.\n\nThe penalties include sanctions on 24 Belarusian individuals and entities, according to the Treasury Department. The U.S. is sanctioning two Belarusian-owned banks along with several actions targeting Belarus’s defense and security industries.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nBiden has 'no idea' if Putin is threatening nuclear war\n\nThe president said he doesn’t know whether Putin’s warning that countries trying to stop him would face historic consequences is a reference to Russia’s nuclear weapons.\n\n“I have no idea what he is threatening,” Biden said.\n\nBut Simon Miles, a Russia expert at Duke University, called Putin’s remarks a very thinly-veiled nuclear threat that “need to be taken very seriously given his present state of mind.”\n\n“Right now we’re seeing a Russian leader who is making strategic decisions in an extremely emotive, extremely grievance-fueled way,” Miles said.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nAustin: 7,000 U.S. troops deploying to Europe after Russian invades Ukraine\n\nDefense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the deployment Thursday of 7,000 more troops to Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon announced. The troops include an armored brigade combat team. It will be sent to German to reassure allies.\n\nThe U.S. already has about 90,000 troops in Europe and has deployed more to the continent as tensions simmered in the weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this month, about 5,000 U.S.-based forces were sent to Europe, and U.S. military personnel already there have been shifting to help bolster NATO’s eastern flank.\n\n– Tom Vanden Brook and Rick Rouan\n\nBiden announces new sanctions against Russia: 'Putin chose this war'\n\nIn his first remarks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden condemned what he called an attack made “without provocation, without justification, without necessity.”\n\n“This a premediated attack. Vladimir Putin has been planning this for months, as we’ve been saying all along,” Biden said, accusing Putting of “rejecting all good-faith efforts” to address mutual concerns. “For weeks we’ve been saying this would happen.\n\n“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war.”\n\nBiden said Russia’s attack on Ukraine is unfolding as officials predicted and that Russia \"rejected every good faith effort the United States and our allies.\"\n\nBiden said members of the European Union including France, Germany, Italy as well as the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and others have joined a global coaliton to amplify a united response.\n\nBiden said G-7 leaders agreed to limit Russia's ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen. The president said the US would block four more major banks in addition to the sanctions imposed on VTB and Russia's military bank.\n\nBiden said the United States is taking steps to defend NATO allies. The organization will convene a summit Friday, which will “bring together the leaders of 30 allied nations and close partners to affirm our solidarity and to map out the next steps we will take to further strengthen all aspects of our NATO Alliance.”\n\nBiden said he’s spoken to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark Milley about preparations for “additional moves” of troops if it becomes necessary to protect NATO allies.\n\n“This aggression cannot go unanswered,” Biden said. “America stands up to bullies. We stand up for freedom.”\n\nBiden said his administration is going to use “every tool” to protect Americans and business from rising gas prices.\n\nHe called on American oil and gas companies to “not exploit this moment to hike their prices to raise profits.”\n\n“Our sanctions package is specifically designed to allow energy payments to continue,” he said. “We are closely monitoring energy supplies for any disruption.”\n\nBiden warns of Russian cyberattacks on U.S. companies\n\nThe president repeated a warning of possible Russian cyberattacks on U.S. companies and critical infrastructure.\n\nBiden, who said he has \"no plans\" to talk to Putin, added the U.S. is prepared to respond and working closely with the private sector to \"harden their cyber defenses\" and \"sharpen our ability to respond to Russian cyberattacks as well.\"\n\nThe White House sounded the alarm last week to prepare the country for potential cyberattacks on U.S. companies or key parts of U.S. critical infrastructure including pipelines, banks, commercial aviation and hospitals.\n\nBiden added that NATO will provide forces to eastern European nations that are NATO members to ensure the conflict in the region does not grow.\n\n“This was never about a genuine security concerns on their part,” Biden said of Russia. “It was always about naked aggression, about Putin's desire for empire by any means necessary, by bullying Russia's neighbors to cores and corruption by changing borders by force, and ultimately by choosing a war without a cause.”\n\n– Joey Garrison, Rebecca Morin, Courtney Subramanian\n\nClinton condemns 'unprovoked and unjustified' Russian attack on Ukraine\n\nFormer President Bill Clinton on Thursday condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, joining world leaders past and present in rebuking Russian President Vladimir Putin.\n\n“Putin’s war of choice has unraveled 30 years of diplomacy, with the potential for mass civilian casualties in and huge displacements both within Ukraine’s borders and beyond,” Clinton said in a prepared statement posted to his Twitter account.\n\nClinton called the invasion “unprovoked and unjustified” and a “brazen violation of international law.”\n\n“The world will hold Russia and Russia alone accountable, both economically and politically,” he said.\n\nThe former president’s statement echoed similar sentiments as that of former first lady and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.\n\n- Rick Rouan\n\nUkraine: Russia takes control of Chernobyl site in battle\n\nKYIV, Ukraine — A presidential adviser says Ukraine lost control of the Chernobyl nuclear site, where Ukranian forces had waged a fierce battle with Russian troops.\n\nAdviser Myhailo Podolyak told The Associated Press that Ukrainian authorities did not know the current condition of the facilities at Chernobyl, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster.\n\n“After the absolutely senseless attack of the Russians in this direction, it is impossible to say that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is safe,” he said.\n\nMore:What happened at Chernobyl? What to know about nuclear disaster\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had announced several hours earlier Thursday that Russian forces were trying to seize the Chernobyl nuclear plant.\n\nA nuclear reactor at the plant 80 miles north of Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, exploded in April 1986, spewing radioactive waste across Europe.\n\n– Associated Press\n\nUS Homeland Security monitoring Ukraine refugee situation\n\nAs Ukrainians are fleeing their country following attacks from Russia, it’s unclear whether Ukrainians already in the United States will be offered temporary protected status that would protect them from being deported to their home country.\n\nThe Department of Homeland Security is monitoring conditions but has “no announcements to share or preview at this time.”\n\n\"As is always the case, we continue to closely monitor conditions in various countries across the globe,” DHS said in a statement.\n\nTemporary Protected Status is designated by DHS to individuals from a foreign country whose home country may be experiencing an ongoing armed conflict, an environmental disaster or other extraordinary conditions that would prevent citizens from returning safely to their home, according to DHS.\n\n– Rebecca Morin\n\nUK’s Johnson outlines ‘severe’ sanctions on Russia, Belarus\n\nBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the United Kingdom is imposing “the largest and most severe package of economic sanctions that Russia has ever seen” and that sanctions will also apply to Belarus for its role in Russia’s attack on Ukraine.\n\nIn coordination with the U.S., Johnson said the United Kingdom is imposing a “full asset freeze” on the Russian-owned bank VTB that will effectively exclude Russian banks from U.K.’s financial system.\n\n“I’m pleased to tell the House that the United States is taking similar measures,” Johnson told the House of Commons.\n\nHe said the U.K. will implement new trade and export restrictions similar to what the U.S. will also impose. President Joe Biden is expected to outline “severe sanctions” during a speech Thursday afternoon.\n\nThe prime minister said Russian companies, both private and state-owned, will be prohibited from raising funds in the U.K., taking loans out of the U.K. and making securities transactions in the U.K.\n\n“This includes all the major manufacturers that support Putin’s war machine,” Johnson said.\n\n– Joey Garrison\n\nFact check:Video shows Russian military's Moscow flyover in 2020, not Ukraine in 2022\n\nProtesters gather in London, other cities\n\nLONDON — Hundreds of protesters have gathered in London to urge Britain and other democracies to step up action against Russia.\n\nUkrainians living in the U.K. and activists gathered outside Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Downing Street office Thursday, singing the Ukrainian national anthem.\n\nNatalia Ravlyuk, who helped organize the protest, said they wanted the “toughest sanctions and total isolation of Russia now.”\n\n“We ... feel betrayed by democratic states because we have been talking about this war for eight years,” she said. “They just need to wake up and stop Putin now.”\n\nDemonstrations were held in other European cities, including Sofia, Bulgaria, and Cophenhagen.\n\n– Associated Press\n\nG-7 leaders: Putin 'has put himself on the wrong side of history'\n\nFollowing a virtual meeting Thursday morning, the leaders of the G-7 issued a joint statement announcing they would bring forward \"severe and coordinated economic and financial sanctions\" and calling on the global community to condemn the attack in the strongest possible terms.\n\nThe leaders of the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada along with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called the unfolding conflict \"a serious threat to the rules-based international order, with ramifications well beyond Europe.\"\n\nThe leaders called on Moscow to end the bloodshed and condemned Belarus' involvement in Russia's aggression in Ukraine.\n\n\"This has fundamentally changed the Euro-Atlantic security situation,\" the statement read. \"President Putin has re-introduced war to the European continent. He has put himself on the wrong side of history.\"\n\n– Courtney Subramanian\n\nBiden meets with advisers, G-7\n\nAs explosions continued across Ukraine, Biden met with his National Security Council in the White House Situation Room to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine, according to a White House official.\n\nThe president later held a virtual meeting with G-7 leaders and spoke with foreign leaders for about an hour and 10 minutes about a coordinated plan to impose \"severe sanctions\" on Moscow, according to the White House.\n\nBiden is expected to detail the sanctions in remarks at the White House on Thursday afternoon.\n\nGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg participated in the virtual meeting.\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will also attend the G-7 meeting.\n\n– Courtney Subramanian\n\nUS military official: Russia wants to replace Ukraine government\n\nRussian ground forces have advanced toward Kyiv from Belarus on Thursday morning with the apparent goal of decapitating the Ukrainian government and installing their own, according to a senior Defense official.\n\nThe Russian attack began at about 9:30 p.m. ET Wednesday with a barrage of more than 100 ballistic, cruise and surface-to-air missiles, said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. The assault also included 75 medium and heavy bombers. The official described the attack as the initial phase of the invasion.\n\nThe Russian objective appears to be seizing key population centers, including the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the official said. The primary targets have been military: barracks, ammunition warehouses, nearly 10 airfields.\n\nThere were no reliable estimates of casualties or damage, the official said.\n\nThe heaviest fighting has occurred in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the official said. An air assault by Russian paratroopers is under way there. Ukrainian forces are fighting back.\n\n– Tom Vanden Brook\n\nWhite House spokesman: Putin, Trump are 'fearful pigs'\n\nA top White House spokesman on Thursday called former President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin “two nauseating, fearful pigs who hate what America stands for.”\n\nIn a tweet, Andrew Bates, a deputy press secretary, said that every action by the two men is “driven by their their own weakness and insecurity, rubbing their snouts together and celebrating as innocent people lose their lives.”\n\nBates' scathing remark appeared to be in response to a report that Trump called Putin “pretty smart” for “taking over a country for $2 worth of sanctions.”\n\nThe New York Times reported Trump's comments, which he made during a fundraising event Wednesday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, according to the Times.\n\n– Maureen Groppe\n\nUkraine, Russia give military updates\n\nUkraine’s military chief says Ukrainian troops are fighting the Russian army in in the north and the south.\n\nValerii Zaluzhnyi said a battle was raging Thursday near the Hostomel air base, less than 5 miles northwest of the capital, Kyiv. He said that in the south, fighting was going on near Henichesk, Skadovsk and Chaplynka.\n\nMeanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Russian military has destroyed 74 Ukrainian military facilities, including 11 air bases.\n\nRussian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered that Ukrainian servicemen be treated “with respect” and those who lay down their weapons offered safe corridors.\n\nThe Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the loss of a Su-25 attack jet due to “pilot error.”\n\n– Associated Press\n\nGeorge W. Bush: Invasion ‘unprovoked and unjustified’\n\nFormer President George W. Bush condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine as “the gravest security crisis on the European continent since World War II.”\n\nThe invasion was “unprovoked and unjustified,” Bush said in a statement.\n\nBush, who once described Putin as “very straightforward and trustworthy,\" said the U.S. government and the American people must stand in solidarity with Ukraine and its people as they seek freedom “and the right to choose their own future.”\n\n“We cannot tolerate the authoritarian bullying and danger that Putin poses,” he said. “Ukraine is our friend and democratic ally and deserves our full support during this most difficult time.\"\n\n– Michael Collins\n\nGuide to post-Soviet eastern Europe:Where is Ukraine? Where are NATO members?\n\nUS involvement:Will US help Ukraine in war vs. Russia? American troops bolster NATO in Europe\n\nPutin meets Pakistan's Imran Khan as world reacts to invasion\n\nAs global outrage swelled over Moscow's wide-scale attack on Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday.\n\nThe prime minister's office posted a video to Twitter of the two leaders shaking hands and said the pair would discuss \"the entire gamut of Pakistan-Russia bilateral cooperation, and exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest.\"\n\nKhan, the first foreign leader to meet Putin since he launched an invasion on Ukraine, is expected to pitch the construction of a $2.5 billion gas pipeline in Pakistan, built by Russian companies, as Moscow looks to strengthen its cooperation with Islamabad.\n\nThe fate of another pipeline backed by Russia, Nord Stream 2, came to a screeching halt earlier this week as a result of Putin's decision to invade Ukraine. Germany announced it would suspend the Russia-owned pipeline that would directly run from Russia to Germany, increasing Europe's dependence on Moscow for its energy.\n\nWestern allies are expected to announce more sanctions later Thursday.\n\n– Courtney Subramanian\n\nEuropean soccer pulls Champions League from Russia\n\nUEFA will no longer stage this season’s Champions League final in St. Petersburg after Russia attacked Ukraine, according to the Associated Press.\n\nAn extraordinary meeting of the UEFA executive committee will be held on Friday to discuss the geopolitical crisis and when officials are set to confirm taking the May 28 showpiece game out of Russia.\n\n“Following the evolution of the situation between Russia and Ukraine in the last 24 hours, the UEFA president has decided to call an extraordinary meeting of the executive committee .... in order to evaluate the situation and take all necessary decisions,” UEFA said in a statement.\n\n– Associated Press\n\nUkrainian police urge citizens to report suspicious people, objects\n\nPolice in Ukraine asked citizens on Thursday to report suspicious people on the streets in what the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said was an effort to ensure law and order.\n\nA statement posted on the ministry’s website urged citizens to be on lookout for suspicious people and objects. All suspicious items, as well as suspicious people with red items on their clothes, should be reported to a special police hotline, the statement said.\n\nThe statement also asked civilians not to go outside in uniform or tactical clothing.\n\n– Michael Collins\n\nErdogan: Russian invasion a ‘heavy blow’ to peace\n\nPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it “unacceptable” and “contrary to international law.”\n\n“It is a heavy blow to the peace, tranquility and stability of the region,” Erdogan said in a statement posted on Twitter on Thursday.\n\nTurkey “supports Ukraine's struggle to protect its territorial integrity,” Erdogan said.\n\n“We sincerely regret that Russia and Ukraine, which we see as friendly countries and with whom we have close political, economic and social relations, come face to face in this way,” he said. He urged Russia and Ukraine to resolve their differences with dialogue through the framework of the Minsk accords that sought to restore peace in eastern Ukraine.\n\nOn Wednesday, Erdogan spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and informed him Turkey would not recognize steps against Ukraine’s territorial integrity.\n\n– Michael Collins\n\nKyiv mayor urges residents to stay home\n\nKyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko advised residents in the Ukrainian capital to stay home Thursday unless they are involved in critical work and urged them to prepare go-bags with necessities and documents if they need to evacuate.\n\nAnton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, said on Facebook that the Russian military had launched missile strikes on Ukrainian military command facilities, air bases and military depots in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro.\n\nThe Russian Defense Ministry said it was not targeting cities but using precision weapons and claimed “there is no threat to civilian population.”\n\n– Associated Press\n\nImages of the attack:'Brutal act of war': Photos of Russia invading Ukraine show mass evacuations, rockets\n\nUK's Johnson vows 'massive' sanctions in national address\n\nJohnson delivered a somber national address Thursday, telling the country weeks of warnings about a Russian invasion have proven tragically accurate and that Putin has brought a \"tidal wave of violence\" to Ukraine.\n\n\"A vast invasion is under way by land, by air and by sea,\" he said.\n\nThe British prime minister said the U.K. has coordinated with allies on a \"massive package of economic sanctions designed in time to hobble the Russian economy.\"\n\nJohnson said the U.K. would do more in the days ahead and called on Europe to end its reliance on Russian oil and gas that has allowed Putin a grip on the continent.\n\nHe also said western allies \"cannot allow that freedom to be snuffed out.\"\n\n\"We cannot and will not look away,\" he added.\n\n– Courtney Subramanian\n\nMore:Ukraine-Russia crisis: How do you pronounce Donetsk? And is it Kyiv or Kiev?\n\nNATO leaders will convene Friday\n\nNATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced an emergency virtual summit for the military alliance's leaders on Friday, calling Moscow's invasion a \"brutal act of war\" that has shattered peace on the continent.\n\n\"This is a deliberate, cold-blooded and long-planned invasion. Russia is using force to try to rewrite history,\" he told reporters Thursday.\n\nThe top European official said Russia launched a sweeping attack from multiple directions that included air and missile attacks, ground forces and special forces that targeted Ukraine's military infrastructure and major cities.\n\nStoltenberg said European was faced with a \"new normal for our security\" and would meet to discuss how to defend and protect allies amid the new reality. He added that Finland and Sweden, which are not NATO members, would also attend Friday's meeting.\n\n\"We don't have all the answers today but there will be a new reality,\" he said. \"It will be a new Europe after the invasion we saw today.\"\n\nHis remarks came after Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland triggered Article 4 of NATO's founding treaty, which allows members to \"bring any issue of concern, especially related to security of a member country, to the table for discussion with the North Atlantic Council.\"\n\nThe alliance has invoked Article 4 several times since its creation in 1949.\n\nNATO issued a new statement Thursday saying Moscow's actions \"pose a serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security, and they will have geostrategic consequences.\"\n\n\"We are deploying additional defensive land and air forces to the eastern part of the Alliance, as well as additional maritime assets,\" the statement said. \" We have increased the readiness of our forces to respond to all contingencies.\"\n\n– Courtney Subramanian\n\nWhat time did Russia invade Ukraine?\n\nIn a televised address that came around 10 p.m. Eastern time, which is 5 a.m. in Ukraine and 6 a.m. in Moscow, Putin told his country that Russia would conduct a military operation in Ukraine.\n\nThe Russian president said the attack was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine — a false claim the U.S. had predicted he would make as a pretext for an invasion. And he claimed that Russia doesn’t intend to occupy Ukraine but will move to “demilitarize” it and bring those who committed crimes to justice.\n\nPutin warned other countries that any attempt to interfere would lead to “consequences you have never seen.”\n\nMore:As Russian forces advance on Ukraine, US, allies escalate diplomatic efforts\n\nLithuania orders state of emergency\n\nLithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on Thursday signed a decree declaring a state of emergency in the Baltic country in response to Russia’s military attack on Ukraine. Parliament was expected to approve the measure in an extraordinary session later on Thursday.\n\nThe measure, in effect until March 10, allows for a more flexible use of state reserve funds and increased border protection, giving border guards greater authorities to stop and search individuals and vehicles in border areas.\n\n\"Never before have we been so strong & so well prepared to face external challenges together with our Allies,\" Nauseda tweeted. The future of Europe \"may depend on how we react in the coming hours & days.\"\n\nMore:'A tragedy': World leaders react to the Russian invasion of Ukraine\n\nZelenskyy calls on veterans to help fight Russia\n\nZelenskyy said Thursday that Ukraine has severed diplomatic relations with Russia, adding that “Ukraine is defending itself and shall not cede its freedom.”\n\n“Dear citizens, this morning has gone down in history,” he said, according to a translation by CNN as he spoke. “But it is a different history for us and for Russia.”\n\nZelenskyy also called on veterans to help fight against Russian troops. He said Ukraine is issuing defensive weapons to those with military experience. He said they are able to join Ukraine defense by reporting to call up stations.\n\n“We are issuing arms, defensive weapons, to all those capable of defending our sovereignty,” he said. “Each citizen of Ukraine will decide the future of our people.”\n\nIn a tweet shortly after, Zelenskyy wrote: \"We will give weapons to anyone who wants to defend the country. Be ready to support Ukraine in the squares of our cities.\"\n\nIn a second tweet, he added: \"We have severed diplomatic relations with Russia. For all those who have not yet lost their conscience in Russia, it is time to go out and protest against the war with Ukraine.\"\n\n– Rebecca Morin\n\nOfficial says Ukraine attacked from 3 sides\n\nKYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian presidential adviser said Russian forces launched an attack on Ukraine from the north, east and south. The adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said “the Ukrainian military is fighting hard.”\n\nPodolyak said Thursday that “our army is fighting back inflicting significant losses to the enemy.” He said that there have been civilian casualties, but didn’t give details.\n\nHe said that “Ukraine now needs a greater and very specific support from the world — military-technical, financial as well as tough sanctions against Russia,” he said.\n\nAnother adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia has targeted air bases and various other military infrastructure.\n\nOleksii Arestovich said the Russian strike hasn’t achieved its goal to rout the country’s military. He said that “we suffered casualties, but they aren’t significant,” adding that the Russian strikes “haven’t eroded the combat capability of the Ukrainian military.”\n\nHe said that the Russian troops moved up to 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) deep into the Ukrainian territory in the Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions, and, possibly in other areas.\n\n-- Associated Press\n\n'An unmistakable message':Biden unveils US sanctions on Russia after Putin's invasion of Ukraine\n\nNATO in emergency session as Russia attacks Ukraine\n\nNATO envoys met in emergency session Thursday after Putin ordered a large-scale attack on Ukraine, as the 30-nation military organization prepares to bolster its defenses in allies neighboring both countries. Preparations were also underway for a NATO summit.\n\n“This is a grave breach of international law, and a serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in statement. The allies are meeting, he said, “to address the consequences of Russia’s aggressive actions.”\n\nWhile some member countries are supplying arms, ammunition and other equipment to Ukraine, NATO as an organization is not, and it will not launch any military action in support of Ukraine, which is a close partner but has no prospect of joining.\n\n“We stand with the people of Ukraine at this terrible time. NATO will do all it takes to protect and defend all allies,” Stoltenberg said.\n\n– Associated Press\n\nChina calls for talks over Ukraine, criticizes US\n\nChina repeated calls for talks to resolve the crisis in Ukraine on Thursday while refusing to criticize Russia’s attack and accusing the U.S. and its allies of worsening the situation.\n\nForeign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters at a daily briefing that “the Ukraine issue is complex in its historical background ... what we are seeing today is the interplay of complex factors.”\n\n“China is closely following the latest developments,” Hua said. “We still hope that the parties concerned will not shut the door to peace and engage instead in dialogue and consultation and prevent the situation from further escalating,”\n\n– Associated Press\n\nMore:'A tragedy': World leaders react to the Russian invasion of Ukraine\n\nOil prices jump as stock markets slump\n\nWorld stock markets plunged and oil prices surged by nearly $6 per barrel Thursday after President Vladimir Putin launched Russian military action in Ukraine.\n\nMarket benchmarks tumbled in Europe and Asia and U.S. futures were sharply lower. Brent crude oil jumped to over $100 per barrel on unease about possible disruption of Russian supplies. The price of U.S. benchmark crude briefly surpassed $98 per barrel.\n\nThe ruble sank 7.5% to more than $87 to the U.S. dollar.\n\n– Associated Press\n\nMore:Will gas prices keep rising after Russia invasion of Ukraine? Here's what we know\n\nSecurity video: Russian military vehicles cross into Ukraine\n\nSecurity camera footage shows a line of Russian military vehicles crossing into Ukraine from Russian-annexed Crimea.\n\nRussian troops launched a wide-ranging attack on Ukraine on Thursday. President Vladimir Putin cast aside international condemnation and sanctions and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere would lead to “consequences you have never seen.”\n\nUkrainians started fleeing some cities, and the Russian military claimed to have incapacitated all of Ukraine’s air defenses and air bases within hours.\n\n– Associated Press\n\nBaltic states condemn attack\n\nThe Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are condemning the Russian operation in Ukraine as a “crime against Ukrainian people.”\n\nIn a joint statement, the three countries’ foreign ministers condemned strongly “the open large scale Russian aggression against the independent, peaceful and democratic Ukraine.” They called it “a blatant violation of the international law, of all international norms and a crime against Ukrainian people that we condemn.”\n\nFinland’s President Sauli Niinisto said the Russian move is “an attack on the security order throughout Europe.”\n\n– Associated Press\n\nEU planning new sanctions for Russia\n\nThe European Union says it is planning the “strongest, the harshest package” of sanctions it has ever considered at an emergency summit Thursday, as the Russian military attacked Ukraine.\n\nUrsula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in remarks Thursday that Russia should withdraw their troops, adding Putin will not be allowed to “tear down the security architecture that has given Europe peace and stability over many decades.”\n\n“It is President Putin who is bringing war back to Europe,” she said.\n\nShe added that Putin’s goal isn’t to just invade Ukraine, but to create instability in Europe.\n\n“We are facing an unprecedented act of aggression by the Russian leadership against a sovereign, independent country,” she said. “Russia's target is not only Donbas, the target is not only Ukraine, the target is the stability in Europe and the whole of the International Peace order.\"\n\n“We will present a package of massive and targeted sanctions to European leaders for approval,” she said.\n\nEU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called it the “strongest, the harshest package” ever considered.\n\n-- Rebecca Morin, Associated Press\n\nJapanese PM: 'We strongly condemn Russia'\n\nJapanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned Russia’s military actions in the Ukraine and said his country will respond in a speedy fashion in concert with the United States and other allies.\n\n“This Russian invasion stands to put at risk the basic principle of international order that forbids one-sided action of force in an attempt to change the status quo. We strongly condemn Russia, and we will respond speedily in cooperation with the U.S. and other Western nations,” he said at his official residence in Tokyo.\n\nSpain, France, Australia and Italy were among others condemning the attack. Germany and Turkey also warned their citizens in Ukraine to stay in a safe place.\n\n-- Associated Press\n\nGerman chancellor: 'Dark day'\n\nGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine as a blatant violation of international law.”\n\n“There is no justification for it,” he said. “Germany condemns this reckless act by President Putin in the strongest possible terms.”\n\nScholz called on Russia to stop military action immediately, and said the G7, NATO and the EU will “coordinate closely today.”\n\n“This is a terrible day for Ukraine and a dark day for Europe,” he said.\n\n-- Rebecca Morin\n\n'A tragedy':World reacts to the Russian invasion of Ukraine\n\nNATO ambassadors to meet on Ukraine attack\n\nNATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has convened a meeting of NATO ambassadors to assess the invasion of Ukraine, which borders several NATO members.\n\nThe meeting Thursday morning will “address the situation in Ukraine and the consequences of Russia’s unprovoked attack.”\n\nEarlier, Stoltenberg had already condemned Russia’s invasion. “Despite our repeated warnings and tireless efforts to engage in diplomacy, Russia has chosen the path of aggression,” Stoltenberg said.\n\nHe also warned Moscow that the alliance will will “do all it takes to protect and defend” NATO members.\n\nHe called the invasion a “grave breach of international law, and a serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security. I call on Russia to cease its military action immediately.”\n\n-- Associated Press\n\nZelenskyy speaks with world leaders\n\nHours after Putin announced military action against Ukraine, Zelenskyy spoke to several world leaders to garner support for his nation.\n\nIn addition to Biden, Zelenskyy in a tweet said he spoke with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Council President Charles Michel, Poland President Andrzej Duda and United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\n“Building an anti-Putin coalition,” Zelenskyy said. “Immediate sanctions, defense & financial support to (Ukraine)! Close the airspace! The world must force (Russia) into peace.”\n\n-- Rebecca Morin\n\nMore:Chaotic scenes in Donetsk and Luhansk as Russian troops enter the regions\n\nAustralian PM: 'We must ensure there is a cost'\n\nAustralian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday said there must be a cost for Russia's “egregious behavior” against Ukraine.\n\n“We must ensure there is a cost for this violent and unacceptable and egregious behavior,” he said. “There always must be a cost for such reprehensible violence and the way this is being done in Ukraine as we speak.”\n\nMorrison added that Australia will stand with “like minded” countries against Russia’s attacks, including the United States and the United Kingdom.\n\n-- Rebecca Morin\n\n'Murkiness and doubt':Putin playbook meant to throw White House, allies off balance on Ukraine invasion\n\nIn Russia, a different view\n\nRussian state media are portraying Moscow as coming to the rescue of war-torn areas of eastern Ukraine that are tormented by Ukraine’s aggression.\n\nTV presenters are professing the end of suffering for the residents of the breakaway regions.\n\n“You paid with your blood for these eight years of torment and anticipation,” anchor Olga Skabeyeva said during a popular political talk show Tuesday morning. “Russia will now be defending Donbas.”\n\nChannel One struck a more festive tone, with its correspondent in Donetsk asserting that local residents “say it is the best news over the past years of war.”\n\n“Now they have confidence in the future and that the years-long war will finally come to an end,” she said.\n\nWhether ordinary Russians are buying it is another question.\n\n-- Associated Press\n\nThe enigma of Vladimir Putin:What do we really know about Russia's leader?\n\nZelenskyy imposes martial law, condemns 'cynical invasion'\n\nZelenskyy called Russia’s attack an “unjustified deceitful and cynical invasion” in a statement early on Thursday.\n\n“Only we, all citizens of Ukraine, have been determining our future since 1991,” Zelenskyy said. \"But now the fate of not only our state is being decided, but also what life in Europe will be like.”\n\nZelenskyy said Ukrainian diplomats are informing the world about what is happening in their country. He added: “Whether at least something of the force of international law remains will depend on the world's fair and just response to this aggression.”\n\nMartial law has also been imposed, Zelenskyy also said, urging civilians to stay home.\n\n“Warn your loved ones about what is happening. Take care of those who need help,” he said.\n\n-- Rebecca Morin\n\n'War is my biggest horror':Russians brace for deadly conflict, economic hardship as Putin orders invasion\n\nUS Department of State tells Americans in Ukraine to shelter in place\n\nThe U.S. Department of State early on Thursday warned Americans still in Ukraine about the current danger.\n\nIn a statement online, the department noted: \"There are reports of Russian attacks on targets in a number of major Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Mariupol, and others. U.S. citizens in Ukraine are advised to shelter in place...\"\n\nThe statement added that: \"Further Russian military action can occur at any time without warning.\"\n\n-- Luciana Lopez\n\nMore:Biden levels sanctions on Russia for beginning an invasion of Ukraine\n\n.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/02/24"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/04/politics/biden-putin-russia-ukraine/index.html", "title": "American leaders are caught in Putin's guessing game | CNN Politics", "text": "(CNN) Vladimir Putin is doing it again. He's got Washington in a frenzy. Everyone's got a theory about what the Russian president plans for Ukraine . But no one really knows. Maybe he doesn't himself.\n\nWhile Americans across the country fret about high inflation and daily disruptions from the pandemic, Putin has once again forced a country many American foreign policy officials view as a creaking superpower in inexorable decline to center stage in the US capital.\n\nRussia is on everybody's lips in DC -- just as it was in 2016 when Putin created a political hall of mirrors in the US, distorting reality and truth with an election meddling operation that is still delivering discord and ripping the country's divides ever deeper.\n\nFor President Joe Biden , foreign policy has come full circle. He first arrived in Washington in the Cold War deep freeze. Half a century later, he finds himself wrestling with a Russian counterpart who never regarded the superpower standoff as resolved.\n\nTheir confrontation over Ukraine might seem an arcane tussle of wills. But Putin is holding the independent democracy that used to be part of the Soviet Union hostage to try to force Biden to agree to pull NATO troops out of Moscow's former orbit in eastern Europe. Their duel is about whether people can chose their own leaders and political systems and whether big nations can get away with invading smaller ones; whether democracy and international rules can prevail; and whether market economies can freely function or must exist under the heavy hand of the state or oligarchs.\n\nOnce again, as was the case late in the 20th century, members of Congress are huddled in secret briefings with US spy agencies trying to work out what the Kremlin is up to. But in this modern-day showdown, Putin has turned Republicans on Republicans as a split emerges between traditional hawks and pro-Trump populists. He's forced the White House to pay attention to him by circling independent, western-leaning Ukraine with troops. He's opened diplomatic tracks to try to pry NATO allies apart. His pressure last week caused a public meltdown between the US and Ukrainian governments over whether the Russians plan to invade. Putin has won adoring coverage in US conservative media -- an achievement that would have been unthinkable for any Soviet leader. And rattled nerves over Russia even spilled over into a row between the State Department and its press corps Thursday, which was bizarrely accused of taking solace in Russian propaganda.\n\nJUST WATCHED Behind the Wall: The relationship between China's Xi and Russia's Putin grows as both seek to upend Western values -- including democracy and freedom Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Behind the Wall: The relationship between China's Xi and Russia's Putin grows as both seek to upend Western values -- including democracy and freedom 04:16\n\nAt any given moment, in the Russian leader's reign of confusion, it's hard to evaluate whether he's blinking under Western pressure, doubling down by adding to his garrison or simply at a loss what to do himself with no clear endgame in sight to the showdown.\n\nPutin pressed some more American buttons on Friday when he met the rising foe that Washington really wants to focus on -- President Xi Jinping of China. He's sure to spook political analysts with hints of a Beijing-Moscow axis.\n\nXi and Putin vowed to deepen their strategic coordination, according to a readout of the exchange between the two leaders by Chinese state media Xinhua News on Friday.\n\nIf Putin's aim with his build up opposite Ukraine is to tie the West in knots, to have everyone obsessing over Russia -- whether he ends up invading the ex-Soviet state or not -- it's worked. In Washington on Thursday, the focus initially was on a US raid in Syria overnight that had led to the death of the leader of ISIS. But inexorably, the focus was dragged back to speculation over Putin's intentions. No one can agree on what Russia is going to do, when it might do it, or what the US should do in response. And that might be exactly the point of Putin's game.\n\nWashington has no idea what Putin might do next\n\nAfter previously saying that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was \"imminent,\" the US has stopped using that word since the invasion hasn't come. That's a small victory for the Russian leader, in the phony war of attrition that might or might not precede an invasion, which could last weeks or months. As an example of the confusion that Putin has sown on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are emerging from briefings after hearing the same classified information with differing interpretations of what might happen next.\n\nFlorida Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said it was a \"near certainty\" that Putin would invade Ukraine. But House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith disagreed. The Washington state Democrat told CNN's Erin Burnett on Thursday: \"I don't think we know that yet.\" And Senate Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, suggested that nobody \"knows whether Putin has made the ultimate decision.\"\n\nThe lack of cohesion about Putin's motives is beginning to be reflected in disputes about how the US should respond -- another success for the Russian leader's long-term push to stir angst that tarnishes Western democracy. Traditional national security Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have been pushing Biden to take a tougher stand against Russia for weeks and have welcomed his decision to dispatch troops to Europe. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, whom ex-President Barack Obama mocked in a 2012 presidential debate for warning about Moscow's threat, is suddenly in demand.\n\n\"It's very clearly a sign to our allies that we care about NATO, we care about Europe. And it's a signal to Putin as well that we care about Europe and that we care about our allies as we do,\" Romney said, backing Biden's troop deployments.\n\nBut there are clear signs that the anti-NATO, \"America first,\" sentiment that is a hangover from the Trump administration is a growing force in the Republican Party. Indiana Sen. Mike Braun said that he is against sending more troops to Europe.\n\n\"I think that's a scrambling feature that we're doing late in the game,\" Braun said.\n\nIt's also clear that the conservative media's misinformation implying Biden is sending troops directly to fight Russia instead of defending US interests at home may be starting to soak in. Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty, for instance, coined a sentiment often voiced by pro-Trump opinion hosts. He said the Biden administration should send \"troops to our southern border.\" And Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall said he didn't \"want boots on the ground.\"\n\n\"Having a son that's an enlisted man in the Army myself, it's a big deal. I think economically, we need to know, does the European Union have any moxie? ... They need to be leading on this. I think we need to be a participant, but it just feels like we're escalating the situation.\"\n\nEuropean diplomats might be advised to listen carefully to such senators, a rising block in the party that once celebrated its greatest Cold Warrior, President Ronald Reagan, for orchestrating victory over the Soviet Union. Any weakening of the transatlantic alliance would be a huge win for Putin.\n\nThe world looks different in Moscow\n\nTo Western eyes, Putin's behavior often seems self-defeating and illogical. It looks like he's making it up as he goes along. Even if that's the case, it makes him harder to read. One view right now is that the Russian position is eroding, that Putin has backed into a corner with more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine's border, and it will be difficult for him to climb down and save face.\n\nIf he invades, it's hard for Washington to see how Putin could fashion a win for Moscow during what could be a bloody occupation and insurgency. The fierce punishments that the West is threatening to clamp on Russia's economy also seem like a steep price to pay. Putin's wider strategic dance seems to make little sense either. After all, his demands that NATO withdraw troops and arms from Eastern Europe caused Biden to call his bluff this week by ordering 3,000 troops to Germany, Romania and Poland.\n\nBut the logic of Putin's worldview, rooted in a desire to restore respect, attention and status to Russia 30 years after the end of the Cold War, operates in a different universe from that of the West. The world looks different from Moscow. One theory in Washington is that Putin is now so isolated inside his own regime that's he's not getting good outside advice. But he's keeping the West on edge -- and that may be a goal in itself.\n\nThere is some hope that Putin's willingness to talk is a sign he's not serious about an invasion -- he just spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron, for instance. But at the same time, Biden's dispatch of troops to defend NATO allies is already being spun in Moscow as proof of Putin's argument that the West is threatening Russia's borders and security. Such arguments can be used to build legitimacy for his own strongman rule. The Russian leader often uses nationalism to prop up a government in perpetuity that relies on oppression, crushing media freedoms and locking up dissidents. And signs of political acrimony in the US, which Putin is by now an expert at whipping up, play into Russian notions that a state that prizes stability and order over democracy works best.\n\nWorrying signs\n\nWith his foreign policy under intense scrutiny following the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden has -- a few instances of clumsy messaging aside -- performed strongly in the Ukraine crisis, at least in the eyes of those who prefer a US President to behave as a traditional leader of the West.\n\nHe has signaled to Putin that NATO's strategic alliance is inviolate and that its Eastern European members will be defended. He's offered the Russian leader diplomatic offramps through diplomacy though hasn't compromised Western strategic principles. And he's rallied some reluctant allies into signing up for a package of unprecedented sanctions meant to deter Putin from an invasion.\n\nOne intriguing feature of this showdown has been the willingness of the US and Britain especially to play the Russians at their own propaganda game. In the latest use of declassified intelligence, Washington on Thursday accused Russia of preparing to \"fabricate a pretext for an invasion\" by creating a \"very graphic propaganda video.\" Officials said Moscow could stage an attack against \"Russian speaking peoples\" in Ukraine in order to justify moving across the border. This is especially worrying because it mirrors arguments that Russia used before annexing Crimea, sovereign Ukrainian territory, in 2014.\n\nRussian denied the allegation. And the problem with the West dealing with intelligence is that such material can be open to doubt and counter-propaganda, since a desire to protect sources and methods means it is difficult to back up such claims with evidence in public.\n\nThat issue caused a spat in the State Department briefing on Thursday when spokesman Ned Price said journalists just needed to trust the government -- despite decades of previous examples of officials misleading the American people. \"If you doubt the credibility of the US government, of the British government, of other governments and want to, you know, find solace in information that the Russians are putting out, that is, that is for you to do,\" Price said.\n\nIf he achieves nothing else, Putin's success in setting Americans against themselves might be payoff enough for his thuggery over Ukraine.\n\nCORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated where in Eastern Europe 3,000 troops are being deployed. They have been ordered to Germany, Romania and Poland.", "authors": ["Analysis Stephen Collinson"], "publish_date": "2022/02/04"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/04/21/20-highest-paid-world-leaders-president-trump/39352195/", "title": "20 Highest Paid World Leaders – 24/7 Wall St.", "text": "Mike Monteiro\n\n24/7 Wall Street\n\nWe know it pays to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company – does it also pay to be president of a country? Ask the men and women who are among the top paid world leaders.\n\nEarning from just over $200,000 to more than $1.6 million, the yearly earnings of these heads of states far exceed the pay of the average citizen in their countries. Generally, these countries tend to be among the wealthiest and most productive countries in the world. Although among the countries on this list, the leaders' annual salaries are well above the country’s GDP per capita or average wages.\n\n24/7 Wall St. reviewed publicly available annual compensation figures to identify 20 of the highest-paid leaders in the world. We gathered information from country websites, as well as data from organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the CIA World Factbook.\n\nEaster shopping:Walmart, Whole Foods and Sears are open Easter Sunday. Find out where else you can shop.\n\nThe American dream:It's already dead in these counties\n\nSalaries are expressed in U.S. dollars that were converted from country of origin currencies as of April 13, 2018. Leaders of absolute monarchies such as Qatar, Brunei Darussalam, and Saudi Arabia were excluded from our list due to a lack of consistent available data.\n\nConstitutional monarchies were included, except where the highest ranking officials have the power to appoint the government. In such cases, including Kuwait, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates, state leadership compensation often is not publicly disclosed.\n\n20. Édouard Philippe\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of France\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $220,505.00\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 10 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $40,145.94\n\nIn France, President Emmanuel Macron, the head of state, holds more power than the head of government, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. Despite this, Philippe earns just as much as the French president. Both leaders make more than five times as much as France's GDP per capita.\n\n19. Jimmy Morales\n\n• Title: President of the Republic of Guatemala\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $227,099\n\n• Time in office: 3 years, 2 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $7,421.29\n\nPrior to becoming the president of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales was a household name in Guatemala on the Guatemalan TV series \"Moralejas\" (\"Morals\"), where he starred alongside his brother. These days, Morales earns more than 30 times the economic output of a typical Guatemalan citizen.\n\n18. Leo Varadkar\n\n• Title: Taoiseach\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $234,447\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 9 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $66,548.10\n\nLeo Varadkar is the Taoiseach of Ireland. Taoiseach is an Irish word of Ancient origin meaning \"leader\" and is used in the Irish Constitution for \"the head of the Government or Prime Minister. As Taoiseach, Varadkar earns more than four and a half times the average wage of Irish citizens.\n\n17. Katrín Jakobsdóttir\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Iceland\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $242,619\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 4 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $49,704.76\n\nIf Katrín Jakobsdóttir's salary as the prime minister of Iceland were to be shared across the nation, each Icelandic citizen would receive the equivalent of 73 cents. While the president has a higher base pay than the prime minister in Iceland, the president has limited powers and the role is largely ceremonial as a diplomat and figurehead.\n\nMeanwhile Prime Minister Jakobsdóttir is the highest ranking official within Iceland's government. Prior to joining the Icelandic government, she had a career in both Icelandic media and academia, where she lectured at various universities in Reykjavík.\n\n16. Stefan Löfven\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Sweden\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $244,615\n\n• Time in office: 4 years, 6 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $46,519.75\n\nSwedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven began his career as a welder, but he quickly ascended into politics when he became his group's trade union representative two years into his career. Decades later, in 2005, he became the chairman of the major trade union IF Metall. It was not long before he became the leader of the largest political party in Sweden – Swedish Social Democratic Party – and subsequently elected prime minister.\n\n15. Lars Løkke Rasmussen\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Denmark\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $249,774\n\n• Time in office: 3 years, 9 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $46,329.81\n\nQueen Margrethe II of Denmark has an annual salary of the equivalent of nearly $13.5 million. She is not, however, an elected official – Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen is. Rasmussen makes a comparatively modest $249,774 a year.\n\n14. Adrian Hasler\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of the Principality of Liechtenstein\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $254,660\n\n• Time in office: 6 years\n\n• GDP per capita: N/A\n\nWith an annual pay of $254,660, Prime Minister Adrian Hasler is a former banker who worked for VP Bank AG, where the salary of the average employee is $128,648. Hasler was a division head there.\n\n13. Charles Michel\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Belgium\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $262,964\n\n• Time in office: 4 years, 5 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $42,497.40\n\nPrime Minister Charles Michel earns more than five times the average wage of a Belgian citizens. Belgium levies one of the highest income taxes for individuals in the world.\n\n12. Justin Trudeau\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Canada\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $267,041\n\n• Time in office: 3 years, 5 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $44,134.80\n\nPrime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau earns the equivalent of nearly $270,000 U.S. dollars per year. In Canada, the prime minister's compensation includes the Member of the House of Commons Basic Sessional Indemnity, the prime minister salary, and the prime minister car allowance.\n\n11. Cyril Ramaphosa\n\n• Title: President of the Republic of South Africa\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $273,470.00\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 1 month\n\n• GDP per capita: $12,317.97\n\nThe average household income in South Africa is $10,872 a year, nearly a third of the average across OECD nations. The President of South Africa, Cryil Ramaphosa, earns more than 25 times the average wage in South Africa. South Africa has been struggling with stagnant GDP growth, high unemployment, and social unrest. As a result, Ramaphosa's administration declared salary cuts for Members of Parliament and the executive branch. The National Treasury, however, has shown in its 2019 budget statements that Ramaphosa actually received a salary increase for the current fiscal year.\n\n10. Xavier Bettel\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Luxembourg\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $278,035\n\n• Time in office: 5 years, 4 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $93,891.49\n\nLuxembourg is the smallest nation among the top 10 countries that pay their leaders the most, and if Prime Minister Xavier Bettel's base pay were to be distributed to Luxembourg's 596,992 citizens, each would receive 48 cents. While Bettel's salary is one of the highest in the world, the citizens of Luxembourg trail no other nation on this list in terms of individual wealth.\n\n9. Sebastian Kurz\n\n• Title: Chancellor of Austria\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $328,584\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 3 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $45,478.96\n\nChancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz is much younger than his peers on the global stage, the youngest head of state in the world. When Kurz first entered political leadership at age 22 as chairman of the JVP political party in Vienna, it is unlikely he imagined he would be earning more than six times the average wage of Austrian citizens when becoming appointed as Chancellor only nine years later.\n\n8. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz\n\n• Title: President of Mauritania\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $330,000\n\n• Time in office: 9 years, 8 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $3,655.37\n\nMauritania is a critical port and rail system within China's Belt and Road Initiative, which is creating major economic and defense ties between China and Africa. Relations between Mauritania and China's leadership are stronger than ever, but the differences between the two nations is stark. China's GDP is 2,400 times Mauritania's GDP, yet President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz earns almost as much per month as Chinese President Xi Jinping earns per year, according to Saraya, a Jordanian online newspaper.\n\n7. Jacinda Ardern\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of New Zealand\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $339,862\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 5 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $35,244.99\n\nNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is paid more than 20 times the economic output of the average kiwi citizen. Presiding over a land known for having more sheep than people, Ardern's salary would only provide each citizen with 7 cents if her annual base pay were to be shared across the country.\n\n6. Angela Merkel\n\n• Title: Chancellor of Germany\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $369,727\n\n• Time in office: 13 years, 4 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $46,719.29\n\nGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel earns almost eight times the average wage of German citizens. Merkel's base pay of $369,727 eclipses the average german worker's income of $46,389. Merkel has served in the role since 2005, earning millions of dollars during her tenure.\n\n5. Scott Morrison\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Australia\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $378,415\n\n• Time in office: 7 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $46,554.63\n\nPrime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison earns more than seven times the average wage of Australian citizens. Unlike some of his predecessors, Morrison has had a career in public service, where his first job out of university was working as a national policy and research manager for the Property Council of Australia, where he worked for nearly a decade. Australia has no maximum term limits for a prime minister, and if Morrison matched the nearly 12 year held by John Howard in the late '90s and early aughts, he would amass a fortune of over $4 million.\n\n4. Donald Trump\n\n• Title: President of the United States\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $400,000\n\n• Time in office: 2 years, 2 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $54,440.90\n\nU.S. President Donald Trump's salary of $400,000 a year is about seven times the average U.S. per capita GDP. Trump, however, did not actually take home any of this money as he made good on a promise to donate his entire salary.\n\n3. Ueli Maurer\n\n• Title: President of the Swiss Confederation\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $482,958\n\n• Time in office: 3 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $56,473.64\n\nPresident Ueli Maurer of Switzerland earns $482,958 per annum – more than any other head of government in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD is an intergovernmental economic organisation of the 36 highest income economies that are also dedicated to setting transparency standards for governments of global democracies. As part of the OECD standards, Maurer's salary will always be public knowledge.\n\n2. Carrie Lam\n\n• Title: Chief Executive of Hong Kong\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $568,400\n\n• Time in office: 1 year, 9 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $57,081.14\n\nChief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam is known for being at the top of one of the best paid bureaucratic systems in the world. Hong Kong recently raised the salaries of all heads of governments by 12.4% based on the cumulative change in the consumer price index, an economic indicator that measures inflation.\n\n1. Lee Hsien Loong\n\n• Title: Prime Minister of Singapore\n\n• Annual salary (in USD): $1,610,000\n\n• Time in office: 14 years, 7 months\n\n• GDP per capita: $86,810.78\n\nThe head of government in Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, earns more than 20 times the country's GDP per capita. Could a prime minister's high salary actually be a perk for citizens? The people of Singapore know one thing for sure: no one can buy off their leadership. According to \"Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI),\" first released in 1995, which tracks nations' corruption trends, Singapore is potentially the least corrupt nation in the world. Comparatively, at $1.6 million, Lee earns 12 times as much as Russia President Vladimir Putin. An additional partial explanation for the high salary could be cost of living: Singapore is the most expensive city to live in the world.\n\nMethodology\n\n24/7 Wall St. reviewed publicly available annual compensation figures for the 20 highest-paid leaders in the world. Salaries are expressed in U.S. dollars that were converted from country of origin currencies as of April 13, 2018. Leaders of absolute monarchies such as Qatar, Brunei Darussalam, and Saudi Arabia were excluded from our list. Constitutional monarchies were included, except where the highest ranking officials have the power to appoint the government. In such cases, including Kuwait, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates, state leadership compensation often is not publicly disclosed.\n\nThe head of state is by definition the highest ranking official in a sovereign nation. However, in cases where the head of government is paid a higher salary, she or he was listed instead. The identities and dates of election or appointment of these leaders were obtained from the CIA World Factbook, national government websites, and media sources.\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": "2019/04/21"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_26", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:21", "search_result": []}
{"question_id": "20220715_27", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/06/entertainment/carlos-santana-concert-heat-exhaustion/index.html", "title": "Carlos Santana suffered heat exhaustion during a Michigan concert ...", "text": "(CNN) Legendary musician Carlos Santana suffered a medical emergency Tuesday night during a performance in Michigan, according to his management team.\n\nSantana was \"over-taken by heat exhaustion and dehydration,\" according to a statement by his management team posted on his official Facebook page. He was performing at Pine Knob Music Theatre, an outdoor amphitheater in Clarkston, which is about 40 miles outside of Detroit.\n\nTemperatures in Clarkston reached up to 90 degrees Tuesday, nearly 10 degrees above average, according to CNN meteorologist Robert Shackelford.\n\n\"He had just started a song that was about joy and love,\" concertgoer Alisa Zee told CNN. \"He called for healing for the world. It was during that song that he collapsed.\"\n\nIn videos recorded by fans, the 74-year-old musician sits on the corner of the stage and stops playing the guitar.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Amanda Jackson", "Chris Boyette"], "publish_date": "2022/07/06"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/11/21/rolling-stones-review-incendiary-concert-austin-close-big-tour/8710063002/", "title": "Rolling Stones review: Incendiary concert in Austin to close big tour", "text": "If this was the last time we see the Rolling Stones in Austin, it was a hell of a way to go.\n\nThe legendary British rockers played the final stadium-sized show of a 13-date U.S. fall tour at Circuit of the Americas on Saturday night, energizing a huge crowd with a two-hour set of 18 songs drawn largely from the band’s career-defining first decade.\n\nDressed in spectacularly colorful attire, core members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood consistently dazzled the crowd with struts, solos, smiles and the sheer confidence that comes from rocking like twentysomethings when you’re seventy-something.\n\nIn the end, it all comes down to how good the songs are, and the Stones have few peers in that regard. Thirteen of the 18 tunes in the set were recorded in the 1960s, and all of them clearly have stood the test of time. From the immediately invigorating opener “Street Fighting Man” (1968) to the perfect encore-closer “Satisfaction” (1965), the Stones reminded us why they’re still widely regarded as the world’s greatest rock & roll band.\n\nMore from the tour:Rolling Stones tour production director discusses stage setup\n\nFour huge vertical jumbotrons dominated the large but mostly simple stage set, beaming crystal-clear high-definition video of the performance to the far reaches of the venue’s back lawn. Even if you were closer to the stage and could see the band reasonably well, it was hard not to get transfixed by the video presentation, in part because it was so well-executed.\n\nThe sound, too, was dialed in with remarkable clarity. Rarely if ever did the 11-piece ensemble sound muddled, not an easy feat for such a large band in a sprawling venue. Speaking to the American-Statesman last month, production director Dale Skjerseth said the show was designed to emphasize “the importance of the sound,” and what we heard verified that he was good for his word.\n\nA few surprises and memorable moments\n\n• Not only did fans select the title track to the Stones’ 1969 album “Let It Bleed” as the show’s audience request number in online voting, but Richards used one of his two lead-vocal spotlights to play another track from that album, the country-blues acoustic tune “You Got the Silver.” In all, the set included more than half of “Let It Bleed,” counting three staples that got played at every show this fall: “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” “Midnight Rambler” and “Gimme Shelter.”\n\n• Austin got just 18 songs, whereas other stops on this fall’s tour got 19, with the exception of Dallas earlier this month. (Was there a one-song Texas tax?) What got cut was a slot early in the set that in other cities had frequently gone to “Let’s Spend the Night Together” (occasionally “Rocks Off” or “Get Off of My Cloud”).\n\n• A minute before the Stones took the stage at 9 p.m., the jumbotrons lit up with a one-minute photo and video collage memorializing drummer Charlie Watts, who died in August at age 80 just a few weeks before the tour began. Jagger gave a brief but eloquent speech about Watts a few songs in, dedicating the show to him and sparking chants from the crowd of “Charlie! Charlie!”\n\n• The new “Living in a Ghost Town,” released during the pandemic and introduced by Jagger as “our lockdown song,” was one of just two selections taken from the 1980s onward (the 1981 smash “Start Me Up” was the other). Only “Tumbling Dice,” “Miss You” and “It’s Only Rock & Roll (But I Like It)” came from the 1970s. The rest was one giant Stones Sixties fest, and gloriously so.\n\n• “We like Austin so much that we’re thinking about moving here after the tour,” Jagger announced midway through the set. Take that with the intended grain of salt; after name-dropping Elon Musk and referencing vodka brands Deep Eddy and Tito’s, plus a story about getting drunk at Scholz Garten, he concluded with the disclaimer: “Of course, none of this is true, as you well know.”\n\nA 'dazzling' show\n\nAt 78, Jagger remains one of the best frontmen in popular music ever. He paced back and forth across the full length of the nearly football-field-sized stage often, also using an extended runway that jutted out into the standing-room section of the audience. His vocal control and energy level remain remarkably strong. Richards and Wood are similarly lively; Wood was on fire with several guitar leads, while Richards at times grinned broadly when he served up an especially tasty riff.\n\nBefore the show:See where Mick Jagger's popped up around Austin\n\nNew drummer Steve Jordan filled in admirably for Watts, playing with precision throughout and bringing thunderous power when called for (especially on “Satisfaction”). Backup singer Sasha Allen got her well-deserved spotlight just prior to “Satisfaction” in the two-song encore, dueting with Jagger on the dramatic “it’s just a shot away” and “it’s just a kiss away” key lines of “Gimme Shelter” as they walked to the far end of the runway together.\n\nBehind them, keyboardist and musical director Chuck Leavell (who also played the crucial cowbell part in “Honky Tonk Women”) led the rest of the band: bassist Darryl Jones, backing vocalist/percussionist Bernard Fowler, keyboardist Matt Clifford, and saxophonists Karl Denson and Tim Ries. Throughout the night, the supporting musicians helped make the Stones sound as good as they did.\n\nFollowing Richards’ mid-set mic-turn with “Connection” and “You Got the Silver,” the band grooved into the home stretch with extended arrangements of 1978’s “Miss You” and 1969’s “Midnight Rambler,” each of which ran beyond 10 minutes. The deeply bluesy vibe of the latter, delivered mostly as a stripped-down six-piece with bass, drums and keys backing the three principles, reminded that for all their greatest-rock-band rep, they’re still one of the best blues bands on the planet, too.\n\nThe show’s most dazzling moment was the next-to-last song of the main set, “Sympathy for the Devil.” It kicked off with sparkler-type fireworks spewing from the top of the stage, followed by a full-on pyrotechnic blast into the sky at the first chorus. The video screens were awash in glowing red-and-yellow imagery, a stark contrast to the black-and-white footage used on the preceding “Paint It Black” (in keeping with its key lyric, “no colors anymore, I want them to turn black”).\n\nStrong opening act\n\nGhost Hounds, a Pittsburgh band that has opened about half the shows on this fall’s tour, took the stage at 7:15 p.m. for an entertaining, high-energy 45-minute set of rootsy American music that meshed well with the Stones’ vibe. Frontman Tré Nation is a consummate professional, a strong singer with a congenial attitude and an engaging rapport with his eight bandmates.\n\nConcertgoers faced setbacks\n\nAs memorable as the Stones’ performance was, fairly significant issues with traffic and crowd-flow at the venue led to frustrating experiences for many concertgoers. The small roads that approach the venue often get clogged with major jams when Circuit of the Americas presents such Super Stage shows that are far larger than the usual concerts in the property’s Germania Insurance Amphitheater.\n\nOther concert coverage:Review of Billy Joel's October concert at Circuit of the Americas\n\nMany fans took to Twitter with stories of ditching their cars on the side of the road and walking the rest of the way. Musician Miles Zuniga of platinum-selling Austin band Fastball was among them, posting: “I’m never going back to COTA ever! Worst concert experience ever. Rolling Stones were good but it took us 3 hours to go 14 miles and we only made the show because we paid some dude $40 to park in his yard.”\n\nInside the venue, some fans with general-admission lawn seats had problems just getting to their designated area because of foot-traffic bottlenecks at one of the entrance gates. Furthermore, setup of food and beverage booths in the lawn area seemed badly designed: There were lots of cocktail booths with almost no line but only one area with food booths, leading to ridiculously long lines that also contributed to the blockage of an entry point.\n\nSetlist\n\n1. Street Fighting Man\n\n2. It’s Only Rock & Roll (But I Like It)\n\n3. 19th Nervous Breakdown\n\n4. Tumbling Dice\n\n5. Let It Bleed\n\n6. You Can’t Always Get What You Want\n\n7. Living in a Ghost Town\n\n8. Start Me Up\n\n9. Honky Tonk Women\n\n10. Connection\n\n11. You Got the Silver\n\n12. Miss You\n\n13. Midnight Rambler\n\n14. Paint It Black\n\n15. Sympathy for the Devil\n\n16. Jumpin’ Jack Flash\n\nEncore:\n\n17. Gimme Shelter\n\n18. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/11/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2022/01/21/covid-robs-legendary-musician-final-tours-rewrites-rock-history/6519004001/", "title": "COVID-19 is robbing musicians of their final chapter – and fans of ...", "text": "COVID-19 and the passage of time have jeopardized the ability to see our favorite veteran stars.\n\nMulti-million dollar sales of back catalogs speak to how iconic musicians are reassessing legacies.\n\nEven if the pandemic eases, fans may be concert-shy: Only 13% feel comfortable seeing a live-music show in the next month.\n\nWhen the great R&B singer Ronnie Spector died on Jan. 12, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland enacted its ritual. The building’s flag got lowered, Spector's music was played all day, and her photos and artifacts took center stage.\n\nCEO Greg Harris is tired of it: “We’ve lowered our flag too many times over the last two years,” he says.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/01/21"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/2022/05/15/naomi-judd-memorial-ryman-auditorium/9788732002/", "title": "Naomi Judd memorial: Wynonna, Ashley celebrate mom at Ryman ...", "text": "Family, friends and fans of Naomi Judd gathered Sunday evening at Ryman Auditorium on Sunday evening for a public memorial for the country music superstar,\n\nJudd, 76, died on April 30, just a day before The Judds -- the iconic duo comprised of her and daughter Wynonna -- was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Her family has since said she took her own life after a struggle with mental illness.\n\nA star-studded list of artists and celebrities -- including Bono, Morgan Freeman, Bette Midler, Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley and Oprah Winfrey offered thoughts and tributes via songs from the Judds' legendary catalog.\n\n\"It's so weird, yet so natural, to be in front of (the fans), our chosen family for 38 years,\" Wynonna Judd said near the end of the 75-minute, CMT-aired memorial event.\n\n\"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine,\" she said, quoting a gospel hymn.\n\nThen, in a moment that highlighted the maintenance of the Judds' legacy in the aftermath of her mother's death, Wynonna said that she would be going on the 11-date national tour that she and her mother had previously announced.\n\n\"The show must go on, as hard as it may be,\" she said.\n\nAfter that, amid a Ryman Auditorium stage awash in blue floodlights and filled with 2,500 giant pink roses, Wynonna Judd called upon the spirit of the Pentecostal church – and a Pentecostal choir that filled the spaces between rows of pews in country music's \"Mother Church\" – to inspire a solemn, soulful performance of The Judds' 1990-released hit single \"Love Can Build A Bridge.\"\n\nNaomi Judd never met a stranger, her husband, Larry Strickland, said while flanked by Ashley and Wynonna Judd, onstage. Their stories of two things, \"their passions and their dogs,\" inspired her greatly, he continued. As well, her daughter, Ashley, added, in opening remarks, that her mother was an \"everywoman, but totally extraordinary\" who lived a life that was a \"spectacular technicolor dream,\" and that she \"left country music better than she found it.\"\n\nMore:Country star Naomi Judd took own life, daughter Ashley says in emotional interview\n\nThe dichotomies apparent in Naomi Judd's life were as present as the songs she wrote and sang. Oscar and Emmy-nominated actress Salma Hayek remarked, via pre-taped comments, that she was awed by Judd's presence because she \"felt like she was meeting Scarlett O'Hara.\" She called the country music superstar a \"force of nature\" with a \"hypnotic, disarming sweetness.\"\n\nAlso, via video comments, Oprah Winfrey said Judd taught her a lesson about the power of country music: \"Country music is all about real people and real stories.\" The icon added, \"Naomi Judd (achieved) a rooted connection to all of us, and left a 'heart print' on our hearts.\"\n\nAs far as performances were concerned, gospel trio The Gaithers' offering of \"How Beautiful Heaven Must Be\" reached a crescendo with a final acapella flourish that yielded a loud ovation. Ashley McBryde was overwhelmed by the moment's emotion but completed her version of the 1984 Judds single \"Love Is Alive.\"\n\nEvent host Robin Roberts fed to a video presentation that stated that Naomi Judd's greatest gift was \"enhancing and bolstering other people's best talents and gifts.\" As the Sunday evening event showcased, those talents often were Wynonna Judd's lead vocals.\n\nWynonna had moments during her performances of \"River of Time\" and a show-stopping performance of Bette Midler's \"The Rose\" (alongside Brandi Carlile) where the strain of two emotionally trying weeks showed. During solid performances, she paused, and turned to the crowd as if asking those in attendance to help power her through the lyrics.\n\n\"We can pretend to care, but we cannot pretend to show up,\" Ashley Judd offered in the show's opening remarks, thanking both the live capacity crowd and those who had sent along well wishes, cards and letters to the family in the past two weeks. She followed with a statement that reflected so much of the triumph and tragedy of her mother's life.\n\n\"Our circumstances do not have the power to create our identity.\"\n\nNaomi Judd Memorial Performance List", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/05/15"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2017/04/02/final-four-2017-phoenix-march-madness-basketball-music-fan-fest-sunday/99759092/", "title": "Final Four 2017 Sunday recap: Macklemore, Aerosmith rock at ...", "text": "The Republic | azcentral.com\n\nThe Final Four is on in Arizona. The March Madness Music Festival met capacity less than an hour after its doors opened Sunday, and the lucky 20,000 who got in saw a legendary Aerosmith performance.\n\nScroll down for a recap of Sunday’s Final Four fan events, including celebrity sightings and the Final Four Dribble that had more than 3,000 kids bouncing basketballs in downtown Phoenix streets.\n\nRELATED: View our recaps of Friday’s events and Saturday’s festivities, or follow our live coverage Monday of all things Final Four in Glendale and Phoenix.\n\n10 p.m. Aerosmith bring down the house\n\nAerosmith brought the free March Madness Music Festival in downtown Phoenix to a raucous climax Sunday with a hit-filled set that put the focus squarely on their comeback years.\n\nThis was Aerosmith's first live appearance of 2017 and there's talk of them retiring after one last major tour. Steven Tyler's vocals were near-perfect, hitting notes that should be near-impossible considering he's 69.\n\nThere were parts of the performance that were loose enough that someone who lives in the Auto-Tuned world of modern pop might have labeled it sloppy or under-rehearsed, but it felt like rock 'n' roll.\n\nA highlight of the night was when they brought Macklemore back on stage for a loose and lively \"Walk This Way.\"\n\nREVIEW:Aerosmith rocks March Madness Music Festival, bringing Macklemore back for 'Walk This Way'\n\n8:30 p.m. Aerosmith rock out\n\nLegendary rock band Aerosmith took the stage to a massive crowd of cheering fans of all ages Sunday night.\n\nThey also shared video of the beginning of their performance on Facebook Live so that fans around the world could see the show.\n\n8 p.m. Aaron Rodgers appears at Majerle's\n\nGreen Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers appeared at Majerle's Sports Grill in downtown Phoenix Sunday night.\n\nTMZ reported that Rodgers was seen Saturday night in a nightclub rapping along to Tupac's \"Hit 'Em Up.\"\n\n7:50 p.m. Waiting for Aerosmith\n\nThe at-capacity crowd of about 20,000 waited for Aerosmith to take the stage at the March Madness Music Festival, and in the meantime Aerosmith's official social media accounts posted teasers.\n\nCharles Barkley also helped entertain the crowd by getting on stage to sing karaoke, including \"I Will Survive.\"\n\n7 p.m.: Snapchat Spectacles vending machines still here\n\nSnapchat placed at least two of its bright yellow vending machines in downtown Phoenix for people to buy its newest product: Spectacles sunglasses that shoot video clips.\n\nThe $129 shades, which shoot 10-second clips that wirelessly transfer to the Snapchat photo/video sharing app, went on sale last fall and initially were only available from vending machines that would pop up in cities for a short times, usually just one day.\n\nAnyone can buy them at spectacles.com, but there still is an allure to hunting down a machine — called a Snapbot — and buying them in-person.\n\nThe official Spectacles account posted photos of the machines Saturday and Sunday, but did not name where they were. One buyer figured out that a machine was near the Phoenix Convention Center.\n\nCan you figure out where the other vending machine is in the Phoenix area?\n\n6:35 p.m. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis start the party\n\nRapper Macklemore took the March Madness Music Festival stage around 6:40 p.m. Sunday, starting with his hit \"Ten Thousand Hours.\"\n\nThe at-capacity crowd in the park was jumping up and down so hard to his set, you could feel the ground moving under your feet. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' performance was complete with choreography and a heavier focus on the visual presentation of the music, featuring a lot of videos.\n\nHis set reached its crowd-pleasing peak when he followed the screening of his video for \"And We Danced\" by appearing on stage in the goofy wig and cape ensemble from the video before hosting an audience dance-off on the set-closing \"Dance Off.\"\n\nAnd then he somehow took it up a notch with an encore of \"Downtown,\" joined by Eric Nally, a glorious five-train pileup of an entertainment spectacle.\n\nREVIEW:Aerosmith rocks March Madness Music Festival, bringing Macklemore back for 'Walk This Way'\n\n6:30 p.m. Final Four closes doors for the night\n\nRight before Macklemore and Ryan Lewis took the stage, Final Four officials tweeted the Music Festival hit capacity and the doors would not be reopening for the rest of the evening.\n\nWatch the festival live at ncaa.com/marchmadness/musicfest/live.\n\n6 p.m.: Police letting few into music festival\n\nPolice allowed groups of about 50 people into the March Madness Music Festival every 15 minutes or so, giving hope to those still waiting in the massive lines that formed at entrances. There also was at least one entrance where police gave priority to people with children or pregnant women.\n\nPeople in the back third of the line said they had waited just 15 minutes, while people in the front liked waited for an hour or more. Meanwhile, Blink 182 rocked inside, and one fan posted that he saw Charles Barkley in a VIP area of the festival.\n\n5:15 p.m.: Hopefuls wait to get in to festival\n\nSammi Digan and Maria Lafferty, both 21, were among the hundreds of people waiting in line in hopes of getting into the March Madness Music Festival, which reached capacity at 3:45 p.m. Sunday.\n\n\"It's kind of mixed reviews, depending on the people,\" Lafferty said. \"We've already heard our fair share of curse words and people stomping away from the police for rejecting them, and we've heard our fair share of like, 'maybe we should go somewhere else.'\n\n\"We're kind of still hoping we're going to get in, though, so here's to hoping, you know?\" she said. \"If not, hey, we'll just go to a bar.\"\n\n4:30 p.m.: Music fest at capacity\n\nThe Phoenix Police Department tweeted at 3:46 p.m. that the March Madness Music Festival had reached capacity and they were closing the doors.\n\n\"They are still going to let in everyone who is currently in line. They will re-evaluate later to determine if they will re-open the gates or not,\" Phoenix Police spokesman Alan Pfohl said at 4:33 p.m.\n\nMany people were furious that the festival filled up so early, yelling as they stormed away from the park. Others stayed in line, hopeful that that would still be able to get in later.\n\n4 p.m. Actor Josh Peck is here!\n\nActor Josh Peck of Nickelodeon's \"Drake & Josh\" fame visited downtown Phoenix Saturday and Sunday for the Final Four festivities.\n\nPeck, who currently voices Casey Jones in \"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,\" posted a video of himself Saturday shooting a basketball in the Final Four Fan Fest.\n\nSunday afternoon he posted and later deleted a photo of him and a friend posing in front of the \"sorry\" sign outside FOUND:RE Phoenix hotel, which is steps away from the March Madness Music Festival.\n\n3:30 p.m. Arizona pride at Fan Fest\n\nMany Arizonans at the Final Four Fan Fest said they take pride in having the Final Four in the Valley.\n\nKyle Hobbs, 23, said it makes sense this location was chosen. It's big and spread out without too much traffic.\n\n\"It's just a great city,\" he said. Attendees from other states are able to see another side of Arizona beyond the fact that it's a hot desert.\n\n\"The best thing about Phoenix is there really is so much stuff here,\" local Troy Hutchinson said. \"You really have to have a good plan if you do come to visit.\"\n\nHobbs added that this isn't just for visitors: Locals also get a unique opportunity to experience large-scale events and meet star athletes. He and his 16-year-old brother Zach were standing in line to meet Arizona Cardinals player Tyrann Mathieu.\n\n\"I think it's a great turnout for the fans, gives them something to look forward to,\" Hobbs said.\n\n3 p.m.: Doors open for the music fest\n\nThere were long lines to get into the free March Madness Music Festival before it opened at 3 p.m. Many people wore shirts displaying their favorite act of the night.\n\nThey're smart to get a head start – officials closed the festival's gates by 7:30 p.m. Saturday because it had reached capacity, rumored to be about 20,000, though officials were unable to confirm the number.\n\nFamed concert lighting designer and director Cosmo Wilson posted a photo of a bunch of inflatable pool floats near the band gear, so it's likely than giant swans, pizza slices and donuts will appear in the crowd during one of the shows Sunday.\n\n2 p.m.: Fan recreates Christian Laettner's famous shot\n\nChristian Laettner, who many regard as one of the greatest NCAA players ever, recreated his most famous basketball moment with fans at the Fan Fest in Phoenix Sunday afternoon: He threw the full-court inbound pass so attendees could attempt his winning shot from the 1992 East Regional Finals.\n\nMost fans missed. A few made it. Finally, at 2 p.m. on the dot, the emcee pumped up Shirley Peng to take the final shot. She made it.\n\n\"It was amazing,\" she said.\n\nPeng was with her husband, Seth Fager, who shot and missed right before her. He said he saw the highlight as a kid but wasn't watching the actual game.\n\n\"It was cool,\" he said. \"It was definitely something I'll cherish forever.\"\n\nPeng said she's not among the crowd that still hates Laettner. He is so widely disliked that ESPN even produced a \"30 for 30\" titled \"I Hate Christian Laettner.\"\n\n\"I think he's a great basketball player,\" she said with a laugh.\n\n1 p.m.: Fans line up to meet Steve Nash\n\nHundreds of people stood in line for hours in the Final Four Fan Fest in downtown Phoenix Sunday afternoon to meet former Phoenix Suns player and eight-time NBA All-Star Steve Nash.\n\nOrganizers had to cut off the line before Nash even arrived. Some at the front of the line said they waited for three hours to meet the legend.\n\nJoshua Haslip, 14, said his favorite Nash memory was when Nash fractured his nose on court in 2010 and just popped it back into place himself.\n\nTyler Lamoreaux, 13, said he doesn't really remember watching Nash play but brought a photo of himself when he was 2, wearing a Nash jersey, to be signed.\n\nNoon: Dikembe Mutombo meets fans\n\nFour-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award winner and eight-time All-Star Dikembe Mutombo appeared at the Fan Fest at noon Sunday. He posted a photo with former San Antonio Spurs player David Robinson and ESPN broadcaster Dick Vitale, who he towered over. Mutombo is 7' 2\".\n\n11 a.m.: Ready, set, dribble!\n\nYoung basketball fans were able to bounce into action Sunday morning by participating in the Final Four Dribble in downtown Phoenix.\n\nArmed with special NCAA Final Four-themed basketballs, about 3,000 children maneuvered through the heart of Fan Fest, showcasing their ball handling skills.\n\nFor the older kids, it was taking their talents from off the court and onto the streets. But for the youngsters in the pack, who were accompanied by their parents, it was more about joining in on the fun and trying their hardest to dribble in a straight line.\n\nWith their oversized dribble shirts hanging to their knees, they attempted to control the unwieldy balls that were nearly half their size.\n\n\"She's been practicing,\" Blanca Ardon said, watching as her daughter, Mia, 9, raced in front of her.\n\n\"Mom, look!\" the girl shouted proudly.\n\nCatching up to her older brothers, Mia shared that she loved to play basketball and was enjoying her time out with the other children.\n\nBlanca, from Phoenix, said she was happy when she heard about the event because it was a great way for her kids to get involved with Final Four and to stay active.\n\nJust up ahead Maya Gutierrez, 9, and her brother, Esteban, 10, bounced their balls toward the final destination: Fan Fest inside the Phoenix Convention Center.\n\n\"They play soccer, but this might have sparked something,\" said their father, Andy Gutierrez. \"It's been a great event ... all of the Fan Fest activities for the Final Four. We came out for the Super Bowl activities a few years ago but this might be better.\"\n\nWith a bit more skill and grace, a basketball team from the West Valley Warriors sports club were up near the front as they approached the doors to Fan Fest.\n\n\"We're hoping to see one of the college players,\" said Nyuol Makuei, 15.\n\n\"Yeah, that'd be cool!\" said teammate Stacy Goree.\n\nAccording to Reginald Tahy, a Fan Fest supporter who was helping guide the crowd as they funneled near the doors, the Final Four Dribble was one of the most anticipated events for the organizers as they got to see the children participate and interact with the activities.\n\n\"It's running smoothly ... it all is,\" Tahy said. \"Everything so far this weekend has gone off without a hitch.\"\n\nMORE: Map of the downtown Phoenix events\n\nTV schedule for Monday\n\nSemifinal winners, 6:19 p.m., Channel 5 (Play-by-play: Jim Nantz. Analysts: Bill Raftery, Grant Hill. Reporter: Tracy Wolfson)\n\nCompiled by Arizona Republic reporter Kaila White from reports by Republic reporters Yihyun Jeong, Logan Newman and Alexis Berdine.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/04/02"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2018/09/12/johnny-cash-death-date-nashville-obituary-anniversary/1279962002/", "title": "Johnny Cash: Farewell to the Man in Black, 16 years later", "text": "Peter Cooper\n\nThe Tennessean\n\nEditor's note: Sixteen years ago on Sept. 12, 2003, the world lost a musical legend when Johnny Cash passed away in Nashville. Below is the obituary we ran the day after the Man in Black died.\n\nSomehow, Johnny Cash is dead.\n\nBattling ill health for years and without his longtime companion since wife June Carter Cash's death in May, Mr. Cash's frailties of body and heart made him seem no less indomitable. Fans and fellow musicians likened him to a force of nature: an iconic, elemental figure, more granite and fire than flesh and blood. He had cheated death enough that it seemed death would never catch onto the ruse.\n\nBut yesterday morning around 2 a.m., Mr. Cash passed away at Baptist Hospital, succumbing to respiratory failure brought on by complications from diabetes. He was 71 years old, and his life altered the course of American popular music.\n\nIn Hendersonville, he was a neighbor. For Nashville, he was an ambassador, an agitator, a kingpin and a musical conscience. To the world, he was a political activist, a genre-blending innovator and the embodiment of well-aged cool.\n\nMost memorably, he was a singer of songs.\n\nIn death's wake came words, all day long, and none would suffice. Singers and pickers, fans and barflies, and journalists and the president of the United States tried to say something to convey the breadth and magnitude of Mr. Cash's life and career. All failed, though not for lack of good intentions.\n\nChapter 1: A hardscrabble youth\n\nKingsland, Ark., is a tiny little town now chiefly known as \"Birthplace of Johnny Cash.\" When Mr. Cash was born there - on Feb. 26, 1932 - no one called him \"Johnny.\" To his parents, and on his birth certificate, he was J.R. Cash, as no one could agree on a name at first.\n\nIn 1935 father Ray Cash moved his family to a five-room house near Dyess, Ark., to take part in a rehabilitation project run by the Roosevelt administration.\n\n\"Actually, it was a socialistic setup with a co-op store and a co-op cotton gin, the intention being that the farmers would share any profits from the gin and the store,\" Mr. Cash wrote in his first autobiography, Man In Black.\n\nThe share-cropping family sang country songs while picking cotton, and work in the fields was not halted even by death. Mr. Cash's older brother, Jack, was killed in a table-saw accident in 1944, an event that haunted Mr. Cash. But the next day, the family was back chopping cotton. Mother Carrie Cash fell to her knees in the field that morning, as her son related in a second autobiography, Cash: The Autobiography.\n\n\"Lest you get too romantic an impression of the good, natural, hard-working, character-building country life back then, back there, remember that picture of Carrie Cash down in the mud between the cotton rows on any mother's worst day,\" he wrote.\n\nCarrie Cash saw musical promise in J.R., the fourth of five children. She saved enough money for the teen to take a few singing lessons.\n\nThough J.R. loved the gospel music he heard at the Pentecostal Church of God in Dyess, he was most smitten with the Grand Ole Opry and the country music he heard on the radio.\n\nA brief encounter with Charlie Louvin of the Louvin Brothers before a concert in Dyess further enraptured the teen: \"I didn't even feel the gravel on my bare feet that night when I walked the two-and-a-half miles home in the dark, singing all the songs I'd heard from the stage at the school auditorium,\" he wrote in Man In Black.\n\nChapter 2: From service to Sun\n\nThough it was music that thrilled Mr. Cash, it seemed incapable of removing him from Arkansas. Upon graduation from Dyess High School in 1950, he moved to Michigan, intending to work in an automobile plant. Making car hoods on an assembly line didn't suit him much better than cotton farming, so he joined the Air Force. The military refused to accept \"J.R.\" as a first name, and he became \"John R. Cash.\"\n\nDuring basic training in Texas, he met a high school senior named Vivian Liberto. His assignment to a base in Landsberg, Germany (he was a radio intercept operator charged with cracking Russian code transmissions) did not deter their burgeoning romance. While in the service, he began strumming a guitar, composing music and verse and playing in a country band.\n\nHis time in the Air Force was of great musical significance, as it was there that he learned some guitar chords and saw a film called Inside Folsom Prison that spurred his now-famous song, Folsom Prison Blues. In the service, he also was struck by an intriguing drawling sound that occurred when his reel-to-reel tape machine was improperly loaded. An attempt to replicate that sound, coupled with his feelings of fidelity toward Vivian Liberto, was the genesis of another classic song, I Walk The Line.\n\nUpon his 1954 discharge, Mr. Cash moved to Memphis, married Liberto, worked as a door-to-door appliance salesman, enrolled at the Keegan School of Broadcasting and put together an upstart country group to help him become a gospel singer. He set his sights on Sun Records, a Memphis operation that was seeing success with a new artist named Elvis Presley.\n\n\"Sun Records was between my house and the broadcasting school,\" Mr. Cash told journalist Peter Guralnick. Mr. Cash visited the studio often, hoping for an audition with Sun owner/producer Sam Phillips.\n\nAfter being repeatedly told that Phillips was unavailable, Mr. Cash happened once to be sitting outside Sun as Phillips came to work. He forced his way into an audition, and Phillips was duly impressed.\n\n\"I don't feel like anyone discovered me because I had to fight so hard to get heard,\" Mr. Cash told Guralnick.\n\nA rock 'n' roll pioneer whose records with Elvis Presley were making pop inroads, Phillips had no use for a gospel artist. He asked Mr. Cash to write or find some secular material. The hopeful artist went back to the studio with his Tennessee Two (guitarist Luther Perkins and bass man Marshall Grant) with homesick train song Hey Porter! and Folsom Prison Blues, a song that borrowed liberally from Gordon Jenkins' Crescent City Blues recording.\n\nNot yet convinced that the man he called Johnny Cash had composed a hit, Phillips charged Mr. Cash to write \"an uptempo weeper love song,\" and he filled the order with Cry! Cry! Cry!, which would be paired with Hey Porter! as Mr. Cash's first single.\n\nReleased in 1955, Cry! Cry! Cry! was a pop and country hit that ultimately peaked at No. 14 on Billboard's country music charts.\n\n\"Musicians scoffed, but Cash and the Tennessee Two possessed the quality that had been lacking in country music since Hank Williams died: originality,\" wrote Colin Escott and Martin Hawkins in Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll.\n\nMr. Cash was among a group of Sun rockabillies including Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, but he and his Tennessee Two had a propulsive yet distinctly Southern \"boom-chicka-boom\" sound that set them apart. Mr. Cash sometimes compensated for the lack of a drummer by threading wax paper through guitar strings, and Luther Perkins' spare electric lead guitar work was as crudely appropriate as a dirty joke at an all-night poker session.\n\n\"Marshall Grant was mostly right when in later years he said that we didn't work to get that boom-chicka-boom sound ... it's all we could play,\" Cash wrote. \"But it served us well, and it was ours.\"\n\nIn January 1956, Mr. Cash followed the tradition of Elvis Presley and Hank Williams and joined the Louisiana Hayride radio show. Six months later, he was given a slot on the Grand Ole Opry. Opry star Carl Smith introduced Mr. Cash by calling him \"the brightest rising star in the country music of America.\" That December, Mr. Cash again made headlines when he and Presley were photographed with Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins during a Sun session. That photograph is said to have captured \"The Million Dollar Quartet.\"\n\nMr. Cash's sound garnered No. 1 hits I Walk The Line and There You Go, as well as now-classics Home of The Blues and Big River.\n\n\"I taught the weeping willow how to cry/ And I showed the clouds how to cover up a clear blue sky,\" Mr. Cash sang on Big River. A young man named Robert Zimmerman heard that song on the radio. Years later, when he was known as Bob Dylan, the man told writer Nicholas Dawidoff that the lines of Big River struck him as \"just words that turned into bone.\"\n\nMr. Cash worked an exhausting touring schedule and began taking amphetamines to help him cope, starting a habit that would cause problems throughout much of his life. The pills did not rob him of his ability to connect with audiences, including those of the captive variety: On New Year's Day 1959, Mr. Cash's travels took him to San Quentin prison, where he played a concert for the inmates. Eleven years later, the performer would record a live album at San Quentin, but this initial appearance was notable in that one of the prisoners was future country legend Merle Haggard.\n\n\"Prison is a good place to find out the truth, because them convicts won't lie,\" Haggard said. \"They ain't got no reason to give you any clout that you don't deserve. And we saw the truth that day.\"\n\nUnhappy with several matters, including Phillips' refusal to let him record a gospel album, Mr. Cash left Sun in 1958, moving his family (which by then included two daughters) to California. Phillips was angered, charging that the young singer had secretly signed a deal with Columbia Records while still under contract to Sun. The two later reconciled, and Mr. Cash was an honorary pallbearer at Phillips' funeral in July.\n\nWhile his decades on Columbia would see Mr. Cash rise to greater wealth and fame, many Cash-watchers consider the finest of the Sun recordings to be the apex of his career. On Get Rhythm, Train of Love, Home of the Blues, I Walk The Line, Big River and others, Phillips' recording techniques present Mr. Cash's voice as an unprettied wonder, and Phillips' interest in producing something singular and identifiable helped Mr. Cash to find his own way as an artist.\n\n\"When it dawned on me that I didn't sound like anybody else naturally, I let it come naturally,\" Mr. Cash told journalist Bill Flanagan in 1998. \"Of course, that was the secret of my success. It ain't no secret: Be yourself.\"\n\nChapter 3: To the Top\n\nA July 1958 session in Nashville with producer Don Law marked Cash's ascendance to the major label ranks, as he began work on songs that would comprise his Columbia debut album, The Fabulous Johnny Cash. A western song from that album, Don't Take Your Guns To Town, topped the country charts for six weeks in 1959, and Mr. Cash entered a new decade as a well-established artist in his prime.\n\n\"The 1960s were probably my most productive time, creatively speaking,\" he wrote in Cash. \"Often I wasn't in my best voice, because the amphetamines dried my throat and reduced me, at times, to croaks and whispers, but that wasn't the story all the time, and my energy and output were high.\"\n\nMr. Cash's drug use escalated. He destroyed hotel rooms, canceled shows, started fires, wrecked cars, was busted for illegal acquisition of pills, bashed out the Grand Ole Opry footlights and alienated himself from his wife and four daughters.\n\n\"I'd begin to feel good after two or three days without drugs,\" he wrote. \"Then, though, I'd get home, usually on a Monday, and I'd find the stress of my marriage so hard that I'd drive to that druggist, get two or three hundred pills, head out into the desert in my camper, and stay out there, high, for as long as I could.\"\n\nOn Feb. 11, 1962, June Carter joined the Johnny Cash road show. She was a daughter of acoustic guitar great Mother Maybelle Carter and member of the Carter clan, a group known as \"The First Family of Country Music.\" For some time Mr. Cash had been enthralled by her beauty, humor and talent, and she quickly recognized both Mr. Cash's magnetism and apparent need for a caretaker.\n\nIn addition to flushing pills and soothing nerves, she wrote Mr. Cash a song that described anxious feelings about their escalating relationship. It would become one of his best-known hits: Penned by Carter and Merle Kilgore, Ring of Fire hit No. 1 in 1963.\n\n\"A song like that goes on forever,\" Mr. Cash told The Tennessean in 2002.\n\nWhile much of musical Nashville ignored the burgeoning folk movement, Mr. Cash embraced some of the folk artists and ideologies. He appeared at the New York Folk Festival in 1965, recorded a duet with Carter on Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe in 1964, recorded a concept album about Native American life called Bitter Tears and publicly supported the civil rights movement.\n\n\"When I was young, I saw my dad speaking out against the Vietnam War, speaking out against the Ku Klux Klan, and that's where my social activism is rooted,\" daughter Rosanne Cash told The Tennessean. \"He never bent. He never even almost bent.\"\n\nA thoughtful voice of inclusion and a conduit for crosspollination between folk and country artists, in the mid-1960s Mr. Cash also could be an angry and violent man prone to benders and outbursts.\n\n\"The mixture of amphetamines and alcohol was a maddening poison,\" he wrote in Man In Black. \"My wife and children feared the strange man I had become.\"\n\nIn early 1967 he and Vivian divorced, amid much pill-fueled debauchery, but by late 1967, Mr. Cash committed himself to getting off drugs, though his Jan. 13, 1968, show at Folsom Prison was proof that he was still quite in touch with his dark side.\n\nAt Folsom he delighted prisoners, cursing and joking and singing about egg-sucking dogs and the Cocaine Blues with a carnality and wildness that was at once thrilling, entertaining and empathetic. The show's recording, released as Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, now is considered one of the most significant albums in country music history.\n\nFor Mr. Cash, 1968 offered moments both wonderful and tragic. He proposed to June Carter onstage Feb. 1, and married her a month later. He set about making up concert dates he'd missed when he was too strung out, and he released two chart-topping hits. But in August 1968, longtime bandmate and \"boom-chicka-boom\" innovator Luther Perkins died in a house fire. Guitarist Bob Wooten soon joined the band, becoming a part of a group that featured Marshall Grant, drummer W.S. \"Fluke\" Holland and original Sun rockabilly Carl Perkins.\n\nThe change in marital status and lifestyle coincided with an increased attention to spiritual matters, and Mr. Cash often spoke to audiences and interviewers about his Christian beliefs. He would later write a book about the Apostle Paul called Man In White.\n\nBy the late 1960s Mr. Cash was touring with an ensemble that included Perkins, members of the Carter Family and vocal group The Statler Brothers. Such a bevy of talent ensured audiences variety, and Mr. and Mrs. Cash kept just such a scene going at home by inviting musicians over to share stories and swap songs.\n\nMr. Cash maintained friendships with artists beyond the country world, and he and banjo innovator Earl Scruggs were two of the few prominent Nashville artists to mingle with politically left-leaning folk and pop musicians during this contentious time of civil rights unrest and war in Vietnam.\n\nOne friend of Mr. Cash's was Bob Dylan: They had kept up a correspondence since the early 1960s. Mr. Cash sang with Dylan on Girl From the North Country, the kickoff track to Dylan's 1969 Nashville Skyline album. Mr. Cash also contributed Grammy-winning liner notes to that album.\n\nA difficult Far East tour in 1969 found Mr. Cash sometimes playing more than 10 shows a day for military troops in locales including Saigon, Vietnam. The stress of that tour wore on Mr. Cash and he went back to pill-popping.\n\n\"My liberation from drug addiction wasn't permanent,\" he would later write. \"Though I never regressed to spending years at a time on amphetamines, I've used mood-altering drugs for periods of varying length at various times since 1967: amphetamines, sleeping pills and prescription painkillers.\"\n\nIn February 1969 Mr. Cash again made an album at a penitentiary. This time it was San Quentin, where he had previously visited three times. He had written a song called San Quentin for the occasion.\n\n\"San Quentin, may you rot and burn in hell,\" he sang, and inmates shouted a dangerous-sounding mix of appreciation and unleashed anguish. Mr. Cash would often later remark that the scene was barely controlled, and that if he had shouted, \"Break!,\" the prisoners would have rioted.\n\nBoth San Quentin and Folsom Prison Blues were written in a first-person narrative that led many listeners to assume Mr. Cash himself had been to prison. He had not, though he spent a little time in jail on minor charges.\n\nA Boy Named Sue, a Shel Silverstein-penned song recorded that night, was the biggest hit from the At San Quentin album. It was a five-week No. 1 country hit and it won the Country Music Association's single of the year prize.\n\nJune 1969 brought At San Quentin's release, and it marked the beginning of ABC-TV's The Johnny Cash Show. Mr. Cash recorded most of the show's 56 episodes at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, and he insisted that guest performers would include then-controversial artists including Dylan, Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie. The atypical blend of country, rock, folk and jazz was intended to spotlight conjunctions, not collisions, and the program helped broaden Mr. Cash's fame among those who hadn't listened to country music.\n\nMr. Cash would sell more than 6 million records in 1969, making it the most successful year of his career. Vietnam was raging, Richard Nixon was president and Johnny Cash, a 37-year-old native of Kingsland, Ark., was bigger than The Beatles.\n\nChapter 4: A Fall\n\nBy the turn of the decade, Mr. Cash's music had become a meeting ground for formerly disconnected camps.\n\n\"I wondered how it was possible for a man to maintain constituencies in the widely separated countries of Bob Dylan and Billy Graham,\" wrote journalist Dorothy Gallagher, who profiled Mr. Cash during this period.\n\nMr. Cash's biggest 1970 hits were an indication of his expansive musical vision. He and Mrs. Cash made it to No. 2 on the Billboard country chart with folkie Tim Hardin's If I Were A Carpenter (for which the Cashes won a Grammy), and Mr. Cash scored a No. 3 hit with What Is Truth.\n\n\"This whole world's waking to a brand new day, and I solemnly swear it's gonna be their way,\" sang Mr. Cash. \"Can you blame the voice of youth for asking, 'What is truth?' \"\n\nHe released two No. 1 hits in 1970: One was a version of Kris Kristofferon's Sunday Morning Coming Down, an empathetic portrait of an addict. The other smash, which peaked in early 1971, was the folksy love song Flesh And Blood.\n\nOn March 3, 1970, Mrs. Cash gave birth to a boy, John Carter Cash. Six weeks later, Mr. Cash performed at the White House in front of President Nixon. While a Nixon aide told Mr. Cash that the president would like to hear him sing two right-wing country numbers - Guy Drake's Welfare Cadillac and Merle Haggard's Okie From Muskogee - the singer opted to sing gospel songs and some of his own material.\n\nMarch 1971 also marked the final taping of The Johnny Cash Show, which was canceled amid growing dissension between the star and ABC. Mr. Cash fought for more creative control and the network grew tired of fighting about a show that was not drawing enough viewers.\n\nHis Man In Black single, which found Mr. Cash claiming that he would wear his signature black stage outfits as a somber nod to the needy, hungry, imprisoned, addicted and enlisted, also charted top 5.\n\nBy the end of 1971, he and Mrs. Cash had traveled to Tel Aviv, Israel, to film The Gospel Road, a movie about the life of Jesus Christ.\n\nMr. Cash was now a filmmaker, a father, a husband, a songwriter, a touring attraction, a celebrity and many other things. His recording career was stretched thin by his other interests, and he would not notch another No. 1 hit until 1976.\n\nAs Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and others turned heads and ears with a vigorous sound that signaled the onset of so-called Outlaw Movement, Mr. Cash made a series of middle-of-the-road albums that seldom rated mention alongside '50s and '60s triumphs.\n\nThough not at his artistic peak, Mr. Cash was still Nashville's greatest superstar, an auditorium-packing concert draw, a sure-bet Country Music Hall of Famer (he would become the youngest-ever inductee in 1980) and a celebrity whose views on social issues were widely sought. The 1975 autobiography Man In Black detailed a rise to fame, numerous falls to drugs and an eventual acceptance of sobriety, marriage and godliness. The book furthered his already substantial fame.\n\n\"Since the late '60s, Cash's records have been rather strange - more the recorded evidence of a great artist floundering in confusion than the masterful products of Cash's own unique mold,\" wrote Country Music magazine's Patrick Carr.\n\n1976's One Piece At A Time was a welcome return to a stripped-down sound reminiscent of Mr. Cash's 1950s work. The song became Mr. Cash's final No. 1 country hit as a solo artist. After that, the only time Mr. Cash's voice appeared on a top-charting country radio single was in 1985, as a member of supergroup The Highwaymen, with Jennings, Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.\n\nDrugs maintained a pull on Mr. Cash. One early-1980s downturn occurred after one of his own ostriches attacked him. The Cashes kept an exotic animal park near their Old Hickory Lake home. Mr. Cash suffered five broken ribs, painkillers were prescribed and the cycle of addiction began again.\n\nMr. Cash would later surmise that some level of self-loathing was involved in all of the substance abuse. Even as fans and fellow musicians celebrated his accomplishments, even with unending devotion from his wife, he was unable to make peace with himself. In 1984, he entered the Betty Ford Center and was treated for addiction to morphine.\n\nThe lowest point in Mr. Cash's career may have come that same year when he failed to make the country Top 40 with an ill-conceived novelty song called Chicken in Black. In later interviews, he would call it \"an embarrassment.\"\n\nColumbia Records did not promote Mr. Cash's 1980s material with much fervor, though the company was quite good at selling the smart and sultry, cutting-edge recordings of his singing, songwriting daughter, Rosanne. Mr. Cash was proud and supportive, though he could not have failed to notice that not only was he no longer bigger than The Beatles, but he also was not even the top-charting Cash.\n\nColumbia Records released Mr. Cash from his contract in 1986, creating an uproar among Cash devotees such as young gun Dwight Yoakam. It seemed logical enough to Mr. Cash, who had been unhappy with Columbia's lack of promotion since his 1977 concept album, The Rambler. He also knew that he'd done some damage to his commercial viability with material like Chicken in Black.\n\nMr. Cash secured a deal with Mercury/Polygram and recorded some excellent material (Beans For Breakfast, Last of the Drifters and a version of Guy Clark's Let Him Roll), but with the dawn of the 1990s, he was considering an exodus from recording.\n\n\"Saying goodbye to that game and just working the road, playing with my friends and family for people who really wanted to hear us, seemed very much like the thing to do,\" he wrote in Cash.\n\nChapter 5: Rising Again\n\nIn 1992, Mr. Cash was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an honor that reminded many of his spare rockabilly work on Sun Records with independent-minded producer Sam Phillips.\n\nA year later, another independent-minded maverick - long-haired Rick Rubin, known for his work with rap and hard rock acts - would sign Mr. Cash to a record deal with American Recordings, setting into motion a rise back to contemporary viability.\n\nHere was the so-simple-it's-brilliant idea, as supported by the man who had produced the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy: Record Johnny Cash unadorned, strumming an acoustic guitar with his thumb and singing.\n\nEven before the world at large was able to hear the solo/acoustic album called American Recordings, Mr. Cash's credibility was rising. The association with Rubin quickly hoisted the Man in Black from creative quicksand, and his reinvigorated spirit caught on with young hipsters.\n\nThe Viper Room on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles provided a still talked-about \"coming back out\" party. There, Mr. Cash sang for a crowd packed with rock singers and movie stars.\n\n\"It was really a magical event,\" Rubin told writer Nick Tosches. \"It's odd to be in a place like the Viper Room, which is kind of a small but loud nightclub, and have it be so quiet. It's nothing that you could imagine happening, that kind of silence and awe in an audience in that particular kind of place.\"\n\nNoticing the age disparity between performer and audience at a 1994 Austin concert, Mr. Cash told the crowd, \"I hope you enjoy the show, grandchildren.\"\n\nIn April 1994, American Recordings was released. Two recordings from the Viper Room show were included. Response was nearly universally positive, with Time magazine's review proclaiming: \"He has reasserted himself as one of the greats of popular music.\"\n\nMr. Cash also was pleased, saying, \"I think I'm more proud of it than anything I've ever done in my life. This is me. Whatever I've got to offer as an artist, it's here.\"\n\nWhile American Recordings did not sell in astounding numbers, it did reawaken an interest in Mr. Cash's music and expand his audience. American Recordings made it to No. 23 on the country charts, making it the highest-charting of Mr. Cash's solo albums.\n\nThe album won a Grammy award for best contemporary folk album, and spawned a video for Delia's Gone that was played on MTV. After years of creative and commercial decline, Mr. Cash was cool again. Even as country radio ignored the revitalization, Mr. Cash regained a foothold in the rock 'n' roll world. He appeared on a show celebrating the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, recorded Willie Nelson's Time of the Preacher with a backing band that included members of Nirvana and Alice in Chains, and played a House of Blues set in Los Angeles with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.\n\nPetty and the Heartbreakers also were featured prominently on Mr. Cash's second Rubin-produced album, Unchained, released in November 1996. This album abandoned the all-acoustic approach, even using distorted, post-punk electric guitars for a cover of alternative rock band Soundgarden's Rusty Cage. But Rubin and Mr. Cash also included rockabilly songs, gospel material and a bracing take on Petty's ballad Southern Accents. Unchained garnered another round of positive reviews.\n\nMr. Cash was honored Dec. 8, as President Clinton and others applauded him upon receiving a Kennedy Center award. Vice President Al Gore had recommended Mr. Cash, assessing that Mr. Cash's music examined \"the entire range of existence, failure and recovery, entrapment and escape, weakness and strength, loss and redemption, life and death.\"\n\nKristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Robert Duvall and others joined Rosanne Cash in the televised Kennedy Center tribute, and Mr. Cash wiped tears during his daughter's performance. In Cash, he wrote that the attention was flattering but that there was a flip side.\n\n\"The day after the Kennedy Center show, I came further down to earth when my daughters got together with me and voiced some very deep feelings they'd had for a very long time - told me things, that is, about the lives of girls whose daddy abandoned them for a drug,\" he wrote. \"That was very hard.\"\n\nMr. Cash was quite correctly viewed in the public as a crusader for righteous things: for tolerance, spirituality and good music. But Rosanne's song My Old Man artfully rectified the heroic myth with the virtuous, honorable but blemished man:\n\n\"He believes what he says he believes,\" she sang. \"But that don't make him a saint.\"\n\nChapter 6: \"Sober, honest, defiant\"\n\nLess than a year after the Kennedy Center Honors, Mr. Cash leaned over during a concert in Flint, Mich., and nearly fell. He told the audience he was suffering from Parkinson's disease, at first drawing a laugh from a crowd that thought he was joking.\n\n\"It ain't funny,\" he said, according to a review in The Flint Journal. \"It's all right. I refuse to give it some ground in my life.\"\n\nThe diagnosis of Parkinson's, which causes slowed movement, rigidity and tremors, forced Mr. Cash to cancel concerts and book promotions through 1997.\n\nBy Nov. 5, the Parkinson's diagnosis had been slightly altered. Manager Lou Robin announced that Baptist Hospital tests revealed Mr. Cash had a Parkinson's-related illness called Shy-Drager syndrome. While at Baptist that month, he became gravely ill with double pneumonia. Fans and friends worried as Mr. Cash lay unconscious, breathing with the help of a ventilator.\n\nBut once again, he proved himself a survivor. Some had observed his reckless lifestyle in the 1960s and supposed he would drink and drug himself to death. Some watched his slow recovery from a late 1980s heart surgery and thought him not long for the world. And many thought the rare, ugly-sounding Shy-Drager syndrome would do him in. All were wrong.\n\nThe Grammy Awards of February 1998 found Mr. Cash once again victorious. Despite country radio's refusal to play material from Unchained, the album won a Grammy for best country album.\n\nEven as he reeled from illness, Mr. Cash's pugnacious spirit made waves along Music Row, as he sanctioned an advertisement in Billboard magazine that March. \"American Recordings and Johnny Cash would like to acknowledge the Nashville music industry and country radio for your support,\" read the text, while the page's dominant image was Jim Marshall's 1969 San Quentin photograph, with Mr. Cash raising his right hand's middle finger.\n\nAs spring rolled around, Mr. Cash began reappearing. He sang two songs at a private gathering in April, but waited until June for his return to a public stage. As Kristofferson performed Sunday Morning Coming Down during a Ryman Auditorium show, Mr. Cash walked out to join him. Kristofferson cried at the sight and sound of his old friend.\n\nA televised tribute concert in 1999 at Manhattan's Hammerstein Ballroom gave Mr. Cash a chance to once again sing and play his own songs. Musicians including Emmylou Harris, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow and Wyclef Jean performed Mr. Cash's material and lavished praise on the icon, then 67 years old, but Mr. Cash's appearance was the night's undisputed highlight.\n\n\"If he felt the effects of his lingering disease, he didn't show it,\" Jay Orr wrote in The Tennessean. \"Looking robust, his guitar slung behind him or held at a jaunty angle, Cash ambled confidently to the mike, began stroking his guitar strings up on the neck and launched into Folsom Prison Blues, with all the tics, head gestures and enthusiastic growls that characterized the performances of his prime.\"\n\nThrough much of 1999 and 2000, Mr. Cash was quietly compiling material for a third Rubin-produced album, this one to be titled American III: Solitary Man.\n\n\"I was very ill at the time,\" he later told The Tennessean. \"I went into the studio on and off for a solid year, and I was never pleased with any of my performances. But then I started getting better late last year, like November, and I started working really hard on this record.\"\n\nIn that October 2000 interview, Mr. Cash said that his health was improving and that the diagnosis of Shy-Drager had been erroneous.\n\n\"My doctor told me in November that if I'd had it, I'd be dead by now,'' he said. \"She said, 'You're getting better, so you don't have Shy Drager's. And you don't have Parkinson's.\"\n\nInstead doctors told Mr. Cash he had autonomic neuropathy, a group of symptoms caused by nerve damage. It is at times associated with diabetes, though Mr. Cash sometimes denied in interviews that he had diabetes.\n\nFriend and fellow country legend Merle Haggard appeared on American III, singing a duet with Mr. Cash. Haggard told The Tennessean, \"Johnny Cash and I are as close as two men can be,\" but he worried about Mr. Cash's condition:\n\n\"He's able to laugh and sing and joke, but he's in a lot of pain,\" Haggard said. \"He lives in pain and chooses between pain and pain pills. The only way he can enjoy life is to put up with the pain and not have any pills, so that's what he does.\"\n\nAmerican III was released Oct. 22, 2000, and it was the first recorded evidence that Mr. Cash's voice had changed significantly. His characteristic boom had been replaced with a raspier, more fragile instrument. If anything, tracks such as One and Field of Diamonds and were more tender and poignant than Mr. Cash could have previously summoned.\n\nThe Solitary Man track from American III earned Mr. Cash his 10th Grammy award, this one for best male country vocal performance, on Feb. 21, 2001. That day, Mr. Cash was released from the hospital after another bout with pneumonia. Trips to the hospital, usually for pneumonia or bronchitis, were becoming routine.\n\nWhile others noted Mr. Cash's 70th birthday in 2002 by singing his old songs (two tribute albums were released that year), the Man in Black chose to forge ahead with new recordings. He went back to work with Rubin, preparing for the album that would become American IV: The Man Comes Around.\n\nWhile the American albums were filled with worthwhile material, one thing Mr. Cash had not done in a long time was to pen a song that stood on equal footing with classics such as Big River or Flesh and Blood. He rectified that with his new album's title song, as listeners would find upon the album's Nov. 5, 2002, release.\n\n\"I worked harder and longer on that song than on anything I've ever written,\" Mr. Cash told The Tennessean.\n\nThough the title song's apocalyptic vision was a highlight of American IV: The Man Comes Around, it was a cover version of rocker Trent Reznor's Hurt that spurred the album to a place among the top five country albums on the Billboard chart. Mr. Cash said he recorded Hurt because it was \"the best anti-drug song I'd ever heard.\"\n\n\"The needle tears a hole,\" wrote Reznor. \"The old familiar sting/ Tried to kill it all away/ But I remember everything.\"\n\nDirector Mark Romanek worked on the award-winning video, combining clips of Mr. Cash as a young man with footage that depicted the aged superstar, and including shots of the closed-down, flood-damaged House of Cash museum in Hendersonville.\n\n\"The place was in such a state of dereliction,\" Romanek told MTV. \"That's when I got the idea that we could be extremely candid about the state of Johnny's health: as candid as Johnny has always been in his songs.\"\n\nAs video channels put Hurt into rotation, American IV sold more than 200,000 copies. His new version of Sun recording Give My Love to Rose won Mr. Cash his 11th Grammy: this one for best male country vocal.\n\nMr. Cash's influence on non-Nashville, non-country artists was underscored during a Ryman concert by British rock band Coldplay earlier this year.\n\n\"So many of our heroes have played here,\" said Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin. \"From Johnny Cash, all the way through to Johnny Cash, including Johnny Cash.\"\n\nOn May 15, 2003, Mr. Cash was faced with the loss of his wife, June Carter Cash.\n\n\"My dad has lost his greatest companion, his musical partner, his soul mate,\" said Rosanne Cash at the funeral. Mr. Cash sat in the front pew and was lifted to his feet at service's end. He leaned over his wife's casket, then was helped back to his chair and wheeled out of the church.\n\nBut in the following weeks, Mr. Cash returned to recording and addressed concerns about his health with stubborn wit, saying, \"I plan to outlive all my children. I'm not going anywhere.\"\n\nIn June, Mr. Cash appeared in Maces Springs, Va., at the venue known as the Carter Family Fold. He was hoarse and weak, but he sang several songs and spoke to the crowd:\n\n\"I don't know hardly what to say tonight about being up here without her. The pain is so severe there is no way of describing it.\"\n\nMusic was Mr. Cash's primary balm in attempting to quell that pain. He was often at his studio, working on tracks for an American V album with musicians including Marty Stuart and Jack Clement. Hospitalized at Baptist for the past three weeks with a stomach ailment, he was released Tuesday amid plans to fly to California next week for more recording dates. Late Thursday, he was rushed back to Baptist.\n\nWhere Are Your Mountains?\n\nIn the coming days, artists of all stripes will lavish words of praise upon Mr. Cash.\n\nHe will be remembered as a fallible man who sought honor and peace.\n\nHe will be remembered as a force of music and of personality.\n\nHe will be remembered by some as the greatest of all country music artists, and by others as the tall, wild howler who gave Hank Williams a run for his money.\n\nQuestions, too, will remain. What was the source of his inner turmoil, or of his expansive yet singular musical vision?\n\nHow could an artist who should by 1994 have been well past his prime find within himself an explosion of creativity?\n\nHow could a man constantly surrounded by friends and family embody such loneliness?\n\nAnd, as Mr. Cash once wrote of his friend Bob Dylan, \"So where are your mountains to match some men?\"", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/09/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/28/entertainment/what-we-know-taylor-hawkins-death-trnd/index.html", "title": "Taylor Hawkins: What we know about the death of Foo Fighters ...", "text": "(CNN) The death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins shook the music world this weekend, with fans and musicians everywhere reeling from the news of his passing at age 50.\n\nThe circumstances of Hawkins' death remain largely unclear, but here's what we know so far.\n\nHe had a 25-year career with Foo Fighters\n\nHawkins was playing drums for Alanis Morissette before joining Foo Fighters in 1997 -- three years after the group's founding by frontman Dave Grohl -- in time to join the band's tour after the release of \"The Colour and the Shape,\" per the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame\n\n\"At first, it took me a while to find my place, it really did,\" Hawkins told CNN's Anderson Cooper in a 2014 interview for \"60 Minutes,\" referencing Grohl's history as the drummer for the legendary grunge band Nirvana, which abruptly ceased with the death of Kurt Cobain in April 1994 . \"But (Grohl) never made it hard.\"\n\n\"When you have a drummer like Taylor Hawkins in your band, I don't necessarily miss being the drummer -- because I have the greatest drummer in the world,\" Grohl said, calling Hawkins \"a much more technically minded drummer than I am.\"\n\nFoo Fighters wasn't Hawkins' only project. He had released solo material under his own name and with Taylor Hawkins & the Coattail Riders, in which Hawkins sang lead and played drums. The band released three albums, most recently 2019's \"Get the Money.\"\n\nLast year, Hawkins teamed up with Dave Navarro and Chris Haney of Jane's Addiction to form supergroup NHC (Navarro, Hawkins, Chaney). They released their debut EP \"Intakes & Outtakes\" in February.\n\nDave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters perform during Day 3 of Lollapalooza Chile 2022 at Parque Bicentenario Cerrillos in Santiago.\n\nHe died while on tour in South America\n\nThere's still a lot we don't know about how Hawkins died, but news of his passing broke Friday just as Foo Fighters was set to perform in Bogotá, Colombia, at the Festival Estéreo Picnic.\n\n\"The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins. His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever,\" the band said on Twitter. \"Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.\"\n\nEmergency responders received a report Friday evening about a patient with chest pain at a hotel north of the city, according to a statement from Bogotá's secretary of health. An ambulance was sent to the scene. A private health provider had already been providing treatment, but efforts to resuscitate to Hawkins were unsuccessful, the statement said.\n\nRomeo Reyes, a concertgoer who traveled to Bogotá from El Salvador, told CNN the performance was canceled as fans gathered around 11 p.m. \"About 10 minutes later, the news broke that Taylor had died,\" Reyes said.\n\n\"We were all sad,\" Reyes said.\n\nThe band's performance in Colombia was supposed to be followed by another on Sunday in São Paulo, Brazil.\n\nFans react after learning of the death of Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins, at the Festival Estéreo Picnic in Bogotá.\n\nWhat a preliminary report by Colombia's AG says\n\nThe cause of death was not disclosed in a preliminary \"forensic medical study\" released Saturday by Colombia's Attorney General's Office , which said a urine toxicology test found 10 substances, including THC, tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids.\n\n\"The National Institute of Forensic Medicine continues the medical studies to achieve total clarification of the events that led to the death of Taylor Hawkins,\" the report said, and the attorney general's office will continue to investigate his cause of death in a \"timely manner.\"\n\nHow he's being remembered by legendary colleagues\n\nFuneral plans for Hawkins have not been released, but fans and colleagues the world over have been paying tribute to Hawkins in the days since his death -- including rock and roll legends like Roger Taylor, the drummer of Queen who Hawkins said had inspired him to get behind the drum set.\n\n\"He was a kind brilliant man and an inspirational mentor to my son Rufus and the best friend one could ever have,\" the Queen drummer wrote Saturday on Instagram, saying Hawkins' death was like \"losing a younger favourite brother.\"\n\nIn his own tribute, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page recalled playing with Foo Fighters in 2008 at Wembley Stadium, saying, \"It was so good to play with him. I really admired him and he was a brilliant musician: his technique, his energy and spirited enthusiasm.\"\n\n... and his fans\n\nThere are also tributes from everyday folks, fans who were touched by Hawkins and his music, like Franco Tolone, who tweeted footage of Hawkins singing Queen's \"Somebody to Love\" at his last performance on March 20 at Lollapalooza Argentina.\n\n\"Who would have thought that we were witnessing the last performance of Taylor Hawkins in his life ... A shock,\" Tolone wrote. \"Goodbye, beast of music.\"\n\nAnother fan is 9-year-old Emma Sofia, who met Hawkins just days before his death after she set up her drums outside the band's hotel in Paraguay.\n\n\"We will remember him for his charisma and the beautiful gesture he had with Emma,\" the family wrote on her Instagram. \"Taylor gave us something to believe in. He was, is and always will be an inspiration.\"", "authors": ["Dakin Andone"], "publish_date": "2022/03/28"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/06/22/jill-biden-and-brad-paisley-promote-covid-19-vaccines-nashville/5298142001/", "title": "Jill Biden promotes vaccines in Nashville, but few get the jab at pop ...", "text": "Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the name of the legendary musician referenced in statements by Brad Paisley. It was Charley Pride.\n\nAs first lady Jill Biden arrived in Nashville Tuesday on her latest stop in a vaccine advocacy tour, she was welcomed by state politicians, city officials, a country music superstar and a boisterous crowd of vaccinated fans. But the event was missing what it needed most – people getting vaccinated.\n\nIt appeared that only a few dozen vaccine recipients trickled through the pop-up vaccination clinic at the Ole Smoky Distillery south of Lower Broadway on Tuesday afternoon, and when Biden arrived at the event, only about 10 were there to greet her. Biden shook hands and thanked the small group, then leaned in close to comfort a teen at the moment she got her shot.\n\nIn some ways, the lack of recipients at the Tuesday event illustrates the exact problem the first lady hopes to solve. Vaccinations are stalling across the country, and the pace in Tennessee is among the slowest. Only 41% of Tennesseans have received at least one dose of a vaccine so far, the sixth-lowest percentage of all U.S. states, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.\n\n“This state still has a little bit of a way to go,” Biden said Tuesday, speaking to a crowd of supporters that gathered to welcome her at the distillery. “Only three in 10 Tennesseans are vaccinated.”\n\nThe crowd booed.\n\n“Well, you are booing yourselves.” Biden said, drawing laughs.\n\nTennessee Gov. Bill Lee:Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has no plans to offer incentives for receiving COVID-19 vaccine\n\nBiden administration's July 4 vaccination goal:Biden administration admits it won't reach July 4 vaccination goal; CDC studies explain vaccination slowdown: Latest COVID-19 updates\n\nTennessee is now reporting only 50,000 people getting their first dose of a vaccine per week – down 75% from a peak pace in early April. State leaders have done little to slow the descent. Gov. Bill Lee touts vaccination as a personal choice and has rejected calls for incentives that have proven effective in other states. Last week, some conservative state lawmakers proposed dissolving the Tennessee Department of Health merely because it encouraged teenagers to be vaccinated.\n\nDuring brief statements on Tuesday, Biden said she could not comprehend the swirling distrust and misinformation about vaccines. She repeatedly told the crowd the vaccines are safe, effective and free. They cheered in response, showing these were not the people who still needed to be convinced.\n\n“You know what the vaccines mean for your family and your friends and your neighbors,” Biden said. “You know they are saving lives. You know the vaccines are the only way to get back to the open mics and the music festivals and the concerts that make this town so very special.”\n\nBiden’s advocacy tour is part of the White House’s uphill battle against widespread vaccine mistrust that is deeply entangled in America’s political divide. Public polling and real-world data show Republicans are far less likely to be vaccinated, and many in these conservative circles cling to a partisan myth that President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected.\n\nFaced with this opposition, the Biden administration conceded Tuesday it is almost certain to fall short of a goal of administering at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to 70% of all Americans by July 4. Vaccinations lag the most in deep red states in the South and the West, including in Tennessee.\n\nBefore traveling to Tennessee, the first lady attended a similar vaccination event in Jackson, Mississippi – one of the few states with vaccination rates even lower than Tennessee. She then flew to the Nashville airport where she was met by Mayor John Cooper and his brother, U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, before traveling to a pop-up vaccination clinic at the Ole Smokey Distillery. The event, organized by Kroger Health and the nonprofit Made to Save, offered doses of Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.\n\nOnce at the distillery, Biden was met by country music superstar Brad Paisley, who has advocated for vaccination and denounced the politicization of the pandemic. Paisley toured the pop-up clinic at Biden’s side, then played a few songs and invoked the memory of Charley Pride, a legendary musician who died from the coronavirus last year.\n\nBrad Paisley:'There's no leap of faith': Why Brad Paisley is going to bat for COVID-19 vaccines\n\n“If I had a time machine, I would go back to November, I would give him that vaccine, and he would be here,” Paisley said.\n\n“Of course, we can’t do that,” he added. “All we have is the future. Let’s save whoever is next.”\n\nTennessean reporter Adam Friedman contributed to this story.\n\nBrett Kelman is the health care reporter for The Tennessean. He can be reached at 615-259-8287 or at brett.kelman@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter at @brettkelman.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/06/22"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/09/26/the-rolling-stones-no-filter-tour-without-drummer-charlie-watts/5880271001/", "title": "The Rolling Stones pay tribute to Charlie Watts on 'first-ever tour ...", "text": "Jim Salter\n\nThe Associated Press\n\nST. LOUIS — The Rolling Stones are touring again, this time without their heartbeat, or at least their backbeat.\n\nThe legendary rockers launched their pandemic-delayed \"No Filter\" tour Sunday at the Dome at America's Center in St. Louis without their drummer of nearly six decades. It was clear from the outset just how much the band members — and the fans — missed Charlie Watts, who died last month at age 80.\n\nExcept for a private show in Massachusetts last week, the St. Louis concert was their first since Watts' death.\n\nThe show opened with an empty stage and only a drumbeat, with photos of Watts flashing on the video board. After the second song, a rousing rendition of \"It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (But I Like It),\" Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood came to the front of the stage. Jagger and Richards clasped hands as they thanked fans for the outpouring of support and love for Watts.\n\nJagger acknowledged it was emotional seeing the photos of Watts.\n\n\"This is our first-ever tour we've ever done without him,\" Jagger said. \"We'll miss Charlie so much, on and off the stage.\"\n\nCharlie Watts was magic on the drums. These 5 Rolling Stones songs prove it.\n\nRolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts dies at 80: Playing the drums was all he ever wanted\n\nThe band then dedicated \"Tumbling Dice\" to Watts.\n\nThe tour had been scheduled for 2020 before the coronavirus virtually shut down the touring industry. Signs of the pandemic were everywhere at the show in Missouri, a state hit hard by the virus's delta variant.\n\nThe tens of thousands of fans wore masks as required by St. Louis' anti-virus protocol. The Stones themselves appeared in a public service announcement urging anyone with symptoms to stay home. A vaccination site was set up at the dome, with plans for similar sites at each tour stop.\n\nThe concert itself featured the same driving beat personified by Watts, thanks to his replacement, Steve Jordan. The drummer may be new to fans but he's hardly new to the Stones — Jordan has performed for years with Richards' side project, X-Pensive Winos, along with many other leading acts.\n\nStill, die-hard fans couldn't help but miss Watts, widely considered one of rock's greatest drummers, even though his real love was jazz. He joined Jagger and Richards in the Rolling Stones in 1963. Wood joined in 1975.\n\nCharlie Watts' best quotes on Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones: 'I don’t actually like touring'\n\nFor Laura Jezewski, 62, of Omaha, Nebraska, seeing the Stones without Watts was bittersweet.\n\n\"It's really sad,\" she said. \"He's the first of the old Stones to pass away.\"\n\nThe show featured the band's long litany of hits. Jagger hardly looked like a 78-year-old man, strutting around the stage like a man half — or one-third of his age; a constant whirl of motion. His vocals, and the guitar work of Wood and Richards, sounded as good as ever.\n\nAfter St. Louis, the tour will include stops in Charlotte, North Carolina; Pittsburgh; Nashville, Tennessee; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Tampa, Florida; Dallas; Atlanta; Detroit; and ending in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 20. The band also added new dates in Los Angeles on Oct. 14 and Oct. 17, and a concert in Las Vegas on Nov. 6.\n\nJezewski and her 60-year-old husband, Brad, brought their 30-year-old daughter, Sarah, to St. Louis for the concert. It was Sarah's first chance to see the Rolling Stones. Her mom and dad have seen them in various places — Ames, Iowa; Boulder, Colorado; Denver; even Wichita, Kansas — dating back to the 1970s.\n\nWith the surviving band members well into their 70s, the Jezewskis didn't want to miss this chance.\n\n\"If it is their last time — we're here,\" Brad Jezewski said. \"And if there's another tour, we'll be there, too.\"\n\n'One of the greatest': Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, more mourn Rolling Stones' Charlie Watts", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2021/09/26"}, {"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2017/12/22/history-behind-khalids-2017-rise-fame/962026001/", "title": "The history behind Khalid's 2017 rise to fame", "text": "In spring 2016, few El Pasoans knew a 17-year-old teenager by the name of Khalid Donnel Robinson.\n\nFast-forward to the final days of 2017, and the whole country, and a lot of people worldwide, have heard of the singer-songwriter, now simply known as Khalid.\n\nBut in those dwindling days of his senior year at Americas High, Khalid merely wanted to have a new song up on his Soundcloud page before prom. Soundcloud is a social media website and app used by artists and fans to share music.\n\nThe song he came up with was \"Location,\" and it was co-written by himself and a handful of producers and musicians in El Paso and Atlanta.\n\nA LOOK BACK:Khalid releases new video for 'Shot Down'\n\nKhalid debuts title track off 'American Teen'\n\nThe song would launch Khalid from an unknown military kid who moved to El Paso shortly before his senior year in high school, to a nationally known, acclaimed R&B and pop sensation with an MTV Award for Best New Artist and, count 'em, five Grammy Award nominations.\n\nThis is a look back at Khalid's time in El Paso, and his meteoric rise to fame, as told in various interviews with a few key players in the El Paso Times and other media outlets and through social media.\n\nThe players\n\nKhalid: The singer's debut single \"Location\" peaked at No. 8 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, No. 2 on the Hot R&B Songs chart and No. 16 on its Hot 100 singles chart; the song has sold the equivalent of 3 million copies nationally, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Khalid's debut album, \"American Teen,\" peaked at No. 4 on Billboard's albums chart and No. 1 on its R&B albums chart. He is nominated for five Grammy Awards including Best New Artist, Best R&B Song for \"Location\" and best Urban Contemporary Album. The 60th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony will be held Jan. 28 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Khalid spoke to the El Paso Times in a phone interview prior to his concert at Tricky Falls in February.\n\nMORE:Khalid finds his 'Location' in El Paso\n\nTunji Balogun, vice president of A&R, RCA Records: Balogun is a record company executive who has worked with a number of acclaimed hip-hop and R&B artists, including Bryson Tiller, SZA, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem and 50 Cent. Balogun discovered Khalid through Soundcloud. He spoke to the El Paso Times in a phone interview in January.\n\nKylie Jenner: Reality TV and social media star.\n\nKristopher Rivera, former El Paso Times reporter: Rivera attended a sold-out concert in Washington, D.C., during Khalid's first tour. This story contains excerpts from Rivera's review for the Times' entertainment blog, The Beat.\n\nDave Rocco, global head of artist marketing for Spotify: In March, Spotify sponsored a special surprise concert for Khalid's \"biggest fans\" at Americas High.\n\nPatricia Cuevas, principal at Americas High: Cuevas called Khalid one of \"her chiples,\" or spoiled students, while he was enrolled at Americas High.\n\nKhalid's family moves to El Paso, summer 2015\n\nKhalid: I didn’t feel like I had a home until I moved to El Paso. The love and the friendships I made were influential. El Paso is where I started. I don’t feel like I’d be making the music I’m making now if I hadn’t gone there. Everyone showed a lot of support at my high school. That’s what crafted my interest in recording. I always wanted to do music, record, but I never had the confidence to do it.\n\nRecord labels take notice, April 2016\n\nBalogun: I think the first song I heard was \"Stuck On U.\" A friend of mine sent it to me. I was struck by how mature the lyrics were. (Khalid) was only 17 at the time. He became an artist I was watching. I got more and more impressed with each release. He put up a Frank Ocean cover (“Lost”), then two more songs, “Coaster” and “Would You.” They kept getting better. I first reached out to him in April (2016).\n\nREAD: Khalid album signing Friday at FYE\n\nRecording 'Location,' spring 2016\n\nKhalid: It was my first time recording in Atlanta. I started the chorus in Atlanta. I was around different producers like Syk Sense (who produced the original beat for “Location”). I was inspired by the culture there and I was trying to find a sound. I went through a long studio session and I almost quit. Syk came to me and asked if I wanted to continue, and I was like, “Hell, yeah.” I took the chorus back to El Paso and recorded (the verses) at Beacon Hill (Recording Studios). I had friends, my mom, all these people around. And I wrote it all there. I took bits and pieces from drafts on Twitter and I put it in a song.\n\nKhalid uploads 'Location' to his Soundcloud page, spring 2016\n\nKhalid: I pushed to release “Location.” Senior prom was right around the corner. I was like, “Damn, I need to get a song out.\" ... I put it on Soundcloud like, “Let’s see what this does.”\n\nREAD:Khalid signs 'American Teen' CDs for El Paso fans\n\nBalogun: When he put out “Location,” it was like, “Oh, my god. This kid knows how to make a hit, in addition to being a talented vocalist and being ahead of his age.\" With “Location,” the stars aligned.\n\nKylie Jenner posts 'Location' on Snapchat, May 27, 2016\n\n@TheGreatKhalid on Twitter, May 27: I can’t believe Kylie Jenner is listening to my song ‘Location’ on her Snapchat story.\n\nKhalid graduates from Americas High, where he was elected Prom King and Most Likely to Go Platinum:\n\n@TheGreatKhalid on Twitter, May 28: I woke up from my high school graduation and @KylieJenner is listening to my song \"Location\" for the 2nd day in a row.\n\nKhalid readies debut album, 'American Teen,' August-December 2016\n\nBalogun: He had already built his own community around himself. ... We can see that there’s no reason to delay in putting out music, especially in 2017. He’s a millennial. He’s 18 years old. Kids his age don’t need (outside) validation to love an artist. They’ve bought in. He makes music very quickly and we had enough music to go ahead and make a (full-length) project. I felt it was important for him to take advantage of what he was writing about, which was his high school experience, being young, disillusioned and trying to find love. In reality, (the reason RCA put out his album so quickly) was him. He’s just that good. Why would we wait?\n\nMORE:'American Teen' by El Paso's Khalid No. 9 in US\n\nKhalid embarks on first national tour, January-February 2017\n\nKhalid: We sold out New York City, Los Angeles. A lot of shows are already sold out. It gives me the confidence and a sense of excitement for the next tour.\n\nBalogun: We were nervous at first to put him out on the road, but he’s stepped up to the challenge. He’s never done a lot of shows, maybe three or four before we signed him. But he grew up doing plays and choir. He’s been singing and performing all his short life. He really wanted this. He stepped up and really delivered. I can see the growth. He’s making it his own, like he did with songwriting and recording. He’s a natural.\n\nRivera: The night of Jan. 21, in the Adams Morgan strip (in Washington, D.C.), Khalid played to a sold-out crowd in a small intimate basement at Songbyrd. About a hundred fans lined up, while some scavenged for an extra ticket. ... At the end of the night, Khalid had a line of fans waiting to meet him. While meeting fans, Khalid was ecstatic to hear a song playing at the club by another upcoming El Paso artist, Evander Griiim.\n\nKhalid performs at a sold-out Tricky Falls in Downtown, Feb. 4\n\nKhalid: It’s really special. I’ve gotten a lot of requests to do it at a bigger venue. I want my first El Paso show to be super personal — as personal as you can get with 1,000-plus people. I feel like it’s going to be a growing experience for me. People are asking for a bigger venue, but I want it to be a growing experience for me. This is where I started and imagine what I’m going to do later on. At the same time, it’s for fans who were able to buy tickets early and supported me early. People bought tickets after the first tweet. It feels good when people genuinely support you; it’s very special. A lot of people might be upset (I didn’t perform at a bigger venue), but it’s not going to be my only El Paso show.\n\n'American Teen' released, March 3\n\n@TheGreatKhalid on Twitter, Jan. 31: March 3. My debut album. The day my life changes forever.\n\nBalogun: He wrote every song on this album and came up with all the concepts; he’s an original. He’s a once-every-20-years kind of artist; I really believe that. I’ve worked with a lot of artists, but no one this talented at 18 years old. His limit is whatever his dreams are. … I believe we have all the ingredients for a legendary artist.”\n\nKhalid performs 'Location' on 'The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,' March 15\n\n@TheGreatKhalid on Twitter, March 8: Guess who's performing on Jimmy Fallon next week!? I can't believe it. I'm so excited.\n\nREAD:Khalid to be musical guest on 'Fallon'\n\n@TheGreatKhalid on Twitter, March 15: Damn. I really performed on @Fallon Tonight. I can't believe it. It's only just the beginning.\n\nKhalid performs a surprise concert at Americas High, March 24\n\nKhalid: It's surreal. It's a moment of humility for me. I get to go back to my roots and look at a field that I saw in high school, walk around the halls. It keeps me level-headed.\n\nRocco: Khalid’s deep connection to El Paso made it the perfect place to celebrate the release of his debut album, \"American Teen,\" with his family, friends, fans and city that inspired him.\n\nREAD:Khalid surprises fans at Americas High School\n\nCuevas: He has this larger than life personality — always singing, dancing, singing. To see him grow up the way he has, I can't think of anyone more deserving. He's still humble and he still has his love for the 915, as he says on \"American Teen.\"\n\nLocation is certified platinum by the RIAA, May 22\n\n@TheGreatKhalid on Twitter: My first single Location went platinum, I can't believe it! Dreams are becoming a reality.\n\nKhalid wins MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist, Aug. 27\n\nKhalid: “I’ve got to thank the city of El Paso for standing behind me. This isn’t just for me — this is for the city,”\n\nMORE:Khalid named Best New Artist at MTV Video Music Awards\n\n@TheGreatKhalid on Twitter: Holy (expletive) I can't believe that I won! Thank you so much everyone for going so hard for me! This is the start of something great!\n\nKhalid announces that 'American Teen' has been certified platinum, Oct. 24\n\nMORE:Khalid's debut album and latest single go platinum; singer to tour next spring\n\n@TheGreatKhalid on Twitter: Earlier this year, I told myself that March 3rd was going to be the day to change my life. 7 months later, American Teen is Platinum. ... Thank you guys so much for everything man, this is so hard to process (because) none of this feels real! I'm so happy (right now)! Love you guys!\n\nKhalid is nominated for five Grammy Awards, Nov. 28\n\nREAD:Khalid named one of the most influential teens in 2017\n\n@TheGreatKhalid on Twitter: Woke up to find out that I’m nominated for 5 Grammys. I’m in shock. I’m so thankful man this is unbelievable.\n\nKhalid is interviewed by the New York Times about his Grammy nominations, Nov. 28\n\nKhalid: I woke up at like 5:30 in the morning in L.A. It was one of those anxious moments, like Christmas, where you wait to go see what’s under the tree. I was very excited, but it doesn’t feel all too real right now. Not long after seeing the nominations, I got a phone call from my mom congratulating me — that was very special. She was screaming on the phone, telling me how proud of me she was and how all my work paid off. And (saying) that she has to go find a dress for the award show.\n\nMORE:Khalid earns five Grammy nominations\n\nDave Acosta may be reached at 546-6138; dacosta@elpasotimes.com; @Chuy_Vuitton on Twitter.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2017/12/22"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_28", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/08/14/pa-grand-jury-report-catholic-clergy-sexual-abuse-names-details-catholic-dioceses/948937002/", "title": "Pa. priest abuse: List of 301 names, with details, from grand jury", "text": "On Aug. 14, Pennsylvania released a statewide grand jury report on what the state attorney general's office called an \"honest and comprehensive accounting of widespread sexual abuse by more than 300 priests.\"\n\nThe report, more than 800 pages long, lists the name of 301 priests and provides details into specific accusations. The investigation included six dioceses in the state - Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton.\n\nBelow are the names listed in the grand jury report, along with where clergy members served and details of allegations.\n\nDiocese of Allentown\n\nThomas J. Bender\n\nWhere served:\n\n5/1961-6/1962 : St. Joseph, Ashland, PA\n\n6/1962-6/1965: St. Joseph, Girardville, PA\n\n6/1965-6/1966: Holy Family, New Philadelphia, PA\n\n6/1965-6/1966 : Marian High School, Tamaqua, PA\n\n6/1966-6/1971 : Nativity High School, Pottsville, PA\n\n6/1966-1/1970 : St. Kiern, Heckscherville, PA\n\n1/1970-6/1970 : St. Mary, St. Clair, PA\n\n6/1970-6/1971 : St. John the Baptist, Pottsville, PA\n\n6/1971-10/1971: Bethlehem Catholic HS, Bethlehem, PA\n\n10/1971- 12/1972: St. Francis Orphanage, Orwigsburg, PA\n\n12/1972-2/1982 Our Lady of Good Counsel, Gordon, PA\n\n6/1973-2/1982: Diocese of Tribunal, Allentown, PA\n\n2/1982-6/1986 Most Blessed Sacrament, Bally\n\n6/1983-6/1987: Liturgical Commission, Diocese of Allentown\n\n6/1986-6/1987: St. Francis of Assisi, Allentown, PA\n\n6/1987- 7/1987: St. Anthony of Padua, Easton, PA\n\n6/1987- 7/1987: Northampton Deanery, Ministry to Aging\n\n7/1987: Regional Director, Council of Catholic Nurses\n\n7/24/1987: Leave of Absence\n\n3/01/2002: Retired\n\n5/06/2005: Dismissed from priesthood\n\nSummary: A review of information received from the Diocese of Allentown indicates that the church was aware of Father Thomas J. Bender's predatory behavior as early as 1972, when Bender was caught in a car with a male student from Nativity High School, where Bender was assigned.\n\nIn 1984, a known victim reported that Bender abused him in 1981, while the victim was in seventh grade. The victim reported that he was abused in Bender's bed, where oral and anal sex occured. Bender admitted to abusing the victim. He was sent to psychotherapy but again continued to serve as a priest.\n\nIn 1987, Bender was put on a leave of absence. He was eventually arrested, convicted and sentenced to probation. In 2006, while collecting retirement benefits from the church, Bender was arrested in Long Island, New York, while traveling to meet what he believed was a 14-year-old boy for sex. The \"boy\" was an undercover detective.\n\nThomas J. Benestad\n\nWhere he served:\n\n1970: St. Bernard, Easton, PA\n\nLafayete College Newman Center\n\nNotre Dame High School\n\n1973 St. Thomas More\n\n1978 Leave of Absence\n\nHoly Rosary\n\n1980 St. Bernard\n\n1988 Our Lady of Perpetual Help\n\nPapal Foundation\n\n2001 Sabbatical\n\n2002 St. Francis of Assisi\n\n2005 Notre Dame of Bethlehem\n\n2006 Leave of Absence\n\n6/2007 Resigned as Pastor\n\nLeave of Absence\n\n9/2007 Ascension, Boca Raton, FL\n\n6/2009 Retired- Pastor Emeritus, Notre Dame of Bethlehem\n\nSummary: Records including email exchanges between the victim and the Diocese of Allentown indicate that in 2001, a known victim reported to the Diocese that Benestad sexually abused him from 1981 through 1983.\n\nThe victim was 9 years old when the abuse began. Correspondence demonstrated that the Diocese reported the allegation to the Northampton County District Attorney's Office, which conducted an investigation and found the victim's allegations to be credible.\n\nRobert G. Cofenas\n\nWhere he served:\n\n1/1973 - 6/1979: Newman Center, Bethlehem, PA\n\n6/1973 - 6/1975: Assistant Superintendent, Secondary Education, Diocese of Allentown, PA\n\n6/1975 - 2/1979: Catholic Students Advisor, Newman Apostolate, Lehigh University, PA\n\n6/1975 - 2/1979: Catholic Students Advisor, Newman Apostolate, Moravian College, PA\n\n6/1975 - 2/1979: Guidance Counsellor, Norte Dame High School, Easton, PA\n\n6/1975 - 2/1979: Director, Newman Apostolate, Diocese of Allentown\n\n2/1979 - 7/1980: Assistant Superintendent of Education, Diocese of Allentown\n\n2/1979 - 7/1980: St. Simon and Jude, Bethlehem, PA\n\n7/1980 - 5/1981: St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland\n\n5/1981 - 6/1988: St. Ignatius Loyola, Sinking Spring, PA\n\n9/1981: Regional Director, American Catholic Overseas Aid Fund\n\n11/1983 - 11/1986: Council of Priests, Diocese of Allentown\n\n6/1988 - 9/1988: St. Ignatius Loyola, Sinking Spring, PA\n\n6/1988 - 10/1989: Diocesan Newspaper\n\n9/1988 - 10/1989: Our Lady of Help of Christians, Allentown, PA\n\n10/1989 - 8/1990: Sabbatical (The Servants of the Paraclete, Jemez Springs, New Mexico)\n\n8/1990 - 6/1997: Our Lady of Help of Christians, Allentown, PA\n\n2/24/1992: Special Advocate, Diocesan Tribunal\n\n6/1997 - 10/2000: St. Catharine of Siena, Reading, PA\n\n2/2000 - 3/2000: Sabbatical (St. John Vianney Treatment Facility, Downingtown)\n\n4/11/2000: Decree of Suspension\n\n2/11/2005: Dismissed from Priesthood\n\nSummary: Records received from the Diocese of Allentown indicate the church was aware of Father Robert G. Cofenas' sexual attraction to young males as early as 1979. While assigned to St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, Cofenas wrote a letter to Bishop McShea dated April 6, 1981. Cofenas wrote: \"Yes, I have failed again, but my problem is not so totally out of hand that I cannot with God's help and Dr. Zanni, work to master my situation. Incidentally, prior to now, I had experienced no failure in this matter since 1978.\"\n\nCofenas went on to write: \"I am deeply sorry for letting you down again. You can imagine how hard it is for me to write this letter-especially when you trusted me and released me to the Mount.\" Before ending the letter, Cofenas wrote, \"I know you want to protect me and I appreciate your concern for me, but I ask you to consider the possibility of my staying at the Mount.\"\n\nFrancis J. Fromholzer\n\nWhere he served:\n\n05/1958-09/1959: Holy Ghost, Bethlehem\n\n06/1959-06/1965: Allentown Central Catholic High School\n\n06/1962-09/1962: Holy Ghost (summer assignment)\n\n03/1963-06/1965: Mary, Queen of Peace, Pottsville\n\n06/1965-10/1970: St. Paul, Reading\n\n10/1970-08/1975: St. Mary, Hamburg\n\n08/1975-04/1980: St. Paul, Reading\n\n04/1980-07/1980: Sick leave\n\n07/1980-09/1980: Holy Family Manner, Bethlehem\n\n11/1982-06/1992: St. Paul, Allentown\n\n06/1992-06/1995: St. Peter, Coplay\n\n06/1995-09/2002: St. Paul, Allentown\n\n10/2002: Retired\n\nSummary: Fromholzer sexually abused at least two students while serving as a religion teacher at Allentown Central Catholic High School. On June 12, 2016, the victims testified under oath before the grand jury that they were sexually abused by Fromholzer in 1965 when they were approximately 13 or 14 years old.\n\nOne victim was a female, now 68 years old. She recalled that, during a trip to the Poconos in 1964, Fromholzer took her and at least one other girl for a ride in his car. The trip was unsupervised and Julianne' s family was comfortable with the trip since Fromholzer was a trusted priest. Fromholzer groped the girls as he encouraged them to take turns sitting next to him.\n\nJames Gaffney\n\nWhere he served:\n\n5/1985 - 6/1987: St. Ursula, Fountain Hill, PA\n\n6/1987 - 6/1991: Reading Central Catholic High School\n\n6/1987 - 1/1992: St. Catherine of Siena, Mt. Penn, PA\n\n1/1992 - 6/1992: Sick Leave (The Servants of the Paraclete, New Mexico)\n\n6/1992 - 1/1995: St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Easton, PA\n\n4/1994 - 1/1995: Sick Leave (The Servants of the Paraclete)\n\n1/1995 - 2/1995: Notre Dame of Bethlehem, Bethlehem, PA\n\n2/1995 - 6/1995: St. Mary of the Assumption, Coaldale, PA\n\n6/1995 - 6/1999: Assisted with six parishes in Shenandoah\n\n6/1999 - 4/2002: St. Patrick, Pottsville\n\n4/2002: Abandoned ministry\n\n6/26/2015: Dismissed from Priesthood\n\nSummary: Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Gaffney was reported to have been involved in inappropriate and even sexual relations with adult women, one of which had a learning disability and whom he was counseling.\n\nAnother victim reported that Gaffney was giving her counseling for depression and he took advantage of her. He eventually had her submit to intercourse with him.\n\nA third victim also came forward.\n\nJoseph Galko\n\nWhere he served:\n\n5/1980 - 6/1982: St. Paul, Reading, PA\n\n6/1982 - 1/1983: St. Anne, Bethlehem, PA\n\n1/1983 - 6/1986: St. Ambrose, Schuylkill Haven, PA\n\n6/1986 - 7/1987: St. Bernard, Easton, PA\n\n2/12/1988: Placed on Administrative leave\n\n6/2010: Dismissed from the Priesthood\n\nSummary: Father Joseph Galko was ordained and began work in the Diocese in 1980. Records received from the Diocese indicate that, as early as 1984, the Diocese was aware of inappropriate sexual conduct by Galko.\n\nGalko admitted to the Diocesan Chancellor in 1984 to having sexual contact with a male parishioner who was eighteen at the time. Galko also admitted that, while at St. Ambrose in Schuylkill Haven, Schuylkill County, he inappropriately touched a male while they were in the rectory. Galko performed oral sex on the male and had the male perform oral sex on him. Galko further admitted to \"occasional occurrences\" over a span of many years.\n\nEdward George Ganster\n\nWhere he served:\n\n4/13/1971 - 8/19/1975: Assistant Pastor, Notre Dame, Bethlehem, PA\n\n4/13/1971 - 2/4/1972: Associate Professor, Bethlehem Catholic High School, PA\n\n7/9/1973 - 10/10/1978: Regional Director, C.Y. 0., Bethlehem District\n\n8/19/1975 - 9/9/1976: Assistant, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Bethlehem, PA\n\n9/9/1976 - 10/10/1978: St. Joseph, Easton, PA\n\n10/10/1978 - 6/15/1981: Assistant, St. Ignatius Loyola, Sinking Spring, PA\n\n10/10/1978 - 6/15/1981: American Catholic Overseas Aid Fund\n\n6/15/1981 - 5/4/1982: Pastor, St. Joseph, Frackville, PA\n\n9/18/1981 - 4/2919/1986: Catholic Daughters of the Americas Court St. James\n\n10/08/1981 - 2/1/1982: Sick Leave\n\n2/1/1982 - 5/4/1982: Returned as Pastor, St. Joseph, Frackville, PA\n\n5/4/1982 - 9/7/1982: Sick Leave\n\n9/7/1982 - 1/18/1983: Assistant, St. Ambrose, Schuylkill Haven, PA\n\n10/01/1982 - 7/25/1983: Catholic Student Advisor, Penn State University Campus Ministry\n\n1/18/1983 - 4/29/1986: Pastor, SS. Peter and Paul, Tower City, PA\n\n1/13/1984: Member, Diocesan Building Committee\n\n2/10/1984 - 4/29/1986: Member, Budget Board, Cardinal Brennan High School\n\n4/29/1986 - 3/3/1988: Holy Ghost, Bethlehem, PA\n\n7/10/1986 - 6/13/1988: Regional Director, Pro -Life, Northampton Deanery, PA\n\n12/27/1987: Sick Leave\n\n8/8/1990: Laicized\n\n7/3/2014: Deceased\n\nSummary: A male reported that when he was when he was 14 years old and an altar boy at St. Joseph in Frackville, he was fondled and groped by Father Edward George Ganster. On one occasion, Ganster dragged the boy across a living room floor, pulling him by the underwear. Ganster also beat the victim repeatedly, once using a metal cross. The abuse at the hands of Ganster lasted for over one and a half years and all happened in St. Joseph's Rectory. The victim made a second report to the Diocese in March 2004.\n\nGanster eventually left the priesthood to get married, but there were other victims who came forward.\n\nThe Diocese later wrote Ganster a reference letter while he was seeking employment at Walt Disney World. With the positive reference from the diocese, Ganster was hired by Walt Disney World and worked there for 18 years.\n\nFrancis T. Gilespie\n\nWhere he served:\n\n5/1959 - 5/1963: St. Joseph's, Girardville, PA\n\n5/1963 - 10/1965: Nativity HS, Pottsville, PA\n\n6/1963 - 9/1963: St. Patrick's, Pottsville, PA (Asst. Pro Tem)\n\n6/1965 - 3/1969: Notre Dame of Bethlehem, Bethlehem, PA\n\n3/1966 - 5/1972: St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Easton, PA / Moravian College (student advisor)\n\n5/1972 - 11/1974: Our lady of Mount Carmel, Minersville, PA\n\n11/1974 - 9/1994: St. Joseph's, Girardville, PA\n\n9/1994 - 11/1996: St. Margaret, Reading, PA\n\n11/1996 - 12/2002: Annunciation of B.V.M., Catasauqua, PA\n\n12/13/2002: Retired\n\nSummary: In September 2002, a victim wrote a letter reporting sexual abuse by Father Francis T. Gillespie. The victim reported that, while he was an altar boy at about the age of ten at St. Joseph's in Girardville, Gillespie began grooming him for future abuse.\n\nThe victim reported that he stayed the night at Gillespie's residence on several occasions. The victim reported that Gillespie would drink alcohol during the sleepovers. The victim recalled an occasion when Gillespie gave him cold medication and in addition had him drink alcohol. The victim described this night as a \"blackout\" and \"confusing.\" The victim recalls waking up naked in bed with Gillespie who had his arm around the victim. In three separate documents regarding the victim, all provided by the Diocese, the victim reported that Gillespie performed oral sex on him.\n\nEdward R. Graff\n\nWhere he served:\n\n06/1955 - 04/1957: Annunciation B.V.M., Shenandoah\n\n04/1957 - 05/1958: St. Anthony of Padua, Easton\n\n05/1958 - 09/1958: St. Elizabeth's, Pen Argyl\n\n09/1958 - 09/1959: Pius X High School, Roseto\n\n09/1959 - 06/1962: Residence, St. Anthony, Easton\n\n06/1962 - 09/1963: University of Notre Dame\n\n09/1963 - 03/1964: Our Lady Help of Christians, Allentown\n\n03/1964 - 07/1964: St. Elizabeth, Pen Argyl\n\n07/1964 - 02/1965: Pius X High School, Roseto\n\n02/1965 - 11/1966: Holy Rosary, Reading;\n\nCentral Catholic High School, Reading\n\n11/1966- 08/1968: Holy Name High School, Reading\n\n08/1968- 10/1969: St. Margaret, Reading\n\n10/1969- 04/1971: St Peter, Coplay\n\n04/1971- 04/1974: Annunciation B.V.M., Catasauqua\n\n04/1974 - 11/1979: Director, Thanksgiving Clothing Drive\n\n11/1979 - 07/1980: Sick Leave\n\n07/1980 - 06/1983: St. Margaret, Reading\n\n06/1983 - 02/1992: Holy Guardian Angels, Reading\n\n02/1992: Departed Diocese of Allentown\n\n1992 - 2002: Served in various capacities in Dioceses in New Mexico and Texas\n\nSummary: During his years in ministry, Graff raped scores of children. The grand jury investigated not only Graff's conduct but the knowledge of the relevant Dioceses. The case of Graff is an example of dioceses that minimized the criminal conduct of one of their priests, while secretly noting the significant danger the priest posed to the public.\n\nThe grand jury notes that the use of euphemisms was constant throughout the Dioceses of Pennsylvania, but particularly apparent in the case of Graff. Terms such as \"sick leave\" or \"health leave\" were often used to reference an absence from ministry related to child sexual abuse.\n\nRichard J. Guiliani\n\nWhere he served:\n\n3/1968 - 5/1968: Assistant, St. Peter, Reading, PA\n\n5/1968 - 6/1969: Regional Director, Thanksgiving Clothing Drive, Berks Co.\n\n6/1969 - 9/1969: Assistant, St. Canicus, Mahanoy City, PA\n\n9/1969 - 6/1970: Assistant, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Bethlehem, PA\n\n6/1970 - 6/1970: Professor, Notre Dame High School, Easton, PA\n\n6/1970 - 6/1973: Resident, Sacred Heart, Miller Heights, PA\n\n6/1973 - 6/1974: Vice Principal, Notre Dame High School, Easton, PA\n\n6/1974 - 6/1974: Principal, Cardinal Brennan High School, Fount Springs\n\n6/1974 - 6/1974: Resident, St. Vincent de Paul, Girardville, PA.\n\n1977: Absent without leave from the Allentown Diocese\n\n2011: Last known address: St. Augustine, Florida\n\nSummary:\n\nIn October 2003, a victim wrote to Bishop Edward Cullen stating that she had been sexually abused by Father Richard Guiliani. The victim was abused from the ages of 14 to 18.\n\nGuiliani began with hugging and kissing the victim. He then began to fondle the victim's genitals through her clothing.\n\nThe victim recalled Guiliani telling her that he would protect her, that she could trust him, and that she should keep coming to him for help. Guiliani told the victim she deserved to be \"cared for and loved.\"\n\nThe victim recalled the last time she had contact with Guiliani was when she was a freshman in college. He wanted to have sex with the victim and asked her to marry him. The victim refused to have further sexual involvement with Guiliani and declined his marriage proposal. He never contacted her again.\n\nJoseph D. Hulko\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/1/1967 - 8/24/1970: Priest Professor, Reading Central Catholic High School\n\n6/1/1967 - 8/17/1970: Resident, SS Cyril and Methodius, Reading, PA\n\n7/9/1969: Advocate, Diocesan Tribunal\n\n7/6/1970 - 8/17/1970: Newman Center, Bethlehem, PA\n\n8/17/1970 - 8/24/1970: Resident, St. Catharine of Siena, Reading, PA\n\n8/24/1970 - 6/20/1977: Principal, Nativity High School, Pottsville, PA\n\n8/24/1970 - 6/18/1971: Resident, Mary Queen of Peace, Pottsville, PA\n\n6/18/1971 - 10/18/1971: Chaplain, St. Francis Orphanage, Orwigsburg, PA\n\n10/18/1971 - 6/20/1977: Resident, St. John the Baptist, Pottsville, PA\n\n6/20/1977 - 1/6/1978: Assistant, St. John the Baptist, Pottsville, PA\n\n1/6/1978 - 8/16/1982: Pastor, St. Michael, Lansford, PA\n\n6/20/1978 - 10/1/1982: Regional Director, Family Life Center, Berks, Carbon and East Schuylkill Counties, PA\n\n9/4/1981 - 2/15/1982: Sick Leave\n\n8/16/1982 - 6/20/1985: Sick Leave\n\n6/20/1985 - 6/16/1987: Assistant Pastor, St. Margaret, Reading, PA\n\n11/1/1986 - 11/1/1989: Assistant Pastor Representative, Council of Priests\n\n6/16/1987 - 9/27/1988:Assistant Pastor, St. John Baptist de LaSalle, Shillington, PA\n\n9/27/1988 - 6/14/1990: Assistant Pastor, St. Bernard, Easton, PA\n\n11/1/1989 - 10/31/1992: Pastor Representative, Council of Priests\n\n6/14/1990 - 9/2/1994:Assistant Professor, St. Joseph, Limeport, PA\n\n8/3/1992: Assistant Pastor Representative, Advisory Committee, Priestly Life and Ministry\n\n11/1/1992 - 10/31/1995: Assistant Pastor Representative, Council of Priests\n\n9/2/1994 - 1/01/1995: Assistant Pastor, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Bethlehem, PA\n\n1/1/1995 - 6/15/1995: Resident, Holy Family Villa,\n\n6/15/1995 - 6/13/2000: Assistant Pastor, St. Anthony of Padua, Easton, PA\n\n6/13/2000 - 8/31/2003:Assistant Pastor, Notre Dame of Bethlehem, Bethlehem, PA\n\n9/1/2003: Retired\n\nSummary: In September 2003, Father Joseph Hulko admitted to the Diocese that he sexually abused a minor female while he was the Chaplain at St. Francis Orphanage in Orwigsburg, between June 1971 and October 1971. Hulko expressed that he had been troubled by it for a number of years, which prompted him to admit the abuse.\n\nHulko described himself as a “sex addict.”\n\nPrior to Hulko admitting to the sexual abuse of a minor, he was sent for \"treatment\" six different times between 1982 and 2003.\n\nIn a memorandum dated January 15, 2015, a monsignor wrote to administrative personnel that Hulko had moved to Robertsville, Missouri, and \"please send his pension checks directly to him.\"\n\nJoseph H. Kean\n\nWhere he served:\n\n3/1964 - 8/1964: St. Joseph, Ashland, PA\n\n8/1964 - 6/1965: St. Mary, St. Clair, PA\n\n6/1965 - 11/1967: St. Paul, Allentown, PA\n\n1/1967 - 8/1970: St. Paul, Reading, PA\n\n8/1970 - 2/1971: Annunciation, Shenandoah, PA\n\n2/1971 - 12/1973: Marian HS, Tamaqua, PA\n\n2/1971 - 12/1973: Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Nesquehoning, PA\n\n6/1973 - 6/1975: St. Simon and Jude, Bethlehem, PA\n\n6/1975 - 1/1977: St. Jane, Easton, PA\n\n1/1977 - 1/1983: SS Peter and Paul, Tower City, PA\n\n1/1983 - 9/1987: SS Peter and Paul, Lehighton, PA\n\n9/1987 - 3/1993: St. Joseph, Ashland, PA\n\n2/1/2002: Retired\n\n6/26/2007: Dismissed from Priesthood\n\nSummary: On December 22, 1992, Reverend Francis J. Shuster wrote a letter to Bishop Thomas J. Welsh. Shuster related that he had been in contact with a parishioner who told him that her son was molested by Father Joseph H. Kean, then Pastor in Tower City. The sexual abuse was reported to have occurred when the victim was twelve years old and continued for several years.\n\nThomas J. Kerestus\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/11/1969 - 10/27/1969: Assistant, Annunciation B.V.M., Shenandoah, PA\n\n10/27/1969 - 1/6/1970: Regional Director, C.Y.O., Mid -Schuylkill County\n\n1/6/1970 - 8/24/1970: Area Chaplain, Appalachian Trail Scouting Council\n\n8/24/1970 - 6/18/1970: Regional Director, Bishop's Overseas Aid, East Schuylkill\n\nCounty, PA\n\n6/18/1970 - 7/8/1971: Assistant, St. Peter, Reading, PA\n\n7/8/1971 - 11/4/1974: Assistant, Our Lady of Hungary, Northampton, PA\n\n11/4/1974 - 9/9/1976: Regional Director, C.Y.O., Northampton County, PA\n\n9/9/1976 - 12/15/1977: Assistant, Sacred Heart, W. Reading, PA\n\n12/15/1977 - 2/25/1982: Assistant, St. Ambrose, Schuylkill Haven, PA; Regional Director, C.Y.O. West Schuylkill County, PA;\n\n2/25/1982 - 5/29/1986: Pastor, St. John Capistrano, Bethlehem, PA\n\n5/29/1986 - 6/19/1986: Leave of absence\n\n6/19/1986 - 6/14/1990: Assistant Pastor, Sacred Heart, Allentown, PA\n\n6/14/1990 - 7/27/1993: Chaplain, Sacred Heart Hospital, Allentown, PA\n\n7/27/1993 - 3/1/2002: Resident, Holy Family Villa\n\n3/1/2002 - 9/17/2014: Retired\n\nSummary: Records of the Diocese of Allentown revealed that parishioners of St. John Capistrano in Bethlehem wrote multiple letters to Bishop Welsh between March 1985 and April 1986 informing him of their concern about Father Thomas Kerestus' relationship with a 16 -year-old boy.\n\nAt least three victims came forward reporting sexual abuse by Kerestus.\n\nFrancis Joseph McNelis\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/1/1965 - 6/1/1966: Annunciation B.V.M., Shenandoah, PA\n\n6/1/1966 - 11/1/1966: St. Joseph, Girardville, PA\n\n11/1/1966 - 8/4/1967: Regional Director, C.Y.O., East Schuylkill County, PA\n\n8/4/1967 - 6/11/1969: Regional Director, Thanksgiving Clothing Drive, East Schuylkill County, PA\n\n6/11/1969 - 6/3/1970: St. Jerome, Tamaqua, PA\n\n6/3/1970 - 6/9/1970: St. Theresa, Hellertown, PA\n\n6/9/1970 - 9/25/1970: Regional Director, C.Y.O., Northampton County, PA\n\n9/25/1970 - 4/4/1972: St. John the Baptist, Shillington, PA\n\n4/4/1972 - 9/19/1972: St. Francis, Easton, PA\n\n9/19/1972 - 8/30/1974: Regional Director, Thanksgiving Clothing Drive, Northampton County, PA\n\n8/30/1974 - 6/17/1975: St. Ann, Emmaus, PA\n\n6/17/1975 - 6/16/1980: St. Mary, and St. Boniface, St. Clair, Schuylkill County, PA\n\n6/16/1980 - 6/20/1985: St. Mary, St. Clair, Schuylkill County, PA\n\n6/20/1985 - 6/4/1993: St. Mary, Hamburg, PA\n\n6/4/1993 - 1/14/1994: Sick Leave (Jemez Springs, New Mexico)\n\n1/14/1994 - 3/1/2002: St. Ignatius, Loyola, Sinking Spring, PA\n\n3/1/2002: Retired\n\nSummary: In December 1992, a known victim reported that, between 1966 and 1968, Father Francis McNelis sexually abused him when he was between the ages of 10 and 13. McNelis told the victim he wanted to have anal sex with him, but that did not occur.\n\nOther victims came forward and said McNeils forcibly performed oral sex on them.\n\nGabriel Patil\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/3/1974: Permission to exercise mission within Diocese\n\nSummary: Father Gabriel Patil, a priest of the Clerics Regular of St. Paul, known as the Barnabites, was given permission to exercise his ministry within the Diocese of Allentown. The Diocese provided no other assignment history.\n\nCorrespondence between the Diocese and the Barnabites shows that, in 2003, a victim reported to the Diocese that he and four of his friends were abused by Patil. The abuse occurred on the property of the Bethlehem Catholic High School during the late 1970's and early 1980's, when the victims were seven to nine years old.\n\nThe victim reported that he and the four other known victims were living near the high school at the time. Patil would invite the boys into his residence at the high school and play hide and seek with the boys. While playing hide and seek Patil would have the boys sit on his lap. He would open the boys' pants and fondle their genitals. It is important for you to note the following.\n\nThe reported noted that Father Patil is not a priest of the Diocese of Allentown. He is a member of the Barnabite Fathers religious order, not under the supervision of the Diocese of Allentown.\n\nPatil went on to serve as a priest in Buffalo, New York, Youngstown, Ohio, and then with a delegation in the country of India. In 2010, Patil requested that he be allowed to return to the Diocese and exercise his public ministry. The Diocese did not permit Patil to return.\n\nHenry Paul\n\nNo assignment history was noted.\n\nSummary: Father Henry Paul was ordained in 1941 as a religious priest from an Order known as the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. He worked in various positions in the Pennsylvania Dioceses of Erie, Philadelphia, and Allentown, the New York Dioceses of Buffalo and New York City, and Salesianum School in Wilmington, Delaware.\n\nAn individual reported that Paul took the little girls to the rectory and kissed them. One girl went home and told her mother that she knew how to \"French kiss.\" When the mother asked how the little girl knew that, she responded that Father Paul had showed her.\n\nThree or four other children reported that they had kissed Paul and, while they did not use the term, they described a French kiss. None of the children were over the age of 12.\n\nPaul G. Puza\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/1975 - 6/1976: St. Bernard, Easton, PA\n\n6/1975 - 6/1976: Lafayette college, Easton, PA\n\n6/1976 - 6/1977: Northampton County Regional Director of Vocations\n\n6/1976 - 6/1977: St. Anne, Bethlehem, PA\n\n6/1977 - 6/1978: Central Catholic High School, Reading, PA\n\n6/1977 - 6/1978: St. Joseph, Reading, PA\n\n6/1978 - 6/1981: St. Casimir, Shenandoah, PA\n\n6/1978 - 6/1981: Catholic Scouting, Schuylkill County, PA\n\n6/1981 - 11/1981: St. Anthony, Easton, PA\n\n11/1985 - 8/1983: St. Stanislaus Kostka, Minersville, PA\n\n8/1983 - 6/1989: St. Anthony of Padua, Cumbola\n\n8/1983 - 6/1989: Nativity B.V.M. High School, Pottsville, PA\n\n6/1989 - 2/2002: St. Richard, Barnesville, PA\n\n6/1989 - 3/2002: Marian High School, Tamaqua, PA\n\n2002: Resigned and ordered to refrain from public ministry\n\n6/2010: Dismissed from Priesthood\n\nSummary: On September 9, 1991, a former seminarian from the Diocese met with Bishop Welsh and told him that he was molested three times, involving oral sex, by Father Paul Puza when he was in the eighth grade.\n\nDennis A. Rigney\n\nWhere he served:\n\n5/21/1966-6/01/1966: Ordained in Cathedral of St. Cathedral of Siena, Allentown, PA. by Bishop McShea\n\n6/1/1966 - 6/1/1966: St. Peter, Reading, PA\n\n6/1/1966 - 3/27/1969: Secretary Tribunal, Diocese of Allentown\n\n3/27/1969 - 7/9/1969: Spanish Apostolate\n\n7/9/1969 - 7/9/1969: Diocesan Tribunal\n\n7/9/1969 - 11/1/1969: Regional Director, Spanish Apostolate, Berks County, PA\n\n11/1/1969 - 1/1/1970: Council of Priests -Diocesan Consultors\n\n1/1/1970 - 10/12/1971: Executive Dire. And Moderator, Social Action Bureau\n\n10/12/1971 - 6/14/1974: Council of Priests -Diocesan Consultors\n\n6/14/1974 - 6/14/1974: Executive Secretary and Coordinator Council of Social Services\n\n6/14/1974 - 6/14/1974: Director, Family Life Bureau\n\n6/14/1974 - 6/14/1974: Director, Catholic Charities & Catholic Social Agency\n\n6/14/1974 - 6/14/1974: St. Peter, Reading, PA\n\n6/14/1974 - 8/19/1975: Pastoral Council, Diocese of Allentown\n\n8/19/1975 - 9/26/1975: Our Lady Help of Christians, Allentown, PA\n\n9/26/1975 - 11/1/1975: Director of Marriage Encounter, Allentown, PA\n\n11/1/1975 - 8/1/1977: Council of Priests -Diocesan Consultors\n\n8/1/1977 - 11/1/1978: St. Paul, Allentown, PA\n\n11/1/1978 - 6/1/1981: Council of Priests -Diocesan Consultors\n\n6/1/1981 - 11/1/1981: Diocesan Consultor\n\n11/1/1981 - 1/26/1982: Council of Priests\n\n1/26/1982 - 9/26/1983: St. Vincent de Paul Society\n\n9/26/1983 - 9/26/1983: Holy Family Manor, Bethlehem, PA\n\n9/26/1983 - 11/15/1983: Holy Family Villa, Bethlehem, PA\n\n11/15/1983 - 11/15/1983: Diocesan director, Holy Family Health Care Agency, Schuylkill County, PA\n\n11/15/1983 - 1/1/1984: Diocesan Director; Project H.E.A.D.\n\n1/1/1984 - 12/31/1985: PCC Administrative Board\n\n6/16/1987 - 6/16/1987: St. Francis of Assisi, Allentown, PA\n\n6/16/1987 - 6/8/1995: Bethlehem Priest Director, Holy Family Manor, (President and CEO)\n\n6/8/1995 - 10/29/1997: Board of Directors Catholic Social Agency\n\n10/29/1997 - 12/3/2000: Board of Seton Manor, Inc.\n\n12/3/2000 - 5/1/2002: Board of Covenant Home Care, Inc.\n\nSummary: A parishioner claimed she was \"fondled in the area of the vagina \"when she was about 12 or 13\" by Rigney. On April 4, 1988, Rigney wrote a 23 page document to Welsh after allegations were made that Rigney \"stroked a female minor's vagina.\" The letter denied any inappropriate touching or actions and painted both the victim and her family as highly dysfunctional and not credible, trying to convince the bishop of the same. Rigney's letter was in response to a letter sent to the Allentown Diocese from a relative of the victim.\n\nOn April 9, 2002, a woman telephoned the Chancery stating she had been touched inappropriately by a priest when she was about age nine or 10. The touching occurred over a one-year period from 1966 to 1967. Later that year, Rigney requested early retirement citing medical reasons.\n\nJoseph A. Rock\n\nWhere he served:\n\n2/1972 - 9/1972: Sacred Heart of Jesus, Allentown, PA\n\n5/1972 - 5/1975: Catholic Scouting, Allentown Area\n\n6/1972 - 2/1975: Catholic Youth Organization, Lehigh County, PA\n\n9/1972 - 2/1975: St. Catherine of Siena, Allentown, PA\n\n2/1975 - 9/1976: St. Ignatius Loyola, Reading, PA\n\n3/1975 - 9/1976: Scouts, Hawk Mountain, Berks County, PA\n\n6/1975 - 9/1976: Catholic Youth Organization, Berks County, PA\n\n9/1976 - 8/1977: St. Simon and Jude, Bethlehem, PA\n\n9/1976 - 4/1982: Scouts, Minsi Trails Council, Lehigh County, PA\n\n9/1976 - 6/1982: Catholic Youth Organization, Bethlehem, PA\n\n8/1977 - 3/1982: Our Lady Help of Christians, Allentown, PA\n\n3/1982 - 2/1986: St. Francis de Sales, Mount Carbon, PA\n\n6/1983 - 2/1986: Catholic Scouting, Diocese of Allentown\n\n9/1983 - 9/1986: Social Action Bureau Advisory Board, West Schuylkill County\n\n6/1985 - 2/1986: Youth Ministry\n\n2/1986 - 9/1986: Sick Leave\n\n9/1986 - 10/2001: Holy Family Manor\n\n10/1999 - 10/2001: Retired\n\n5/2005: Dismissed from Priesthood\n\nSummary: In 1986, two reports were made to the Diocese of Allentown indicating sexual contact with three boys by Father Joseph Rock. One incident occurred in 1983 when the victim was nine years old. The victim stated that Rock touched him by fondling and masturbation. In addition, two brothers came forward claiming that, in the early 1980's while they were still minors, Rock sexually touched them through their clothes.\n\nIn February 1986, Rock was placed on \"sick leave.” He was sent to a Chancery for evaluation and the staff later reported back to the diocese, “He…is no longer capable of functioning in a responsible work situation, and his life is unmanageable.”\n\nSeveral other victim testimonies against Chancery were noted.\n\nGerald Royer\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/1947 - 1/1948: St. Bartholomew, Brockton\n\n1/1948 - 6/1948: St. Simon and Jude, Bethlehem\n\n6/1948 - 12/1948: St. Bartholomew, Brockton\n\n12/1948 - 6/1950: St. Catherine of Siena, Reading\n\n6/1950 - 5/1952: St. Joseph, Girardsville\n\n5/1952 - 1/1953: Annunciation, Shenandoah\n\n1/1953 - 3/1954: Chaplain, Convent of Divine Love\n\n3/1954 - 11/1955: St. Mary of the Assumption, Philadelphia\n\n11/1955 - 2/1956: Leave of Absence\n\n2/1956 - 5/1956: St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Easton\n\n5/1956 - 4/1960: St. Paul, Reading\n\n4/1960 - 7/1961: Leave of Absence\n\n7/1961 - 8/1964: Chaplain, St. Joseph's Manor\n\n8/1964 - 2/1965: Left active ministry (laicized)\n\nSummary: Held in the secret archives of the Diocese of Allentown was a folder titled by a victim's name. Inside the folder was information describing the sexual abuse of a minor that occurred in 1948. The abuser was Father Gerald Royer. At the time of the abuse in 1948, the Diocese of Allentown did not exist and the location was under the control of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.\n\nIn January 2003, the victim, then in his sixties, made a report of sexual abuse to the Diocese against Royer. Because Royer was under the authority of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia at the time of the sexual abuse, the Diocese referred this victim to Monsignor William Lynn, Vicar for Clergy of the Archdiocese.\n\nThe Diocese of Allentown began paying for counseling then referred the costs to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in June 2003.He was a fatherless, 12 -year -old boy. His mother was happy that a priest took interest in her son. Royer would kiss the victim and the kissing progressed to molestation. Royer would abuse the child behind the airport in Allentown, in his home, and in the rectory.The child told a friend who did not believe him. During one abuse, the friend hid in the closet and watched Royer molest the victim. The child who witnessed the abuse could not fathom what had just occurred.\n\nThe victim never told his wife why he could not hug or kiss his own children, who were boys. He was unable to be affectionate with his grandchildren. To this day, he cannot shake hands with men. He cannot be seen by male doctors or dentists.\n\nCharles J. Ruffenach\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/11/1930 - 6/8/1931: Holy Ghost, Bethlehem, PA\n\n608/1931 - 9/20/1934: St. Mary of the Assumption, Philadelphia, PA\n\n9/20/1934 - 7/2/1979: St. John the Baptist, Stiles\n\n7/02/1979 - 7/4/1980: St. John the Baptist, Stiles Holy Family Villa\n\n7/04/1980: Deceased\n\nSummary:\n\nOn August 29, 2001, an adult victim contacted the Diocese to report physical and sexual abuse at the hands of Father Charles Ruffenach beginning in approximately 1945, when the victim was in first grade, and continuing through the eighth grade.\n\nThe victim stated that Ruffenach beat, paddled, and sexually abused him when he attended St. John the Baptist school. The abuse took place on the premises of the parish, specifically in the boiler room. The victim also reported at the time of abuse Ruffenach referred to it as \"washing his penis.\" In the late 1980's, the victim confronted Ruffenach regarding the abuse. Ruffenach denied the allegations. However, during the confrontation, Ruffenach claimed that during the time of incident the victim wanted him to \"wash his penis.\"\n\nAt the time of the report by the victim, the 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\nJ. Pascal Sabas\n\nWhere he served:\n\n10/1955 - 10/1957: Vocation Director, New York\n\n10/1957 - 10/1958: House Discretus and Purser, New York\n\n10/1958 - 10/1960: Administrator, St. Vincent de Paul, Pittsburgh, PA\n\n10/1960 - 10/1962: Assistant, Sacred Heart, Yarmouth, Maine\n\n10/1962 - 5/21/1963: Assistant, St. Joseph, Portland, Maine\n\n5/21/1963 - 5/20/1964: Assistant, St. Francis of Assisi, Minersville, PA\n\n5/20/1964 - 9/1/1965: Assistant, St. Francis of Assisi, Allentown, PA\n\n9/1/1965 - 11/1/1966: Assistant, St. Patrick, Pottsville, PA\n\n11/1/1966 - 4/4/1967: Regional Director, Bishop's Relief Agency, West Schuylkill, PA\n\n4/4/1967 - 1/18/1971: Administrator, St. Vincent de Paul, Girardville, PA\n\n1/18/1971 - 8/1/1977: Pastor, St. Vincent de Paul, Girardville, PA\n\n8/1/1977 - 10/1/1977: Administrator, St. Ignatius Loyola, Sinking Spring, PA\n\n10/1/1977 - 3/4/1980: Pastor, St. Ignatius Loyola, Sinking Spring, PA\n\n3/4/1980 - 6/1/1983: Pro -Synodal Examiner\n\n6/1/1983 - 8/16/1983: Priest Representative Diocesan Board of Education, Berks County, PA\n\n8/16/1983 - 10/1/1985: Pastor, St. George, Shenandoah, PA\n\n10/1/1985 - 12/16/1986: Returning to Religious Life\n\n12/16/1986 - 3/19/1987: Assistant, St. Anthony, Easton, PA\n\n3/19/1987 - 6/14/1988: Chaplain, Catholic Daughters of the Americas\n\n6/14/1988 - 6/1989: Assistant Pastor, St. John the Baptist, Shillington, PA\n\n6/1989 - 11/1/1991: Sick Leave\n\n11/1/1991 - 1996: Retired\n\nSummary: At the age of 14, a boy was sexually abused by Father J. Pascal Sabas beginning in 1964. Sabas would come over to the house to play with toy cars, and then abuse the victim while they were alone in the basement. Sabas also abused the victim while in the corridor of his school and after the victim served Mass as an altar boy.\n\nSabas also threatened the victim, telling him, \"Don't tell your parents. They would be very hurt if they knew what you were doing.\"\n\nThe abuse only ended when Sabas was transferred out of the victim's parish.\n\nWilliam J. Shields\n\nWhere he served:\n\n5/29/1958 - 5/27/1960: Assistant, St. Ambrose, Schuylkill Haven, PA\n\n5/27/1960 - 2/23/1962: Assistant, St. John Baptist de la Salle, Shillington, PA\n\n2/23/1962 - 9/4/1962: Assistant, St. Mary, Hamburg, PA\n\n9/4/1962 - 10/30/1964: Assistant, Annunciation B.V.M., Shenandoah, PA\n\n10/30/1964 - 12/9/1966: Regional Director, Bishop's Relief, Upper Schuylkill County, PA\n\n12/9/1966 - 11/29/1967: Bishop's Relief Agency, East Schuylkill County, PA\n\n11/29/1967 - 8/30/1968: Assistant, St. Paul, Allentown, PA\n\n8/30/1968 - 3/27/1969: Assistant, St. Lawrence, Catasauqua, PA\n\n3/27/1969 - 3/8/1972: Administrator, St. Ann, Lansford, PA\n\n3/8/1972 - 1/11/1974: Assistant, St. Peter, Reading, PA\n\n1/11/1974 - 6/15/1995: Pastor, St. Nicholas, Weatherly, PA\n\n6/15/1995 - 8/28/2000: Pastor Emeritus, St. Nicholas, Weatherly, PA\n\nSummary: At the time of the abuse, the victim revered priests and the Catholic Church and \"did not know how to say no to a priest or nun.\" Shields asked the victim to sit in the television room of the rectory so Shields could give him a massage. He began by massaging the victim's shoulders and working his way down to the victim's waistline. Shields unbuttoned the victim's pants and began fondling the victim's genitals. Shields then made the victim stand up as Shields knelt in front of the victim and began removing the victim's pants and underwear. At this point, the victim stopped Shields. And as the victim was getting ready to leave, Shields told him, \"Let this be our little secret.\"\n\nThe victim went home and told his mother what had happened. The victim's mother advised him not to tell anyone of the incident and to stay away from Shields. The victim told a deacon in the Diocese, and Shields was transferred.\n\nStephen F. Shigo\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/20/1978 - 6/15/1981: Holy Guardian Angels, Hyde Park, PA\n\n6/15/1981 - 9/1/1981: St. Ambrose, Schuylkill Haven, PA\n\n9/1/1981 - 7/11/1983: Area Chaplain Catholic Scouting, West Schuylkill County, PA\n\n7/11/1983 - 8/31/1984: Regional Director, CYO West Schuylkill County, PA\n\n8/31/1984 - 12/4/1985: Regional Director, Youth Ministry, South Schuylkill County, PA\n\n12/4/1985 - 11/2/1991: Regional Director, Family Life Bureau, South Schuylkill County, PA\n\nSummary: The victim told the Diocese he was sexually abused by Shigo when he was an altar boy during eighth and ninth grades and at St. Ambrose church. The Diocese offered six months of counseling. However, records indicate the victim was participating in counseling at least through June 2016, for which the Diocese paid. Shigo died in 1991.\n\nDavid A. Soderlund\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/1965 - 12/1966: St. Peter, Coplay, PA\n\n12/1966 - 4/1971: Sacred Heart, West Reading, PA\n\n4/1971 - 6/1973: St. Catharine of Siena, Reading, PA\n\n4/1971 - 6/1974: Holy Name High School, Reading, PA\n\n6/1971 - 11/1971: St. Catharine of Siena, Reading, PA\n\n10/1971 - 11/1978: Adult Religious Education, Berks County, PA\n\n6/1973 - 1/1974: St. John the Baptist, Shillington, PA\n\n1/1974 - 11/1978: St. Benedict, Reading, PA\n\n6/1974 - 11/1978: Holy Name High School, Reading, PA\n\n11/1978 - 7/1980: St. Joseph, Summit Hill, PA\n\n7/1980 - 9/1980: Sick Leave (Villa St. John Vianney Hospital)\n\n9/1980 - 6/1981: Our Lady of Hungary, Northampton, PA\n\n6/1981: St. Catharine of Siena, Reading, PA\n\n10/1986-1/1989: Good Samaritan Hospital, Pottsville, PA\n\n2/1989: Administrative Leave (faculties withdrawn)\n\n5/2005: Dismissed from Priesthood\n\n2009: Arrested\n\nSummary: As early as August 5, 1961, while in Seminary, Father David Soderlund expressed a desire to work with children. In 1980, three separate complaints were made against him. The complaints asserted that Soderlund had engaged in sexual acts with three different children. The children were aged 12 to 13 years old. The Diocesan record, a \"summary of case\" relating to Soderlund, generalized the sexual conduct without referencing specific acts or crimes.\n\nOn June 11, 1980, a meeting was held at the Chancery during which photo albums were examined depicting nude photographs of a young boy engaged in sex acts with Soderlund. Soderlund admitted to Chancery officials that he engaged in sexual activity with the three young boys. While documents created at the time of the admission minimized the conduct, the facts became available through a detailed account of the abuse obtained from a victim in 1997 by the Diocese. The victim reported that: he was not a willing participant, but Soderlund threatened to harm or kill him.\n\nSoderlund also took pictures of the victim engaged in sexual acts and threatened to use them to embarrass him. Soderlund offered to leave the priesthood if the victim would go away with him. The victim then indicated that he knew of many other boys who were victimized by Soderlund.\n\nIn 2009, Soderlund, now living in Dubois, Wyoming, within the Diocese of Cheyenne was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to incarceration for two to five years for sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography on his computer. He is a registered sex offender in Wyoming.\n\nHenry E. Strassner\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/14/1947-9/2/1947:Assistant Pastor, St. Charles Borromeo, Cornwell Heights, PA\n\n9/2/1947-5/16/1961: Allentown Central Catholic High School, Professor (Res. Notre Dame, Bethlehem, 09/08/1954)\n\n5/16/1961 - 6/19/1962: Regional Director, Holy Name Society, Lehigh County, PA\n\n6/19/1962 - 5/21/1963: Assistant, Notre Dame, Bethlehem (Summer Assignment)\n\n5/21/1963 - 3/20/1964: Principal, Notre Dame High School, Green Pond, PA\n\n3/20/1964 - 12/16/1964: St. Michael, Easton, In Residence\n\n12/16/1964 - 11/9/1966: St. Bernard, Easton, In Residence\n\n11/9/1966 - 8/30/1968: Member, Council of Priests -Diocesan Consultors\n\n8/30/1968 - 11/27/1968: Administrator, St. Paul, Allentown, PA\n\n11/27/1968 - 10/6/1968: Member, Council of Priests -Diocesan Consultor\n\n10/6/1968 - 11/1/1969: Director, Family Life Bureau, Lehigh County, PA\n\n11/1/1969 - 11/1/1972: Member, Council of Priests -Diocesan Consultors\n\n11/1/1972 - 1/17/1974: Council of Priests -Diocesan Consultors, Ex Officio Member\n\n1/17/1974 - 12/1/1974: Pastor, St. Paul, Allentown\n\n12/1/1974 - 12/9/1983: Regional Director, Family Life Bureau, Lehigh County, PA\n\n12/9/1983 - 11/1/1984: Member, Diocesan Development and Endowment Committee\n\n11/1/1984 - 6/22/1988: Dean, Lehigh County Diocese of Allentown\n\n6/22/1988 - 8/1/1993: Member, Advisory Board, Allentown Central Catholic High School, PA\n\n8/1/1993 - 2/18/1994: Sick Leave\n\n2/18/1994 - 3/16/2000: Senior Priest/Assistant Pastor, St. Jerome, Tamaqua, PA\n\n3/16/2000 - 6/17/2003: Council of Priests Rep. Parochial Vicars\n\n6/17/2003 - 11/20/2009: Retired; Pastor Emeritus of St. Paul Church, Allentown, PA\n\nSummary: The victim reported that Father Henry Strassner kissed him four times on the lips, \"in the same way a woman would kiss,\" within the first hour and a half of a counseling session. Strassner, after being confronted and initially denying even knowing the victim, admitted to the conduct but claimed he \"did not intend anything sexual.\" Strassner claimed the victim \"was essentially parent less and I wanted to simply affirm his sense of self-worth.\"\n\nStrassner was sent to see a counselor who, after meeting with Strassner, advised the Diocese that there was \"a lot more going on here than Father Strassner has admitted.\"\n\nBruno M. Tucci\n\nWhere he served:\n\n4/1971 - 4/1972: St. Margaret, Reading, PA\n\n10/1971 - 4/1972: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Berks County, PA\n\n4/1972 - 6/1972: Cardinal Brennan High School, Fountain Spring, PA\n\n4/1972 - 6/1972: Annunciation, Shenandoah, PA\n\n6/1972 - 9/1972: St. Canicus, Mahanoy City, PA\n\n6/1972 - 6/1977: Marian High School, Tamaqua, PA\n\n9/1972 - 6/1974: St. Canicus, Mahanoy City, PA\n\n6/1974 - 2/1975: St. Peter and Paul, Lehighton, PA\n\n2/1975 - 6/1977: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Nesquehoning, PA\n\n6/1975 - 8/1975: Marian High School, Tamaqua, PA\n\n6/1977 - 6/1979: Holy Name High School, Reading, PA\n\n6/1977 - 9/1977: St, Columbkill, Boyertown, PA\n\n9/1977 - 6/1978: Most Blessed Sacrament, Bally, PA\n\n6/1978 - 4/1981: St. Peter, Reading, PA\n\n6/1979 - 4/1981: Central Catholic High School, Reading, PA\n\n4/1981 - 6/1986: Immaculate Conception, Kelayres, PA\n\n6/1986 - 3/2002: Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Immaculate Conception, Nesquehoning, PA\n\n3/1/2002: Retired\n\n2/9/2007: Dismissed from priesthood\n\nSummary: The Diocese of Allentown became aware of Father Bruno Tucci's abuse of children in 1991. A victim called the Chancery and stated he was sexually molested by Tucci when he was 14 years old. Tucci tickled him and put his hands down the back of the victim's pants. On another occasion, Tucci unbuttoned his pants and the victim's pants. Tucci pulled them both down and made skin to skin contact. Tucci normalized the conduct by tickling the victim in front of the victim's parents.\n\nWhen questioned, Tucci stated that the incidents occurred \"exactly as the victim reported.\" Tucci said it was \"just touching\" and clarified he had not engaged in \"sodomy.\"\n\nSimilar events took place in other parishes years later.\n\nIn March 2002, Tucci retired. His retirement came just weeks after the Boston Globe garnered national attention after publishing articles detailing child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Boston.\n\nGregory Uhrig\n\nWhere he served:\n\n1974: Secretary, Diocesan Tribunal; Assistant, St. Francis of Assisi, Allentown, PA\n\n8/30/1974-6/17/1975: Professor, Allentown Central Catholic High School, PA; Resident, St. Elizabeth, Whitehall, PA\n\n6/17/1975-9/29/1975: Resident and Assistant, Immaculate Conception, Allentown, PA\n\n9/29/1975-6/15/1976: Member, Liturgical Commission\n\n6/15/1976-10/4/1976: Secretary, Diocesan Tribunal\n\n10/4/1976-6/20/1976: Defender of the Bond, Diocesan Tribunal\n\n6/20/1976 - 6/20/1978: Professor, Reading Central High School, PA; Resident, Holy Rosary, Reading, PA\n\n6/20/1978-6/16/1980: Assistant, St. Anthony, Easton, PA\n\n6/16/1980-10/1/1981: Coordinator, CCD Adult Regular Education, Northampton, PA\n\n10/1/1981-2/25/1982: Regional Director, Family Life Bureau, Northampton, PA\n\n2/25/1982-6/20/1983: Assistant Pastor, St. Ursula, Fountain Hill, Bethlehem, PA\n\n6/20/1983-12/8/1985: Assistant Pastor, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Bernardsville, PA\n\n12/8/1985-6/19/1986: Assistant, St. Francis Cathedral, Metuchen, New Jersey\n\n6/19/1986-12/1/1986: Resident, Holy Trinity, Egypt; Chaplain, Muhlenberg/Cedar Crest Colleges\n\n10/1/1986 - 6/14/1988: Resident, St. Thomas More, Allentown, PA\n\n6/14/1988 - 6/15/1989: Assistant Pastor, St. Thomas More, Allentown, PA\n\n6/15/1989 - 9/6/1989: Pastor, John the Baptist, Whitehall, PA\n\n9/6/1989 - 7/15/1993: Regional Director, CCD Lehigh County, PA\n\n7/15/1993 - 1/19/1995: Assigned to ministry in New Jersey\n\n1/19/1995: Excardinated from Diocese of Allentown; Diocese of Metuchen\n\n10/2010: Placed on leave due to allegations stemming from incidents in 1978-1980\n\nSummary: The Diocese of Allentown became aware of Father A. Gregory Uhrig's sexual abuse of children by 2010. On May 5, 2010, a 44-year-old female victim made a complaint to the Diocese of sexual abuse at the hands of Uhrig when she was 13 years old and attended the seventh grade at St. Anthony school in Easton.\n\nIn 1995, Uhrig left the Diocese and was incardinated to the Diocese of Metuchen in New Jersey. Following a report to that Diocese, he was placed on leave. The Diocese appears to have reported the complaint to local law enforcement upon receipt of the complaint. However, no prosecution was initiated because the statute of limitations had expired.\n\nAndrew Aloysius Ulincy\n\nWhere we served:\n\n6/1/1966 - 9/2/1967: Professor, Marian High School, Hometown, PA\n\n6/1/1966 - 3/27/1969: Resident, St. Joseph, Jim Thorpe, PA\n\n11/1/1966 - 3/27/1969: Regional Director of Vocations, Carbon County, PA\n\n12/9/1966 - 11/1/1970: Secretary, Committee on Ecumenism\n\n3/27/1969 - 10/30/1979: Pastor, St. Mary, Mahanoy City, PA\n\n11/1/1970: Member, Committee on Ecumenism\n\n12/1/1974 - 10/30/1979: Regional Director, Family Life Bureau, E. Schuylkill, PA\n\n10/30/1979 - 12/1/1981: Pastor, St. Simon and Jude, Bethlehem, PA\n\n3/4/1980 - 12/1/1981: Parish Priest Consultor\n\n12/1/1981 - 2/15/1982: Sick leave\n\n2/15/1982 - 5/4/1982: Assistant Pastor, St. Michael, Lansford, PA\n\n5/4/1982 - 1/3/1995: Pastor, St. Joseph, Frackville, PA\n\n12/21/1992 - 12/21/1995: Advisory Board Member, Cardinal Brennan High School\n\n1/3/1995 - 8/21/1996: Assistant Pastor, Holy Rosary, Reading, PA\n\n8/21/1996 - 6/5/1997: Administrator Pro Tempore, Immaculate Conception, Birdsboro, PA\n\n6/5/1997 - 9/11/1997: Administrator, St. Paul, Reading, PA\n\n9/11/1997 - 9/21/2010: Pastor Pro Tempore, St. Paul, Reading, PA\n\n8/28/2001 - 9/21/2010: Spiritual Director, Holy Name Society for Berks Deanery\n\n12/1/2009 - 9/21/2010: Pastors of Berks Deanery, Council of Priests, Representative\n\n3/1/2011: Retired\n\nSummary: The Diocese of Allentown became aware of Father Andrew Ulincy's sexual abuse of children in 1981. On November 16, 1981, a 17 -year-old victim reported to the Bethlehem Police that Ulincy had sexually propositioned him. Ulincy was contacted by the police and admitted that the victim's complaint was true. There is no evidence that the solicitation resulted in any criminal charges.\n\nRonald Yarrosh\n\nWhere he served:\n\n11/1974 - 12/1975: Assistant Promotion Director P.I.M.E. (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions), Detroit, MI\n\n2/1976- 6/1976: Language Student, P.I.M.E., Rome, Italy\n\n8/1976- 11/1976: Missionary, P.I.M.E., Hong Kong\n\n2/1977- 11/1981: Mission Appeal, P.I.M.E., Detroit, MI\n\n2/1982- 6/1982: Assistant Pastor, St. Anthony, Easton, PA\n\n6/1982- 10/1985: Assistant Pastor, Holy Rosary, Reading, PA\n\n6/1986- 6/1988: Assistant Pastor, St. Patrick, Pottsville, PA\n\n6/1988- 11/1991: Assistant Pastor, St. Francis of Assisi, Allentown, PA\n\n5/1990: Incardination into the Diocese of Allentown\n\n11/1991-6/1996: Assistant Pastor, St. Anne, Bethlehem, PA\n\n6/1996-6/1998: Assistant Pastor, St. Margaret, Reading, PA\n\n6/1996-6/1997: Campus Minister, Albright College, Reading, PA\n\n6/1997-7/1997: Assistant Pastor Pro Tempore, St. Peter, Reading, PA\n\n6/1998-6/1999: Assistant Pastor, St. Jane Frances de Chantel, Easton, PA\n\n6/1999-6/2001: Pastor, Holy Family, Sacred Heart Churches,\n\nNew Philadelphia, PA\n\n6/1999-6/2001: Pastor, St. Anthony, Cumbola,\n\n6/2001-6/2003: Assistant Pastor, St. Bernard, Easton, PA\n\n6/2003-4/2004: Assistant Pastor, St. Ambrose, Schuylkill Haven, PA\n\nSummary: On April 22, 2004, Pennsylvania State Police searched the rooms of Father Ronald Yarrosh and found a \"tremendous amount\" of child pornography. On April 29, 2004, Yarrosh was removed from priestly ministry and entered St. John Vianney Hospital for evaluation and treatment. 2004, the Pennsylvania State Police filed charges against Yarrosh, specifically, 110 counts of sexual abuse of children after discovering hundreds of child pornography photos, books, magazines, videos, and DVD's in his possession. As law enforcement began its prosecution, Diocesan Support Services conducted an audit and determined that Yarrosh embezzled approximately $23,000.00 from the parish.\n\nCharges were filed related to this theft. On April 27, 2005, Yarrosh entered a plea of guilty to charges of theft and possession of child pornography. Yarrosh was sentenced pursuant to a negotiated plea agreement to imprisonment for three to 23 months, $250.00 in fines, and restitution to the parish.\n\nOn July 21, 2005, Yarrosh left St. Francis Villa and moved into a motel. Yarrosh continued in residence at the motel until August 8, 2005, at which time he was incarcerated in Schuylkill County Prison in Pottsville. Upon his release on November 31, 2005,\n\nYarrosh registered with the Pennsylvania State Police as a sexual offender. Upon his release from prison, Yarrosh was still a priest. On December 6, 2005, Yarrosh was released from prison as a convicted and registered sex offender. The Diocese granted him residence at St. Francis Villa in Orwigsburg. The Diocese's own designation of Yarrosh noted he was a \"moderate to high risk to again use pornography and/or consort with prostitutes.\"\n\nIn November 2006, it was discovered that Father Yarrosh had taken trips to New York City with a seven-year-old child. Yarrosh was also found to be in possession of pornography in violation of his court supervision. The Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas subsequently sentenced Yarrosh to four to ten years in state prison for violating the terms of his supervision.\n\nFinally, in June 2007, the Diocese dismissed Yarrosh from the priesthood.\n\nJoseph A. Zmijewski\n\nWhere he served:\n\n8/18/1938 - 7/8/1942: Assistant, St. Ladislaus, Philadelphia, PA\n\n7/8/1942 - 5/8/1961: Chaplain, Bernardine Sisters, Reading, PA\n\n5/8/1961 - 10/27/1961: Defender of the Bond\n\n10/27/1961 - 1/27/1964: Administrator Pro Tempore, St. Mary's, Reading, PA\n\n1/27/1964 - 8/4/1967: Member, Diocesan Liturgical Commission\n\n8/4/1967: Promoter of Justice, The Tribunal\n\nSummary: On October 26, 2004, an adult woman reported to the Diocese of Allentown that she was a victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of a Diocesan priest. While in the ninth grade, the victim met Father Joseph A. Zmijewski. She was in a new school and was experiencing unhappiness. The victim began regular counseling sessions with Zmijewski.\n\nZmijewski proposed a course of alternative treatment. He directed the victim to come to his personal residence where he could help the victim through hypnosis. The victim complied and attended four hypnosis sessions with Zmijewski at his residence. After the first three attempts were unsuccessful by Zmijewski to hypnotize her, she agreed to a fourth session. In an effort to expedite her \"treatment,\" she faked hypnosis during her fourth session. While she pretended to be hypnotized, Zmijewski instructed her to take off one piece of clothing after another. The victim was scared and complied until she was nude. Zmijewski then left the room for a short period of time and upon his return, he instructed the victim to get dressed. The victim never returned for any further \"treatment\" and kept the incident to herself into adulthood.\n\nDavid Connell, Timothy Johnson, and Jim Gross\n\nNo further details of their employment history were listed.\n\nSummary: David Connell and Timothy Johnson were Carmelite priests and Jim Gross was a lay person. in September 2007, a known victim reported he had been sexually abused by Gross, a basketball coach at St. Patrick's in Pottsville. He reported that the abuse began in the 1970's while he was in sixth grade. In the summer of 1984, Gross resigned from teaching at St. Francis School in Minersville, Schuylkill County.\n\nIn the narrative of his last evaluation from June 1984, the victim also reported that he was sexually abused by a Carmelite priest named Father David Connell and physically abused by a Carmelite brother named Timothy Johnson while attending Nativity High School. The abuse was reported to the Provincial of the Carmelites, Father Michael Kissane, in October 2007. The victim stated that his family's house had burned down and the Carmelites took him and his brother in and had them live in a priory. During the time he was living in the priory, the victim was sexually abused by Connell. The victim remembered drinking juice that Connell gave him and the next memory the victim had was waking up in his own bed naked, with Connell in the room. The victim had no memory of the prior evening but, on waking, he was bleeding from his rectum.\n\nThe victim told Johnson he was going to also report the abuse to the police. Johnson told the victim not to report the abuse to the police but the victim insisted on reporting. At this point Johnson began to severely beat the victim with a big leather belt and told the victim that, if he reported the abuse to the police, he would beat him even worse.\n\nMichael S. Lawrence\n\nWhere he served:\n\n06/1973 - 06/1974: St. Catharine of Siena, Reading\n\n06/1974 - 11/1974: Notre Dame High School, Easton;\n\nSacred Heart, Miller Heights\n\n11/1974 - 12/1974: Coordinator of Adult Religious Education, North Hampton\n\n12/1974 - 06/1975: St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Easton\n\n06/1975 - 12/1975: St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Easton\n\n12/1975 - 06/1977: St. Anne, Bethlehem\n\n06/1977 - 06/1978: Central Catholic High School, Allentown; St. Lawrence, Catasauqua\n\n06/1978-08/1978: Diocesan Tribunal\n\n08/1978- 03/1980: Holy Trinity, Whitehall\n\n03/1980- 11/1982: St. Catharine of Siena, Reading\n\n11/1982-03/1984: St. Anthony, Easton\n\n03/1984-06/1984: Notre Dame High School, Easton;\n\nSt. Anthony, Easton\n\n06/1984 - 08/1984: St. Joseph, Easton; Notre Dame High School, Easton\n\n08/1984 - 01/1987: Immaculate Conception, Jim Thorpe\n\n01/1987 - 06/1987: Sick Leave\n\n06/1987 - 03/1994:St. Paul, Allentown; Diocesan Tribunal;\n\nMinistry to the Aging\n\n03/1994 - 06/1998: Diocesan Tribunal\n\n06/1998 - 01/2000: Catholic University of America; Divine Word College\n\n01/2000 - 03/2002: Courage\n\n03/2002 - 04/2015: Retired\n\nSummary: Suspicions of Lawrence's pedophilic behavior were brought to the attention of the Church as early as 1970 while Lawrence was attending St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. A student evaluation found within the records of the Diocese and obtained by the grand jury indicate that Lawrence was \"a mysterious type who craves the attention of younger students\" and that Lawrence showed \"a little too much interest in younger students.\" Regardless of these observations, in 1981, Bishop Joseph McShea wished Lawrence well.\n\nThe father of the victim reported details of the incident. The victim told his father that he ha been in Lawrence's room for a tutoring session. At the end of the session, the talk between Lawrence and the victim turned to sex. Lawrence then began to touch his genitals, had the victim take down his pants, and began to fondle the victim's genitals. The victim's father reported that his son had told him there had been \"a lot of fondling, so much that he felt pain.\" Additionally, Lawrence made the victim urinate.\n\nWilliam E. Jones\n\nWhere he served:\n\n5/27/1960 - 3/12/1963: Annunciation B.V.M., Shenandoah, PA\n\n3/12/1963 - 3/26/1968: St. Ambrose, Schuylkill Haven, PA\n\n3/26/1968 - 12/119/69: St. Francis of Assisi, Allentown, PA\n\n12/1/1969 - 8/24/1970: St. Jane Frances, Easton, PA\n\n8/24/1970 - 4/4/1972: Notre Dame High School, Easton, PA\n\n4/4/1972 - 6/20/1972: St. Jane Frances, Easton, PA;\n\nNotre Dame High School, Easton, PA\n\n6/20/1972 - 6/11/1973: St. Jane Frances, Easton, PA\n\n6/11/1973 - 6/14/1974: St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Easton, PA\n\n6/14/1974 - 6/17/1975: St. Mary, St. Clair, PA\n\n6/17/1975 - 7/1/1978: Nativity B.V.M. High School, Pottsville, PA\n\n7/1/1978 - 11/7/1978: St. Joseph, Summit Hill, PA\n\n11/7/1978 - 3/10/1981: St. Vincent de Paul, Minersville, PA\n\n3/1019/81 - 11/7/1983: Representative, Diocesan Board of Education, West Schuylkill County, PA\n\n11/7/1983 - 5/24/1984: St. Patrick's, Pottsville, PA\n\n5/24/1984 - 11/1/1984: South Schuylkill Deanery, Council of Priests, PA\n\n11/1/1984 - 3/13/1985: South Schuylkill Deanery, PA\n\n3/13/1985 - 8/20/1991: Budget Board Nativity B.V.M. High School\n\n8/20/1991 - 11/1/1993: Honorary Prelate of His Holiness, John Paul II\n\n11/1/1993 - 11/26/1996: South Schuylkill Deanery\n\n11/26/1996 - 5/3/1996: Dean of South Schuylkill Deanery (post was held until 11/26/99 in conjunction with the following duties/dates)\n\n5/03/1996 - 10/29/1997: Diocesan Negotiating Team\n\n10/29/1997 - 4/04/1998: Board of Seton Manor, Inc.\n\n4/4/1998 - 3/25/1999: Nativity B.V.M. High School Budget/Audit Board. (held until 09/2001)\n\n3/25/1999 - 10/1/1999: South Schuylkill Deanery, Diocesan Negotiating Team\n\n10/1/1999 - 2/1/2000: President of the Catholic Housing Corporation, Queen of Peace Apartments, Pottsville, PA\n\n2/1/2000 - 9/20/2000: Vicar Forane of South Schuylkill Deanery (held until 1/31/03)\n\n9/20/2000 - 4/11/2002: Pastor designated to consult on removal/transfer\n\n4/11/2002: Resigned as pastor of St. Patrick's, Pottsville, PA\n\nDiocese of Erie\n\nMichael J. Amy\n\n6/23/1978 - 7/05/1979: Asst. Pastor, Our Lady of Peace, Erie, PA\n\n7/05/1979 - 8/28/1981: Faculty, Cathedral Preparatory. Residence at\n\nBlessed Sacrament, Erie, PA\n\n8/28/1981 - 6/14/1985: Faculty, Cathedral Preparatory, Residence at\n\nHoly Trinity Rectory, Erie, PA\n\n4/23/1983: Chaplin, Catholic Scouting Committee\n\n6/14/1985 -1/20/1986: Faculty, Elk Co. Christian, Residing at Holy Rosary\n\nJohnsonburg PA. Weekend Asst. St. Callistus, Kane, PA\n\n1/20/1986: Weekend Asst. Holy Rosary, Johnsonburg, PA\n\n6/14/1985 – 6/17/1988: Faculty, Elk Co. Catholic. Residing at\n\nHoly Rosary, St. Mary's, PA\n\n6/17/1988-1/31/1990: Faculty, Bradford Central Christian HS. Residing at St. Bernard, Bradford, PA\n\n4/19/1989 -12/15/1989: Administration, St. Callistus, Kane, PA\n\nResiding at St. Callistus Rectory, Kane, PA\n\n12/15/1989-12/22/1991: Pastor, St. Callistus. Residing at\n\nSt. Callistus Rectory, Kane, PA\n\n12/22/1991-2/05/1992: Sick leave\n\n1/05/1992 - 3/01/1993: Sick leave\n\n11/1993: Living in private residence\n\nSummary: In a 1993 letter, Amy wrote “I took the opportunity to touch the genitals of several boys at night. In 1974, one of them ran away because of my molesting him.” Amy said he was originally brought into custody by state police, but was not arrested or charged. He later admitted that he was involved with male prostitutes in the Erie area, as well as Pittsburgh and Baltimore. In 1993, the diocese acted to remove Amy.\n\nAfter the laicization process, an additional allegation was made against him by a victim who was a student at Erie Cathedral Prep in the early 1980s. In an email in 2002, the victim said Amy got him alone in a confessional booth and questioned him about touching himself. Amy went on to fondle the victim on more than one occasion.\n\nMichael G. Barletta\n\n6/04/1966 - 5/30/1975: Secondary Education Kennedy Catholic\n\nHigh School, Hermitage, PA\n\n6/04/1966 - 6/03/1970: Weekend Asst. Sacred Heart, Sharon, PA\n\n6/03/1970 - 6/30/1975: Weekend Asst. St. Joseph, Sharon, PA\n\n1975 Teen Action Club at Cathedral Preparatory, Erie, PA\n\n5/30/1975 - 9/07/1994: Secondary Education Erie Cathedral Preparatory HS\n\n5/30/1975 - 9/07/1994: Weekend Assistant, St Luke's, Erie, PA\n\n9/07/1994 - 8/01/1995: Sabbatical, Other\n\nSabbatical at Southdown Treatment Center Toronto, Canada for\n\nPsychological Treatment\n\n8/01/1995 - 2/28/2002: Dioceses Office, Catholic Charities, Erie, PA\n\n8/01/1995 - 2/28/2002: Dioceses Office, Office of Matrimonial Concerns, Erie, PA\n\n8/01/1995 - 2/28/2002: Resident St. Patrick's Resident, Erie, PA\n\n2/28/2002 Retired\n\nSummary: The grand jury received several documents describing Barletta’s behavior and heard testimony from a retired priest who saw Barletta with his genitalia exposed in the presence of a child under 18 between 1969 and 1970. Father John Fischer testified that he walked in on Barletta and a young high school student in private chambers, and that the student was naked from the waist down, trying to pull up his underwear and pants as Barletta watched. Fischer recalled that Monsignor Hastings dismissed the report, and that fellow priests laughed it off.\n\nLater on, Bishop Trautman recorded details of a conversation that he had with Sister Donna Markham about Barletta. Trautman wrote that Barletta abused 5 children. Barletta was confronted with allegations of oral sex, naked messages, digital anal penetration and masturbation against a victim in 1994. When confronted, Barletta admitted his guilt to Trautman. The diocese paid for the victim’s counseling, but once the victim shared the story of abuse with a newspaper, Trautman advised that the victim should seek payment directly from Barletta.\n\nFrom 1975 though 1994 when he was dismissed from Erie Cathedral Prep, Barletta admitted abusing 25 children and young men. After 1994, there are documents that proved Barletta was still allowed to minister in the Diocese of Erie.\n\nDonald C. Bolton\n\n1952 -1954: Mt. St. Alphonsus, Esopus, NY\n\n1954 -1959: Bela Vista, Mato Grosso, Brazil\n\n1959 – 1962: Campo Grande, Mato Grosso, Brazil\n\n1962 – 1967: Bela Vista, Mato Grosso, Brazil\n\n1967 – 1969: Monte Alegre, Parana, Brazil\n\n1969 – 1970: Rocio, Parana, Brazil\n\n1970 – 1974: Notre Dame Retreat House, Canadaigua, NY\n\n1974 – 1984: St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, North East, PA\n\n1984 – 1987: Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica, Brooklyn, NY\n\n1987 – 1990: Holy Family Retreat House, Hampton, VA\n\n1990 – 2003: St. Alphonsus Villa, Redemptorist Fathers and Brothers, New\n\nSmyrna Beach, FL\n\n2003 – 2006: St. John Neumann Residence, Sarasota Springs, FL\n\n10/27/2006: Death\n\nSummary: In 1986, parents of a 7-year-old girl came to Erie County District Attorney’s office with a complaint that Bolton molested their daughter. As a result, Bolton was charged with indecent assault and corruption of minors. He pled guilty in 1987 and was sentenced to three years probation.\n\nOne of Bolton’s victim would file a lawsuit and received a settlement of $100,000. Her abuse began when she was 7 and continued until she was 11. Bolton came to her house to console the family over the death of a grandparent. The victim said held her on his lap and rubbed her back, legs, bottom and rear. Other instances of assault occurred when the victim was in confession, at ski resort and at a cottage in New York. At different times, Bolton fondled her, rubbed his penis against her and put his fingers in her vagina.\n\nIn another file, a mother of five children alleged that Bolton may have sexually assaulted four of them. No details were provided to the grand jury as the diocese’s representatives were corresponding with the family to offer them assistance with counseling.\n\nAnother documented victim was a fourth-grade boy who reported he was sexually assaulted between 1976 and 1977. The diocese made arrangements to counsel the victim and arranged for various agencies to assist him and his family financially.\n\nRobert F. Bower\n\n5/23/1959 - 8/29/1964: Gannon University, Erie, PA\n\n8/29/1964 - 6/03/1970: Parochial Vicar, Our Lady of the Lake, Edinboro, PA\n\n6/03/1970 - 8/20/1993: Faculty, Newman Center, Edinboro University\n\n8/29/1992 - 3/11/1999: Pastor, St Anthony, Cambridge Springs, PA\n\n8/29/1992 - N/A: Resident, other, Private Residence, Edinboro, PA\n\n8/31/1993 - 8/29/1998: Weekend Asst., Our Lady of the Lake. Edinboro, PA\n\n3/11/1999 - 3/01/2001: Leave of Absence.\n\n3/01/2001 - N/A: Special ministry, Weekend Asst. Johnsonburg, nursing home,\n\nMeadville, PA\n\nSummary: In 1981, Bower was found collecting child pornography. Seventh graders found the images while they served as janitors at Edinboro University. One of these kids, now an adult, testified the images to the grand jury. He testified that photos in Bower’s office depicted children having sex with adults.\n\nThe witness’s mother began working for the diocese in 1977. In 1981, she was fired two days and she and thee coworkers reported that Bower’s had a problem with pornography.\n\nBowers retired from active ministry in the early 2000’s but still lives on the Edinboro campus.\n\nDennis Chludzinski\n\n6/05/1976 - 6/02/1977: Sacred Heart, Sharon, PA\n\n6/03/1977 - 1/23/1978: Holy Rosary, Erie, PA\n\n1/24/1978 - 6/30/1979: Leave of Absence\n\n7/01/1979 - 8/24/1980: Unassigned / Under Father Kelly's Supervision\n\n8/25/1980 - 6/00/1984: Faculty at Villa Maria High School Erie, PA\n\nSt. Benedict's Academy Erie, PA\n\nMercyhurst Preparatory Erie, PA\n\n6/00/1984 - 10/08/1984: Attending Gannon University, Our Lady of Mercy\n\n10/09/1985 - 8/31/1986: No Information provided by the Diocese of Erie\n\n9/01/1986 - 8/02/1987: Chaplain, Sisters Community at Mercyhurst College, Hamot\n\nMedical Center\n\nSummary: In testimony to the diocese, Chludzinski admitted that in 1984 he has inappropriate sexual conduct with an 18-year-old boy. In a letter dated 1991 detailing his progress in therapy, Chludzinski admitted that he and a friend engaged in sexual contact with an 18-year-old male. This included masturbation and oral sex and occurred approximately four times. Chludzinski also noted that after being granted a leave, he became sexually involved with a 14-year-old boy for about nine months.\n\nIn 2004, it was reported that a father discovered that Chludzinski had molested his young son years ago during a camping trip. The victim stated he met Chludzinski as an altar boy and that the abuse happened approximately six times over about six months. When informed of the allegation, Chludzinski replied, “sorry.”\n\nDonald Cooper\n\n6/1963-5/1964: Bradford Central High Christian High School, Bradford, PA\n\n5/1964-6/1971: St. Titus, Titusville, PA\n\n6/1971-6/1975: St. George, Erie, PA\n\n6/1975-11/1984: St. Charles, New Bethlehem, PA\n\n11/1984-6/1987: Mount Calvary, Erie, PA\n\n6/1987-3/1988: Assumption, Oil City, PA\n\n3/1988-6/1989: St. Catherine, DuBois, PA\n\n3/1988-4/1989: St. Anthony, Walston, PA\n\n6/1989-7/2002: St. Joseph, Force, PA\n\n7/2002-6/2005: Christ the King, Houtzdale, PA\n\n10/2002-6/2005: Holy Trinity, Ramey, PA\n\n6/2005: Retired\n\nSummary: In 2005, a man sent an email to the diocese reporting he had been subject to inappropriate sexual contact by Copper between 1981 and 1982. The victim state Cooper abused him multiple times and left him with years of emotional trauma. Cooper would convince the young victim to take a shower with him and would massage the victim and fondle him genitals, as well as masturbate in front of him.\n\nWhen confronted about the abuse in 2005, Cooper admitted his did shower with and massage the victim. He did not admit to the masturbation. Copper agreed to retire, and the church and the victim came to an agreement where the Diocese would pay for the victim's past and future therapy and medication and also pay off $19,530 of the victim's personal debt.\n\nMichael R. Freeman\n\n6/10/1972: St. Margaret, Buffalo, NY\n\n2/15/1975: St. Lawrence, Buffalo Part-time teacher, Bishop Turner High School\n\n7/31/1976: Sacred Heart, Niagara Falls, NY\n\n7/01/1980: Chaplain, United States Army\n\n11/09/1981: Ecclesiastical Endorsement revoked\n\n9/11/1982: St. Christopher, Tonawanda, PA\n\n9/01/1984: St. Mary, Lancaster, PA\n\n3/21/1989: Faculties Revoked\n\nSummary: The grand jury learned that Freeman had some contact with the Diocese of Erie but he was not incardinated into the Diocese as a priest. He was a priest in Buffalo, and in five of his six subsequent assignments he admitted to inappropriate sexual behavior with young men. The abuse occurred while he was a priest in Buffalo but also ministered in Pennsylvania. Freeman admitted sexual misconduct at both St. Margaret and St. Lawrence Parishes in New York, and the Diocese of Buffalo first became aware of Freeman's criminal activity in November 1981.\n\nThe grand jury found no evidence that the Dioceses of Buffalo or Erie ever notified law enforcement officials, despite the fact that Freeman admitted to sexually violating children in at least five of his six ministry assignments.\n\nGregory P. Furjanic\n\n1985: Staff, Kennedy Catholic High School\n\n1985 – Unknown: Unknown duties, St. Anthony of Padua Sharon, PA\n\n1987 – Unknown: Residing in a Convent at 1039 East 27th Street., Erie PA\n\n7/08/1996: Faculties removed\n\n2003 – Unknown: Croatian Franciscan Friars, Chicago, IL.\n\n2005 – Unknown: Lutheran Social Services, St. Petersburg, FL\n\nSummary: In 2005, there was an accusation made against Furjanic related to an incident in the early 1970s. Another incident occurred in the mid-1980s. Records show that in the 1990s another accusation came against Furjanic. The diocese sent him for counseling and then advanced counseling. In 1996, the Congregation for Institutions of Consecrated Life and of Societies of Apostolic Life removed Furjanic’s priestly authority.\n\nThe grand jury later learned one of the victim’s later died by suicide.\n\nChester Ggawronski\n\nMore information not available.\n\nHerbert G. Gloeker\n\n6/1949-9/1967: Sacred Heart, Erie, PA\n\n9/1967-10/1974: St. Bibiana, Galeton, PA\n\n10/1974-1/1985: Mount Calvary, Erie, PA\n\n1/1985: Died, St. Mary's Home\n\nSummary: Gloekler was accused of sexually abusing young females during the 1950s at Sacred Heart. Most of the allegations involved girls who helped sort paperwork in the rectory. One victim described her abuse in an article for the Erie Times-News because she wanted to bring to light the abuse in the Catholic Church. Other victims wrote letters to Bishop Trautman supporting the claims in the newspaper. One victim said Gloekler would fondle her breasts. Another reported that he pulled her into an empty room and kissed her, and instructed her to keep the interaction private. Two other woman contacted Trautman and said they weren’t victims but had witnessed sexual abuse by Gloekler.\n\nRobert E. Hannon\n\n6/03/1954 - 2/03/1955: Assistant Pastor, Holy Rosary, Erie, PA,\n\n2/03/1955 - 3/27/1957: Assistant Pastor, Sacred Heart, Sharon, PA\n\n3/27/1957 - 2/03/1958: Assistant Pastor, St. Boniface, Kersey, PA\n\nResident Pastor (Hacherl) asked to have Hannon Removed\n\n2/03/1958- 5/31/1958: Assistant Pastor, St Luke's, Erie, PA\n\nResident Pastor (Goodill) asked to have Hannon Removed\n\n5/31/1958 - 6/12/1965: Administrator, Sacred Heart, Genesee, PA\n\n9/01/1959 - N/A: Appointed Assistant Director of Lay Retreats for the Diocese\n\n6/12/1965 - 6/4/1966: Holy Cross, Brandy Camp, PA\n\n6/04/1966 - N/A: Administrator, St. Mathew, Erie, PA\n\n6/06/1966 - 6/16/1967: Administrator, St. Cyprian, Waterford, PA\n\n6/16/1967 - 6/01/1979: Pastor, St. Mathew in the Wood, Erie, PA\n\n4/13/1978: Requests transfer to Diocese of Hawaii\n\n6/01/1979: Released to Diocese of Hawaii\n\n9/19/1979 - 7/18/1980: Asst. Pastor, St. John the Apostle, HI\n\n7/18/1980 - 6/1/1981: Associate Pastor, St. Cattistus, Kane, PA\n\n6/01/1981: Associate Pastor, St. Elizabeth, Aiea, HI\n\n4/26/1984: Holy Trinity Church, Honolulu, HI\n\n7/17/1984: Incardinated into Diocese of Hawaii\n\n10/20/2003 - 1/16/2006: Residence at Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, Diocese of\n\nHawaii, Honolulu, HI\n\n1/16/2006: Death Announcement\n\nSummary: In 2003, in response to the John Jay College study on clergy sexual abuse, the Diocese of Erie acknowledged the existence of eight known victims of Hannon' s sexual assaults. The grand jury has found documents that the Diocese of Hawaii and possibly the Diocese of Erie knew Father Hannon had admittedly abused at least twenty youths between ages 12 and 19.\n\nOf the eight victims acknowledged by the Diocese of Erie, one is categorized as \"claim denied, not verified\" based upon a denial by Hannon. This victim was abused in Hawaii and occurred when Hannon was visiting the victim’s parents. While tucking her into bed, he allegedly fondled her under her underpants.\n\nWhen the victim was interviewed in 2004, the Diocese of Hawaii found her “extremely credible.” But the Diocese of Erie sided with Hannan, as he had previously admitted to abusing only boys. Hannon denied abusing females stating, “they do not have a penis.”\n\nThere are eight known victims within the Diocese of Erie. It is unknown if the Diocese ever informed law enforcement officials about Hannon's conduct.\n\nJames P. Hopkins\n\nUnknown Dates: Pastor St. Titus Church in Titusville, PA\n\n1920s: Pastor at unknown church in East Brady, PA\n\nSummary: In 1993, a victim wrote a letter to Bishop Trautman at the Diocese of Erie where she stated in in 1945, when she was 13, she experienced abuse at the hands of Hopkins in the rectory of St. Titus. She stated that Hopkins would, \"grab our face in his hands, force us to look up, and then plant a sloppy kiss on our mouths … and fondle us wherever he pleased.\"\n\nIn 1994, the victim wrote another letter to Trautman. The bishop wrote back that \"Since Monsignor Hopkins died in July of 1957, there is no possible way to investigate your accusation.\"\n\nBarry M. Hudock\n\n8/01/1997 - N/A Catholic University, Faculty, Washington, DC\n\nSummary: Hudock was 27 in 1996 when he engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with a girl in her junior year of high school. Bishop Trautman detailed that the victim was a junior at Mercyhurst Preparatory when she was targeted by Hudock. This sexual abuse occurred in several different locations within the victim's parish community. Trautman documented that Hudock and the victim had engaged in kissing prior to a trip to Wasington, D.C. Records revealed that Hudock groped and kissed the victim on numerous occasions, and it was reported he showed he pornography.\n\nIn 2008, the victim was having a difficult time dealing with the psychological issues from being victimized by Hudock. The Diocese agreed to pay for her medical bills and provided her with airfare to be seen at St. Luke's Institute in Suitland, Maryland.\n\nHudock' s current employment status is not known, but he operates his own religious website titled, \"Faith Meets World\" and has written religious books for Liturgical Press under his given name, as well as the pen name \"Barry Michaels.\"\n\nJoseph W. Jerge\n\n5/18/1951 -6/30/1952: Parochial Vicar, St. Boniface, Erie, PA\n\n6/30/1952- 5/23/1959: Parochial Vicar, St. John the Baptist, Erie, PA\n\n5/23/1959 - 8/29/1964: Parochial Vicars, St. Joseph, Oil City, PA\n\n8/29/1964 – 6/03/1970: Pastor, St. Hippolyte, Guys Mills, PA\n\n6/30/1970 - 12/04/1989: Pastor, St. Callistus, Kane, PA\n\n4/19/1989 - 11/22/1989: Sick Leave\n\n12/04/1989 - 6/14/1991: Parochial Vicar, St. John the Evangelist, Girard, PA\n\n6/14/1991 - 9/01/1992: Parochial Vicar, St. Francis Xavier, McKean, PA\n\n9/01/1992 – 2006: St. Patrick's Retirement Resident, Erie, PA\n\nSummary: The Diocese of Erie was first made aware of sexual abuse allegations against Joseph W. Jerge in early 1989. That year, he was sent for psychological therapy. In the fall of 1989, he was released and signed an aftercare contract that restricted his contact with young boys. He was placed back into ministry at St. John the Evangelist.\n\nIn 1991, Jerge had a meeting with several members of the clergy where concern was voiced about him violating his post-care contract. Bishop Trautman re -assigned Jerge to St. Francis Xavier parish.\n\nOne victim is well-documented by the ministry. He was a high school sophomore when Jerge took him on trips along and fondled him on multiple occasions. Later in the victim’s life, he was blackballed from employment and blocked from attempts to be admitted to seminary. The grand jury found documentation that Bishop Trautman personally instructed school administrators not to hire the victim, noting that he might be homosexual and might have attempted suicide. It is also noted that the Diocese paid at least $1,200 of the victim’s counseling fees.\n\nAnother victim stated that he was sexually abused by Jerge between approximately 1981 and 1985. He stated that all of the assaults took place in Jerge’s car. The victim made his history of abuse known to Trautman in 2003 and obtained an attorney. A letter stated Trautman advised Jerge to consider both legal and canonical counsel. According to the letter, Trautman called the District Attorney of Erie County to tell him of the situation and assure him of their compliance with the applicable standards and guidelines.\n\nStephen E. Jeselnick\n\n5/01/1976: Associate, Our Lady of the Americas, Conneaut, PA\n\n6/03/1977: Granted full faculties of the Diocese of Erie\n\n9/06/1977: Faculty, Venango Christian HIGH SCHOOL w/residence at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Oil City, PA\n\n2/09/1987: Requests new assignment/residence. Wanted campus ministry\n\n6/23/1978: Associate, St. Brigid and Campus Minister, Allegheny College w/Father William Karg\n\n1/12/1980: Requests to be assigned to Notre Dame, IN (Holy Cross)\n\n6/19/1980: Associate, St. Michael, Greenville, PA\n\n7/31/1980: Appointed Defender of the Bond/Advocate for the Tribunal\n\n3/31/1981: Bishop Watson agrees/recommends to release to\n\nNotre Dame, IN\n\n6/02/1981: Accepted into Graduate Candidate Program at Notre Dame\n\n11/06/1982: Withdraws voluntarily from Holy Cross, IN (Novitiate)\n\n12/03/1982: Permitted to minister in Denver, CO, for a six-month assignment by Bishop Murphy\n\n12/10/1982\n\n12/18/1982: Accepted by Archbishop Casey, Denver, CO\n\nSpring 1983: Assigned to St. Mary's, Littleton, CO\n\n3/18/1983: Re -assigned to Shrine of St. Anne, Arvada, CO\n\n4/08/1983: Requests to enter/serve as Military Chaplain\n\n5/13/1983: Bishop Murphy approves appointment to Military\n\n9/12/1985: Requests incardination into Diocese of Colorado Springs, CO\n\n10/10/1985: Incardination denied; Requests Leave of Absence\n\n11/5/1985: Colorado Springs withdraws their faculties\n\n4/1/1986: Requests permission to enter Air Force to be Chaplain and Additional Leave of Absence\n\n8/11/1986: Requests to enter Archdiocese of Military\n\n10/03/1986: Residence at Ecclesia Center, Erie, PA\n\n4/21/1987: Parochial Vicar, St. Catherine, DuBois, PA; Chaplain, DuBois\n\nMedical Center; and Father Brugger's weekend assistant at Sigel\n\nand Corsica, PA\n\n11/18/1996: Military Archdiocese to facilitate the change from active to reserve; the following month the Military endorses for inactive reserve duty\n\n7/14/1997: Veterans Administration Hospital, Baltimore, MD\n\n5/01/2014: Faculties revoked\n\nSummary: Jeselnick’s file listed only two known victims who were both over the age of legal adulthood. Three other victims not included in the diocese files testified in person about the abuse. Their accounts include genital fondling, oral and anal sex, occurring in the late 1970s when Jeselnick was stationed in Meadville. All three men and several of their sisters testified that Jeselnick and a previously unidentified deacon would come to their house and get intoxicated. Once the adults were drunk, Jeselnick would find the boys and pray on them.\n\nIn 2014, Jeselnick sent a letter seeking suitability for ministry. After reviewing his file, Bishop Lawrence Persico denied the request.\n\nThomas C. Kelley\n\n7/25/1968 - 7/16/1972: Parochial Vicar, St. Peter Cathedral, Erie, PA\n\n7/16/1972 - 3/17/1978: Special Ministry, St. Mark's Seminary, Erie, PA\n\n7/16/1972 - 5/05/1979: Weekend Asst., Our Lady of Mercy, Harborcreek, PA\n\n3/17/1979 - 5/05/1979: Special Ministry, St. Mark's Seminary, Erie, PA\n\n5/05/1979 - 9/01/1985: Special Ministry, St. Mark's Seminary, Erie, PA\n\n9/01/1985 - 6/30/1989: Dean, North American College, Rome, Italy\n\n8/28/1989 - 3/27/1990: Administrator, St. Michael, Greenville, PA\n\n3/27/1990 - 6/15/1994: Pastor, St. Michael, Greenville, PA\n\n3/01/1992 - 6/15/1994: Diocesan Review Board\n\n6/15/1994 - 12/31/1995: Leave of Absence, Odessa, TX/Erie, PA\n\n9/18/1995 - 9/22/1995: Psychological Assessment, Southdown Treatment Center, Canada\n\n4/1996 - 9/1996: Residential Treatment, Southdown Center, Aurora, Ontario, Canada\n\n9/06/1994 - 12/31/1995: Pastor, St. Agnes, Ft. Stockton, TX\n\n3/31/1996 - 11/25/1996: Chaplain, Holy Faith Monastery\n\n2/21/2005: Death\n\nSummary: Kelley served in two different dioceses in two states as well as in Europe over the course of his 30 year career. He was accused of inappropriate sexual conduct with at least five victims. His victims of choice were 18 to 25 year old men in high school or in seminary. Kelley engaged in mutual masturbation, oral and anal sex with his victims.\n\nGary L. Ketcham\n\n9/10/1977 - 1/23/1984: St. Bonaventure University, Faculty Franciscan Friars, NY\n\n5/1983-1/23/1984: St. Patrick's, Buffalo, NY\n\n1/23/1984 - 9/11/1985: Parochial Vicar, St. John the Baptist, Erie, PA\n\n9/11/1985 - 8/01/1989: Parochial Vicar, St. George, Erie, PA\n\n3/05/1989 - 6/14/1989: Health Leave, Guest House, Rochester, MN\n\n6/14/1989 - 6/08/1990: Health Leave, St. Luke's Institute, Suitland, MD\n\n6/08/1990 - 7/16/1990: Health Leave, St. Patrick's/St. Hedwig Cluster, Erie, PA\n\n11/13/1998 – 2004: Suspended/Other\n\n2004- Present: Privately employed; not functioning as a Priest\n\nSummary: Sometime prior to March 1989, allegations of sexual misconduct came to light. He was accused of molesting two boys while in a drunken state while visiting friends in Mobile, Alabama. Ketcham was officially charged with two counts of sexual abuse of minors. He was sent to therapy after the incident and housed in a diocese-owned treatment facility.\n\nKetcham pled guilty to both counts and was ordered to pay a $15,000 fine. In 2002, Bishop Trautman initiated the laicization process to formerly remove Ketcham from the church. Ketcham cooperated with this process.\n\nThaddeus Kondzielski\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/16/1967-8/31/1986: Secondary Education, Cathedral Preparatory., Erie Facility\n\n6/16/1967-6/03/1970: Weekend Asst., St. Stanislaus, Erie, PA\n\n6/03/1970-8/31/1986: Weekend Asst., St. Hedwig, Erie, PA\n\n8/31/1986-10/01/1988: Health Leave, Other\n\n10/01/1988-6/30/1994: Administrator, St. Philip (Crossingville) Edinboro, PA\n\n6/30/1994-5/04/2000: Pastor, St. Philip (Crossingville) Edinboro, PA\n\n5/04/2000-6/29/2006: Pastor, St. Philip (Crossingville) Edinboro, PA (Reappointed 2nd 6 yr. term)\n\n6/30/2006-8/31/2012: Pastor, St. Philip (Crossingville) Edinboro, PA (Reassigned 3rd 6 yr. term)\n\n9/01/2012-4/28/2013: Pastor, St. Philip Crossingville) Edinboro, PA (Reappointed 4th 6 Yr. term)\n\n4/29/2013: Retired\n\nSummary: Father Thaddeus Kondzielski was assigned as a teacher at Erie Cathedral Preparatory for January 2013, a victim contacted the Diocese to advise that 30 years earlier, when he was a sophomore at Cathedral Preparatory, Kondzielski would ask him to assist with grading papers in the rectory.\n\nOn one occasion, Kondzielski asked him to stay and lift weights. When he said he did not have the proper clothes, Kondzielski suggested that they lift weights naked. They then proceeded to lift weights together while they were naked. When he told his parents about the naked weight lifting incident, they were shocked and told him to stay away from Kondzielski.\n\nWhen confronted with this allegations, Kondzielski claimed he did not remember the incident, but did not deny it because it could have happened.\n\nGerard Krebs\n\nWhere he served:\n\n7/26/1964 - 6/3/1970: Secondary Education Venango Christian, High School, Oil City, PA\n\n7/26/1964 - 6/3/1970: Weekend Assistant, St. Stephen's, Oil City, PA\n\n6/3/1970 - 9/8/1970: Parochial Vicar, Our Lady Queen of the Americas, Conneaut Lake, PA\n\n6/3/1970 - 9/8/1970: Resident, St. Stephen's Rectory, Oil City, PA\n\n9/8/1970 - 12/6/1978: Parochial Vicar, Erie, St. John the Baptist\n\n12/6/1978 - 1/27/1983: Pastor, Holy Cross Church, Brandy Camp, PA\n\n1/27/1983 - 6/30/1990: Pastor, St. Patrick, Erie, PA\n\n3/1/1990 - 5/4/1990: Health Leave, Guest House, Rochester, MN\n\n6/30/1990 - 1/6/1992: Pastor, St. Patrick, Erie, PA\n\n1/6/1992 - 12/31/2003: Director of RCIA, Diocesan Office, Erie, PA\n\n1/6/1992 - 2/4/1994: Resident, Blessed Sacrament, Erie, PA\n\n2/4/1994 - 3/27/2004: Resident, St. Joseph/Bread of Life, Erie, PA\n\n4/10/1996 - 10/1/1996: Chaplain, Soldiers & Sailors Home\n\n11/17/1996 - 5/8/1997: Weekend Assistant, St. Patrick, Erie, PA\n\n11/22/1996 - 12/31/2003: Director of Activities/Coming Millennium, Diocesan Office, Erie, PA\n\n1/1/04 - 5/25/2005: Retired, Priest Retirement Residence, Erie, PA\n\nSummary: Three known victims came forward indicating that they were sexually abused by Father Gerard Krebs.\n\nOne victim alleged that Krebs led him through \"a series of sexual rituals to both prove my faith and the fact that I was not a homosexual.\n\nThe grand jury found no documentation indicating that law enforcement was ever notified about any of Krebs interactions with his victims.\n\nJerry (John) Kucan\n\nWhere he served:\n\n1952-1954: St. Anthony's, Sharon, PA\n\n1954-1961: St. Joseph's, Bethlehem, PA\n\n1961-1972: St. Mary's, Steelton, PA\n\n1972-1973: Our Lady of Peace Friary, Beaver Falls, PA\n\n1973-1977: St. Anthony's, Sharon, PA\n\n1977-1978: Sacred Heart, Milwaukee, WI\n\n1978-1979: Beaver Falls Friary, Beaver Falls, PA\n\n1979-1982: St. Mary's, Steelton, PA\n\n1982-1985: St. Jerome' s, Chicago, IL\n\n1985-1986: Sacred Heart, Milwaukee, WI\n\n1986-1988: St. Anthony's, Chicago, IL\n\n1988-1994: St. Augustine' s, West Allis, WI\n\n1994-1995: Sacred Heart, Chicago, IL\n\n1995-2005: St. Anthony's Friary, Chicago, IL\n\nSummary: In February of 2005, a 29 year old man wrote a letter to the Diocese of Erie in which he stated that he had attended St. Anthony's School in Sharon, Pennsylvania and that in\n\n1974 he began serving midnight mass. Victim #1 stated that \"Father Jerry\" began an inappropriate relationship with him at that time. They would have special meetings together. Kucan told the victim that if he ever told anyone about their relationship, his mother would lose her job in the school kitchen and he would be kicked out of school. The victim wrote in the letter that he would go to confession weekly to confess his sins and that Kucan would tell him that the slate was wiped clean.\n\nKucan would perform oral sex on the-then eight year old. The letter also alleged that Kucan would have a brother in a brown robe present on some occasions and that this brother would also perform oral sex on the victim.\n\nFather Kucan was taken out of the ministry in March 2005, when the Order received its first complaint against him. The Order settled with the victim filing the complaint. The file note also indicated that Kucan was then in his mid- eighties and in the early stages of dementia.\n\nThere is nothing contained in this file that shows that any actual correspondence between the Church and the District Attorney occurred.\n\nLouis Lorei\n\nWhere he served:\n\n9/1981 - 9/1985: Pastor, Our Lady of Peace, Erie, PA\n\nUnknown: Possibly Gannon University\n\nSummary: In December 2009, Father Mark Hoffman called the Bishop's office to report an allegation involving child sexual abuse by Monsignor Louis Lorei. The parents of a boy had approached him to report that their son stated he \"was touched by Monsignor Lorei\" in the early 1980's. Bishop Trautman later met with the victim.\n\nThe victim stated that about 1980 or 1981, he was a student, roughly age 11 to 13, at Our Lady of Peace school. He was also an altar server during early mass with Lorei. On one occasion, Lorei invited him into the rectory and into his bedroom. Lorei had the victim sit on the bed while Lorei sat next to him and hugged and kissed him on the lips. This would occur several days in a row, stop, and then begin again. The victim eventually refused to serve mass with Lorei.\n\nLorei was soon removed by then -Bishop Murphy. In his own handwritten words, Trautman expressed the personal belief that Lorei' s sudden departure may likely have been indicative of some kind of significant event. Trautman offered the victim counseling services. Financial assistance was also discussed. In a memorandum dated March 30, 2007, Hoffman also documented an additional victim of Lorei. Hoffman found out through the father of the second victim that his son was allegedly abused by Lorei. The victim reportedly described the incident during a United Methodist retreat in 2000.\n\nA small note in the file states \"Review Board found no merit in processing since supposed victim did not come forth even after requests.\"\n\nIt is unknown who the request refers to.\n\nSalvatore P. Luzzi\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/09/1962 - 8/29/1968: Faculty, Venango Christian High. Residence at St. Joseph, Oil City, PA\n\n8/28/1968 - 8/28/1969: Sp. Ministry, St. Mark's Seminary, Erie, PA\n\n8/28/1968 - 7/16/1972: Dean/Collegians, St. Mark's Seminary, Erie, PA\n\n7/16/1972 - 5/05/1979: Sp. Ministry, St. Mark's Seminary, Erie, PA\n\n5/05/1979 - 7/19/1994: Pastor, St. Joseph, Warren, PA\n\n3/19/1991 - 8/01/1994: Sp. Ministry, Dean/Warren Co. Deanery, St Joseph, Warren, PA\n\n7/19/1994 - 2/10/1995: Sick Leave\n\n5/05/1979 - 9/15/1995: Resided at St. Joseph\n\n9/15/1995 - currently: Faculties removed\n\nSummary: After several years teaching at Venango Christian High School, Reverend 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 twenties. Some of these victims were groped, inappropriately kissed, hugged, and/or fondled. He also faced allegations of responsibility for the suicide of a former student/victim.\n\nLuzzi worked extensively with young would-be priests at St. Mark's where he and fellow priest Leon Muroski served as Spiritual Directors to the seminarians. Luzzi's inappropriate touching and fondling of at least two seminarians prompted the Diocese to settle with those seminarians for large sums of money. The first former Seminarian's case was settled in civil court for $34,500 and this individual received several thousand dollars over the course of the many years that the Diocese paid for his counseling and medication costs.\n\nSeveral other former juvenile victims of Luzzi received letters or phone calls of apology from the Diocese. These victims were counseled by the Diocese through correspondence or in person interviews wherein 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\nIn 1994, Bishop Trautman sent both Luzzi and Muroski to St. Luke's Institute for therapy. The Diocese publicly announced that Luzzi was going on an extended sabbatical for \"personal, spiritual and academic growth.\" Once Luzzi was discharged, the Bishop welcomed him back into pastoral ministry by letter on February 14, 1995. However, the welcome also came with several conditions and a Penial Precept, a formal notification in the church that restricts ministry.\n\nTrautman directed Luzzi to refrain from all contact with youth under 19 years of age and to avoid travel and social interaction with such parishioners. Later that same year, in September 1995, Trautman had Luzzi' s faculties as a priest removed and Luzzi began residing in a private residence, where he remains today.\n\nRicahrd D. Lynch\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/01/1963 - 5/26/1972: Secondary Education Bradford Central Christian High School, Bradford, PA\n\n5/26/1972 - 2/18/1983: Headmaster, Secondary Education Bradford Central Christian High School, Bradford, PA\n\n2/18/1983 - 8/30/1999: Pastor, Erie Holy Rosary, Erie, PA\n\n1984-1994:Dean, East Erie Deanery, Erie, PA\n\n8/31/1999 - Death: Pastor, St. Mark's the Evangelist, Erie, PA\n\nSummary: The victim claims Lynch slammed him into the wall and this resulted in a trauma to his head.\n\nIn a letter dated June 3, 2016, the victim stated that he wanted to write the Bishop to get some things off his chest. He alleged that Father Richard Lynch was responsible for the sexual abuse that he went through while attending Bradford Central Catholic Christian High School 1978-1979. He said he told Bishop Trautman about some physical abuse, but was too ashamed to talk about the sexual abuse.\n\nDaniel Martin\n\nWhere he served:\n\n1943 - 1945: Parochial Vicar, Sacred Heart, Sharon, PA\n\n1945 - 1962: Faculty, Erie Cathedral Preparatory High School, Erie, PA\n\n1948 - 1962: Assistant Headmaster, Erie Cathedral Preparatory, Erie, PA\n\n1950-1962: Chaplain, Mercyhurst College\n\n1962-1970: Pastor, St. Boniface, Kersey, PA\n\n1962-1970: Headmaster, Elk Co. Christian High School, St. Mary's, PA\n\n1970-1974: Pastor, St. Joseph, Oil City, PA\n\n1974- 1986: Pastor, St. George, Erie, PA\n\n1984: Prelate of Honor, titled Monsignor\n\n1986-1987: Retired, Residence at Mt. Calvary, Erie, PA\n\n1987: Chaplain, Mercyhurst College for Religious women\n\n2003: Blessed Sacrament, Residence\n\nSummary: Monsignor Daniel Martin was a priest the in the Diocese of Erie for 43 -three years who faced two known allegations of sexual abuse. The grand jury's review of his files found very little documented evidence of his abuse of a teenager who was an alter server in his parish. That victim would go on to become a priest himself and appeared in front of the grand jury to tell his story.\n\nHe reported that when he was upset over the troubles of his life, he would seek Martin's counsel. He testified that Martin sexually fondled him on at least sixteen occasions between the ages of sixteen and nineteen.\n\nOther victims came forward with similar encounters.\n\nRedacted – pending litigation\n\nThe name of the priest, where he served and the exact incident was entirely redacted in the grand jury report.\n\nLeon T. Muroski\n\nWhere he served:\n\n6/11/1960 - 9/01/1967: Parochial Vicar, St. Luke, Erie, PA\n\n3/30/1961 - N/A: Chaplain, Erie County T.B. Hospital\n\n9/01/1960 - 6/16/1967: Special Ministry, Faculty, St. Mark's, Erie, PA\n\n6/16/1967 - 10/12/1982: Diocese Office, St. Mark's Seminary, Erie, PA\n\n10/12/1982 - 9/01/1995: Pastor, Our Lady of the Lake, Edinboro, PA\n\n5/1994: Sent to St. Luke's Institute for Psychological Treatment\n\n9/01/1995-6/01/1997: Retired, St. Casimirs, Rectory, Erie, PA\n\n6/01/1997-4/01/2001: The Christophers, Unknown duties, New York, NY,\n\n5/03/2001: Resident, St. Patrick's, Erie, PA\n\n9/01/2001 - 3/11/2002: Chaplain, Pleasant Ridge Manor West, Girard, PA\n\n1/2320/03 - N/A: St. Patrick's, Unassigned\n\n12/10/2015 - Present: Diocese Retirement Home, Erie, PA\n\nSummary: After 20 years of administrative duties, Muroski finally got his own parish. This ministry lasted from 1982 until1995, but was abruptly halted when in the early 1990s Muroski was accused of sexual misconduct while he was a Spiritual Director at the seminary. Muroski was sent to St. Luke's Institute in Suitland, Maryland, for individual psychotherapy in 1994 after he admitted to inappropriate contact with the seminarians under his watch. These seminarians were all male, eighteen to twenty-three-year olds, when Muroski would counsel them. This counselling included allegations of full body massages, kissing, masturbation and fondling of the seminarians' buttocks and genitals. Muroski would eventually be placed back into ministry after therapy at St. Luke's and served in the Diocese of Erie and in The Christophers program in New York City.\n\nIn 2001, Muroski returned to the Diocese of Erie from The Christophers and was retired. Muroski was permitted to move into the retired priest home in 2002, which is where he still resides. In 2016, the Diocese rostered a list of all the retired clergy living in the home and made it public. Muroski was not listed as a resident. It was at this residence that the grand jury found him living in 2017, however.\n\nEdmundus Murphy\n\nNo further details regarding where he served were provided.\n\nSummary: On December 21, 2007 an e-mail communication was sent to Monsignor Robert Smith, Vicar General of the Diocese of Erie from the Society of the Divine Word in Techny, Ilinois. The purpose of the e-mail was to inform Smith that a victim was sexually abused by a staff member while he was a minor at Sacred Heart High School in 1964. This school was operated by the Society of the Divine Word Missionaries in Girard.\n\nThe victim claimed that during the summer between his freshman and sophomore years of high school, Brother Edmundus Murphy, who was 33 years of age at this time, was the wrestling coach at the school. Murphy encouraged the victim to join the team and, under the pretense of teaching him some wrestling moves, the two wrestled naked \"as the ancient Greeks and Romans did.\" The victim alleged that during these \"wrestling\" sessions he was sodomized by Murphy.\n\nImmediately after the incident, the victim asked Murphy what he was doing and, according to the victim, Murphy sat on the floor and began to cry.\n\nThe grand jury investigation found no documentation that the Diocese notified local law enforcement or the District Attorney's Office about Murphy's behavior. The only note in the file was a handwritten notation on top of the printed out e-mail which read; \"not responsible-Priest/Deacon only.\"\n\nJohn L. Murray\n\nWhere he served:\n\n5/31/1947 - 5/28/1955: Sacred Heart, Parochial Vicar with Residence, Sharon, PA\n\n5/28/1955 - 6/11/1960: St. Paul, Parochial Vicar with Residence, Erie, PA\n\n8/25/1959 - 6/11/1960: St. Paul, Parochial Vicar with Residence. Special Duties, Part-Time Faculty, Erie Cathedral Preparatory, Erie, PA\n\n6/11/1960 - 8/01/1966: Special Ministry, Erie Cathedral Preparatory, Erie, PA\n\n8/27/1966 - 1/31/1969: Special Ministry, DuBois Central Catholic HS, Special Duties, Headmaster, DuBois, PA\n\n6/16/1967 - 10/15/1968: St. Bernard, Administration with Reside", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2018/08/14"}]}
{"question_id": "20220715_29", "search_time": "2022/07/15/16:21", "search_result": [{"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/12/world/james-webb-space-telescope-new-images-scn/index.html", "title": "James Webb telescope's new images of stars, galaxies and an ...", "text": "Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more\n\n(CNN) A stellar nursery where stars are born, interactions between galaxies and a unique view of an exoplanet are just some of the new cosmic images were shared Tuesday.\n\nAfter decades of waiting, it's finally time for the world to see the first images taken bythe most powerful space telescope ever -- the James Webb Space Telescope\n\nDevelopment of the world's premier space observatory began in 2004, and after years of delays, the telescope and its massive gold mirror finally launched on December 25.\n\nThe images are worth the wait -- and they will forever change the way we see the universe.\n\nPresident Joe Biden released one of Webb's first images on Monday, and it is \"the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date,\" according to NASA. The rest of the high-resolution color images made their debut on Tuesday.\n\nThe space observatory can investigate the mysteries of the universe by observing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.\n\nWebb will peer into the very atmospheres of exoplanets , some of which are potentially habitable, and it could uncover clues in the ongoing search for life outside of Earth.\n\nThe telescope will also look at every phase of cosmic history, including the first glows after the big bang that created our universe and the formation of the galaxies, stars and planets that fill it today.\n\nNow, Webb is ready to help us understand the origins of the universe and begin to answer key questions about our existence, such as where we came from and if we're alone in the cosmos.\n\nThe first images\n\nThe first image, released on Monday, shows SMACS 0723, where a massive group of galaxy clusters act as a magnifying glass for the objects behind them. Called gravitational lensing, this created Webb's first deep field view that includes incredibly old and faint galaxies.\n\nThe image of SMACS 0723 is \"the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date,\" according to NASA.\n\nSome of these distant galaxies and star clusters have never been seen before. The galaxy cluster is shown as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago.\n\nThe image, taken by Webb's Near-Infrared Camera, is composed of images taken at different wavelengths of light over a collective 12.5 hours. Deep field observations are lengthy observations of regions of the sky that can reveal faint objects.\n\nWebb's other primary targets for the first image release included the Carina Nebula, WASP-96 b, the Southern Ring Nebula and Stephan's Quintet.\n\nWebb's study of the giant gas planet WASP-96 b is the most detailed spectrum of an exoplanet to date. The spectrum includes different wavelengths of light that reveal new information about the planet and its atmosphere. Discovered in 2014, WASP-96 b is located 1,150 light-years from Earth. It has half the mass of Jupiter and completes an orbit around its star every 3.4 days.\n\nNASA's James Webb Space Telescope captured a spectrum of WASP-96 b.\n\nWebb's spectrum includes \"the distinct signature of water, along with evidence for clouds and haze, in the atmosphere surrounding a hot, puffy gas giant planet orbiting a distant Sun-like star,\" according to NASA.\n\nThe observation demonstrates \"Webb's unprecedented ability to analyze atmospheres hundreds of light-years away,\" according to NASA.\n\nIn the future, Webb will capture actual images of known exoplanets while also searching for unknown planets, said Knicole Colón, Webb deputy project scientist for exoplanet science at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, during a news conference. And the spectrium of WASP-96 b is \"barely scratching the surface of what we're going to learn.\"\n\nColón anticipates that scientists will determine just how much water is in the exoplanet's atmosphere.\n\nThe Southern Ring Nebula, also called the \"Eight-Burst,\" is 2,000 light-years away from Earth. This large planetary nebula includes an expanding cloud of gas around a dying star. Webb helped reveal previously hidden details about the nebula, which is a shell of gas and dust released by the dying star. The nebula's second star can be seen in the Webb image, as well as how the stars shape the gas and dust cloud.\n\nThe second star is surrounded by dust while the brighter star, at an earlier stage of evolution, will release its own cloud of gas and dust later on. As the two stars orbit one another, they effectively \"stir\" the gas and dust, resulting in the patterns seen in the image.\n\nThe insights from images like this could help astronomers to unlock how stars change their environments as they evolve. Multi-colored points of light in the background represent galaxies.\n\nThe space telescope's view of Stephan's Quintet shows the way galaxies interact with one another. This compact galaxy group, first discovered in 1787, is located 290 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. Four of the five galaxies in the group \"are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters,\" according to a NASA statement.\n\nIf you've ever watched \"It's a Wonderful Life,\" you've seen Stephan's Quintet. Now, Webb has revealed the galactic grouping in a new mosaic which is the telescope's largest image to date.\n\n\"The information from Webb provides new insights into how galactic interactions may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe,\" according to NASA.\n\nThe Stephan's Quintet image provides a rare glimpse into how galaxies can trigger star formation in one another when they interact, as well as outflows driven by a black hole at a new level of detail.\n\nThe gravitational dance between these galaxies can be seen through tails of gas, dust and stars and even shock waves as one of the galaxies pushes through the cluster.\n\nLocated 7,600 light-years away, the Carina Nebula is a stellar nursery, where stars are born. It is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky and home to many stars much more massive than our sun.\n\nNow, its \"Cosmic Cliffs\" are revealed in an incredible new Webb image.\n\nWebb's ability to see through cosmic dust has revealed previously invisible areas of star birth within the nebula, which could provide new insight on the formation of stars. The earliest stages of star formation are harder to capture -- but something Webb's sensitivity can chronicle.\n\nWhat looks like a landscape in the image is really a massive gaseous cavity with \"peaks\" reaching 7 light-years high.\n\n\"The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image,\" according to NASA. And what looks like \"steam\" rising off the \"mountains\" is hot, energetic gas and dust.\n\nThe targets were selected by an international committee, including members from NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.\n\nJUST WATCHED 'I'm a little verklempt': Analyst breaks down stunning new Webb telescope images Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'I'm a little verklempt': Analyst breaks down stunning new Webb telescope images 03:50\n\nA long future of observation\n\nThe mission, originally expected to last for 10 years, has enough excess fuel capability to operate for 20 years, according to NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.\n\nThese will be just the first of many images to come from Webb over the next two decades, which promises to fundamentally alter the way we understand the cosmos.\n\nWhile some of what Webb could reveal has been anticipated, the unknowns are just as exciting to scientists.\n\n\"We don't know what we don't know yet,\" said Amber Straughn, Webb deputy project scientist for communications at NASA Goddard. \"I think it's true that every time we launch a revolutionary instrument into space, like with Hubble, we learn things that completely surprise us but do cause us to sort of change our fundamental understanding of how the universe works.\"\n\nHubble's 31 years have yielded a wealth of discoveries that couldn't be anticipated, and the scientific community views Webb and its capabilities in the same way.\n\nWhen comparing Webb's first images to other breakthroughs in astronomy, Webb program scientist and NASA Astrophysics Division chief scientist Eric Smith compared it to seeing Hubble's images after the telescope was repaired and everything snapped into focus.\n\n\"A lot of people sometimes see pictures of space and they think it makes them feel small,\" Smith said. \"When I see these pictures, they make me feel powerful. A team of people can make this unbelievable instrument to find out things about the universe revealed here, and just seeing that pride in the team, and pride in humanity, that when we want to, we can do that.\"\n\n\"The universe has (always) been out there,\" said Jane Rigby, Webb operations project scientist at NASA Goddard. \"We just had to build a telescope to go see what was there. Yeah, very similar feeling of, maybe, people in a broken world managing to do something right and to see some of the majesty that is out there.\"", "authors": ["Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/world/james-webb-space-telescope-image-list-scn/index.html", "title": "NASA shares teaser for Webb telescope's first image release | CNN", "text": "(CNN) Get ready to see some awe-inspiring views of the universe as we've never seen it before.\n\nThe James Webb Space Telescope will release its first high-resolution color images on July 12, one of which \"is the deepest image of our universe that has ever been taken,\" according to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.\n\nThe space observatory, which launched in December, will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began by viewing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.\n\nThe first image release will highlight Webb's science capabilities as well as the ability of its massive golden mirror and science instruments to produce spectacular images.\n\nThe first five cosmic targets of Webb were shared by NASA on Friday, providing a teaser for what we can expect to see in the image release. The targets were selected by an international committee, including members from NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/07/08"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/11/world/james-webb-space-telescope-first-image-scn/index.html", "title": "NASA's James Webb Space Telescope: President Biden reveals ...", "text": "Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more\n\n(CNN) The first glimpse of how the James Webb Space Telescope will change the way people see the universe has arrived.\n\nThe image shows SMACS 0723, where a massive group of galaxy clusters act as a magnifying glass for the objects behind them. Called gravitational lensing, this created Webb's first deep field view of incredibly old and distant, faint galaxies.\n\nThe presentation occurred at the White House during a preview event with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.\n\n\"It is the deepest image of our universe that has ever been taken\" in infrared, according to Nelson.\n\nSome of these distant galaxies and star clusters have never been seen before. The galaxy cluster is shown as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago.\n\n\"This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length by someone on the ground,\" according to a NASA release.\n\nThe image, taken by Webb's Near-Infrared Camera, is composed of images taken at different wavelengths of light over the course of 12.5 hours. The Hubble Space Telescope's deepest fields took weeks to capture.\n\nThe rest of the high-resolution color images will make their debut on Tuesday, July 12.\n\nThe space observatory, which launched in December, will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began by viewing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.\n\nThe first image release highlights Webb's science capabilities as well as the ability of its massive golden mirror and science instruments to produce spectacular images.\n\nThere are several events taking place during Tuesday's image release, and all of them will stream live on NASA's website\n\nOpening remarks by NASA leadership and the Webb team will begin Tuesday at 9:45 a.m. ET, followed by an image release broadcast that kicks off at 10:30 a.m. ET. Images will be revealed one by one, and a news conference at 12:30 p.m. ET will offer details about them.\n\nThe first images\n\nNASA shared Webb's first cosmic targets on Friday, providing a teaser for what else Tuesday's image release will include: the Carina Nebula, WASP-96b, the Southern Ring Nebula and Stephan's Quintet.\n\nLocated 7,600 light-years away, the Carina Nebula is a stellar nursery, where stars are born. It is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky and home to many stars much more massive than our sun.\n\nWebb's study of the giant gas planet WASP-96b will be the first full-color spectrum of an exoplanet. The spectrum will include different wavelengths of light that could reveal new information about the planet, such as whether it has an atmosphere. Discovered in 2014, WASP-96b is located 1,150 light-years from Earth. It has half the mass of Jupiter and completes an orbit around its star every 3.4 days.\n\nThis test image was taken by Webb's Fine Guidance Sensor over a period of eight days at the beginning of May. It shows how Webb can capture detailed images of very faint objects.\n\nThe Southern Ring Nebula, also called the \"Eight-Burst,\" is 2,000 light-years away from Earth. This large planetary nebula includes an expanding cloud of gas around a dying star.\n\nThe space telescope's view of Stephan's Quintet will reveal the way galaxies interact with one another. This compact galaxy group, first discovered in 1787, is located 290 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. Four of the five galaxies in the group \"are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters,\" according to a NASA statement.\n\nThe targets were selected by an international committee, including members from NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.\n\nLooking ahead\n\nThese will be the first of many images to come from Webb, the most powerful telescope ever launched into space. The mission, originally expected to last for 10 years, has enough excess fuel capability to operate for 20 years, according to NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.\n\n\"Webb can see backwards in time just after the big bang by looking for galaxies that are so far away, the light has taken many billions of years to get from those galaxies to ourselves,\" said Jonathan Gardner, Webb deputy senior project scientist at NASA, during a recent news conference. \"Webb is bigger than Hubble so that it can see fainter galaxies that are further away.\"\n\nThe initial goal for the telescope was to see the first stars and galaxies of the universe, essentially watching \"the universe turn the lights on for the first time,\" said Eric Smith, Webb program scientist and NASA Astrophysics Division chief scientist.\n\nSmith has worked on Webb since the project began in the mid-1990s.\n\n\"The James Webb Space Telescope will give us a fresh and powerful set of eyes to examine our universe,\" Smith wrote in an update on NASA's website. \"The world is about to be new again.\"\n\nCorrection: This story has been updated to reflect that the image is the deepest view of the universe to date in infrared.", "authors": ["Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/07/11"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/world/james-webb-space-telescope-images-update-scn/index.html", "title": "'Deepest image of our universe' ever taken by Webb Telescope will ...", "text": "(CNN) We're about to have an entirely new perspective on the universe.\n\nThe James Webb Space Telescope will release its first high-resolution color images on July 12. One of those images \"is the deepest image of our universe that has ever been taken,\" said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson during a news conference on Wednesday.\n\n\"If you think about that, this is farther than humanity has ever moved before,\" Nelson said. \"And we're only beginning to understand what Webb can and will do. It's going to explore objects in the solar system and atmospheres of exoplanets orbiting other stars, giving us clues as to whether potentially their atmospheres are similar to our own.\"\n\nNelson, who shared that he tested positive for Covid-19 Tuesday night, was unable to attend the event in person at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.\n\nThe Webb mission, which was estimated to last for 10 years, has enough excess fuel capability to operate for 20 years, according to NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/06/29"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/11/world/james-webb-space-telescope-selfie-images-scn/index.html", "title": "Webb telescope's first test images include an unexpected 'selfie' - CNN", "text": "Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more\n\n(CNN) The James Webb Space Telescope is setting up shop while it chills out a million miles from Earth.\n\nThe observatory shared its first selfie from space after testing its iconic gold mirror and Near Infrared Camera.\n\nWebb has been in the process of cooling down and aligning its mirror segments since February 2, after reaching its orbital point beyond the moon on January 24 . The telescope launched to space on December 25 and will serve as NASA's most complex and powerful observatory yet.\n\nIf the images look a little blurry, that's to be expected, Webb team members said. Right now, the telescope is still in the commissioning phase before it begins collecting data and science observations this summer, when dazzling new images of our universe are expected to be released.\n\nCapturing starlight\n\nWebb's latest challenge was a trial run of the Near Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, identifying dots of starlight from the same star in each of the 18 hexagonal segments of its massive mirror. The telescope aimed its mirrors at a bright solitary star in the Ursa Major constellation called HD 84406.\n\n\"This star was chosen specifically because it is easily identifiable and not crowded by other stars of similar brightness, which helps to reduce background confusion,\" according to the Webb team.\n\nWebb created a mosaic of 18 points of starlight when mirror segments reflected this light back at the telescope's small secondary mirrors and into NIRCam's detectors.\n\nImages like the ones NASA shared on Friday can help the Webb team make sure the mirrors are perfectly aligned before the observatory sets its sights on exoplanets and distant galaxies, forever changing the way we see the universe.\n\nOver the next month, careful adjustments will unite the mirror segments so those 18 dots become an image of a single star.\n\n\"The entire Webb team is ecstatic at how well the first steps of taking images and aligning the telescope are proceeding. We were so happy to see that light makes its way into NIRCam,\" said Marcia Rieke, principal investigator for the NIRCam instrument and regents professor of astronomy at University of Arizona, in a statement.\n\nThe mosaic of 18 dots is the result of Webb capturing 1,560 images over the course of 25 hours, although the observatory was able to find the star during the first six hours and using just 16 images. The 18 points are just the center of a giant mosaic with more than 2 billion pixels.\n\nThese spots of starlight are just the center of a massive mosaic captured by Webb as it focused on a single star.\n\n\"This initial search covered an area about the size of the full Moon because the segment dots could potentially have been that spread out on the sky,\" said Marshall Perrin, deputy telescope scientist for Webb and astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, in a statement.\n\nThe mirror selfie was captured by a special lens inside NIRCam that can image the primary mirror rather than what Webb sees in space. The lens mainly exists for engineering and alignment, so it was a bonus image that made the Webb team say \"holy cow,\" said Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.\n\nKeeping a deep freeze to operate\n\nWebb's orbit will keep the telescope in line with Earth as our planet orbits the sun. This alignment protects the telescope from the heat released by the sun, Earth and even the moon.\n\nIt's imperative that the telescope stay cool because it will observe the universe in infrared light and detect the faintest signals from objects in our distant universe. Because infrared light can be detected as heat, the entire spacecraft needs to be shielded from bright sources of heat.\n\nThe spacecraft includes a five-layer sunshield to protect Webb's giant mirror and instruments from the sun's blistering rays. Webb's equipment needs to be kept at a very frigid negative 370 degrees Fahrenheit (negative 223 degrees Celsius) to operate.\n\nSome of Webb's instruments need to be even colder to operate, so they will continue to cool down over the next few months. Future images captured by Webb will only become clearer and more detailed as the spacecraft cools and the mirrors align.\n\n\"This amazing telescope has not only spread its wings, but it has now opened its eyes,\" Feinberg said.", "authors": ["Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/02/11"}, {"url": "https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/science-health/955119/james-webb-space-telescope-explainer", "title": "What is the James Webb Space Telescope? | The Week UK", "text": "The first image from the world’s most advanced telescope has offered a remarkable snapshot back towards the very beginning of the universe. US President Joe Biden unveiled the image of a galaxy cluster dating back 4.6 billion years during an event at the White House on Monday. But as The Guardian pointed out, “it is the other galaxies in the image that have astronomers most excited”. These more distant galaxies “are about 13bn years old”, the paper said. “It is the farthest humanity has ever seen in both time and distance,” Sky News reported, “closer to the dawn of time and the edge of the universe, with part of the image showing light from soon after the Big Bang.” Nasa administrator Bill Nelson said: “We’re looking back more than 13 billion years… and we’re going further… this is just the first image and since we know the universe is 13.8 billion years old, we’re going back almost to the beginning. “It is going to be so precise you are going to see whether or not planets are habitable. And when you look at something as big as this we’re going to be able to answer questions that we don’t even know what the questions are yet,” he added. A long journey… just to get off the ground The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been jointly developed by Nasa, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Originally planned in the 1990s to launch around 2007 and to cost $500m, the complexity of the technology and later additions meant the final bill was over $10bn. However, “after three decades of design and construction, plagued by delays and cost overruns”, JWST had a perfect launch on Christmas Day last year, said the Financial Times. It was assembled at the Northrop Grumman factory in California, then sent by ship through the Panama Canal to the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. Skip advert An Ariane 5 rocket, an ultra-reliable European launch vehicle, then took it on a 26-minute journey into space before it reached its desired orbit around the Sun, a million miles from Earth at a point known as L2. It is one of five “Lagrange points” where the gravitational pulls of the Earth and the Sun balance each other out so spacecraft can maintain a stable position relative to both without using too much fuel.\n\n“To the surprise of even some of those who built it, JWST unpacked itself flawlessly once safely in orbit in January – with each segment of its mirror now perfectly aligned,” said Sky News. It weighs almost 6.5 tonnes and fully unfolded is the size of a tennis court. It is expected to operate for at least ten years, although its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, is still working after 32 years in orbit. Who is it named after? James Webb was the second administrator of Nasa, leading the American space agency during many of the Apollo moon missions in the 1960s. He also served as the US under-secretary of state from 1949 to 1952. However, the decision to name the telescope after him has proved controversial. The Guardian reported there have been “renewed calls from astronomers for Nasa to rename the instrument amid allegations Webb was complicit in historical persecution of LGBTQ+ people”. He is associated with the so-called Lavender Scare witch-hunt that resulted in the mass dismissal of gay and lesbian people from US government service in the mid-20th century. A petition to rename the telescope has so far been signed by more than 1,700 people in the astronomy community, the paper said. What will the JWST be able to see? The telescope has unprecedented capabilities. It will look about five times further and thus – because light takes time to travel – much further back into history than any observatory before. It will be sensitive enough to “see” all the way back to the first generation of stars that burst forth from the maelstrom of hot gas in the universe 13.5 billion years ago, just 300 million years after the Big Bang. It is able to watch the births of ancient stars and galaxies usually obscured by vast clouds of dust: most of the light from these new stars is absorbed by the surrounding dust, and they are therefore hidden to normal optical telescopes. How is this telescope different? The JWST was conceived in 1989 as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope which, at the time, was about to be launched. Whereas Hubble looks at the universe mostly using visible light, the JWST observes infrared light – electromagnetic radiation invisible to the human eye – allowing it to see further. Skip advert Its Optical Telescope Element collects light using a primary mirror that is the largest ever launched into space: 6.5 metres in diameter (compared to the Hubble’s 2.4 metres), and consisting of 18 gold-plated hexagons made out of the metal beryllium. The telescope has to stay very cold as stray heat signals would interfere with the infrared detectors. How does it stay cold? The optical telescope has to sit atop a shield, made from a five-layered sandwich of metal foils, that will protect the main mirror and its sensitive instruments from the heat and radiation of the Sun. The cold side of the shield, where the instruments will be, will be extremely cold at –234°C.", "authors": ["The Week Staff"], "publish_date": "2021/12/10"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/12/world/gallery/james-webb-telescope-first-images-space/index.html", "title": "James Webb telescope first images space", "text": "NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI Webb's landscape-like view, called \"Cosmic Cliffs,\" is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. The telescope's infrared view reveals previously invisible areas of star birth. Observing the universe with the James Webb Space Telescope\n\nNASA/ESA/CSA/STScI Webb's landscape-like view, called \"Cosmic Cliffs,\" is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. The telescope's infrared view reveals previously invisible areas of star birth.\n\nThe James Webb Space Telescope has shared its first high-resolution images, providing unprecedented views of the universe.\n\nThe telescope is expected to shed light on the life cycles of planets, stars and galaxies and reveal mysteries of the universe.\n\nIt has enough fuel to operate for the next 20 years and will change the way people understand the cosmos.", "authors": [], "publish_date": "2022/07/12"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/16/world/james-webb-space-telescope-mirror-alignment-scn/index.html", "title": "James Webb Space Telescope shares new image after reaching ...", "text": "(CNN) The James Webb Space Telescope has taken one giant step closer in its mission to unlock the mysteries of the universe.\n\nThe world's premier space observatory has successfully completed a number of steps crucial for aligning its 18 gold mirror segments. Having checked this milestone off of Webb's list, the telescope team expects that the observatory may even exceed the goals it was meant to achieve.\n\nWebb will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began by observing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.\n\nOn March 11, Webb completed \"fine phasing,\" a critical stage that ensures Webb's optical capabilities are working how they should. During the tests, the team didn't encounter any issues and determined that Webb can observe light from distant objects and feed that light into the science instruments aboard the observatory.\n\nFor the test, Webb focused on a star called 2MASS J17554042+6551277. A red filter was used to show contrast. Webb's observational capabilities are so sensitive that individual galaxies and stars can also be seen behind the star in the image.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/03/16"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/28/world/james-webb-space-telescope-alignment-scn/index.html", "title": "The James Webb Space Telescope is fully aligned and ready to ...", "text": "Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more\n\nThe space observatory's massive mirror, capable of peering into the most distant reaches of space, is now completely aligned, according to the NASA's Webb team\n\nHailed as the world's premier space observatory, Webb has successfully completed a number of steps within the past few months that were crucial for aligning its 18 gold mirror segments.\n\nThe mirror is so large that it had to be folded to fit inside the rocket for its December 25 launch. After reaching an orbit a million miles from Earth in January, Webb began the careful process of unfolding and aligning its mirror.\n\nWebb will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began by observing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.\n\nThe first high-resolution images Webb collects of the cosmos aren't expected until the end of June since the observatory's instruments still need to be calibrated. But test results released by NASA on Thursday show the clear, well-focused images that the observatory's four instruments are capable of capturing. Together, these images share the telescope's full field of view. Webb's mirrors are directing focused light from space into each instrument and those instruments are capturing images.\n\nEach of Webb's instruments captured crystal clear images of stars in a neighboring galaxy.\n\nFor the test, Webb observed a small neighboring satellite galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. The galaxy's dense field of hundreds of thousands of stars can be seen in the test images.\n\n\"These remarkable test images from a successfully aligned telescope demonstrate what people across countries and continents can achieve when there is a bold scientific vision to explore the universe,\" said Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.\n\nThe telescope team expects that the observatory may even exceed the goals it was meant to achieve because it's already performing better than expected.\n\n\"These images have profoundly changed the way I see the universe,\" said Scott Acton, Webb wavefront sensing and controls scientist at Ball Aerospace, in a statement. \"We are surrounded by a symphony of creation; there are galaxies everywhere! It is my hope that everyone in the world can see them.\"\n\nA previous image shared in March also showed that Webb can use the individual segments of its mirror as one giant 21-foot, 4-inch (6.5-meter) mirror and capture the light from a single star.\n\nGalaxies and stars can be seen behind the star 2MASS J17554042+6551277 in this image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in March.\n\nFor the next couple months, the team will ensure all of the science instruments are calibrated.\n\nEach instrument has a number of specialized detectors with custom equipment to help achieve Webb's science objectives, and all of the instruments have to be configured before they can be declared ready.\n\nAnd this summer, we'll see Webb's first glimpses that could unlock the mysteries of the universe.", "authors": ["Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/04/28"}, {"url": "https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/09/world/james-webb-space-telescope-update-scn/index.html", "title": "James Webb Space Telescope captures sharp views of invisible ...", "text": "(CNN) The James Webb Space telescope has the sharpest perspective on otherwise invisible light in the universe.\n\nThe highly anticipated first science images by the world's premier space observatory aren't expected until this summer. But recent test images captured by the telescope during its final commissioning phase are providing a glimpse of what's to come.\n\n\"These are the sharpest infrared images ever taken by a space telescope,\" said Michael McElwain, Webb observatory project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, during a news conference Monday.\n\nWebb will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began by observing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye. The images were taken after the successful alignment of the telescope's massive golden mirror segments. The test images show the clear, well-focused images that the observatory's four instruments are capable of capturing.\n\nBut the most striking result came from a comparison of images taken of the same target by Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument with the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera.\n\nRead More", "authors": ["Ashley Strickland"], "publish_date": "2022/05/09"}]}